Dogma in the Catholic Church

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Statue of Saint Peter holding the keys of the kingdom of heaven. (Gospel of Matthew (16:18–19).

A dogma of the Catholic Church is defined as "a truth revealed by God, which the magisterium of the Church declared as binding".[1] The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

The Church's Magisterium asserts that it exercises the authority it holds from

Christ to the fullest extent when it defines dogmas, that is, when it proposes, in a form obliging Catholics to an irrevocable adherence of faith, truths contained in divine Revelation or also when it proposes, in a definitive way, truths having a necessary connection with these.[2]

The faithful are only required to accept a teaching as dogma if the Catholic Church clearly and specifically identifies them as dogmas.[1]

Elements: Scripture and tradition

The concept of dogma has two elements: 1) the

Ecumenical Council.[3] Truths formally and explicitly revealed by God are dogmas in the strict sense when they are proposed or defined by the church, such as the articles of the Nicene Creed which are drawn from the early church councils.[4] Catholicism holds that the understanding of scripture continues to deepen and mature over time through the action of the Holy Spirit in the history of the church and in the understanding of that faith by Christians, all the while staying identical in essence and substance.[5] Dei verbum states: "both sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence".[5]

Dogma as divine and Catholic faith

See also: Theological notes
Part of a series on the
Catholic Church
St. Peter's Basilica
St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
Overview
Background
Organisation

God

  • Trinity
  • Consubstantialitas
  • Filioque
  • Divinum illud munus
    		•
    Divine law
    Realms beyond the States of the Church
    Paschal mystery
    Blessed Virgin Mary
    Salvation
    Ecclesiology
    Other teachings
    Texts
    • Official Bible
    Philosophy


    Schools

    Worship
    Rites
    Miscellaneous

    Relations with:

    Societal issues
    Links and resources
    icon Catholic Church portal

    A dogma implies a twofold relation: to

    divine revelation and to the authoritative teaching of the Catholic Church.[4]

    A dogma's "strict signification is the object of both

    baptised person deliberately denies or doubts a dogma properly so-called, he is guilty of the sin of heresy [...], and automatically becomes subject to the punishment of excommunication".[6]

    At the turn of the 20th century, a group of theologians called

    objective truth that does not change.[7]

    However, truths of the faith have been declared dogmatically throughout the ages. The instance of a Pope doing this outside an Ecumenical Council is rare, though there were two instances in recent times: the

    Vatican II and has faced strong opposition since.[9][10]

    Early uses of the term

    The term Dogma Catholicum was first used by

    Emperor Justinian declared the decisions of the first ecumenical councils as law "because they are true dogmata" of God.[11]

    early Church (Ephesus, Chalcedon) to the Council of Trent – were formulated against specific heresies. Later dogmas (Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Mary) express the greatness of God in binding language. At the specific request of Pope John XXIII, the Second Vatican Council did not proclaim any dogmas. Instead it presented the basic elements of the Catholic faith in a more understandable, pastoral language.[12] The last two dogmas were pronounced by Popes, Pope Pius IX in 1854 and Pope Pius XII
    in 1950, on the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary respectively.

    It is Catholic teaching that, with Christ and the Apostles, revelation was complete. Dogmas issued after the death of his apostles are not new, but explications of existing faith. Implicit truths are specified as explicit, as was done in the teachings on the Trinity by the ecumenical councils. Karl Rahner tries to explain this with the allegorical sentence of a husband to his wife, "I love you"; this surely implies, I am faithful to you.[13] In the 5th century Vincent of Lérins wrote, in Commonitory, that there should be progress within the church,

    on condition that it be real progress, not alteration of the faith. For progress requires that the subject be enlarged in itself, alteration, that it be transformed into something else. The intelligence, then, the knowledge, the wisdom, [...] of individuals [...] as well of [...] the whole Church, ought, in the course of ages and centuries, to increase and make much and vigorous progress; but yet only in its own kind; that is to say, in the same doctrine, in the same sense, and in the same meaning.[14]

