scholasticize

English

Alternative forms

• scholasticise

Etymology

scholastic +‎ -ize

Verb

scholasticize (third-person singular simple present scholasticizes, present participle scholasticizing, simple past and past participle scholasticized)

1. To fit into the framework of scholasticism.
   • 1970, Augustinian Studies - Volumes 1-2, page 48:

     Attempting to force a theory of abstraction into Augustine's theory of knowledge, these interpreters tend to scholasticize Augustine at the expense of his Platonism.

   • 2001, Roger Kenneth French, Canonical Medicine: Gentile Da Foligno and Scholasticism, page 237:

     The setting up of a canon of cure from authority, reason and sense was one of the devices by which Gentile hoped to scholasticize traditional practice.

   • 2005, William S. Morris, The Young Jonathan Edwards: A Reconstruction, page 139:

     Molyneux had wished to scholasticize Locke, as the early Johnson had scholasticized Locke.

2. To make excessively formal, rigid, or pedantic.
   • 1992, Donald K. McKim, Major themes in the Reformed tradition - Volume 1991, page 58:

     Now, in the post-Reformation polemical situation, Beza tended to rigidify and scholasticize many of Calvin's positions.

   • 2018, Paul Gottfried, Theologies and Moral Concern:

     In addition, lawyers scholasticize politics, and have contributed mightily to the de-democratization of American culture over the past four decades, by throwing all political and personal questions into the courts.

   • 2018, Gert-Jan Roest, The Gospel in the Western Context:

     Whereas the danger for contextual theology is to ideologize the gospel, the danger for Western theology is to scholasticize it.

3. To study, describe, or codify as an academic discipline.
   • 1989, Scott Nearing, Steve Sherman, A Scott Nearing Reader: The Good Life in Bad Times, page xiii:

     A man of adhesive intelligence and energy, at ease with strong words and bold actions, he did not merely scholasticize his ideas, he lived them.

   • 1898, Lionel Arthur Tollemache, Essays, Mock-essays and Character Sketches:

     Whether to any extent, and to what, the schoolmaster should scholasticize athletics, let us now consider.

   • 1993, Frans M. van Eijnatten, Hans van Beinum, The Paradigm that Changed the Work Place, page 192:

     As STSD achieved a high profile in the seventies and eighties academics sought ways to scholasticize it, consultants sought ways to sell it and politicians sought ways to turn it into vote-winning programmes.