Webster's English Dictionary

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scholasticism

scho.las.ti.cism \sk*-'las-t*-.siz-*m\ n cap  1a: a philosophical movement 
   dominant in western Christian civilization fro m the 9th until the 17th 
   century and combining a fixed religious dogma with the mystical and 
   intuitional tradition of patristic philosophy esp. of St. Augustine and 
   later with Aristotelianism 1b: NEO-SCHOLASTICISM  2: close adherence to the 
   traditional teachings or methods of a school or s ect