Dogma

in the Septuagint and New Testament, signifies a decree or precept; by cla ical Greek writers it is used in the sense of a philosophical tenet. Its genera] meaning is a principle or maxim laid down in the form of a positive a ertion, and hence “the Dogmatic Method ” is the method pursued in such a science as mathematics, which starts from axioms and postulates, and deduces everything from these by means of proofs. The word dogma is especially used to signify the whole (or any one) of the doctrinal forms in which the religious experience of the Christian Church has EE from time to time authoritatively exe pre ed itself, as distinguished from the opinions held by Church-teachers individually.