confessionalism

English

Etymology

confessional +‎ -ism

Noun

confessionalism (countable and uncountable, plural confessionalisms)

1. (religion) A belief in the importance of full and unambiguous assent to the whole of a religious teaching.
2. (poetry) A style of American poetry that draws on the personal history of the poet.
   • 1977 April 23, Steve Blevins, “Armatrading: "Sit Back And See"”, in Gay Community News, page 11:

     Her rendition of "Dry Land" from her first album, Back to the Night, was a poetic fusion of music and lyrics that achieved an intimate tone too often sacrificed to confessionalism by other singers.

3. A system of government that proportionally distributes political and institutional power among religious and ethnic communities.

Related terms

• ethnoconfessionalism