In the discussion of religion, one term that is often grossly misunderstood, and invariably perjoratively deployed, is the simple little term known as 'dogma'.
To quote G.K Chesterton:
The word dogma derives from the Greek verb dokein — seeming, or believing — and its literal meaning was "that which seems good or proper to someone". So before we go any further, it's worth considering that most of what is expressed here on CR is 'personal opinion', this also qualifies as a 'personal dogma'.
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The term, when transposed into the field of philosophy, signified the 'position' or 'knowledge' of any given (philosophical) School. (e.g. Plutarch, Ethica 14B: "the dogmas pertaining to souls" or the Stoic philosophers’ dogmas, etc.) The term was later assimilated into public life (of the state) and it signified decisions or decrees bearing state authority (Plato’s Laws, 644D: "the city dogma", also in Luke, 2:1: "a decree (dogma, in the Greek text) was issued by Caesar Augustus to conduct a census of the population". Thus, the term took on the meaning of something compulsory, something characterized by authority.
Its religious meaning was initially contextual, with regard to the origin of any given ordinance. It is used in the negative by Paul (Colossians, 2:14), where Christ is said to have "erased the manuscript of dogmas that were against you" and in (Ephesians, 2:15), where Christ abolished the enmity in His Body, by "abolishing the dogma of the Law of the Commandments".
Luke uses it affirmatively, and this sense was to prevail from then onwards in Christian usage. Acts, 16:4: "... as they passed through the cities, they delivered unto them the decrees ('dogmas') that were validated by the apostles and the elders... " We thus arrive at the dogmas of the Church, as being the authentic decisions pertaining to faith, that are delivered for compulsory acceptance, and are linked to the presence and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
In short, in theology and doctrine, dogmas are held to be true, and thus binding because they are true — remember that Christian theology and philosophy are founded on the idea that objective reality can be known with certitude ... and does not suffer the criticism of the Post-Enlightenment and the current pervading relativism of the West.
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The Dogmas of the Church are linked to worship, and thus the essential Christian Mysteries, as opposed to the kerygma — Her public teachings and sermons. Thus St Basil the Great says "... dogmas are hushed, whereas sermons are publicized..." For St Basil, dogmas are those things that the Church (as a worshipping community) confesses, and not those things that it promulgates to others, who are outside the Church. Thus the meaning of 'dogma' has the community of the Church as a prerequisite, along with a participation in its worship, otherwise it bears no authority. Thus it is not dogma that determines what is believed, but rather what is believed that determined dogma.
Here again the Catholic and Orthodox patriarchates can demonstrate an unbroken continuity of belief with the very earliest Christian communities.
Esoterically, the authority of a dogma does not belong to the sphere of logic, nor to a blind obedience to — nor resignation from — logic, but to a new logic, according to the Datum of Revelation, the Fides Quae, from which the Fides Qua derives ... this was why the catechumenate engage in the Discpilina arcana — the rule to which the ecclesial community adhered.
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In short then, 'Dogma' is that which an ecclesiastic community embraces as a Revealed and a salvatory truth that applies to all, and requires its members to accept it (through personal experience) as authoritative, because of the specialized relations that it ordains between members, as well as towards the world and God. The kerygma (sermon) on the other hand is whatever is addressed to all persons, publicly, in order that they may become members of the Church, and only then (as members of the Church) confess it as a dogma, having experienced it personally.
The truth does not become a dogma, unless it has been experienced and certified from within the Church. From this, it is obvious that the dogmas of the Church are not limited in number; new dogmas can be formulated in every era, because the Church is a living organism and the Holy Spirit is not associated to certain isolated periods of history. But, for a truth to become a dogma of the Church (and not a personal opinion), it must necessarily go through the community of the Church in its totality, and not only through a few people – be they theologians in the current (academic) sense, or saints.
Contrary to popular and ill-informed opinion then, the dogmas of the Church are not those rules which we demand the outsider acknowledge, but rather the opposite, if you wish to be counted as one among our ecclesial and essentially mystical community, then and only then is adherence to the dogmata of that community is required ... anything else is a nonsense.
