Talking to my evangelical friends about the development of Christian doctrine

Chapter 14 of the book Talking with My Evangelical Friends by José Miguel Arráiz

Michael: Joseph, you know that some time has passed since our last conversation. With my friend Pauline, we have had the opportunity to analyze some points that we talked about. We have asked for the opinion of our pastor, and he has made very lucid observations.

Joseph: That is good.

Michael: If my memory does not fail me, you said that tradition is important because the Bible commands to preserve it.

Joseph: Effectively. Saint Paul, who commanded not to be a slave of human traditions according to the world (Col 2,8); he also wrote:

“Now I praise you, brethren, that in all things you are mindful of me and keep my ordinances as I have delivered them to you.” (1 Cor 11,2)

“And we charge you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother walking disorderly and not according to the tradition which they have received of us.” (2 Thess 3,6)

“Therefore, brethren, stand fast: and hold the traditions, which you have learned, whether by word or by our epistle.” (2 Thess 2,15)

Pauline: Let’s listen to what the pastor has told us. If it is right, Saint Paul commands to preserve traditions AS HE TRANSMITTED THEM (1 Cor 11, 2). Where does the Catholic Church extract that the tradition which they preserve is the same tradition that they received from the Apostles?

Michael: In fact, we have begun reading some of the most ancient Christian writings, the ones you call “Apostolic Fathers”. I do not deny that there is a BIG difference between what the Catholics believe today and what they believed1.

Pauline: Where do you find the Mass, the Pope, a confessional where people confess their sins to a man, the indulgences, the dogmas of the Virgin, and other Catholic doctrines that you find in catechisms, encyclicals, papal bulls, etc.?

Joseph: The whole area of the Christian and Catholic doctrine can be distributed in four degrees, namely: 1) revealed datum; 2) dogmas; 3) infallible truths; 4) theological conclusions.

The first degree includes all the truths or propositions expressly revealed or inspired by God to the Apostles and brought by them to the Church, before the Church or the human reason speculated about them. Therefore, it includes two genders of propositions: all the propositions of the Sacred Scripture and all the propositions of the Divine Tradition as they went out of Jesus’ mouth, the Apostles, or the Sacred Writers. This first degree is the origin of the other three.

The second degree, whose name is dogmas of the faith, includes the propositions defined by the Church as revealed or as Divine Faith.

The third degree includes the propositions infallibly defined by the Church, but without being defined as revealed.

The fourth degree includes all the propositions necessarily connected with any of the three degrees mentioned before; normally known as theological conclusions, and they are deduced from them. The majority of the doctrine that the Church teaches to the Christian people belong to this degree, and they can advance to the third or second one if they are a product of an infallible declaration or a dogmatic definition2.

Michael: If I understand you right, you recognize that the majority of the Catholic doctrine has been issued from theological conclusions, from what you interpret of the Sacred Scripture and Tradition, and not from what exactly the Bible says.

Joseph: The thing is that there is no conclusion truly theological which cannot be defined by the Church.

Remember that Jesus had announced to the Apostles: “I have yet many things to say to you: but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth. For he shall not speak of himself: but what things soever he shall hear, he shall speak. And the things that are to come, he shall shew you.” (John 16, 12-13). Meditating on the Deposit of Faith, the Church has the responsibility to gradually understand all its content, and specify the Revelation3.

That is why we believe that. Even though it has occurred as a development in the Christian Doctrine, this is homogenous and always in the same sense, and it is not a transformative evolution where the dogma changes its meanings4, so that the thing which was a truth of faith before cannot be today.

Pauline: I understand what you mean, but I have to return to this point: that is not the thing that Saint Paul commanded, and I repeat the text: “Now I praise you, brethren, that in all things you are mindful of me and keep my ordinances AS I HAVE DELIVERED THEM TO YOU.” (1 Cor 11, 2). What you hold seems to be an excuse for justifying the change which has occurred in the Catholic doctrine; you’re affirming that it has “grown” when rather it HAS CHANGED throughout history as the Church was becoming pagan because of the influences of other cultures.

Joseph: You, maybe unconsciously, do not reject the whole development of Christian Doctrine. For example, Michael is a strong supporter of the doctrine of the Trinity; he holds that it is 100% biblical. Nevertheless, the word “Trinity” does not appear in the Bible, nor do we see in it a definition as the one that appears in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed and in spite of that, you do not reject it5.

Michael: Of course. Even if the Bible does not use this word, it says essentially the same thing. We see that there is only one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God.

Joseph: I do not argue that, yet the fact is that you individually have done the same thing as the Church did when it extracted a theological conclusion based on the revealed datum, and you have accepted it as a Dogma of Faith. The difference is that the Church, because of its function as dispensers of the mysteries of God (1 Cor 1, 4), has defined it for being believed by the whole Christian people, and at the same time, the terminology has been improved so as to express better the divine mystery.

Pauline: I do not think that Michael believes in dogmas just like I do not believe it either. We simply recognize a truth like it appears in the Bible which is the Word of God, alive and active (Heb 4, 12).

Joseph: A dogma is no more than the definition in an explicit way of a truth of Faith. For example, if you believe and recognize that Jesus Christ is God, from then you adhere to a dogma even though you do not call it in that way. What I am trying to say is that one truth is not less truth just because it is not contained in an explicit way in the Divine Revelation, and that is why I gave the example about the Trinity because it is an implicit truth that you and us, we accept.

