old lightadj.n.
/ˌəʊld ˈlʌɪt/, U.S. /ˈoʊ(ld) ˈlaɪt/ Christian Church. Now historical.
A. adj.
Of, relating to, or holding the views of the Old Lights (see sense B.).
ΚΠ
1732 J. Swift Advantages repealing Sacramental Test 10 The Quarrel between Old and New Light-Men, is managed with more Rage and Rancour, than any other Dispute.
1786 R. Burns Poems 217 Some auld-light herds in neebor towns Are mind't [etc.].
1801 Edinb. Weekly Jrnl. 20 May 157 The pursuers denominated themselves Old Light Men, who were for adhering to the doctrines of the Secession as they stood.
1874 J. H. Blunt Dict. Sects at Burghers On October 2nd the Old-Light minority constituted themselves into a separate Presbytery.
1888 J. M. Barrie (title) Auld licht idylls.
1927 T. S. Eliot in Criterion Aug. 179 There is the High Church Atheism of Matthew Arnold, there is the Auld Licht Atheism of..Mr. J. M. Robertson, [etc.].
1939 J. D. Ferguson Pride & Passion 22 It would be the Old Light clergy who would restore moral leadership to the ministry by daring to give up their livings for conscience' sake.
1995 Jrnl. Amer. Hist. 82 972 Clap..taught New Lights to use ecclesiastical power against Old Light ministers.
B. n.
A person holding conservative religious views; an anti-revivalist; spec. a member of any of several Protestant churches in Scotland and North America from which schismatic groups split during the 18th and 19th centuries; (also, chiefly in plural) any of the groups to which these members belonged, esp. the Scottish groups which came together to form the Synod of United Original Seceders; the doctrine or theology propounded by such a group.For details of particular groups and churches, see note s.v. new light n. 1a.
ΚΠ
1653 H. Nicols Shield Single 70 That man (who ever he be) that under the specious pretext of New-Light, labours to extinguish all the Old-Lights, of Churches, Ministry, Sacraments, Censures, Praying, Preaching, and Communion of Saints.]
1781 S. Peters Gen. Hist. Connecticut 288 The Old Lights held that the civil magistrate was a creature framed on purpose to support ecclesiastical censures.
1806 R. Forsyth Beauties Scotl. III. 429 Twelve or thirteen of their clergy..have wished to retain the Confession of Faith unaltered... They are called the adherents of the old light, in opposition to the majority of their brethren, whom they term new light men.
1838 J. F. Cooper Home as Found II. v. 84 We had Baptists, and Quakers, and Universalists, and Episcopalians, and Presbyterians, old-lights, new-lights, and blue-lights; and Methodists.
1888 J. M. Barrie Auld Licht Idylls iii. 60 The congregation..had split, and as the New Lights (now the U.P.'s) were in the majority, the Old Lights..had to retire to the community.
1923 J. T. Adams Revolutionary New Eng. ix. 174 In many cases..the established ministers believed in the efficacy of the new means, and everywhere congregations and even families became divided into ‘New Lights’ and ‘Old Lights’ according as they approved or disapproved of the methods of the ‘Exhorters’.
1962 C. C. Goen Revivalism & Separatism New Eng. i. 33 Opponents of the revival by contrast were known as ‘Old Lights’, which soon became synonymous with rationalism in theology and with the substitution of morality for religion.
1990 William & Mary Q. 47 572 How could the Old Lights combat these challenges without addressing questions of social and economic equality?
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
adj.n.1732