a. (sb.) [f. SYNCRETISM, prob. after Docetic, Docetism.] Characterized by syncretism; aiming at a union or reconciliation of diverse beliefs, practices, or systems.
1840. F. Barham, Alist, 17. The Syncretic Society which we founded for the advancement of literature.
1853. Fraser’s Mag., XLVII. 293. The philosophy which at the time Minucius was writing arrayed itself against Christianity, was … syncretic.
1884. Sayce, Anc. Empires East, 204. The syncretic spirit of Phœnician art.
b. sb. = SYNCRETIST. (Ogilvie, 1883.)
Hence Syncretical a. in same sense; Syncreticism = SYNCRETISM.
1850. Ld. Acton, Lett., lxiv. (1906), 145. The representative among Belgian public men of this syncreticism, Dedecker.
1864. trans. Renan’s Life of Jesus, Introd. 18. Asia Minor was … the theatre of a strange movement of syncretical philosophy.
