DOGMA

(Gr. Sox*iv, to seem.) Literally a conclusion founded upon experience. In Theology, dogma has been defined to be a fundamental article of belief derived from acknowledged authority, and is usually applied to what are considered as the e ential doctrines of Christianity, deduced either from the Scriptures or from the fathers of the church. (See Theology.) There are, however, many other dogmas peculiar to the different sects into which Christianity is divided. Thus the bulls and decretals of the pope, together with all the councils both of earlier and later times, are regarded by the Roman Catholics with as much veneration as the authority of the Scriptures and the holy fathers. The Greek church, on the other hand, acknowledges the authority only of the earlier councils, in addition to that of the Scriptures and the fathers; and the Luther an and other Protestant churches have embodied their dogmas in their respective confe ions of faith and other ecclesiastical standards. Dogmatic theology, as this branch of divinity is called, in contradistinction to moral and scholastic theology, forms an important object of study in many of the Continental universities. In the Protestant imiversities of Germany, there are chairs set apart for the history of do^/«a«, or, as it is termed, Dogmatik ^ in which the origin and nature of the dogmas of the various Christian sects are examined, and the merit of the arguments by which they are supported respectively canva ed. Among the ancient physicians, the dogmatists founded their practice upon conclusions or opinions drawn from certain theoretical inferences, which they conceived might be logically defended or proved. At present a dogmatist is one whd is fond of strong a ertions not always founded upon correct reasoning. [s. 371]