Dogma vs. Discipline

A dogma is a proposition that expresses a truth revealed to us by God. Dogmas are irreversible Church teachings; they define the boundaries of the faith and must be accepted by all assenting Catholics.

Catholics may question dogma in the sense of wondering how a particular teaching fits in with all of the rest of the creed, natural theology, philosophy, and our life experience.

Catholics may not question dogma in the sense of doubting the truth of what the Church has taught.

Disciplines are practical decisions made by the Church about how to act in particular circumstances. The discipline imposed by the prudential judgments of the stewards of the Church may be changed by subsequent stewards. Discipline is not dogma. Changes in discipline do not justify changes in doctrine.

Deposit of Faith

The Deposit of Faith is all that God has revealed to us, both in the Old Testament, in the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and in the books of the New Testament.

The Church is obliged to preserve the Deposit of Faith in its entirety. We may not add to or subtract from what God has revealed to us. Like St. Paul, we must "hand on what was handed on" to us.

Examples of Dogmas

• Trinity
• Incarnation
• Atonement
  • Original Sin
  • Monogenism
• Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist
• Virginal Conception of Jesus
• Seven sacraments
• Natural theology: reason can recognize that there is a God.
• Natural law: reason can recognize the essential difference between good and evil.
• Canon of the Old and New Testaments

Examples of Discipline

• Sunday obligation
• Friday penance
• Liturgy:
  • Language
  • Vestments
  • Rituals
    • Scripts for celebrants and people
    • Prescribed gestures
    • Prescribed postures (standing, sitting, kneeling, prostrate)
  • Architecture
  • Calendar
• Advice to slaves (adaptation to culture)
• Support for monarchies and royal houses
• Mandatory celibacy for Latin rite priests; ordination of married priests in the Eastern Churches
• Tonsure, berettas, zuchettoes, religious and clerical garments
• Election of bishops
• Obligation of bishops to reside in their diocese
• Use of candles, holy water, bells, incense, statues, murals, icons
• Music
• Restrictions of sacraments by age
• Norms for a licit marriage
• Norms for identifying the sin of usury
• Conditions for creation of a new religious order
• Establishment of due process for resolving canonical disputes

Straw men

Many antagonists of Catholicism attribute ideas to the Church that are not now and never have been official Church teachings. Our opponents then make a great show of demolishing these straw men that they have created.

• "The world is flat."
• "The earth is the center of the universe."
• "The world was created in six days."
• "Faith and science are incompatible. Either you are a believer or you are an intelligent human being. You can't be both."
• "Faith is a leap in the dark. Faith is based on the act of faith. Faith is irrational."