Catholic Encyclopedia: Dogma
I. DEFINITION
The word dogma (Gr. <dogma> from <dokein>) signifies, in the writings of the
ancient classical authors, sometimes, an opinion or that which seems true to a person;
sometimes, the philosophical doctrines or tenets, and especially the distinctive
philosophical doctrines, of a particular school of philosophers (cf. Cic. Ac., ii, 9), and
sometimes, a public decree or ordinance, as <dogma poieisthai>. In Sacred Scripture it
is used, at one time, in the sense of a decree or edict of the civil authority, as in Luke, ii,
1: "And it came to pass, that in those days there went out a decree [edictum, <dogma>]
from Caesar Augustus" (cf. Acts, xvii, 7; Esther, iii, 3); at another time, in the sense of
an ordinance of the Mosaic Law as in Eph., ii 15: "Making void the law of
commandments contained in decrees" (<dogmasin>), and again, it is applied to the
ordinances or decrees of the first Apostolic Council in Jerusalem: "And as they passed
through the cities, they delivered unto them the decrees [<dogmata>] for to keep, that
were decreed by the apostles and ancients who were at Jerusalem" (Acts, xvi, 4).
Among the early Fathers the usage was prevalent of designating as dogmas the
doctrines and moral precepts taught or promulgated by the Saviour or by the Apostles;
and a distinction was sometimes made between Divine, Apostolical, and ecclesiastical
dogmas, according as a doctrine was conceived as having been taught by Christ, by the
Apostles, or as having been delivered to the faithful by the Church. But according to a
long-standing usage a dogma is now understood to be a truth appertaining to faith or
morals, revealed by God, transmitted from the Apostles in the Scriptures or by
tradition, and proposed by the Church for the acceptance of the faithful. It might be
described briefly as a revealed truth <defined> by the Church- but private revelations
do not constitute dogmas, and some theologians confine the word defined to doctrines
solemnly defined by the pope or by a general council, while a revealed truth becomes
a dogma even when proposed by the Church through her ordinary magisterium or
teaching office. A dogma therefore implies a twofold relation: to Divine revelation and
to the authoritative teaching of the Church. Theologians distinguish three classes of
revealed truths: truths formally and explicitly revealed; truths revealed formally, but
only implicitly; and truths only virtually revealed. A truth is said to be formally
revealed, when the speaker or revealer really means to convey that truth by his
language, to guarantee it by the authority of his word. The revelation is formal and
explicit, when made in clear express terms. It is formal but only implicit, when the
language is somewhat obscure, when the rules of interpretation must be carefully
employed to determine the meaning of the revelation. And a truth is said to be
revealed only virtually, when it is not formally guaranteed by the word of the speaker,
but is inferred from something formally revealed. Now, truths formally and explicitly
revealed by God are certainly dogmas in the strict sense when they are proposed or
defined by the Church. Such are the articles of the Apostles' Creed. Similarly, truths
revealed by God formally, but only implicitly, are dogmas in the strict sense when
proposed or defined by the Church. Such, for example, are the doctrines of
Transubstantiation (q. v.), papal infallibility (q. v.), the Immaculate Conception(q.v.),
some of the Church's teaching about the Saviour, the sacraments, etc. All doctrines
defined by the Church as being contained in revelation are understood to be formally
revealed, explicitly or implicitly. It is a dogma of faith that the Church is infallible in
defining these two classes of revealed truths; and the deliberate denial of one of these
dogmas certainly involves the sin of heresy. There is a diversity of opinion about
virtually revealed truths, which has its roots in a diversity of opinion about the
material object of faith (see FAITH). It is enough to say here that, according to some
theologians, virtually revealed truths belong to the material object of faith and become
dogmas in the strict sense when defined or proposed by the Church; and according to
others, they do not belong to the material object of faith prior to their definition, but
become strict dogmas when defined; and, according to others, they do not belong to
the material object of Divine faith at all, nor become dogmas in the strict sense when
defined, but may be called mediately-Divine or ecclesiastical dogmas. In the
hypothesis that virtually revealed conclusions do not belong to the material object of
faith, it has not been defined that the Church is infallible in defining these truths, the
infallibility of the Church, however, in relation to these truths is a doctrine of the
Church theologically certain, which cannot lawfully be denied- and though the denial
of an ecclesiastical dogma would not be heresy in the strict sense, it could entail the
sundering of the bond of faith and expulsion from the Church by the Church's
anathema or excommunication.
II. DIVISIONS
The divisions of dogma follow the lines of the divisions of faith. Dogmas can be (1)
general or special; (2) material or formal; (3) pure or mixed; (4) symbolic or non-
symbolic; (5) and they can differ according to their various degrees of necessity.
(1) General dogmas are a part of the revelation meant for mankind and transmitted
from the Apostles; while special dogmas are the truths revealed in private revelations.