    Vincent commented on the First Epistle to Timothy (6:20) that Timothy, for Vincent, represented "either generally the Universal Church, or in particular, the whole body of The Prelacy", whose obligation is "to possess or to communicate to others a complete knowledge of religion" called the deposit of faith. According to Vincent, the deposit of faith was entrusted and not "devised: a matter not of wit, but of learning; not of private adoption, but of public tradition." Vincent expounded that you "received gold, give gold in turn," and not a substitute or a counterfeit. Vincent explained that those who are qualified by a "divine gift" should "by wit, by skill, by learning" expound and clarify "that which formerly was believed, though imperfectly apprehended" – to understand "what antiquity venerated without understanding" and teach "the same truths" in a new way.[15] The church uses this text in its interpretation of dogmatic development. In 1870, the First Vatican Council quoted from Commonitory and stated, in the dogmatic constitution Dei Filius, that "meaning of the sacred dogmas is perpetually to be retained" once they have been declared by the Catholic Church and "there must never be a deviation from that meaning on the specious ground and title of a more profound understanding."[16][17] In 1964, the Second Vatican Council further developed this in Lumen Gentium.[18][a]

    Classification

    According to Catholic theologian Ludwig Ott:[19]

    Dogmas are classified:

    a) According to their content as: General Dogmas (dogmata generalia) and Special Dogmas (dogmata specialia). To the former belong the fundamental truths of Christianity, to the latter the individual truths contained therein.

    b) According to their relation with Reason as: Pure Dogmas (dogmata pura) and Mixed Dogmas (dogmata mixta). The former we know solely through

    Natural Reason also, e.g., The Existence of God
    .

    c) According to the mode by which the Church proposes them, as: Formal Dogmas (dogmata formalia) and Material Dogmas (dogmata materialia). The former are proposed for belief by the Teaching Authority of the Church as truths of Revelation; the latter are not so proposed, for which reason they are not Dogmas in the strict sense.

    d) According to their relation with salvation as: Necessary Dogmas (dogmata necessaria) and Non-necessary Dogmas (dogmata non-necessaria). The former must be explicitly believed by all in order to achieve eternal salvation; for the latter implicit faith (fides implicita) suffices (cf. Hebr. II, 6).

    Theological certainty

    Main article: Theological notes

    The magisterium of the church is directed to guard, preserve and teach divine truths which God has revealed with

    de fide). A rejection of church magisterial teachings is a de facto rejection of the divine revelation. It is considered the mortal sin of heresy if the heretical opinion is held with full knowledge of the church's opposing dogmas. The infallibility of the magisterium extends also to teachings which are deduced from such truths (fides ecclesiastica). These church teachings or "Catholic truths" (veritates catholicae) are not a part of the divine revelation, yet are intimately related to it. The rejection of these "secondary" teachings is heretical, and entails loss of full communion with the Catholic Church.[20] More degrees of theological certainty exist. Those different degrees are called theological notes.[21]

    Examples of dogmatic definitions

    Ecumenical councils

    Council of Trent

    The Council of Trent made a number of dogmatic definitions about the sacraments and other beliefs and practices of the church, such as the following:

    Ex cathedra

    Papal bulls and encyclicals

    The oldest surviving panel icon of Christ Pantocrator, c. 6th century.

    Pope Pius XII stated in Humani generis that papal encyclicals, even when they are not ex cathedra, can nonetheless be sufficiently authoritative to end theological debate on a particular question:

    Nor must it be thought that what is expounded in Encyclical Letters does not of itself demand consent, since in writing such Letters the Popes do not exercise the supreme power of their Teaching Authority. For these matters are taught with the ordinary teaching authority, of which it is true to say: "He who heareth you, heareth me" (Luke 10:16); and generally what is expounded and inculcated in Encyclical Letters already for other reasons appertains to Catholic doctrine. But if the Supreme Pontiffs in their official documents purposely pass judgment on a matter up to that time under dispute, it is obvious that that matter, according to the mind and will of the Pontiffs, cannot be any longer considered a question open to discussion among theologians.[34]

    The end of the theological debate is not identical, however, with dogmatization. Throughout the history of the church, its representatives have discussed whether a given papal teaching is the final word or not.

    In 1773,

    Jesuit Order, wrote "it is most incredible that the Deputy of Christ would state the opposite, what his predecessor Pope Clement XIII stated in the papal bull Apostolicum, in which he defended and protected us." When, a few days later, he was asked if he would accept the papal brief reverting Clement XIII and dissolving the Jesuit Order, Ricci replied that whatever the Pope decides must be sacred to everybody.[35]

    In 1995, questions arose as to whether the

    Joseph Ratzinger alone but because it is based on a wide range of sources, scriptures, the constant tradition of the church, and the ordinary and universal magisterium of the church: Pope John Paul II identified a truth infallibly taught over two thousand years by the church.[36]

    Critics of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis point out, though, that it was not promulgated under the

    infallible in itself.[36]