Michael: Ok Joseph. But with all due respect, I think there is a rather significant difference between the Trinity, that is clearly in the Bible, and the rest of Catholic doctrines where it does not appear anywhere in it.

Joseph: It is possible that those things that are clear for you are not clear for everyone. For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in the Trinity and practice an Arian view6 of the person of Jesus Christ. Unitarians, Sabellians, Modalists7, and others do not believe in the Trinity either. In our case, the same thing happens and it is there where I would suggest that you be open-minded at the possibility that maybe the rest of Catholic doctrines have an authentic development of Christian Doctrine.

In the Catholic Church, we have a notable case of conversion from de Anglicanism, John Henry Newman, who subsequently became a Cardinal. He thought the same as you and he dedicated approximately 20 years, as student and professor at Oxford University, to study all changes in doctrines and religious practices of Christians throughout the centuries. For many years, he accepted the notion that the doctrines and Catholic practices were a corruption of Primitive Christianity; nevertheless, he concluded that these changes have a satisfactory explanation8 when he finished, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine9.

Michael: I understand Joseph, but the fact that he has come to these conclusions does not mean that he has found the truth. And as while we are open to these changes that can really have an explanation, I suggest that you are also open for the possibility that the Church went simply corrupting throughout time and went incorporating foreign doctrines to the Word of God that finally ended up displacing it.

Joseph: You have mentioned a very interesting topic that we could discuss the next time. Is the Church corrupted, or is it unfailing as the Catholics believe?

Michael: Gladly. See you soon.

Footnotes

  1. This is an acceptable objection. Father Francisco Marín Sola O.P. explains:

    In the eyes of anyone who studies without prejudices the history of the Catholic Church and its doctrine, there are two evident facts:

    The first one is that the Catholic Doctrine, even in its strictly dogmatic part, has grown or developed on a large scale, since the time of Apostles until our days. To verify it, we only have to compare above any doctrinal point the simple biblical statements with the complicated definitions of the recent Ecumenical Councils; to compare the Apostles’ Creed with the one of Athanasius, or with the Creed of Pope Pius IV; to compare any document of the first Popes with the Syllabus of Pius IV, or with the Encyclical Pascendi of Pius X; to compare any catechesis of the Church Fathers with any current catechism. The development is evident.

    The second patent fact is that in this development, different philosophies or human civilizations have influenced a lot, especially Greek philosophy and Patristic and Scholastic philosophy in the Middle Ages and Modern period. This influence is present in the writings of the Church Fathers that developed the primitive doctrine in the council disputes and disquisitions which preceded the definition of each dogma, and even in the same dogmatic formulas that have a clear mark of the different epochs in where they were defined”.

    (Francisco Marín Sola O.P., La Evolución Homogénea del Dogma Católico (The Homogeneous Evolution of Catholic Dogma), BAC, Madrid 1952, p. 137)  

  2. Ibid. p. 136.
  3. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches this point:

    “The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.” (CEC 66)

  4. This transformative evolution of the dogma has been rejected by the Church as heretical. The Pope Pius X commanded to the clergy an anti-modernist oath where he was asking to declare:

    “I entirely reject the heretical misrepresentation that dogmas evolve and change from one meaning to another different from the one which the Church held previously”.

    (Denzinger-Schönmetzer 3541)

  5. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed was defined in the Ecumenical Councils of Nicea (325) and Constantinople (381). It establishes the following Profession of Faith for the Church:

    “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

    We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him, all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he was incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day, he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

    We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father. With the Father and the Son, he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.

    We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen”.

  6. Arianism is an ancient heresy condemned in the Council of Nicea. It was originated by Arius who was denying the divinity of Christ. For him, Christ was the first being created by God, not consubstantial with the Father.
  7. Sabellianism accepts that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God, but rejects that they are three distinct Divine Persons of the same nature. For them, they are three different modes or aspects of the same God.
  8. The Second Vatican Council explains to what the development of the Christian Doctrine makes reference:

    “And so the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved by an unending succession of preachers until the end of time. Therefore, the Apostles, handing on what they themselves had received, warn the faithful to hold fast to the traditions which they have learned either by word of mouth or by letter, and to fight in defense of the faith handed on once and for all. Now what was handed on by the Apostles includes everything which contributes toward the holiness of life and increase in faith of the peoples of God; and so the Church, in her teaching, life and worship, perpetuates and hands on to all generations all that she herself is, all that she believes.

    This tradition which comes from the Apostles develops in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit. For there is a growth in the understanding of the realities and the words which have been handed down. This happens through the contemplation and study made by believers, who treasure these things in their hearts through a penetrating understanding of the spiritual realities which they experience, and through the preaching of those who have received through Episcopal succession the sure gift of truth. For as the centuries succeed one another, the Church constantly moves forward toward the fullness of divine truth until the words of God reach their complete fulfillment in her.

    The words of the holy fathers witness to the presence of this living tradition, whose wealth is poured into the practice and life of the believing and praying Church. Through the same tradition the Church’s full canon of the sacred book is known, and the sacred writings themselves are more profoundly understood and unceasingly made active in her; and thus God, who spoke of old, uninterruptedly converses with the bride of His beloved Son; and the Holy Spirit, through whom the living voice of the Gospel resounds in the Church, and through her, in the world, leads unto all truth those who believe and makes the word of Christ dwell abundantly in them”.

    (The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, 8. Cf. Ecumenical Council.)

  9. An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine was written by Newman when he was still Anglican. In another one of his most important works, Apologia Pro Vita Sua, the Cardinal explains more profoundly his conversion.
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