I’m working on an adult curriculum titled “The Beauty of the Christian Faith.” It explores the basic elements of Christian faith as expressed in the Nicene Creed. I’ll be posting excerpts as they’re done. Here’s the seventh part of the introduction. Prior posts can be accessed through the Beauty of the Christian Faith Page.
Doctrines: Second Order Statements Derived from the First Order Sources of Theology
Doctrines are propositional theological statements that summarize claims to knowledge about God. A “propositional” statement is simply a discrete statement of claimed fact, such as “water is comprised of hydrogen and oxygen atoms.” Doctrines historically have been collected in summary statements such as creeds and confessions.
The manner in which doctrines function as theological authorities is the subject of some debate among different types of Christians. The debate relates to the relationship between scripture and tradition and also to the nature of scripture in relation to doctrinal propositions. The next sections discuss how this relationship is understood in Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant traditions. You should understand, however, that there is considerable variety even within each of these traditions. The models discussed below are intended as broad and general illustrations of key themes and differences.
Roman Catholicism
In general, Catholic Christians understand the teaching authority (“Magesterium”) of the Roman Church to provide the final interpretation of scripture, often in the form of doctrinal propositions stated by official Church councils or in documents issued or authorized by the Pope. Certain doctrinal propositions are part of sacred Tradition and, having been stated with the necessary authority, are irreformable. We can illustrate this relationship as follows:
As the key on the left indicates, scripture is understood in light of experience and reason and is authoritatively interpreted through the Magesterium (Tradition) in the form of doctrine. In a sense, doctrine in Catholic theology represents the point at which scripture, experience, reason, and tradition converge.
Eastern Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodox Christians do not make sharp distinctions between scripture, tradition, reason and experience. Many Orthodox theologians speak of all these sources together simply as “the Tradition.” This does not mean that Orthodox thought simply equates reason and experience with scripture. For the Orthodox, scripture remains uniquely inspired by God. But Orthodoxy pictures scripture like the spinal cord of a living organism. The organism is an indivisible whole, which functions because its constituent parts work synergistically together. For the Orthodox, it would make as much sense to separate scripture from the life and experience of the Church as it would to cut the spinal cord out of a person. This relationship can be illustrated as follows:
[1] This does not mean that the Eastern Orthodox churches exhibit a centralized structure under a single teaching authority, as is the case with the Roman Catholic Church. There are a number of different denominations that would fall under the banner “Eastern Orthodox,” and in general, within these denominations local churches are accountable to regional Bishops, but not to any central over-Bishop or Pope.
3 replies on “The Beauty of the Christian Faith: Introduction: The Nature of Doctrine: Catholicism and Orthodoxy”
We don’t say we have “denominations”. Although not quite exact, either, what there is is closer to the term “national churches” as expressions of the OHCA Church.
Also, the primary expression of Orthodox doctrine is in the Liturgy and other services. If one wants to know Orthodox doctrine, come and listen… There’s not a “theology book” anywhere. There are canons, but they’re about the nuts-and-bolts of keeping the organism going, and are far down on the list in terms of importance. Some are routinely ignored. Lots of people want them to be revised, because there is no longer etiquette needed for the appearance of an Emperor at worship, etc. But this is not high on the priority list.
Dana
Any particular reason why we the Oriental Orthodox (Armenians, Copts, Syrians, etc) are excluded? 🙂
PS I love your blog by the way.
No – not intentional! Probably more a lack of familiarity on my part.