Special dogmas, therefore, are not, strictly speaking, dogmas at all; they are not
revealed truths transmitted from the Apostles; nor are they defined or proposed by the
Church for the acceptance of the faithful generally.
(2) Dogmas are called material (or Divine, or dogmas in themselves, in se) when
abstraction is made from their definition by the Church, when they are considered
only as revealed; and they are called formal (or Catholic, or "in relation to us", <quoad
nos>) when they are considered both as revealed and defined. Again, it is evident that
material dogmas are not dogmas in the strict sense of the term.
(3) Pure dogmas are those which can be known only from revelation, as the Trinity (q.
v.), Incarnation (q. v.), etc.; while mixed dogmas are truths which can be known from
revelation or from philosophical reasoning as the existence and attributes of God. Both
classes are dogmas in the strict sense, when considered as revealed and defined.
(4) Dogmas contained in the symbols or creeds of the Church are called symbolic; the
remainder are non-symbolic. Hence all the articles of the Apostles' Creed are dogmas-
but not all dogmas are called technically articles of faith, though an ordinary dogma is
sometimes spoken of as an article of faith.
(5) Finally, there are dogmas belief in which is absolutely necessary as a means to
salvation, while faith in others is rendered necessary only by Divine precept; and some
dogmas must be explicitly known and believed, while with regard to others implicit
belief is sufficient.
III. OBJECTIVE CHARACTER OF DOGMATIC TRUTH; INTELLECTUAL BELIEF IN
DOGMA
As a dogma is a revealed truth, the intellectual character and objective reality of
dogma depend on the intellectual character and objective truth of Divine revelation.
We will here apply to dogma the conclusions developed at greater length under the
heading of revelation (q. v.). Are dogmas considered merely as truths revealed by
God, real objective truths addressed to the human mind? Are we bound to believe
them with the mind ? Should we admit the distinction between fundamental and non-
fundamental dogmas?
(1) Rationalists deny the existence of Divine supernatural revelation, and consequently
of religious dogmas. A certain school of mystics has taught that what Christ
inaugurated in the world was "a new life". The "Modernist" theory by reason of its
recent condemnation calls for fuller treatment. There are different shades of opinion
among Modernists. Some of them do not, apparently, deny all intellectual value to
dogma (cf. Le Roy, "Dogme et Critique"). Dogma, like revelation, they say, is expressed
in terms of action. Thus when the Son of (God is said "to have come down from
heaven", according to all theologians He did not come down, as bodies descend or as
angels are conceived to pass from place to place, but the hypostatic union is described
in terms of action. So when we profess our faith in God the Father, we mean, according
to M. Le Roy, that we have to act towards God as sons; but neither the fatherhood of
God, nor the other dogmas of faith, such as the Trinity, the Incarnation, the
Resurrection of Christ etc. imply of necessity any objective intellectual conception of
fatherhood, Trinity, Resurrection, etc., or convey any idea to the mind. According to
other writers, God has addressed no revelation to the human mind. Revelation, they
say, began as a consciousness of right and wrong- and the evolution or development of
revelation was but the progressive development of the religious sense until it reached
its highest level, thus far, in the modern liberal and democratic State. Then, according
to these writers, the dogmas of faith, considered as dogmas, have no meaning for the
mind, we need not believe them mentally; we may reject them- it is enough if we
employ them as guides for our actions. (See MODERNISM.) Over against this doctrine
the Church teaches that God has made a revelation to the human mind. There are, no
doubt, relative Divine attributes, and some of the dogmas of faith may be expressed
under the symbolism of action, but they also convey to the human mind a meaning
distinct from action. The fatherhood of God may imply that we should act towards
Him as children towards a father- but it also conveys to the mind definite analogical
conceptions of our God and Creator. And there are truths, such as the Trinity, the
Resurrection of Christ His Ascension etc. which are absolute objective facts, and which
could be believed even if their practical consequences were ignored or were deemed of
little value. The dogmas of the Church, such as the existence of God, the Trinity, the
Incarnation, the Resurrection of Christ, the sacraments, a future judgment, etc. have an
objective reality and are facts as really and truly as it a fact that Augustus was Emperor
of the Romans, and that George Washington was first President of the United States.
(2) Abstracting from the Church's definition, we are bound to render to God the
homage of our assent to revealed truth once we are satisfied that He has spoken. Even
atheists admit, hypothetically, that if there be an infinite Being distinct from the world,
we should pay Him the homage of believing His Divine word.
(3) Hence it is not permissible to distinguish revealed truths as fundamental and non-
fundamental in the sense that some truths, though known to have been revealed by
God, may be lawfully denied. But while we should believe, at least implicitly, every
truth attested by the word of God, we are free to admit that some are in themselves
more important than others, more necessary than others, and that an explicit
knowledge of some is necessary while an implicit faith in others is sufficient.
