sb. and a. [ad. late L. trāduciān-us, deriv. of trādux, -ducem a layer or shoot for propagation, also in transferred sense: cf. TRADUCE v. 2, 2 b, and -IAN. The sense connects itself with that of the vb., ‘to propagate, transmit to posterity’] a. sb. (a) One who holds that the soul of a child, like the body, is propagated by or inherited from the parents. (b) (less commonly) One who holds the doctrine of the transmission of original sin from parent to child. b. adj. Applied to such doctrine or theory.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Traducians, Traduciani, a name which the Pelagians anciently gave the catholics, because of their teaching that original sin was transmitted from father to children…. At present some give the appellation traduciani to such as hold that the souls are transmitted to the children by the father.
1864. Webster, Traducian, a believer in Traducianism.
1880. H. R. Reynolds, in Dict. Chr. Biog., II. 240. The Ethiopians maintained a vigorous traducian doctrine of the origin of human souls.
1834. W. S. Lilly, in Fortn. Rev., Jan., 127. The Traducian view—that the soul, like the body, is derived from the parent—has been held by theologians of much repute.
Hence Traducianism, (a) the doctrine of the transmission of the soul from the parents (see a (a) above); (b) rarely, the doctrine of the hereditary transmission of original sin (see a (b) above); Traducianist, a believer in traducianism in either sense; also attrib. or adj.; whence Traducianistic a., pertaining to traducianists or traducianism.
1848. R. I. Wilberforce, Doctr. Incarnation, iii. (1852), 32. This notion was called *Traducianism by the Schoolmen, the system opposed to it being termed Creationism.
1877. Shields, Final Philos., 199. Tertullian and Gregory of Nyssa had gone to the other extreme of traducianism or the notion of a physical propagation of the soul from parent to child.
1893. Tablet, 18 Feb., 257. It is not allowable to any loyal Catholic to hold spiritual traducianism or generationism.
1858. J. C. Robertson, Hist. Chr. Ch. (1875), II. 152. Julian … declared … that the God of the *‘traducianists’ (as he styled those who held that sin was derived by inheritance) was not the God of the gospel.
1872. Liddon, Elem. Relig., III. 100. Augustine saw in the Traducianist doctrine an element of materialism. Ibid., 102. of modern Traducianists, Delitzsch among Protestant, and Klee among Roman Catholic writers are perhaps the greatest.
1882–3. Schaff’s Encycl. Relig. Knowl., III. 2318. He [Tertullian] adopts the *traducianistic view of hereditary sin.
