From: MNHCC@cunyvm.bitnet (Marty Helgesen)
Subject: Re: Question about Virgin Mary
Organization: City University of New York
Lines: 45

In article <May.3.05.01.53.1993.9964@athos.rutgers.edu>, a.faris@trl.oz.au (Aziz
Faris) says:
>A.Faris
<<Posting deleted.  The moderator replies:
>[I think you're talking about the "assumption of the Blessed Virgin
>Mary".  It says that "The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin
>Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed
>body and soul into heavenly glory."  This was defined by a Papal
>statement in 1950, though it had certainly been believed by some
>before that.  Like the Immaculate Conception, this is primarily a
>Roman Catholic doctrine, and like it, it has no direct Biblical
>support.  Note that Catholics do not believe in "sola scriptura".
>That is, they do not believe that the Bible is the only source of
>Christian knowledge.  Thus the fact that a doctrine has little
>Biblical support is not necessarily significant to them.  They believe
>that truth can be passed on through traditions of the Church, and also
>that it can be revealed to the Church.  I'm not interested in yet
>another Catholic/Protestant argument, but if any Catholics can tell us
>the basis for these beliefs, I think it would be appropriate.  --clh]

That is generally accuate, but contains one serious error.  We Catholics
do believe that God's revealed truth that is not explicitly recorded in
the Bible can be and is passed on through the Tradition of the Church.
It should be noted that the Tradition of the Church, otherwise known as
Sacred Tradition, is not the same as ordinary human traditions.
However, we do not believe that additional truth will be revealed to
the Church.  Public revelation, which is the basis of Catholic doctrine,
ended with the death of St. John, the last Apostle.  Nothing new can
be added.  Theologians study this revelation and can draw out implications
that were not recognized previously, so that the Council of Nicea could
define statements about the theology of the Trinity and the Incarnation
that were not explicitly stated in the Bible and had been disputed
before the council, but there was no new revelation at Nicea or at
any subsequent council.

Cardinal Newman's _An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine_,
written while he was still an Anglican, is an excellent discussion of
of this point.  It was recently reprinted as a Doubleday Image Books
paperback with some related shorter works under the title _Conscience,
Consensus, and the Development of Doctrine_.
-------
Marty Helgesen
Bitnet: mnhcc@cunyvm   Internet: mnhcc@cunyvm.cuny.edu

"What if there were no such thing as a hypothetical situation?"
