Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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| (used as a nonsense word by children to express approval or to represent the longest word in English.) |
| opposition to the withdrawal of state support or recognition from an established church, esp. the Anglican Church in 19th-century England. |
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spiritualism
in philosophy, a characteristic of any system of thought that affirms the existence of immaterial reality imperceptible to the senses. So defined, spiritualism embraces a vast array of highly diversified philosophical views. Most patently, it applies to any philosophy accepting the notion of an infinite, personal God, the immortality of the soul, or the immateriality of the intellect and will. Less obviously, it includes belief in such ideas as finite cosmic forces or a universal mind, provided that they transcend the limits of gross Materialistic interpretation. Spiritualism as such says nothing about matter, the nature of a supreme being or a universal force, or the precise nature of spiritual reality itself.
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