Literary Discussions

Jaroslav Pelikan - Vol. I - The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition 100 c.e - 600 

from "Some Definitions" - page 5

The relation between believing, teaching, and confessing also implies that both the subject matter and the source material for the history of the development of doctrine will shift, gradually but steadily, as we trace it to say that a doctrine, once formulated, stops developing and becomes fixed; not even the dogma of the Trinity has stood perfectly still since its adoption and clarification. It does mean that having developed from what was believed to what was taught, and perhaps even to what was confessed, a doctrine gradually became part of the authorized deposit of the faith.  To trace it further development we shall have to look, increasingly though by no means exclusively, to the professional expositors, the theologians, as they speculated on it both in their philosophy and i their mystagogy, as they studied it and criticized it, as they used it to interpret the very Scriptures on which it was supposedly based, and as they expanded and revised it.  In later volumes of this history, therefore, the history of doctrine will move into, but will never quite become, the history of theology. 

A GRAPHIC sign of this shift through the centuries is contained in the evolution of the theologian's vocation.  During the years 100 to 600, most theologians were bishops; from 600 to 1500 in the West, they were monks; since 1500, they have been university professors.  Gregory I, who died in 604, was a bishop who had been a monk; Martin Luther, who died in 1546, was a monk who became a university professor.

Each of these life styles has left its mark on the job description of the theologian, but also on the way doctrine has continued to develop back and forth between believing, teaching, and confessing.