Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Matthew Levering and how many modern Catholic Apologists Abuse the Appeal to Doctrinal Development

  

If the Church were to repudiate one of its solemnly taught doctrines, this would entail that the Church has corrupted or is now corrupting the apostolic deposit of faith, a sin indeed.

 

Today, however, some Catholic theologians toss around the term “development” with little concern about doctrinal corruption. In some circles, the term “development” has come to function like a magician’s hat that can unproblematically contain almost anything, even including the occasional (or constant!) rupture of solemnly taught doctrine. In such cases, the notion of an apostolic deposit of faith has faded into the mists, to be replaced by the notion that the Church “develops” doctrine by changing its doctrines to promote a universal religious experience that is expressed differently in every era. (Matthew Levering, Newman on Doctrinal Corruption [Park Ridge, Ill.: word on Fire Academic, 2022], 2)