Dictionary

sectish en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈsɛktɪʃ/
• /ˈsɛktəʃ/ weak vowel merger

Etymology

From sect + -ish; perhaps after obsolete German sektisch, sektierisch or German sektiererisch.

Meanings

1. (especially, in Mennonitism, rare) Sectarian; adherent to a sect, often to the degree of being dogmatic, insular and non-ecumenical.
   • The 'sectish' Marxism expounded by Hyndman and the SDF, and later by Morris and the Socialist League, was too narrow and dogmatic to allow the development of a workable strategy of engagement with the working class. 1997, Fintan Lane, The Origins of Modern Irish Socialism, 1881-1896, Cork University Press, →ISBN, page 226:
   • If Menno, D. Philip and the many servants and congregations had pure teachings in their times, you, who carry the name Old Mennonites, certainly have a sectish teaching which devours like gnawing cancer, and all true children of God are[…] 1973, Clarence Hiebert, The Holdeman people: the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite, 1859-1969, William Carey Library, page 184:
   • One reason there are sects is that it is easy to be sectish. It is easier to be than not to be. This applies to everybody. To believe in one true church does not of itself insure one against a party spirit. 1920, D.S. Warner, J.C. Fisher, The Gospel Trumpet, volume 40, page 5:
   • The only sect among Christians that is spoken of in terms— the Nicolaitan — is severely condemned. There are indications of sectish belief, against which John is supposed to labor in the first chapter of his Gospel, and Paul withstood in the Judaizing tendencies, even in a brother Apostle. 1880, David S. Warner, Bible proofs of the second work of grace […] , page 419:
   • In previous centuries, both the sectish and churchish styles of evangelicalism had been evident, but in different movements (like the Salvation Army versus evangelical Anglicans) or in the same movement at different times (like Methodism in the eighteenth century versus Methodism in the late nineteenth). 1998, John Gordon Stackhouse, Canadian Evangelicalism in the Twentieth Century: An Introduction to Its Character, Regent College Publishing, →ISBN, page 197:

Forms