pharisaism

The doctrines and practices, or the character and spirit, of the Pharisees.

Since Paul lived and worked in the greater Syrian area as a Pharisee, it is somewhat probable that Pharisaism had some influence there and that some Pharisees lived outside Jerusalem and Judea. […] Paul never says where he made contact with Pharisaism, in Tarsus, Syria, or Jerusalem. […] The evidence concerning Pharisaism is so slim that we do not know how Paul came to know about Pharisaism, why he was attracted to it, and what being a Pharisee entailed.

Serious and substantial doubts about Paul's former life as a Pharisee, or even any contact with pharisaism on his part, have been raised.

Rigid observance of external forms of religion without genuine piety; hypocrisy in religion; a censorious, self-righteous spirit in matters of morals or manners.

[T]he Phariſee faſted twice every weeke, and that never cenſured in him as a peice of Phariſaiſme, or hypocriſie, or fault of any kind; but as commendable, if he had not boaſted of it.

But denunciations do not go far, and the only living and effective protest would be a society itself delivered from all pharisaisms and idolatries.

Alternative letter-case form of pharisaism.

The man who thinks that his religion is the sum-total of the religious dogmas he believes in, who thinks that to live in harmony with the allhood of things it requires only that one subscribe to certain prescribed religious dogmas, in whose mind the means of salvation is simply frequency and fervency of prayer, assiduity and fidelity of attendance on worship, — in the case of that man his so-called religion is just as apt as not to become an actual aid to immorality, for it is not religion at all, but purblind, self-righteous Pharisaism.