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DOGMATIC THEOLOGY

Traditionally described as “faith seeking understanding,” dogmatic theology explores reflective insights and generates understanding regarding the dogmas of the Christian church. Dogmas are “the normative statements of Christian belief adopted by various ecclesiastical authorities and enforced as the official teaching of the church” (Jaroslav Pelikan). Dogmatic theology differs from fundamental theology (which argues to the truth claims of faith), from systematic theology (which uses insights and tools from culture), and from practical theology (which considers the ethical stance of responsibility and commitment on social and political problems). Although the term is often expanded today to include the reflective-interpretative enterprise of all the principal world religions, for example Hindu theology or Jewish theology, we are restricting its use here to the Christian tradition.

Dogmatic theology studies the beliefs of the Christian community as they are expressed primarily, but not entirely, in their creeds or confessions of faith. These beliefs constellate around God (Father, Son, and Spirit), the world (creation, providence, and eschaton), humans (image of God, sin, and salvation), and Christian life (the church, sacraments, discipleship, and faith). Christian usage applies the word “creed” to the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed, which are intended for general use in rituals and religious education. “Confession of faith” refers to the comprehensive declarations of the Protestant and Anglican churches, including the Augsburg Confession, the Formula of Concord, the Westminster Confession, and the Thirty-nine Articles.

Some dogmas are common to almost all Christian churches, stemming from biblical confession, the creeds, and early ecumenical councils (e.g., Nicea, Chalcedon, and Constantinople). Roman Catholic dogmatic theology also includes the study of beliefs defined after the historical divisions from the Orthodox and Protestant traditions. These include the dogmas of the seven sacraments (at Trent), papal infallibility (at Vatican I), and the two Marian dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption (in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries).

Some Protestant theologians claim that there cannot be a development of doctrine, but only a history of theology since the time of Scripture. The point is debated among Roman Catholic theologians today, however, with many of them arguing that the concepts and propositions expressing their faith must be constantly updated to keep pace with the growth of human consciousness under the impact of successive historical experiences. They claim they are following generations of theologians—including the biblical authors, Greek and Latin fathers, and Scholastics—who rethought and reformulated their faith in the light of the most pressing problems of their day. The discussion boils down to a tension between truth as fixed and truth as growing, between a position that regards dogmas as final, petrified conclusions and one that considers them means that open the way to ever greater truth.

Dogmatic theology is sometimes considered the enemy of freedom from two different perspectives: teaching authority and personal faith. First, in Christian groups where dogmatic theology depends on an ecclesial teaching authority (e.g., Roman Catholicism), the authority has sometimes been rigorous, abstract, absolute, and backward-looking. When this occurs, dogmatic theology progressively alienates itself from modern secular society, which is self-critical, concrete, relativist, and future-oriented. Because dogmatic theology lacks a decision-making process in this situation, it becomes the enemy of freedom. Second, dogmatic theology often results in traditional formulations that call for submission. The venerable and interesting ideas contained in the dogmas are sometimes couched in language and principles that are so abstract they hinder and conceal faith rather than facilitate and reveal it. Although the source of dogmas—the gospel—connotes Spirit, freedom, and life, the language of dogmas sometimes suggests the institution, law, and fixed belief. When this happens, it does violence to human freedom and all but rules out personal faith in the person of Jesus Christ.

Today, dogmatic theology is often criticized because it has become largely a matter for professional schools, and its education pertinent to priestly training or ministerial leadership of churches. For dogmatic theology to thrive, it has to serve several audiences simultaneously: the scholarly academy, the church, and the wider society (David Tracy). Dogmatic theologians of the future will be compelled to relocate God and faith within this world and this life, if for no other reasons than the pervasive process of secularization and the sheer magnitude and absurdity of human suffering. They will have to pay closer attention to voices of women and those who live in marginalized cultures. In order to rethink the symbolic experiences and expressions of faith, they will have to follow the lead of systematic theologians in using different root metaphors: process, liberation, creativity, play, storytelling, revolution, technology, postmodernism, and so forth. They will have to analyze dogmatic formulations critically in terms of historical conditioning and sociocultural factors. Dogmas are the result of particular and contingent events in which believers struggled to express divine truth through inadequate human concepts. The theologians have the task of expressing in current form what earlier generations believed, without falling into the trap of keeping the old words but substituting new meanings.

Global, ecumenical gatherings of dogmatic theologians, such as the Faith and Order Conferences, have contributed many well-informed reflections to dialogue, especially regarding the sacraments. Because they do not all share the same dogmas, however, the theologians find it much easier to pray and witness together than to formulate common dogmatic statements (E. Schlink). Perhaps in our age of global world civilization, in the inevitable encounters with other principal world religions, they will find a way beyond this impasse. In the future they can no longer be content to try to find common statements for the basic substance of faith: They will have to transpose this lasting faith into new and pluralistic horizons of understanding.

Dogmatic theology always retains two basic tasks: it has to lead people to genuine religious experience and it has to explicate God’s self-communication in Jesus. These are not easy tasks. First, whereas real faith sets people on the side of peace, social justice, and responsible use of world resources, dogmatic theology has too often caused them to stand for divisiveness, destruction, and oppression. The fierceness with which dogmas have been defended has often surpassed the zeal spent on inciting believers to right living. Theologians have to establish a correlation between dogmas and the social problems of the day, between the ultimate questions raised by human beings and the ever new challenge of the word of God (Paul Tillich). Second, whereas real faith directs people toward the personal center of its life, namely Jesus Christ, dogmatic theology has too often succeeded in scattering people in their faith. Dogmas are never ends in themselves, however, and theologians have to make them function as an expression of the church’s understanding of the Christian mystery, as given to it by the Holy Spirit.

LEONARD J. BIALLAS

Bibliography

Avery Dulles, The Survival of Dogma.

Hubert Cunliffe-Jones, ed. A History of Christian Doctrine.

Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction.

Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition.

Philip Sheldrake, Spirituality and Theology: Christian Living and the Doctrine of God.

Cross-Reference: Ambiguity, Apologetics, Authority, Christian Theology, Confessional Theology, Ecclesiology, Ecumenism, Freedom, Systematic Theology.

DOUBT (See AGNOSTICISM, FAITH.)