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An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Jaroslav Pelikan
Affiliation:
Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Yale University

Extract

On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed it to be “a dogma divinely revealed that the immaculate Mother of God, the Ever-Virgin Mary, when the course of her earthly life was run, was assumed in body and in soul to heavenly glory.” Unlike some earlier definitions of dogma, the promulgation of the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin did not provoke any widespread controversy within the Roman Catholic communion about the substance of the doctrine. It had been generally believed by the people and taught by the theologians for a long time, and petitions signed by millions of the faithful had been importuning successive popes throughout this century and before to define it as binding de fide upon the entire Church.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1966

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