[f. THEO- + PHILANTHROPIST, after F. théophilanthrope, erron. employed to express ‘loving God and man,’ though etymologically it ought to mean ‘a divine philanthropist.’] A member of a sect of Deists which appeared in France in 1796.
1797. W. Taylor, in Monthly Rev., XXIV. 554. It is satisfactory to observe how nearly the Theophilanthropists agree with the more thinking Christians.
1798. Hel. M. Williams, Tour Switzerl., I. v. 79. This sect, distinguished by the name of Theophilanthropists, the friends of God and man.
1801. Belsham, Geo. III., an. 1797 (R.). The Directory gave great encouragement to a new sect recently established under the name of theo-philanthropists.—These religionists, rejecting all revelation, confined their worship to one Supreme Being.
1897. Daily News, 16 Jan., 6/2. The Society of Theophilanthropists, whose first public meeting was held in Paris, January 16, 1797, was of purely religious origin.
attrib. 1823. Southey, in Q. Rev., XXVIII. 502. The proffered service of the Theophilanthropist lecturers.
1882–3. Schaff’s Encycl. Relig. Knowl., III. 2347. God, virtue, and the immortality of the soul, formed the three articles of the Theophilanthropist creed.
So Theophilanthrope [as in F.] in same sense; Theophilanthropic, -ical adjs., of or pertaining to theophilanthropy or theophilanthropists; Theophilanthropism = next.
1803. in Spirit Pub. Jrnls., VII. 254. We give and bequeath to our friend the Elector of Bavaria, the Bible of the *Theophilanthropes.
1843. trans. Custine’s Empire of Czar, III. 64. Their whole adjustment reminds one of the theophilanthropes of the French republic.
1797. W. Taylor in Monthly Rev., XXIII. 560. The illuminated or *theophilanthropic sect … who are supposed to reject the Old and to socinianize the New Testament.
1895. Péronne, Veil of Liberty, 389. Jean … had now transformed his Huguenot church into a Theophilanthropic temple.
1804. Larwood, No Gun Boats, 32. Having revolted from the Goddess of Reason, and the scheme of *Theophilanthropism.
1860. Gardner, Faiths World, II. 899/2. An attempt was made by Lamennais to revive Theophilanthropism in 1840, but it utterly failed.
