An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1845, revised 1878
- Form
- Theology
- Language
- English
- Length
- Long · 450 pp300 to 700 pages
- Difficulty
- Difficult4 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendAn Essay on the Development of Christian DoctrineUniversity of Notre Dame Press, 1989The 1878 edition with a foreword by Ian Ker; the same text is free from the Newman Reader.
These links go straight to Amazon and Bookshop.org and earn this site nothing today. Prices are the same either way. How this works.
Newman wrote this essay while deciding whether to leave the Church of England, and became a Roman Catholic before finishing it. He argues that Christian doctrine has genuinely developed since the apostles, that development is what one would expect of a living idea, and that the developments found in Roman Catholicism are true growths rather than corruptions. He proposes seven notes for telling the two apart, among them preservation of type, continuity of principles and chronic vigour, and applies them across Church history.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
