docetism

From Latin Docetae +‎ -ism, from Ancient Greek δοκηταί (dokētaí, “phantasmists”), coined 197–203 CE by Serapion of Antioch, from δοκέω (dokéō, “I seem”), δόκησις (dókēsis, “apparition, phantom”). Related to latter component of synecdoche.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dəʊˈsiːtɪz(ə)m/, /ˈdəʊsɪˌtɪz(ə)m/

docetism (countable and uncountable, plural docetisms)

1. (Christianity) The doctrine of the Docetes, that Jesus only appeared to have a physical body and was ultimately of celestial substance.
   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 124:

     His Passion and Resurrection in history were therefore not fleshly events, even if they seemed so; they were heavenly play-acting (the doctrine known as Docetism, from the Greek verb dokein, ‘to seem’).

• docetic

• Docete
• Docetae
• synecdoche

• gnosticism
• monophysitism

• comedist, cosmetid, demotics, domestic

Borrowed from French docétisme.

docetism n (uncountable)

1. docetism