[f. eccl. Gr. θνητόψῡχος maintaining the mortality of the soul (f. θνητός mortal + ψῡχή soul) + -ISM.] The doctrine (based on 1 Tim. vi. 16, ‘who only hath immortality’) held by the Thnētopsȳchītæ, a Christian sect that arose in Arabia in the third century, who believed that the soul dies with the body, and is recalled to life with it at the Day of Judgment.
[1625. Gill, Sacr. Philos., IV. 63. The Thnatopsychitæ, which thought that the soule of man came to nought, as the soules of the beasts.]
1876. J. W. Haley, Exam. Disc. Bible, II. i. VI. 186, note. Apparently the first attempt to introduce Thnetopsychism into the Christian church was made, A.D. 248, by certain errorists from Arabia.
1882–3. W. F. Tillett, in Schaff’s Encycl. Relig. Knowl., III. 2218. The still grosser error of soul-death, or thnetopsychism.
