DEVELOPMENT OF DOCTRINE. emcees whieh Christian doctrine has been slowly and .uiecessi‘ely divided into different de partments of thought. these one after another more carefully defined, subdivided, and Idaho rated. and more thoroughly grounded in revela tion and reason, and the 1V111/11' 1111•11'1/y 10 :1 systematic and relatively complete form.
The fart of such a development is at once dent upon the most superficial examination of Christian history. The c'arli•st writers of the Church possess no system of theology, and em ploy few expres.sion, which indicate any thought upon the great questions with which theology engaged. By the I init. of tremens (died e.'2.(12), the of an orgruization of thought are Ity the early part of the fourth century of Nice. etc., :Ind onward) the doc trines of :nod of the Trinity have route to he distinctly treated. and their ultimate elements discriminated and defined. The of the fifth secs Christology defined at Clialeedon (451). and the half of the sixth the doctrine of alith•opolmry at nrange 1529). further development Went on in the Middle .1geA which 1; a ground if 1111 Catholics and Prot estants, the latter Viewing it as a perversion of the time line of evolution. Miring this period the great features of the Catholic savra input a 1 were settled. Then Caine the Protestant Nefo•mati.111, 1?111•11 1 Ill. moVenient, WIN, Vrote-tants maintain. Sow, the doctrine. of the application of grace, ju--tilien etc.. 111•1'1. by 1,111111.1' and the do•trine of the ground of forgiveness, the atonement. was again 'slated 11111111 anted_ 1:1 id 4101111 by Anseliti t 1098f . The Reformation tea als n whole, reaching down to the of Thirty Year.' l‘ar, was a very productive period when provesses of t III V,11 t 11)11g in course of elaboration were brought to a more or less sat i.faetory eon hl-ion. 111'110? ey, :1 111141 e•Aellatology were in cluded in the toph., substantially treated in this era.
In certain re.peet, this development is paral lel to all development, and may he described Cyril With 1N.eimer', inereasing lieter• ogeneity by increasing cuhereney of each mpa rate dein' 11 II wilt of thought. It has another marked point of likeness with all either development. in that it has part, which must be recognized as abnormal development. a, 'degen eration' rather than progre...ive evolution. ticism, and the him• train of like form, which have followed it even down to our own day, was one of these. The lleformat ion itself had its ab mirnia I in the fanatical NV illg of the Anabapt ists :Ind the like. It becomes, therefore, important to establish criteria by which the sound and development of doctrine may be discriminated, in order that its results may be used in the ronstruetion of systems of theology with confidence that they IN ill prove sound and enduring elements of truth. For it is
only as the present r.ui build upon the and positions twee really gained can be employed by subsequent thinkers, that there can be any hope of substantial growth in the knowledge of Chris tian truth from age to age. Four such criteria seem possible and practical. First, the d•velop namt must begin from a germ actually present in the definite in,truction of destis ch•ist to his ..1po•tles. Christianity is a religion of revelation fq.v.1, and poss.e.ses from its foundation the sential and fimilamental materials of all theology. begin :I tlyt h )).11 revealed i, begin with uninstructed human reason. and run the danger of second. it must proceed according to the law, of logical sequence. The doctrines must follow upon one another in :sued' a way that the fundamental shall precede the later which ;ire built upon them, a. theology actually preceded Christology; and they must also be logically proved. that is. follow in a rational sequence. Third. each doctrine must agree with previously established Ch•is• tiara doctrines. slime it is a system of truth uhirh being and truth is harmony.
fourth. its dm eloped form agree with its original ill and portion, or a later doetrine must not contradict any doctrine previously established. The great -.:%steni of c?an gelieal theology as embraced in the great Protes tant eonfession, impart from the philosophical form in which it is and i'nnieption. by which it is supported 1 i, helie?ed by Protestants to satisfy all these conditions of a sound develop ment. Nee lloGm.t.
This view of development is founded upon tile presupposition that the lloly Spirit is in the Church guiding it into the knowledge of the truth, a, was promised by the Saviour should be the ease xvi. 131. .\ very prominent school of Chumh history at the present lime. of %vhicli professor in Berlin, is the rmi bent representative, lays little emphasis upon this idea. or wholly discards it. and seeks to ex plain the course of history by purely natural Thus the idea of speiifu, rPyPlaliun is denied or at lent obscured, the miraculous ele. meld of original rejeeted. :old the whelp historie re"arded as mingled largely with error that it• outeome is of little or 1m value for the ascertainment of truth. Christianity is thus simply one of the elements of tiviiuzaiIliu and is to lie m114441041 to preeiselY the same canons of criticism as every other; and current Christian doctrine is regarded as needing fundamental and extensive reform. The question between these two schools is the question of the reality and meaning of the supernatural. Con sult: Cardinal Newman, -In Essay on the Devel opment of Christian Doctrine (London. 1878), and criticism by Prof. F. II. Foster in his Ch•is tian Life and Theology (New York, 1901).