Dogma, Doctrine, Discipline & Devotion

[Randy_Carson]

Here are my working definitions…waddya think?

Dogma
A dogma is 1) a divinely revealed truth which 2) has been proclaimed as such by the infallible teaching authority of the Church.

1. A dogma must be found explicitly or implicitly in the deposit of faith given to the Church by Jesus in Sacred Scripture and/or Sacred Tradition.
2. A dogma must be infallibly taught by the Church as divinely revealed.
   All dogmas are infallibly taught as divinely revealed truths, but not all infallibly defined truths are taught as divinely revealed. In the latter case, the infallibly taught truth would not be considered a dogma.

Doctrine
A doctrine is a way of understanding divine revelation and which is taught authoritatively by the Magisterium of the Church. Doctrine may be defined either infallibly or non-infallibly. All dogmas are doctrines, but not all doctrines are dogmas.

Discipline
A discipline is a rule of the Church which requires obedience due to the authority given to the Church by Jesus. Disciplines may be changed during the course of history based upon the needs of the Church. Examples of Church disciplines include fasting during Lent and the celibacy of priests in the Latin rite.

Devotion
A devotion is a religious exercise or practice other than the regular corporate worship of a congregation. Devotions directed toward God are rightly called worship while devotions directed toward saints are classified as veneration.

 

[MarcoPolo]

I think that sounds generally good on a quick read-through. I might add that a “doctrine” is technically a “teaching” of any kind in the widest scope of the term. In a sense, I might say that something like priestly celibacy is a “doctrine” because there is theology behind it’s practice, even though it is not a matter of faith or morals that could ever become immutable dogma. Granted I have only seen the term “doctrine” used in this way rarely, and off-hand, I can’t remember where I read someone using it in this way, but I believe I have seen it used as such.

 

[Abu]

Randy Carson #1
Here are my working definitions…waddya think? Dogma…doctrine….

The best source is the Magisterium.

The three levels of teaching are:

1. **Dogma – infallible **(Canon #750.1) to be believed with the assent of divine and Catholic faith.
2. **Doctrine – infallible **(Canon #750.2) requires the assent of ecclesial faith, to be “firmly embraced and held”.
3. Doctrine – non-definitive (non-infallible) and requires intellectual assent (“loyal submission of the will and intellect”, Vatican II, *Lumen Gentium *25), not an assent of faith. [See the Explanatory Note on Ad Tuendam Fidem by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith]
   [ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFADTU.HTM]](http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFADTU.HTM])

MarcoPolo #2
I might say that something like priestly celibacy is a “doctrine” because there is theology behind it’s practice, even though it is not a matter of faith or morals that could ever become immutable dogma.

Priestly celibacy is NOT a “doctrine” it is an Apostolic norm – mandatory from the time of the Apostles.

Fr Ray Ryland writes: “In more recent times, the predecessor of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued an instruction in 1858 that stated: ‘Whoever ponders diligently the true tradition of celibacy and clerical continence will indeed find that, from the first centuries of the Catholic Church, if not by a general and explicit law, at least by behavior and custom, it was firmly established that not only bishops and priests, but [all] clergy in Holy Orders were to preserve inviolate virginity or perpetual continence.’ " 9
Notes:
9 Quoted by Roman Cholij, Celibacy, Married Clergy, and the Oriental Code. Eastern Churches Journal , Vol. 3, No. 3 (Autumn, 1996), p. 112.