ˈjan(t)səˌnizəm noun
( -s )
Usage: usually capitalized
Etymology: French jansénisme, from Cornelis Jansen (Cornelius Jansenius) died 1638 Dutch theologian + French -isme -ism
1. : a theological doctrine condemned by the Roman Catholic Church as heretical that flourished especially in France in the 17th and 18th centuries maintaining among its principal tenets that freedom of the will (as in accepting or resisting grace) is nonexistent and that the redemption of mankind through the death of Jesus Christ was limited to only a part of mankind and that those not so redeemed are by the positive will of God inescapably condemned to hell
2. : a negative rigoristic moral attitude (as toward sex) associated with adherents of Jansenism : puritanism