Development of Catholic Doctrine: Evolution, Revolution, or an Organic Process?

by Dave Armstrong

C.S. Lewis, the famous Anglican writer, once "The very possibility of progress demands that there should be an unchanging element . . . the positive historical statements made by Christianity have the power . . . of receiving, without intrinsic change, the increasing complexity of meaning which increasing knowledge puts into them" ("God in the Dock," Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI, 1970, 44-47). Doctrine clearly develops within Scripture ("progressive revelation"). doctrines of the afterlife, the Trinity, the Messiah (eventually revealed as God the Son), the Holy Spirit (Divine Person in the New Testament), the equality of Jews and Gentiles, bodily resurrection, sacrifice of lambs evolving into the sacrifice of Christ, etc. This book serves as an introduction to the notion of doctrinal development, written from a popular lay apologetics standpoint.

200 pages, Paperback

First published May 18, 2007

About the author

I was received into the Catholic Church in 1991 (was evangelical); conversion story in the book Surprised by Truth (1994). Articles: The Catholic Answer, This Rock, Envoy, & The Coming Home Journal. Many nationally syndicated Catholic radio appearances including Catholic Answers Live; Faith and Family Live. My website, Biblical Evidence for Catholicism, was online from March 1997 to March 2007. My blog began in February 2004 & contains more than 2500 papers (including more than 50 separate web pages and 570+ dialogues). Sophia Institute Press has published four of my 23 books: A Biblical Defense of Catholicism (2003), The Catholic Verses (2004), The One-Minute Apologist (2007), and Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths (2009). I am co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for The New Catholic Answer Bible (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), & editor for The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes Quips and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton (Saint Benedict Press / TAN Books: 2009).

Happily married to Judy since October 1984: three sons & a daughter.