The Development Question

Does Christian doctrine develop? This section takes up the most philosophically pointed question in the theology of Tradition: whether the Church’s teaching grows and unfolds over time (John Henry Newman’s theory of doctrinal development) or whether it is the one unchanging faith, ever more precisely articulated against heresy but never added to (the classic Orthodox account). It also treats the correlative question of reception — how the whole body of the Church recognizes the true Tradition and rejects the false councils.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

Overview

If Tradition is the handing-on of an unchanging faith, how are the new words of the councils — homoousios, Theotokos, the essence–energies distinction — to be understood? Has doctrine developed, or has it only been more precisely stated? The question was made acute by John Henry Newman’s celebrated theory of the development of doctrine, and the Orthodox response — that there is no new doctrine, only the ever-fuller articulation of the one deposit against error — sharpens the whole doctrine of Tradition. Bound to it is the question of reception: since not every council that claimed to speak for the Church truly did, how is the true Tradition recognized? This section reports Newman’s position fairly and in its own terms, states the Orthodox account as the teaching of the Church (METHODOLOGY §4.1), and leaves the genuinely open questions — the intra-Orthodox debate over the weight of reception — open (§4.2).

Files in This Section

File Description
does-doctrine-develop.md Newman’s theory of development set beside the Orthodox account of the one unchanging faith ever more fully articulated; “no new doctrine, only new expression”; Newman reported fairly, the Orthodox account stated as the Church’s teaching
the-reception-of-tradition.md How the Church receives — the role of the whole body (sobornost, Khomiakov) in recognizing the true Tradition; the rejected robber-councils; the limits of the appeal to reception

See Also