Summa Theologiae Moralis, vol. I: De Principiis

S. Th. II-II, q. 1, a. 6 and 7 ; De Verit., q. 14, a. 11.

682. Notions. — By theologians these three are distinguished : dogma, point, and article of faith.

A point of faith is a truth revealed by God.

A dogma of faith is a revealed truth proposed by the Church to be believed.

An article of faith¹] is a revealed truth perfectly distinct from others, and therefore 1) principal or primary among things to be believed, and 2) of a special kind not seen. It is called

1° principal among things to be believed, i.e. either God Himself, the supernatural end to be possessed in beatitude, or something supernatural which belongs to the attainment of that end (and the rest are not articles of faith properly so called, nor is faith given to them as such, although they may be materially contained in the articles of faith or the truths contained in the articles), e.g. that there is a God ; that God rewards and punishes ; that the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, etc., of Christ have taken place. Hence article of faith is divided into principal and secondary ; the principal is divided into mystical (the Trinity, the Incarnation), and moral (the remission of sins through baptism, the resurrection of the body, etc.).

2° of a special kind not seen, i.e. obscure, and therefore having a particular difficulty in believing ; whence that Christ suffered for us is an article, but that there is a God is not an article, since it can be known by natural reason (although in us it is known only through faith and through faith takes on the formal note of an article), for difficulty of belief flows from obscurity.

683. Principles. On the growth of the object of faith and the progress of faith.

I. The material object of Catholic faith, i.e. to be held by all, has not grown, through the succession of ages, as to the substance of the articles. For the whole doctrine revealed is reduced to two chief heads, revealed from the beginning, in which all things are contained implicitly as in a brief introduction : objectively, namely, on the part of the thing, though not logically and in relation to us, neither formally nor virtually ; namely, that God exists as a supernatural end, and that He has providence over man's salvation, as the Apostle says in Heb. XI, 6 : « He who comes to God (i.e. tending to the supernatural end, for in the present order the end is not natural but supernatural, to be attained by the beatific vision) must believe that He is, and that He rewards those who seek Him ».

II. Until the times of Christ and the Apostles faith grew by an objective evolution which was made through new revelations. For of the two fundamental articles the explanation or objective evolution grew through new revelations, such as the Trinity, predestination, and all eternal things for the first ; all things temporally disposed for salvation, namely Redemption and in this the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, and sacraments of Christ for the second. So until Christ, who to His Apostles, either through Himself or through the Holy Spirit whom He sent, revealed all things, according to John XVI, 13 : « When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will teach you all truth ». Hence in the Apostles the public revelation was consummated and complete (Council of Trent, sess. 4 ; prop. 21 of the Syllabus).

III. From the time of the Apostles faith has not grown in itself by objective evolution, but only by subjective evolution in the minds of men. No more new revelations were made, and therefore the object of faith has not grown simply and in itself ; nevertheless it can be said that it has grown in a certain respect and in relation to us, i.e. according to the explanation or subjective evolution, inasmuch as its knowledge has grown in us, either through a new more distinct or insistent proposition, by which it grew in the mind of the Church, or through more perfect knowledge, deeper insight and understanding, by which it grew in the mind of each of the faithful. It is, says Albert the Great, III Sent. d. 25, a. 1, « rather a progress of faith about faith than of faith in faith ». — Moreover, the subjective evolution of the Church, as to the faithful, is objective evolution, not indeed of the revelation itself or of the revealed truth, but of its proposition and explanation.

A. Subjective explanation in the mind of the Church (and consequently of the faithful) under the assistance of the Spirit of truth takes place in three ways :

1. By a distinct and accurate declaration and scientific exposition of those things which are explicitly but obscurely and confusedly revealed, when revelation is given in general and obscure terms, which need to be developed into distinct propositions, and the truths contained in those propositions are deduced and explained. Thus the principal truths are deduced from revelation, both speculative and practical, and theology is built up.

Thus e.g. Christ is God and man, therefore He has two natures and one person ; There is one God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, therefore there are three persons and one nature ; likewise the terms : transsubstantiation, consubstantial, definition ex cathedra, Mother of God.

