Apathy
Charles Buck Theological Dictionary [1]
Among the ancient philosophers, implied an utter privation of passion, and an insensibility of pain. The word is compounded of priv. and affection. The Stoics affected an entire apathy; they considered it as the highest wisdom to enjoy a perfect calmness or tranquility of mind, incapable of being ruffled by either pleasure or pain. In the first ages of the church, the Christians adopted the term apathy to express a contempt of all earthly concerns; a state of mortification such as the Gospel prescribes. Clemens Alexandrinus, in particular, brought it exceedingly in vogue, thinking hereby to draw such philosophers to Christianity who aspired after such a sublime pitch of virtue.
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(n.) Want of feeling; privation of passion, emotion, or excitement; dispassion; - applied either to the body or the mind. As applied to the mind, it is a calmness, indolence, or state of indifference, incapable of being ruffled or roused to active interest or exertion by pleasure, pain, or passion.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [3]
( Ἀπάθεια , Want Of Feeling ) or Affectuum Vacuitas, a term formerly used to denote the entire ex, tinction of the vicious passions, so that not the smallest movement of them is felt. It implies the utter rooting out of concupiscence, and the annihilation of all sin within. This was a favorite doctrine with the Stoics; and some of the fathers, as St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Macarius, and others, have used expressions which, at first sight, seem to imply that they had themselves attained to this state; but, in fact, they mean only that a perfect Christian keeps all his passions and desires in perfect subjection, so that they have not in any degree the mastery over him. The doctrine of apathy, in its strictest sense; is at variance with Holy Scripture and experience. The term apathy is also used in a limited sense, to signify a contempt for worldly things. — Landon, Eccl. Dict. s.v.
