Political doctrine

Doctrine (from Latin: ) is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or belief system. The Greek analogue is the etymology of catechism.

Often doctrine specifically suggests a body of religious principles as it is promulgated by a church, but not necessarily; doctrine is also used to refer to a principle of law, in the common law traditions, established through a history of past decisions, such as the doctrine of self-defense, or the principle of fair use, or the more narrowly applicable first-sale doctrine. In some organizations, doctrine is simply defined as "that which is taught", in other words the basis for institutional teaching of its personnel internal ways of doing business.

Examples of religious doctrines include:

One department of the Roman Curia is called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

According to the sociologist Mervin Verbit, doctrine may be understood as one of the key components of religiosity. And doctrine itself may be broken down into four dimensions:

The content of a doctrine may vary from one religion to the next, as will the degree to which it may occupy the person's mind (frequency), the intensity of the doctrine, and the centrality of the doctrine (in that religious tradition).

In this sense, doctrine is similar to Charles Glock's "belief" dimension of religiosity (Glock, 1972: 39).

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