Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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HERMESIANISM

Doctrinal errors of Georg Hermes (1775-1831) that were condemned by the First Vatican Council. Hermes was essentially a rationalist whose position was censured in three definitions of the council, as follows: 1. "If anyone says that the assent of Christian faith is not free, but necessarily results from arguments of human reason; or that the grace of God is only necessary for living faith, which works through charity, let him be anathema"; 2. "If anyone says that the position of the faithful and of those who have not yet reached the only true faith is the same, so that Catholics could have good reason for suspending their assent and calling into question the faith that they have already accepted under the teaching authority of the church, until they have completed a scientific demonstration of the credibility and truth of their faith, let him be anathema"; 3. "If anyone denies that the world was made for the glory of God, let him be anathema" (Denzinger, 3039, 3040, 3025).