Thomas
To quote G.K Chesterton:
"People have fallen into a foolish habit of speaking of orthodoxy as something heavy, humdrum, and safe. There never was anything so perilous or so exciting."
The word dogma derives from the Greek verb dokein — seeming, or believing — and its literal meaning was "that which seems good or proper to someone". So before we go any further, it's worth considering that most of what is expressed here on CR is 'personal opinion', this also qualifies as a 'personal dogma'.
+++
The term, when transposed into the field of philosophy, signified the 'position' or 'knowledge' of any given (philosophical) School. (e.g. Plutarch, Ethica 14B: "the dogmas pertaining to souls" or the Stoic philosophers’ dogmas, etc.) The term was later assimilated into public life (of the state) and it signified decisions or decrees bearing state authority (Plato’s Laws, 644D: "the city dogma", also in Luke, 2:1: "a decree (dogma, in the Greek text) was issued by Caesar Augustus to conduct a census of the population". Thus, the term took on the meaning of something compulsory, something characterized by authority.
Its religious meaning was initially contextual, with regard to the origin of any given ordinance. It is used in the negative by Paul (Colossians, 2:14), where Christ is said to have "erased the manuscript of dogmas that were against you" and in (Ephesians, 2:15), where Christ abolished the enmity in His Body, by "abolishing the dogma of the Law of the Commandments".
Luke uses it affirmatively, and this sense was to prevail from then onwards in Christian usage. Acts, 16:4: "... as they passed through the cities, they delivered unto them the decrees ('dogmas') that were validated by the apostles and the elders... " We thus arrive at the dogmas of the Church, as being the authentic decisions pertaining to faith, that are delivered for compulsory acceptance, and are linked to the presence and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
In short, in theology and doctrine, dogmas are held to be true, and thus binding because they are true — remember that Christian theology and philosophy are founded on the idea that objective reality can be known with certitude ... and does not suffer the criticism of the Post-Enlightenment and the current pervading relativism of the West.
+++
The Dogmas of the Church are linked to worship, and thus the essential Christian Mysteries, as opposed to the kerygma — Her public teachings and sermons. Thus St Basil the Great says "... dogmas are hushed, whereas sermons are publicized..." For St Basil, dogmas are those things that the Church (as a worshipping community) confesses, and not those things that it promulgates to others, who are outside the Church. Thus the meaning of 'dogma' has the community of the Church as a prerequisite, along with a participation in its worship, otherwise it bears no authority. Thus it is not dogma that determines what is believed, but rather what is believed that determined dogma.
Here again the Catholic and Orthodox patriarchates can demonstrate an unbroken continuity of belief with the very earliest Christian communities.
Esoterically, the authority of a dogma does not belong to the sphere of logic, nor to a blind obedience to — nor resignation from — logic, but to a new logic, according to the Datum of Revelation, the Fides Quae, from which the Fides Qua derives ... this was why the catechumenate engage in the Discpilina arcana — the rule to which the ecclesial community adhered.
+++
In short then, 'Dogma' is that which an ecclesiastic community embraces as a Revealed and a salvatory truth that applies to all, and requires its members to accept it (through personal experience) as authoritative, because of the specialized relations that it ordains between members, as well as towards the world and God. The kerygma (sermon) on the other hand is whatever is addressed to all persons, publicly, in order that they may become members of the Church, and only then (as members of the Church) confess it as a dogma, having experienced it personally.
The truth does not become a dogma, unless it has been experienced and certified from within the Church. From this, it is obvious that the dogmas of the Church are not limited in number; new dogmas can be formulated in every era, because the Church is a living organism and the Holy Spirit is not associated to certain isolated periods of history. But, for a truth to become a dogma of the Church (and not a personal opinion), it must necessarily go through the community of the Church in its totality, and not only through a few people – be they theologians in the current (academic) sense, or saints.
Contrary to popular and ill-informed opinion then, the dogmas of the Church are not those rules which we demand the outsider acknowledge, but rather the opposite, if you wish to be counted as one among our ecclesial and essentially mystical community, then and only then is adherence to the dogmata of that community is required ... anything else is a nonsense.
Thomas