IV. DOGMA AND THE CHURCH
Revealed truths become formally dogmas when defined or proposed by the Church.
There is considerable hostility, in modem times, to dogmatic religion when considered
as a body of truths defined by the Church, and still more when considered as defined
by the pope. The theory of dogma which is here expounded depends for its acceptance
on the doctrine of the infallible teaching office of the Church and of the Roman pontiff.
It will be sufficient to notice the following points, (1) the reasonableness of the
definition of dogma; (2) the immutability of dogma; (3) the necessity for Church unity
of belief in dogma (4) the inconveniences which are alleged to be associated with the
definition of dogma.
(1) Against the theory of interpretation of Scripture by private judgement, Catholics
regard as absolutely unacceptable the view that God revealed a body of truths to the
world and appointed no official teacher of revealed truth, no authoritative judge of
controversy; this view is as unreasonable as would be the notion that the civil
legislature makes laws, and then commits to individual private judgment the right
and the duty of interpreting the laws and deciding controversies. The Church and the
supreme pontiff are endowed by God with the privilege of infallibility in discharge of
the duty of universal teacher in the sphere of faith and morals; hence we have an
infallible testimony that the dogmas defined and delivered to us by the Church are the
truths contained in Divine revelation.
(2) The dogmas of the Church are immutable. Modernists hold that religious dogmas,
as such, have no intellectual meaning, that we are not bound to believe them mentally,
that they may be all false, that it is sufficient if we use them a guides to action; and
accordingly they teach that dogmas are not immutable, that they should be changed
when the spirit of the age is opposed to them, when they lose their value as rules for a
liberal religious life. But in the Catholic doctrine that Divine revelation is addressed to
the human mind and expresses real objective truth, dogmas are immutable Divine
truths. It is an immutable truth for all time that Augustus was Emperor of Rome and
George Washington first President of the United States. So according to Catholic belief,
these are and will be for all time immutable truths- that there are three Persons in God,
that Christ died for us, that He arose from the dead, that He founded the Church, that
He instituted the sacraments. We may distinguish between the truths themselves and
the language in which they are expressed. The full meaning of certain revealed truths
has been only gradually brought out; the truths will always remain. Language may
change or may receive a new meaning; but we can always learn what meaning was
attached to particular words in the past.
(3) We are bound to believe revealed truths irrespective of their definition by the
Church, if we are satisfied that God has revealed them. When they are proposed or
defined by the Church, and thus become dogmas, we are bound to believe them in
order to maintain the bond of faith (see HERESY).
(4) Finally, Catholics do not admit that, as is sometimes alleged, dogmas are the
arbitrary creations of ecclesiastical authority, that they are multiplied at will, that they
are devices for keeping the ignorant in subjection, that they are obstacles to
conversions. Some of these are points of controversy which cannot be settled without
reference to more fundamental questions. Dogmatic definitions would be arbitrary if
there were no Divinely instituted infallible teaching office in the Church; but if, as
Catholics maintain, God has established in His Church an infallible office, dogmatic
definitions cannot be considered arbitrary. The same Divine Providence which
preserves the Church from error will preserve her from inordinate multiplication of
dogmas. She cannot define arbitrarily. We need only observe the life of the Church or
of the Roman pontiffs to see that dogmas are not multiplied inordinately. And as
dogmatic definitions are but the authentic interpretation and declaration of the
meaning of Divine revelation, they cannot be considered devices for keeping the
ignorant in subjection, or reasonable obstacles to conversions, on the contrary, the
authoritative definition of truth and condemnation of error, are powerful arguments
leading to the Church those who seek the truth earnestly.
V. DOGMA AND RELIGION
It is sometimes charged that in the Catholic Church, in consequence of its dogmas,
religious life consists merely in speculative beliefs and external sacramental
formalities. It is a strange charge, arising from prejudice or from lack of acquaintance
with Catholic life. Religious life in conventual and monastic establishments is surely
not a merely external formality. The external religious exercises of the ordinary
Catholic layman, such as public prayer, confession, Holy Communion, etc. suppose
careful and serious internal self-examination and self-regulation, and various other
acts of internal religion. We need only to observe the public civic life of Catholics,
their philanthropic works, their schools, hospitals, orphanages, charitable
organizations, to be convinced that dogmatic religion does not degenerate into mere
external formalities. On the contrary, in non-Catholic Christian bodies a general decay
of supernatural Christian life follows the dissolution of dogmatic religion. Were the
dogmatic system of the Catholic Church, with its authoritative infallible head, done
away with, the various systems of private judgment would not save the world from
relapsing into and following pagan ideals. Dogmatic belief is not the be-all and end-all
of Catholic life; but the Catholic serves God, honours the Trinity, loves Christ, obeys
the Church, frequents the sacraments, assists at Mass, observes the Commandments,
because he believes mentally in God, in the Trinity, in the Divinity of Christ, in the
Church, in the sacraments and the Sacrifice of the Mass, in the duty of keeping the
Commandments, and he believes in them as objective immutable truths.
