The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1566 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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Mokusa
(part of Buddhist ordination):
see
MOXA
.
Mokush
Zen
(silent illumination Zen):
Molcho, Solomon
(1500–32).
Jewish
kabbalist
and pseudo-
messiah
. Of
Marrano
stock, Molcho converted to Judaism. Fulfilling the Talmudic legend that the messiah would suffer, Molcho fasted in Rome dressed in rags. He secured the protection of the Pope, but was eventually burnt at the stake by the Emperor Charles V for his refusal to convert to Christianity. Many of his followers did not believe he had really died, and messianic legends grew up round his name.
Molinos, Miguel de
(Christian quietist):
Moloch Worship
.
Ancient Middle-Eastern cult. According to Jeremiah 7. 31, an altar was built to Moloch near Jerusalem even though passing sons and daughters through fire was forbidden specifically in the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 18. 10).
Monarchianism
.
A Christian understanding of God, of the 2nd–3rd cents. Concerned to uphold monotheism and the unity (‘monarchy’) of God, it was condemned as heretical for threatening the independence of the Son. The
modalist
monarchians held that within the Godhead there was no difference of persons, only a succession of transitory modes of operation. Modern scholars also speak of those
adoptianists
who held that Christ was a mere man, endued with God's power at his baptism, as ‘dynamic’ monarchians.

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