apostolicity
/əˌpɒstəˈlɪsɪti/
apostolicity means the quality of being apostolic, notably of preserving authenticity within the mission and tradition of the Christian church as founded by Jesus Christ and his twelve original Apostles, through their representatives and successors in the papacy and episcopate. It carries an Arena rating of 1125, earned across 217 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, apostolicity ranks #481 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #3,869 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #7,419 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #8,367 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
apostolicity is pronounced /əˌpɒstəˈlɪsɪti/.
Why “apostolicity” is a great word
APOSTOLICITY — [Noun] The quality of preserving authentic continuity in mission, authority, and tradition from the original Apostles of Jesus Christ. From apostolic (from Late Latin apostolicus, from Greek apostolikos, from apostolos meaning 'one sent forth') + the noun-forming suffix -ity, after French apostolicité. Unlike "catholicity," which emphasizes the universal breadth of the faith, or "orthodoxy," which denotes adherence to authorized belief, apostolicity is the specific claim of an unbroken, tangible lineage. It is the bishop's hand laid in sacramental succession, the creed recited in words unchanged across centuries, and the weight of a ring passed through a chain of office—the profound conviction that truth travels through time not as an idea, but as a lineage.
Etymology
From apostolic + -ity, after French apostolicité.
noun
- The quality of being apostolic, notably of preserving authenticity within the mission and tradition of the Christian church as founded by Jesus Christ and his twelve original Apostles, through their representatives and successors in the papacy and episcopate.e.g.“his Church did its best to trump Rome in apostolicity by declaring that it had been founded by the first-recruited among Christ's Apostles, Andrew.” — 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 427:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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