Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Reliance on voluntary contributions rather than government funds, as for churches or schools; voluntarism.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Voluntary principle or action; the system or principle of supporting anything by voluntary contribution or assistance; especially, the principle of unrestricted personal liberty in matters of religion—this involving on the one hand the obligation of church-members to support and maintain religious ordinances, and on the other the church's entire freedom from state patronage, support, and control.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Eccl.) The principle of supporting a religious system and its institutions by voluntary association and effort, rather than by the aid or patronage of the state.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
voluntarism
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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My kind of anarchy is based on the implicit evil and violence of government, promoting voluntaryism as an alternate means of order.
The difficulty of demonizing the Tea Partiers: less than six degrees of separation 2010
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I keep coming back to the origin of the root of “Satanic” — “the adversary,” and roll that around in my mind trying to connect voluntaryism and tribulationism.
Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Fake but Accurate — Now Coming to the Hard Sciences 2008
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These women are very glad to come in at their own expense and do this work as an act of voluntaryism.
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No British Government could stamp out voluntaryism even if it wished to do so; and none has yet manifested any such desire.
Cambridge Essays on Education Various
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Men may appreciate the justice of voluntaryism in religion, and yet have rather cloudy conceptions with respect to the influence of opinions and things ecclesiastical on the condition of nations.
An Apology for Atheism Addressed to Religious Investigators of Every Denomination by One of Its Apostles Charles Southwell
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The empire died from anaemic voluntaryism and it is to be the same fate that the advocates of a voluntary Britannic Alliance would lead the British Empire.
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Internally the church was torn by doctrinal controversies, resulting in the condemnation and expulsion of some ministers of distinction and repute, while in open opposition were the nonconforming bodies which had, at least temporarily, coalesced under the title of the United Seceders, preached uncompromising voluntaryism, and denounced all state connection with churches, and state endowments of religion, as intrinsically unscriptural and impious.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 13: Revelation-Stock 1840-1916 1913
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He promulgated edicts, but they were never rigidly enforced; a certain voluntaryism was allowed as to the carrying out of them: if one of them was found unsuccessful, or not to command popular approval, another could be -- and was -- issued to modify or change it.
The Crest-Wave of Evolution A Course of Lectures in History, Given to the Graduates' Class in the Raja-Yoga College, Point Loma, in the College-Year 1918-19 Kenneth Morris 1908
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Mr. Britling was a flame of exalted voluntaryism, of patriotic devotion, that day.
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These duties, if one is to gather them from the works of the great liberal party in the last thirty years, are, as I have elsewhere summed them up, the advocacy of free-trade, of parliamentary reform, of abolition of church-rates, of voluntaryism in religion and education, of non - interference of the State between employers and employed, and of marriage with one's deceased wife's sister.
Culture and Anarchy Matthew Arnold 1855
FTLJohnson commented on the word voluntaryism
A system of beliefs that holds that all human interactions should occur with the least aggression possible; and that neither a single individual; nor a popular majority; should ever initiate force against a peaceful and sovereign individual.
ex 1. Voluntaryists believe that force is only acceptable for use in defending oneself.
ex 2. Voluntaryism is a belief system that is incompatible with a state funded military complex, becuase it would require that government to steal money from those that oppose the war.
June 9, 2009