    Apparitions and revelations

    Statue of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Lourdes apparitions occurred four years after the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

    divine revelation is incomplete, which in turn would imply God can perfect himself.[b]

    The Catholic Church distinguishes between the apparitions within divine revelation – such as the risen Jesus' apparitions to the Apostles and the sign of the woman in the

    Our Lady of Fatima – because the age of divine revelation was closed with the completion of the New Testament when the last of the Apostles died.[c]

    While

    Catholic faith, in the Bible or in sacred tradition. It is a local tradition, which is distinct from sacred tradition.[d]

    Ecumenical aspects

    Protestant theology since the reformation was largely negative on the term dogma. This changed in the 20th century, when Karl Barth in his book Kirchliche Dogmatik stated the need for systematic and binding articles of faith.[40]

    The

    Sunday liturgy. Because many Protestant Churches have retained the older versions of the Creed, ecumenical working groups are meeting to discuss the Creed as the basis for better understandings of dogma.[41]

    See also

    Notes

    1. ^ "The entire body of the faithful [...] cannot err in matters of belief" when the people of God manifests "discernment in matters of faith when [...] they show universal agreement in matters of faith and morals." That discernment "is exercised under the guidance of the sacred teaching authority, in faithful and respectful order to which the people of God accepts that which is not just the word of men but truly the word of God. Through it, the people of God adheres [...] to the faith given once and for all to the saints, penetrates it more deeply with right thinking, and applies it more fully in its life."[18]
    2. ^ Christian faith cannot accept "revelations" that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such "revelations".[37]
    3. ^ "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 god permits no new revelations, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.[38]
    4. ^ Tradition is to be distinguished from the various theological, disciplinary, liturgical or devotional traditions, born in the local churches over time. These are the particular forms, adapted to different places and times, in which the great Tradition is expressed. In the light of Tradition, these traditions can be retained, modified or even abandoned under the guidance of the church's magisterium.[39]
    5. ^ Additional dogmas are in part precisation of clauses contained in the creed. However this may be, all of them follow technically from the clause "and the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church", in which the claim of the Church to lay down revelation infallibly is contained.

    References

    1. ^ a b Schmaus, I, 54
    2. ^ Catechism 88 Archived 27 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine
    3. ISBN 978-1-929291-85-4
      .
    4. ^ a b Coghlan, Daniel. "Dogma." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 11 July 2019Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
    5. ^ a b "Dei verbum". www.vatican.va. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
    6. ISBN 978-1-929291-85-4
      .
    7. ISBN 978-1-929291-85-4
      .
    8. ISBN 1-57918-241-0
      page 11
    9. ^ "Co-Redemptrix as Dogma? : University of Dayton, Ohio". udayton.edu. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
    10. ^ "Pope calls idea of declaring Mary co-redemptrix foolishness". cruxnow.com. 12 December 2019. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
    11. ^ a b Beinert 89
    12. ^ Beinert 90
    13. ^ Schmaus, 40
    14. ^ Commonitorium n. 54
    15. ^ Commonitorium n. 53
    16. ^ Dei Filius
    17. ^ Denzinger, n. 3020
    18. ^ a b Lumen Gentium. n. 12.
    19. ISBN 978-1-929291-85-4
      .
    20. ISBN 089555805X
      .
    21. ^ "Dictionary : THEOLOGICAL NOTES". www.catholicculture.org. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
    22. ^ CCC 465
    23. ^ CCC 466
    24. ^ CCC 467
    25. ^ CCC 475
    26. ^ CCC 477
    27. ^ CCC 891
    28. ^ Council of Trent, Session 13
    29. ^ Council of Trent, Session 25
    30. ^ Council of Trent, Session 14
    31. ^ Council of Trent, Session 24
    32. ^ Ineffabilis Deus
    33. ^ Munificentissimus Deus
    34. ^ Pope Pius XII (1950). Humani generis. n. 20.
    35. ^ Ludwig von Pastor, Geschichte der Päpste, XVI,2 1961, 207-208
    36. ^ a b Weigel, George (2005). Witness to Hope: a biography of Pope John Paul II. New York: Harper. pp. 732–733.
    37. ^ Catechism 67 Archived 16 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine
    38. ^ Catechism 66
    39. ^ Catechism 83 Archived 27 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine
    40. ^ Zollikon Zürich 1032-1970 Beinert 92
    41. ^ Beinert 199

    Sources

    Further reading
    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dogma_in_the_Catholic_Church&oldid=1212275220"