Dogma

Dogma (the plural is either dogmata or dogmas) is belief or doctrine held by a religion or any kind of organization to be authoritative. Evidence, analysis, or established fact may or may not be adduced, depending upon usage.

Dogma, faith, and logic

There are some conceptual similarities between dogma and the axioms used as the starting point for logical analysis. Axioms may be thought of as concepts or "givens" so fundamental that disputing them would be unimaginable; dogmata are also fundamental (e.g. "God exists") yet incorporate also the larger set of conclusions that comprise the (religious) field of thought (e.g. "God created the universe"). Axioms are propositions not subject to proof or disproof, or are statements accepted on their own merits. Dogmata might be thought to be more complex, the product of other proofs. Philosophy and theology find ways to evaluate all statements, whether classified as axioms or dogmata.

Related Topics:
Axiom - Logic - God - Philosophy - Theology

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Religious dogmata, properly conceived, reach back to proofs other than themselves, and ultimately to faith. Perhaps the pinnacle of organized exposition of theological dogma is the Roman Catholic Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas, who proposes this relationship between faith and objection: "If our opponent believes nothing of divine revelation, there is no longer any means of proving the articles of faith by reasoning, but only of answering his objections — if he has any — against faith" (I 1 8).

Related Topics:
Faith - Roman Catholic - Summa Theologica - St. Thomas Aquinas - Revelation

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