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The History of Doctrine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2024

Extract

Some of you may remember those morning inspections in the army which were so rigorous that the soldiers would on the night before have the bedclothes perfectly folded, their equipment perfectly laid out and then sleep on the floor. We are familiar with systems of dogmatic theology rather like this—perfectly arranged, logically coherent, and in the last resort separate from life and useless to men, indeed harmful to them in that men are deprived in their attempt to lead a Christian life of precisely that help which Christian doctrine ought to give: just as the purpose of inspection is efficiency, and efficiency is frustrated if inspection results in a soldier's missing a good night's sleep.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1964 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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References

1 The Mass in Slow Motion, London 1949, p. 50.

2 p. 274f.

3 The Council and Reunion, Eng. Transl., London 1961, p. 167.

4 Apostolic Succession and the Anglican Appeal to History, Church Quarterly Review, July-September, 1962, pp. 294-6.

5 Pseudo-Dionysius Mystical Theology, last chapter.