VI . DOGMA AND SCIENCE
But, it is objected, dogma checks investigation, antagonizes independence of thought,
and makes scientific theology impossible. This difficulty may be supposed to be put
by Protestants or by unbelievers. We will consider it from both points of view.
(1) Beyond scientific investigation and freedom of thought Catholics recognize the
guiding influence of dogmatic beliefs. But Protestants also profess to adhere to certain
great dogmatic truths which are supposed to impede scientific investigation and to
conflict with the findings of modern science. Old difficulties against the existence of
God or its demonstrability, against the dogma of Creation, miracles, the human soul,
and supernatural religion have been dressed in a new garb and urged by a modern
school of scientists principally from the discoveries in geology, paleontology, biology,
astronomy, comparative anatomy, and physiology. But Protestants, no less than
Catholics, profess to believe in God, in the Creation, in the soul, in the Incarnation, in
the possibility of miracles; they too, maintain that there can be no discord between the
true conclusions of science and the dogmas of the Christian religion rightly
understood. Protestants, therefore, cannot consistently complain that Catholic dogmas
impede scientific investigation. But it is urged that in the Catholic system beliefs are
not determined by private judgment, behind the dogmas of the Church there is the
living bulwark of her episcopate. True, behind dogmatic beliefs Catholics recognize
ecclesiastical authority; but this puts no further restraint on intellectual freedom- it
only raises the question as to the constitution of the Church. Catholics do not believe
that God revealed a body of truths to mankind and appointed no living authority to
unfold, to teach, to safeguard that body of Divine truths, to decide controversies; but
the authority of the episcopate under the supreme pontiff to control intellectual activity
is correlative with, and arises from their authority to teach supernatural truth. The
existence of judges and magistrates does not extend the range of our civil laws- they
are rather a living authority to interpret and apply the laws. Similarly, episcopal
authority has for its range the truth of revelation, and it prohibits only what is
inconsistent with the full scope of that truth.
(2) In discussing the question with unbelievers we note that science is "the observation
and classification, or co-ordination, of the individual facts or phenomena of nature".
Now a Catholic is absolutely free in the prosecution of scientific research according to
the terms of this definition. There is no prohibition or restriction on Catholics in
regard to the observation and co-ordination of the phenomena of Nature. But some
scientists do not confine themselves to science as defined by themselves. They
propound theories often unwarranted by experimental observation. One will maintain
as a "scientific" truth that there is no God, or that His existence is unknowable- another
that the world has not been created; another will deny in the name of "science" the
existence of the soul; another, the possibility of supernatural revelation. Surely these
denials are not warranted by scientific methods. Catholic dogma and ecclesiastical
authority limit intellectual activity only so far as may be necessary for safeguarding the
truths of revelation. If non-believing scientists in their study of Catholicism would
apply the scientific method, which consists in observing, comparing, making
hypotheses, and perhaps formulating scientific conclusions, they would readily see
that dogmatic belief in no way interferes with the legitimate freedom of the Catholic in
scientific research, the discharge of civic duty, or any other form of activity that makes
for true enlightenment and progress. The service rendered by Catholics in every
department of learning and of social endeavour, is a fact which no amount of
theorizing against dogma can set aside. (See FAITH, INFALLIBILITY REVELATION,
SCIENCE, TRUTH.)
<Acta et Decreta Concilii Vaticani> in <Coll. Lac.> (Freiburg im Br., 1870-90), VII;
SUAREZ, <Opera Omnia: De Fide Theologicâ>; DE LUGO, <Pera: De fide>;
VACANT, <Etudes th&eaccute;ologiques sur les constitutions du concile du Vatican>
(Paris, 1895); GRANDERATH, <Constitutiones dogmaticae Sacrosancti Ecumenici
Concilii Vaticani ex ipsis ejus actis explicatae atque illustratae> (Freiburg im Br., 1892);
SCHEEBEN, <Handbuch der katholischen Dogmatik> (Freiburg im Br., 1873);
SCHWANE, <Dogmengeschichte> (2nd ed., Freiburg, 1895); MAZZELLA, <De
Virtutibus Infusis> (Rome, 1884); BILLOT, <Tractatus de Ecclesiâ Christi> (Rome,
1903); IDEM, <De Virtutibus Infusis> (Rome, 1905); NEWMAN, <Idea of a University>
DANIEL COGHLAN
Transcribed by Gerard Haffner
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