a. [f. THEIST1 + -IC.]
1. Of or pertaining to theists or theism.
1780. Warton, Sir T. Pope, vi. (ed. 2), 208. From an abhorrence of superstition, he appears to have adopted the most distant extremes of the theistic system.
1875. Voysey, Revised Prayer Bk. (ed. 2), Pref. This modest attempt to adapt the Liturgy of the venerable Church of England to a purely Theistic worship.
1876. Gladstone, in Contemp. Rev., June, 5. Those who, professedly rejecting all known expressions of dogma, are nevertheless believers in a moral Governor of the Universe…. I denominate the Theistic school.
2. Used in the sense: Of or pertaining to a god or gods; divine. rare.
1854. Brimley, Ess., Comte’s Pos. Philos., 324. A region of phenomena where Will…, quite apart from all consideration of theistic interference, introduces a disturbing element that baffles the previsions of science.
1878. Gladstone, Prim. Homer, vi. § 2. 66. Zeus … combines, more than any other deity, the human and the theistic quality.