2. By the explicit proposition of those things which are formally implicitly revealed, when revelation conceived in general terms is unfolded into explicit propositions, when, namely, what was contained in revelation only in a general and confused way is brought out and proposed distinctly.

E.g. grace is necessary for every work of salvation, therefore also for the beginning of faith ; The Mother of God is most holy, therefore she has no original sin ; Christ is God and perfect man, therefore He has a divine and human will (and works) ; the particular rights and offices of the Sovereign Pontiff in primacy.

3. By a clear, insistent, and theoretical preaching of those things which were revealed incidentally or in practice and custom, when revelation, given at first by being done rather than by being explained, is later explicitly and theoretically proposed.

Thus e.g. the validity of the Baptism of children or of baptism conferred by heretics from the practice of baptizing or not rebaptizing ; the sacramental character from the custom of not rebaptizing ; the presence of Christ under either species from the practice of adoration or communion ; the infallibility of the Holy Pontiff from the practice of defining or imposing an irreformable sentence ; Christ and the Apostles, by venerating Mary, show her to be most worthy.

So also the very dogma of the evolution of dogma becomes known from use : they explained dogmas, condemned errors, defined formulas, etc. ; therefore revealed doctrine can legitimately be expounded and explained.

B. Subjective explanation in the mind of each of the faithful grows in a twofold way :

Summa Theologiae Moralis I. — 34 1. according to the logical way or the speculative explanation of concepts, by means of science, in the same way as was said for the faith of the Church ;

2. according to the affective way and connaturality, under the influence of the gifts of the Holy Spirit teaching us, as it were experimentally, the truths of faith ; by which we experience and, as it were, feel the truth and the true sense of revealed doctrine.

684. Corollaries. — I. Since revelation was closed in the Apostles, it follows that nothing can pertain to Catholic faith which was not revealed to them either explicitly or at least formally implicitly. Hence what some modern writers say about the evolution or increase of living faith or of dogma as if from a seed, cannot be understood of the revealed truths themselves, but at most of the subjective explanation and of theological science about them.

II. It also follows that the sense of a dogma cannot become other, different, or contrary than that which the Church has once proposed or by which it has once understood it. « Hence that sense is perpetually to be retained which holy Mother Church has once declared » (Vat. Counc., sess. 3, c. 4, can. 3).

III. Although the number of revealed truths does not grow, the number of dogmas nevertheless grows, i.e. of revealed truths proposed by the Church to be believed. For the Church can infallibly propose as dogmas truths which are formally implicitly contained in other truths already explicitly defined as divinely revealed, e.g. the Immaculate Conception of the B.V. and the bodily Assumption of the B.V.

IV. To the foregoing doctrine is opposed 1) the error of Hermes and Frohschammer who think that, by the help of scientific progress, we can at some time arrive at demonstrating and penetrating the mysteries ; which is contrary to the Vat. Counc., sess. 3, c. 4 ; — likewise 2) the doctrine of Günther and Loisy who maintain that, by the help of the progress of science, the sense of dogmas can change and become other than that which the Church has defined ; which was condemned in the Vat. Counc., sess. 3, c. 4 and can. 3, and by the encyclical Pascendi of Pius X, 7 Sept. 1907, and in prop. 21, 22, 23 and 26 of the Syllabus, condemned 3 July 1907 ; — a fortiori 3) the opinion of those who said that revelation was not closed at the time of the Apostles (Syllabus, prop. 20), or that a new and more perfect economy of the Holy Spirit is to be expected : so the Montanists, Manichaeans, Fraticelli, Swedenborg, Anabaptists, Irving.

V. Once an explicit and clear proposition has been made by the Church, the Church guards this explanation ; whence in itself there cannot be a regression or obscuration in the explanation proposed by the Church as to the defined truth (cf. condemned prop. 95 of the Quesnel and I Synod of Pistoria). Nevertheless a regression in itself can occur as to the understanding of the faithful : thus at the beginning of the 19th century the knowledge of theological science was less than²]

in the 13th century in the time of S. Thomas ; likewise exceptionally and accidentally as to the subjective explanation of the Church, if the definition or proposition of the Church should fall into total oblivion or its sense become doubtful, which, however, will rarely happen and only as to secondary truths. Let this be said, with leave to a better judgment.