Particularism.

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:52 PM -0500 4/23/01, Mark Odegard wrote:
>I had a conversation with my dad. He recognized the term 'particularism', a
>word he heard back when I was a baby and he was a born-againer at the
>Berkley Baptist Divinity Seminary, and which I somehow remember hearing at
>the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, back when we co-habitated
>with the Dominicans (perhaps from the mouth of Donald Bloesch).
>
>As I remember hearing it, 'particularism' is actually the 'nice term' for
>'religous bigotry'.
>
>This is the word which, among other things, describes why you object to your
>child marrying outside your faith.
>
>I do not have access to OED. Does anyone reading this recognize the term
>'particularism' as I have defined it?
>
The relevant sense is #2 in the OED entry, and its application is
more general than the religious:
================
2. Exclusive attachment or devotion to one's particular party, sect,
nation, etc.; exclusiveness.

      1824 Coleridge in Lit. Rem. (1838) III. 82 A jealous spirit of
monopoly and particularism, counterfeiting catholicity by a negative
totality.

      1828 Pusey Hist. Enq. i. 144 The sole object of the Epistle to
the Romans was to oppose the particularism of the Jews.

      1845 Geo. Eliot in Cross Life (1885) I. 135 `Habits of thought'
is not a translation of the word particularismus... If he decidedly
objects to particularism, ask him to be so good as substitute
exclusiveness.

      1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 36 An abstract principle..strong
enough to override all the particularisms of mankind.

      1955 Bull. Atomic Sci. Apr. 142/2 The humanitarian theme of the
two preceding centuries certainly persisted, but universalism yielded
step by step to national particularism which was in many respects
naïve but which became increasingly noticeable among European
scientists and scholars;

      1964 Welsh Hist. Rev. II. 147 The break-down of local
particularisms in general elections..was resented in some quarters.

      1973 Daily Tel. 4 May 18 He attacks the concept of youth
particularism, stating that as a group youth has few common interests
or problems.