The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1811 page)
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Peculiar People
.
.
A small
Free Church
denomination taking its title from the description in 1 Peter 2. 9. They were initially called the ‘Plumstead Peculiars’ from the place of their origin in 1838. Most of these congregations no longer use their original title and have now become affiliated to the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches.
Free Church
denomination taking its title from the description in 1 Peter 2. 9. They were initially called the ‘Plumstead Peculiars’ from the place of their origin in 1838. Most of these congregations no longer use their original title and have now become affiliated to the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches.
P’ei Hsiu
(Jap., Haikyu)
:
(Jap., Haikyu)
:
Pelagianism
.
.
The Christian
heresy
which holds that a person can come to salvation by her or his own efforts apart from God's grace; or in co-operation with grace. It is named from the British theologian Pelagius, who taught in Rome in the 4th–5th cents. Pelagius' teaching was ascetic and moral, arguing that human nature is created by God in such a way that individuals are free to choose good or evil. Pelagianism was finally condemned at the Council of
Ephesus
in 431. Its influence continued, especially in the S. of France in the form of a movement now called ‘semi-Pelagianism’. First expounded by John
Cassian
, this was a doctrine midway between Augustine and Pelagius, mainly in opposition to Augustine's extreme views of predestination. It held that the first steps toward the Christian life were taken by the human will, God's grace supervening only later. After its condemnation in 529, Augustine's teaching on grace and free will prevailed everywhere in the Christian West.
heresy
which holds that a person can come to salvation by her or his own efforts apart from God's grace; or in co-operation with grace. It is named from the British theologian Pelagius, who taught in Rome in the 4th–5th cents. Pelagius' teaching was ascetic and moral, arguing that human nature is created by God in such a way that individuals are free to choose good or evil. Pelagianism was finally condemned at the Council of
Ephesus
in 431. Its influence continued, especially in the S. of France in the form of a movement now called ‘semi-Pelagianism’. First expounded by John
Cassian
, this was a doctrine midway between Augustine and Pelagius, mainly in opposition to Augustine's extreme views of predestination. It held that the first steps toward the Christian life were taken by the human will, God's grace supervening only later. After its condemnation in 529, Augustine's teaching on grace and free will prevailed everywhere in the Christian West.
Pelican
.
.
A bird, employed as Christian symbol. Because of the false belief that the pelican feeds her young with her blood by piercing her breast with her beak, the pelican became a popular medieval symbol for Christ's redemptive work, especially as mediated through the
eucharist
.
eucharist
.
Penance
.
.
In Christianity, punishment
(Lat.,
poena
) for sin. By the 3rd cent. the system had emerged in which the sinner, after public confession, was placed, once only in his or her life, in an order of ‘penitents’, excluded from communion and committed to a severe course of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving for a specified time. This scarcely workable system gave place to another, originally
Celtic
, in which confession was made privately. Public penance continued for notorious offences. From all this developed the Catholic practice of
confession
,
absolution
, and light penance.
(Lat.,
poena
) for sin. By the 3rd cent. the system had emerged in which the sinner, after public confession, was placed, once only in his or her life, in an order of ‘penitents’, excluded from communion and committed to a severe course of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving for a specified time. This scarcely workable system gave place to another, originally
Celtic
, in which confession was made privately. Public penance continued for notorious offences. From all this developed the Catholic practice of
confession
,
absolution
, and light penance.
P’eng Lai
.
.
Taoist ‘isle of the immortals’ (
hsien
), first referred to in
Lieh-tzu
. Many stories are told of expeditions to reach it and find the mushroom of immortality. All fail, because if the hazards of shipwreck, etc., are overcome, the island sinks as the sailors approach. The story becomes in later Taoism an allegory of the spiritual quest.
hsien
), first referred to in
Lieh-tzu
. Many stories are told of expeditions to reach it and find the mushroom of immortality. All fail, because if the hazards of shipwreck, etc., are overcome, the island sinks as the sailors approach. The story becomes in later Taoism an allegory of the spiritual quest.
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