CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, Development of. The evolution of Church doctrine, and with their slighter shades of meaning, of dogma, creed, precept and tenet, since the Apostolic Age. Church doctrine is based on truths contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, Christian theologians recognizing in these Scriptures the depository of all knowledge necessary for the teaching of salvation.
Presented by a recognized authority,—a teacher, a school or a sect,— doctrine, as a principle or exact rule of conduct, which is to be considered true and obeyed on its own merits, differs slightly from dogma which is formulated as essential and to be accepted as authoritative.
In pre-Christian times, the precepts of Moses, Pythagoras and other teachers were considered authoritative by their followers. In Academic Questions,' Cicero records °decrees* or °doc trines" which the philosophers and teachers called °dogmata,' and which it was criminal to doubt. The Mosaic ordinances are thus classed as Hebraic or doctrines, in Ephesians ii, 15; Colossians ii, 14. The first Christian doctrinal and moral instruction given by the apostles was delivered by Peter, on the Sunday of Pentecost 30 A.D., a few weeks after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and the nucleus of the Apostolic Church was formed. Four years later, in face of persecution, through the martyrdom of Stephen and the conversion of Paul at Damascus, Christianity began to spread outside of Jerusalem, and from 34 to 44 made rapid progress through Palestine, Phoenicia and Syria as far as Antioch. Paul made his first missionary journey in 47-48; and at Pentecost in 49, disciplinary decrees and doctrines were formulated for future guidance by the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem. Between 49 and 64, Paul made missionary journeys to different parts of the Levant, including Spain, preaching the Christian gospel, twice undergoing terms of imprisonment at Rome, and writing the Epistles to the different , churches and congregations, from which subsequent Christian doctrine was formulated. As generalaccepted Paul and , Peter were martyred at Lome by Nero in 67, and three years later, with e siege and destruc tion of Jerusalem in 70, Jjebrew nationality elided. During the 2d century, however, Hebraic Christianity continued to spread, al though diversity of opinion arose over points of doctrine among Ebionites, Docetai, Essemans, Gnostics, Manichwans, and in Dynamic, Patti passim, •Monarchian and Sabellian Unitarian circles. At Alexandria, Egypt, with its great universities, libraries, learned professors and throngs of eagerly inquiring and active-minded students,— where the Hebrew philosophy of Philo and the Greek teaching of Plato had blended with the doctrine of Moses and the prophets for a modified teaching of contem porary thought,— the first serious attempt was made by Christians to adjust the facts and truths of the gospel and the relations of Christian doctrine to reason and philosophy. Tertullian, 200 A.D., the first to apply the word 'Trinity* to the conception or revelation ( from human life) of the Triune Godhead, and Origen the Adamantine 185-254, spiritual as well as speculative in his outlook, are the commanding .figures of the period. According to Justin Martyr,— the first of the great teachers to de velop the doctrine of the Logos or the Divine Word which is God, incarnated in Jesus Christ, the Gospels included in the New Testament Canon were being read in Christian assemblies on Sundays in 150 A.D. The circulation of apocryphal apostolic writings and the formula tion of apocryphal canons to uphold their teach ings had to be combated, and great weight came to be laid upon tradition as a source of evidence respecting the teaching of Jesus and the apostles. The principal churches were honored as the witnesses and trusted guardians of these traditions, and the authority of the acknowl edged Scriptures was considered final and con clusive. Unity, holiness and catholicity became fixed doctrines of the ever-growing church communities over which the bishops presided, and the bishop of Rome as the acknowledged successor of Peter, the leader of the apostles and vicar. of Jesus Christ, was head of the
united Church. puring the 3d century, the doctrines of Christianity had become such a power, that shortly after the opening of the 4th century, Constantine the Roman emperor convert, by the Edict of Milan in 313, decreed the toleration of Christian worship throughout the empire and gave Imperial sanction to Church doctrine. Five years later, in 318, Arius of Alexandria, denying the doctrine of the Incarnation of Jesus as the Word which is God, was opposed by Athanasius *the father of orthodoxy,* and the first ecumenical council of bishops convoked by Imperial decree from all the churches assembled at Nicea in Bithynia, 325. It culminated in the formulation of the Nicene Creed. In 381 the first ecumenical council of Constantinople reaffirmed the Nicene Creed in opposition to Apollinarianism (q.v.), a modified form of • Ananism. In 431 the Council of Ephesus defined the doctrine that Mary was the Mother of God, which was op posed by Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople. In 451, the celebrated Council of Chalcedon, disciplining Eutyches, formulated the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity which has elver since been regarded as the limit of human wisdom on this subject. In 589 the Council bf Toledo, Spain, inserted Moque — and the Son—in the, Creed, to affirm the procession of the Spirit from the Father,.and the Son. In 831 the doctrine of Transubstantiation (q,v.) was vocated by Paschasius Radbertus, In 870, the Greek Church under Phones, archbishop of Constantinople, separated from the Roman Church over the insertion, two and a half centuries before, of filioque in the Creed. Abelard (1079-1142), the greatest of scholastic philosophers, in concept and conceptualism ap plied psychology and logic to the Ephesian doctrine of 431. In 1409 the Council of Pisa attempted to heal the great schism which had existed since 1309 over the rival popes of Rome and Avignon; the abuses it entailed creating popular demands throughout all Europe for reform. In 1439, the Council of Florence formally sanctioned the seven sacraments of baptism, confirmation, unction of the sick, the Lord's Supper, penance, marriage and ordina tion. In 1517 the need for reform of abuses which had crept into Church practice culminated in Luther's protest, and Protestantism created that revival of religious feeling throughout Christendom which, by a reactionary influence, resulted in a reawakening of religious zee 'within the Catholic body. (See Rzeiaamenon and Coucrta-ReaoaaanoN). With this dual Reformation came the division of Christian doctrine into Protestant and Catholic fields of thought. After 1530 appeared the Protestant confessions of faith, Lutheran, Aeglican, Cal vinistic, etc. Justification by faith, individual responsibility, the right to believe and worship according to one's conscience became the car dinal points of Protestantism. The Bible is the one rule of faith and practice; the decrees of any spiritual representative, of any body or convention, are not considered infallible or obligatory. Since then Protestant Christian doctrine has had innumerable expositors, dis cussing every possible shade of opinion. (See CHRISTIANITY ; CHRISTOLOCY ; CREEDS AND CON FESSIONS ; INCARNATION ; etc.).
The Council of Trent 1545-63, With the greatest deliberation and confirmed the Catholicposition on doetrii. since then the only additions considered' necessary by the Catholic Church, to give greater force to exist ing doctrine hale been the formulation of the Ephesian definition of 431, conceptualised as the elevation of womanhood' by Abelard 1079 1142, finally promulgated as the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception (q.v.) in 1854, and the Papal infallibility (q.v.) of doctrinal teaching, promulgated in 1870. Consult Newman, Car dinal J., (Develcipment of Christian Doctrine' (London 1878) Fisher, G.'P., 'History of the Christian Church' (New York 1887). See also Catnna Law ; DECRETALS.