A doctrine in Christian theology to the effect that Christians are exempt from ordinary moral laws and should be governed instead by divine grace and individual conscience. The first antinomian controversy was between Luther and Agricola during the Reformation.
Antinomianism (from the Greek αντι, "against" + νομος, "law"), or lawlessness (in the Greek Bible: ανομια), in theology, is the idea that members of a particular religious group are under no obligation to obey the laws of ethics or morality as presented by religious authorities. Antinomianism is the polar opposite of legalism, the notion that obedience to a code of religious law is necessary for salvation.
The term has become a point of contention among opposed religious authorities. Few groups or sects explicitly call themselves "antinomian", but the charge is often levelled by some sects against competing sects.
Antinomianism in the Tanakh
Throughout the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, different covenants are described; For example, Daniel 7:25:
"He shall speak words against the Most High, shall wear out the holy ones of the Most High, and shall attempt to change the sacred seasons and the law; (NRSV)Antinomianism in the New Testament
Paul of Tarsus, in his Letters, claims several times that believers are saved by the unearned grace of God, not by our own good works, "lest anyone should boast", and placed emphasis on orthodoxy (right belief) rather than orthopraxy (right practice).
Paul used the term freedom in Christ, for example, Galatians 2:4, and it is clear that some understood this to mean lawlessness (i.e not obeying Mosaic Law). For example, in Acts 18:12-16 Paul is accused of "persuading .. people to worship God in ways contrary to the law" and in Acts 21:21 James the Just explained his situation to Paul:
"They have been told about you that you teach all the Jews living among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, and that you tell them not to circumcise their children or observe the customs." (NRSV)The Catholic Encyclopedia: Judaizers notes: "Paul, on the other hand, not only did not object to the observance of the Mosaic Law, as long as it did not interfere with the liberty of the Gentiles, but he conformed to its prescriptions when occasion required (1 Corinthians 9:20).
In Early Christianity, there was conflict between Pauline Christianity and the Jerusalem Church led by James the Just, Simon Peter, and John the Apostle, the so-called "Jewish Christians" although in many places Paul writes that he was an observant Jew, and that Christians should "uphold the Law" (Romans 3:31).
The Epistle of James, in contrast, states that our good works justify before men our faith after salvation and we are to obey the Law of God, that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone, that faith without works is dead (2:14–26). See also Law and Gospel, James 2:20, Romans 2:6, Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.
The Torah prescribes the death penalty for desecrating the sabbath by working (Exodus 31:14-17). The Jewish Encyclopedia article on Jesus notes: "Jesus, however, does not appear to have taken into account the fact that the Halakah was at this period just becoming crystallized, and that much variation existed as to its definite form; When the Pharisees challenged Jesus over this, he pointed to Biblical precedent and declared that "the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath". Most scholars hold that Jesus did not reject the law, but directed that it should be obeyed in context. no substantial conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees with regard to Sabbath, food, and purity laws. The church took some while to come to the position that the Sabbath need not be kept, and it is hard to think that Jesus explicitly said so."
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is sometimes portrayed as referring to people he sees as wicked with the term ergazomenoi ten anomian (εργαζομενοι την ανομιαν) - e.g. In other words, Matthew appears to present Jesus as equating wickedness with encouraging antinomianism. Several scholars argue that Matthew artificially lessened a claimed rejection of Jewish law so as not to alienate Matthew's intended audience. ( Matthew 5:19-21) He declared: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;
See also Expounding of the Law, Great Commission, Hyperdispensationalism.
1 John 3:4 NRSV states: "Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness;
Antinomianism among Christians
In the case of Christianity, the controversy arises out of the doctrine of grace, the forgiveness of sins and atonement by faith in Jesus Christ; Christians being released, in important particulars, from conformity to the Old Testament polity as a whole, a real difficulty attended the settlement of the limits and the immediate authority of the remainder, known vaguely as the moral law, see Cafeteria Christianity.
Multiple Issues
There are several issues that are addressed by the charge of antinomianism. The charge may represent the fear that a given theological position does not lead to the edification of the believer or assist him in leading a regenerate life. Doctrines that tend to erode the authority of the church and its right to prescribe religious practices for the faithful are often condemned as antinomian. The charge is also brought against those whose teachings are perceived as hostile to government and established authority and the rule of law.
Charges of Antinomianism against Early Christians
St Paul's doctrine of justification by faith has been accused of leading to immoral licence. In Acts 6:13-14 Saint Stephen is accused by "false witnesses" of speaking against the law. In the Book of Revelation 2:6–15, the New Testament speaks of Nicolaitanes, who are traditionally identified with a Gnostic sect, in terms that suggest the charge of antinomianism might be appropriate. In the Apostolic Constitutions, verse 6.19, Simon Magus is accused of antinomianism, though traditionally he is accused of Simony. For example, Marcion's version of Luke 23:2: "We found this fellow [Jesus] perverting the nation and destroying the law and the prophets".
Charges by Catholics against Protestants
Roman Catholicism tends to charge Protestantism with antinomianism, based in part on the distinctively Protestant doctrine of sola fide, salvation by faith alone, (cf. James 2:24), and the typical Protestant rejection of the elaborate sacramental liturgy of the Roman church and its body of Canon law. Within Roman Catholicism itself, Blaise Pascal accused the Jesuits of antinomianism in his Lettres provinciales, charging that Jesuit casuistry undermined moral principles.
Charges by Luther against Agricola
Different from either of these was the antinomianism charged by Martin Luther against Johannes Agricola. According to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article on Antinomians: "a term apparently coined by Luther to stigmatize Johannes Agricola and his following, indicating an interpretation of the anti-thesis between law and gospel, recurrent from the earliest times." Melanchthon urged that repentance must precede faith, and that knowledge of the moral law is needed to produce repentance. Agricola gave the initial place to faith, maintaining that repentance is the work, not of law, but of the gospel-given knowledge of the love of God.
Charges against Calvinists
From the latter part of the 17th century, charges of antinomianism have frequently been directed against Calvinists, on the ground of their disparagement of "deadly doing" and of "legal preaching."
Charges against other groups
Other Protestant groups that have been so accused include the Anabaptists and Mennonites.
Theological charges of antinomianism typically imply that the opponent's doctrine leads to various sorts of licentiousness, and imply that the antinomian chooses his theology in order to further a career of dissipation.
Charges against Quakers
Quakers believed in an extreme form of Antinomianism.
Antinomianism in Islam
In Islam, the law—which applies not only to religion, but also to areas such as politics, banking, and sexuality—is called sharīʿah (شريعة), and it is traditionally organized around four primary sources:
the Qurʾān, which is Islam's central religious text; qiyās, which—in Sunnī Islam—is a kind of analogical reasoning conducted by the ʿulamāʾ upon specific laws that have arisen through appeal to the first three sources; in Shīʿah Islam, ʿaql ("reason") is used in place of qiyāsActions, behaviors, or beliefs that are considered to violate any or all of these four sources—primarily in matters of religion—can be termed "antinomian".
As an example, the 10th-century Sufi mystic Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj was executed for shirk for, among other things, his statement ana al-Ḥaqq (أنا الحق), meaning "I am the Truth" and, by implication—as al-Ḥaqq ("the Truth") is one of the 99 names of God in Islamic tradition—"I am God". Another individual who has often been termed antinomian is Ibn al-ʿArabi, a 12th–13th century scholar and mystic whose doctrine of waḥdat al-wujūd ("unity of being") has sometimes been interpreted as being pantheistic, and thus shirk.
Apart from individuals, entire groups of Muslims have also been called antinomian.
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