There has been plenty of talk about the problem of knowing or defining church doctrine. What is doctrine, what is false doctrine, and how do we figure out those things. Personally, I like to think of church doctrine as a distribution and as long as you are within one standard deviation of the mean then its not false doctrine). I think Nate Oman (over at http://timesandseasons.org) has thought about this issue most carefully. If you have a chance check out the following paper (it uses an approach you lawyers might like):
"Jurisprudence and the Problem of Church Doctrine"
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.c...act_id=1030862
"Jurisprudence and the Problem of Church Doctrine"
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.c...act_id=1030862
ABSTRACT
Within Mormonism, the concept of church doctrine is frequently invoked in theological discussions. What is meant by this term, however, is not entirely clear. This essay argues that the question what is church doctrine? can be usefully analogized to the question what is the law? It then uses the contemporary philosophy of law to analyze the concept of church doctrine within Mormonism
Within Mormonism, the concept of church doctrine is frequently invoked in theological discussions. What is meant by this term, however, is not entirely clear. This essay argues that the question what is church doctrine? can be usefully analogized to the question what is the law? It then uses the contemporary philosophy of law to analyze the concept of church doctrine within Mormonism
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