theophage

English

Etymology

theo- +‎ -phage; compare theophagy.

Noun

theophage (plural theophages)

1. A god-eater, one who eats a god.
   • 2006 August 1, Jesse Hajicek, The God Eaters, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 355:

     […] "He's an immortal, a theophage like I am, like Ka'an and Medur -- gods. We were all mortal once, but he's forgotten that. He's eaten all the rest, and made the world think he's the only one. Now he's going to go eat Ka'an, and then he'll eat us."

   • 2021 January 12, Ilona Andrews, Blood Heir, NYLA, →ISBN:

     The theophage who had devoured Deimos, the Greek god of terror, was flying away with the little girl I cared about, and I was totally okay with that. A pair of ruby eyes caught the light in the shadows across the street. A bouda […]

2. (typically derogatory) One who believes that the Eucharist is the body of God, and consumes it.
   • 2007, Ben Quash, Michael Ward, Heresies and how to Avoid Them: Why it Matters what Christians Believe, SPCK Publishing, page 48:

     […] his eucharistic theology would presumably make unadulterated theophages (God-eaters) of us all. This in turn exposes a more general flaw in Eutychianism : a failure to make sufficient allowance for the distinctiveness of three the consubstantial Trinity. persons of We must also consider […]

   • 2011, Heike Behrend, Resurrecting Cannibals: The Catholic Church, Witch-hunts, and the Production of Pagans in Western Uganda, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, →ISBN, page 49:

     At this time Protestants particularly identified Catholics as cannibals because Catholics insisted on Christ's real presence in the host, devoured Him raw (not cooked) and as 'theophages' also necessarily became 'theochèzes' (ibid.:239).

   • 2014, Elizabeth Guild, Unsettling Montaigne: Poetics, Ethics and Affect in the Essais and Other Writings, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, →ISBN, page 31:

     […] whereby Roman Catholics are cannibals, 'anthropophages' (anthropophagists), 'theophages' (god-eaters), 'theologastres' (god-gobblers), even 'Polyphages diffamées' (vilely excessive eaters). extremists also often sexualized their attacks on Roman Catholics, for instance: […]