Which Catholic doctrines are LEAST evident from the church fathers/early church?

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catholic1seeks

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CHOOSE 4 distinctive Catholic beliefs and/or practices that YOU THINK have the LEAST representation from the first few centuries of the church. Think this way: Which 4 have the least evidence in the first 3 or 4 centuries of the church?

NOTE: If you think all of these are present in the early church, great! So do I! But which do you think are least evident? Hint, for example: my opinion, the Assumption of Mary. Choose 4!
  • real presence of Christ in the Eucharist
  • the Assumption of Mary
  • the full divinity of Christ
  • the primacy of the pope
  • Apostolic Succession and bishops
  • Baptism as regenerative (not just symbol)
  • The intercession of saints in Heaven
  • Purgatory
  • The priesthood and sacramental confession
  • Infant Baptism
  • The visible nature of the church - schism is bad
  • teachings on contraception, homosexuality, and divorce
  • Mary as ever-virgin
  • Immaculate Conception
  • salvation as a process of sanctification
  • Fasting and penitential practices
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Do you ask everyone this who asks a question?

I just want the opinion of others. I like church history and church fathers. I’m curious to see how people put them in context.
 
It’s all one. Can’t pick apart the Body of Christ.
 
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I don’t understand. If you think I’m dissenting, I’m not. I’d consider myself an orthodox Catholic who believes in all these things, like i said in the original post.
 
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There is absolutely nothing wrong with this survey. We are allowed to be skeptical of divine revelation (inasmuch as we close our open minds on something solid), hence the beauty of faith and reason that Vatican I states.
 
all of it was there from the beginning. However, the only one that I would choose that was perhaps the least evident was the Immaculate Conception, but it was all there from the start.
 
I agree with the others who say it was all evident from the start.
 
Had you put the Dual Nature of Christ, I would have voted for that…
 
The ones I’m thinking of aren’t listed.

Original sin
Papal infallibility
The divinely inspired books that would make up the New Testament
 
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Aulef said:
Everything has been 100% evident since the beginning.
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Horse Hockey! If this were true, the Church would not have had do battle so many heresies.
thistle said:
I agree with the others who say it was all evident from the start.
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It is easy for us to say this, looking backwards through doctrinal development, but this has not been the case at all.
 
Clearly several replies did not read my original post.

Don’t worry about being defensive! I know that all of this was present in the early church.

But just using common sense, without any experience in early church history, one should easily conclude that some of the above is more or less evident in comparison to the other items in the list. That’s just how historical data is.

And in fact, that’s the nature of thing. Hence so many apologetic questions on these forums. The more obvious, the easier it is to have common ground with non-Catholics.

The divinity of Christ is certainly more universal and apparent in the early church then the assumption of Mary. That’s a fact. Just one example.
 
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Original sin
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Fair.
Papal infallibility
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I consider this an implication of the pope’s primacy, which is listed.
The divinely inspired books that would make up the New Testament
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Not really a teaching. But I would disagree; there was uncertainty on a definite list of books, but most Christians agreed on substantial parts of the NT, like the four Gospels, and so on.

But overall, there are other teachings and practices I could have listed that are definitely not as apparent: such as the celebration of all our liturgical holy days, or priestly celibacy, and so forth.
 
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Although I regret one of my votes. I selected the pope’s primacy, but I think that’s on the more evident side of things.
 
Remember that the Church have enemies since day one, whose tactics include causing confusion by creating heresies. Fortunately, since Church teachings are evident, and honest person is never caught in these heresies
 
Not sure. I was not there. I just believe in the teachings of the Church. They are good enough for me.
 
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