History of Catholic dogmatic theology

The history of Catholic dogmatic theology divides into three main periods: the patristic, the medieval, the modern.

The Fathers of the Church are honoured by the Church as her principal theologians. Tertullian (b. about 160) died a Montanist, and Origen (d. 254) showed a marked leaning towards Hellenism. Some of the Fathers, e.g. St. Cyprian (d. 258) and Gregory of Nyssa, were unorthodox on individual points; the former in regard to the baptism of heretics, the latter in the matter of apocatastasis.

It was not so much in the catechetical schools of Alexandria, Antioch, and Edessa as in the struggle with the great heresies of the age that patristic theology developed. This serves to explain the character of the patristic literature, which is apologetical and polemical, parenetical and ascetic, with a wealth of exegetical wisdom on every page; for the roots of theology are in the Bible, especially in the Gospels and in the Epistles of St. Paul. It was not the intention of the Fathers to give a systematic treatment of theology; Möhler called attention to the variety found in their writings: the apologetic style is represented by the letter of Diognetus and the letters of St. Ignatius; the dogmatic in pseudo-Barnabas; the moral, in the Pastor of Hermas; canon law, in the letter of Clement of Rome; church history, in the Acts of the martyrdom of Polycarp and Ignatius. After the recovery of lost manuscripts may be added: the liturgical style, in the Didache; the catechetical, in the Proof of the Apostolic Preaching by Irenæus.

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