DOCTRINE AND DOGMA

the explication and officially acceptable version of a religious teaching. The development of doctrines and dogmas has significantly affected the traditions, institutions, and practices of the religions of the world. Doctrines and dogmas also have influenced and been influenced by the ongoing development of secular history, science, and philosophy. Additional reading Heinrich Emil Brunner, Dogmatik, vol. 1 (1946; Eng. trans., Dogmatics, vol. 1, The Christian Doctrine of God, 1949), advocates the primacy of Scripture over tradition; Owen Chadwick, From Bossuet to Newman: The Idea of Doctrinal Development (1957), an excellent survey of the gradual shift from the classical consciousness of identity in doctrine (Bossuet) to a historical consciousness of growth and continuity (Newman); Adolf von Harnack, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, 3rd ed., 3 vol. (1893; Eng. trans., History of Dogma, 7 vol., 1900, reprinted 1961), a massive exposition of the thesis that Christian dogma represents the process of Hellenization of the original Gospel, hence a deviation; John Henry Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, new ed. (1878), a classical statement of the emergence of the historical consciousness within the Catholic tradition; J. Pelikan, Development of Christian Doctrine: Some Historical Prolegomena (1969), an important statement of the interaction of Scripture and tradition in the formation of Christian doctrines and dogmas; Frederick J. Streng, Understanding Religious Man (1969), an excellent summary of the common elements in religious experience, including those relating to doctrine and dogma; R.C. Zaehner, Concordant Discord: The Interdependence of Faiths (1970), helpful insights as to the various ideas of authority in the major religions of the world.