Dogma and How Sure We Are
Can Church teaching change?
Main teaching: De fide
The big question
People sometimes say the Church “changed its teaching” on one thing or another, and hope or fear it will change on others. Is Church teaching fixed for ever, or can it change? And is every Catholic belief equally certain?
What the Church teaches
A dogma is a truth revealed by God that the Church proposes as revealed, either by a solemn definition or by her ordinary and universal teaching, to be believed with divine and catholic faith (Dei Filius ch. 3; DH 3011; CCC 88).
A dogma’s meaning, once declared, can never be abandoned. The Church may come to express a truth more fully, but never in a sense different from the one she has declared (Dei Filius ch. 4 and canon 4.3; DH 3020, 3043).
Doctrine develops. The understanding of revealed truth grows over time, through the reflection and study of believers, their experience of spiritual things, and the preaching of the bishops (Dei Verbum 8; CCC 94).
How sure is this? De fide for the first two points, defined by Vatican I. The third is the Church’s constant teaching, set out by Vatican II.
Where it comes from
Scripture. Jesus told the apostles that there was more for them to grasp: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:12–13). Mary is the model of this growing understanding: she “kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). Yet the faith itself was “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3), and St Paul warns against any gospel contrary to the one first preached (Galatians 1:8).
The early Church. St Vincent of Lérins (died about 445) gave the classic answer in his Commonitorium. The Catholic faith, he wrote, is what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all (chapter 2). Does that mean no progress? No: there is real progress, but it is growth, not alteration. The faith grows as a body grows from childhood to old age, still the same person, so that a doctrine develops in the same sense and the same meaning (chapter 23). Vatican I quoted this last phrase in its own teaching.
Newman. St John Henry Newman’s Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845) showed how an idea can unfold over centuries, and proposed tests for telling a true development from a corruption: for example, whether it preserves the original type, and whether it is a logical sequence from what came before.
How theologians explain it
An example of development: the Trinity. The first Christians worshipped the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit from the beginning, and were baptised in the name of all three (Matthew 28:19). But when Arius taught that the Son was a creature, the Church had to say exactly what she had always believed. At Nicaea (325) she used a new word, homoousios, “of the same substance”, to say that the Son is fully God. At Constantinople (381) she said the same of the Holy Spirit. The words were new; the faith they expressed was not. That is what development means.
Development is not reversal. A development makes explicit what was always contained in revelation. A reversal would contradict what the Church had already defined, and the Church teaches this is impossible. Some apparent changes concern things that were never dogma at all: disciplines, practical judgements, or theologians’ opinions (see the challenge Hasn’t the Church changed its teaching over time?).
How sure is each teaching? Not everything Catholics believe was solemnly defined, and not everything theologians say is Church teaching. Theologians use a set of labels, called theological notes, to show how certain each teaching is. This course uses four main ones:
| Note | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| De fide (“of faith”) | Revealed by God and proposed by the Church as revealed. Denying it is heresy. | Jesus Christ is true God and true man. |
| Certain | Not defined as revealed, but taught definitively or following necessarily from revealed truth. | Public revelation ended with the apostles. |
| Common teaching | Held generally by theologians and taught by the Church, but not definitively. | Each person has a guardian angel. |
| Opinion | A view theologians may freely hold or reject. | Whether Mary died before her Assumption. |
The Church’s own current framework, in the Profession of Faith (1989), describes three levels of assent: truths to be believed as revealed; truths to be firmly held as definitively taught; and teachings that call for religious submission of mind and will. The page on theological notes explains how the two systems fit together.
The hierarchy of truths. Vatican II taught that there is an order or “hierarchy” of truths, according to how they connect with the foundation of the faith (Unitatis Redintegratio 11; CCC 90). The Trinity is more central than, say, the existence of purgatory. That does not mean less central truths are optional; it means they are understood in the light of the central ones.
Philosophy bridge
Can a truth be known better without changing? Philosophy distinguishes the object known from our understanding of it. The object can stay fixed while our grasp of it deepens, as a scientist’s understanding of light grows without light itself changing.
What the Church does not claim
- Not that nothing ever changes. Liturgy, disciplines such as fasting rules, and pastoral approaches have changed many times. They are not dogma.
- Not that every Catholic belief is equally certain. That is exactly why theologians use the notes. Treating an opinion as dogma is as much a mistake as treating a dogma as opinion.
- Not that only defined dogmas matter. Most of the faith has never needed a solemn definition. Teaching that is not defined still asks for the assent appropriate to its level.
- Not that development is the Church catching up with the times. True development comes from within revelation, guided by the Holy Spirit, not from outside pressure.
Check your understanding
- What two conditions make a teaching a dogma?
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It must be revealed by God, and it must be proposed by the Church as revealed, either by a solemn definition or by her ordinary and universal teaching.
- How did St Vincent of Lérins show that doctrine can grow without changing?
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He compared the growth of doctrine to a body growing from childhood to old age: it develops, but remains the same person. Doctrine grows in the same sense and the same meaning, never into something contrary.
- Explain how the word homoousios at Nicaea is an example of development rather than change.
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Christians had always worshipped Christ as God. When Arius denied this, the Church used a new word, “of the same substance”, to state precisely what she had always believed. The vocabulary was new; the belief was not.
- Label each statement with its theological note: (a) God is three Persons in one nature; (b) each person has a guardian angel; (c) Mary died before she was assumed into heaven.
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(a) De fide. (b) Common teaching (firmly held and taught in CCC 336, but not defined). (c) Opinion: the definition of the Assumption leaves the question open.
- What does the “hierarchy of truths” mean, and what does it not mean?
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It means that some truths are closer to the centre of the faith than others; the Trinity, for example, is more central than purgatory. It does not mean that less central truths can be dropped. All revealed truths are believed because God revealed them.