If we can not do better
than his doctrine of essence, accidents, and matter, we are wasting our time.
Thanks to them, Whitehead's philosophy is
more than a doctrine of causation; it is a doctrine of objectification.
Other than the doctrine of constructive trust, it is possible in certain circumstances to apply other equitable principles such as proprietary estoppel.
But at the same time we need to recognize that doctrine is not faith, and that the faith which unites us is more
important than the doctrine which divides us.
And yet, as Jones points out, no aspect of Christian theology has a deeper resonance with feminist analyses of
oppression than the doctrine of sin.
While it is impossible in a scientific age to consider any literal acceptance of the doctrine of resurrection, it does point even
better than the doctrine of immortality to some of the fundamentals of religious experience mentioned above.
Since God, on this view, is contemporary with every finite actual entity, being neither in the past nor in the future of any other actual entity, God, on the principle in question, would be able neither to prehend nor to he prehended by any other actual entity, a conclusion more radically at variance with religious experience and
practice than the doctrine Whitehead was invoked to repair.
In the early 19th century, BEFORE the 14 Amendment, the Supreme Court of the United States stated: «Nothing is better settled at the common
law than the doctrine that the children, even of aliens, born in a country, while the parents are resident there under the protection of the government... are subjects by birth.»
That is, claims for equal treatment for individuals may be held to depend on a doctrine of personal identity which is less
fundamental than the doctrine of social inheritance underlying claims for the maximization of the total welfare.
We have already seen, when we were studying the Gospel in Paul, that there is no easier doctrine to
distort than the doctrine of grace; there were those who made grace simply an excuse for easy sinning.
Meeks's concern with Jesus group morality derives from his valuable insight that «ethics and community formation seemed more the immediate
point than doctrine, for example, [in] Paul's letters....
You will hear the phrase «state's rights» brought up quite a bit, but it's often used more as
rhetoric than doctrine and typically is used when a group feels that federal law will prohibit their state from restricting the rights of their citizens as they see fit (see previous point about state laws not being able to restrict rights granted at the federal level).
If experience is more
important than doctrine, and no doctrine is immune to revision» both of which are conclusions of Olson's postconservatives» how do we know that our fresh readings are not derived as much from our experience as from the biblical text?
The idea of the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven is not just picture language, any
more than the doctrine of Christ's pre-existence.
But again it doesn't really matter as celibacy is a practice, more
than a doctrine.
Love in action pleases God more
than any doctrine, more than any race or caste, more than any religious endeavor, and more than any form of marriage.
The minute we withhold grace because of some prejudice or fear on our part, it becomes nothing more
than a doctrine.
This group appears to meet the criteria defined by Chuck, but congregational finances, rather
than doctrine, might be the driving force behind that appearance.
Again, the difference is one of language and emphasis more
than doctrine, but language and emphasis are important, and I prefer Whitehead's.