Editing Development of doctrine (section)

==Newman's formulation==
The term was introduced in Newman's 1845 book ''An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine''. 

He argued that various Catholic doctrines not accepted by Protestants (such as devotion to the [[Blessed Virgin Mary]], or [[Purgatory]]) had a developmental history analogous to doctrines that were accepted by Protestants (such as the [[Trinity]] or the divinity and humanity of [[Christ]]). Such developments were, in his view, the natural and beneficial consequences of reason working on the original revealed truth to draw out consequences that were not obvious at first. This thinking of Newman had a major impact on the [[Bishop (Catholic Church)|Bishops]] at the [[Second Vatican Council]], and appears in their statement that ″the understanding of the things and words handed down grows, through the contemplation and study of believers, [...] [which] tends continually towards the fullness of divine truth."<ref>''Constitution on Revelation'', article 8,</ref>

G.K. Chesterton characterized the Development of Doctrine as:

{{quote|When we say that a puppy develops into a dog, we do not mean that his growth is a gradual compromise with a cat; we mean that he becomes more doggy and not less. Development is the expansion of all the possibilities and implications of a doctrine, as there is time to distinguish them and draw them out;...|source = G.K. Chesterton, Ch I, ''St Thomas Aquinas'', 1933<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chesterton |first1=G.K. |title=St Thomas Aquinas |date=1933 |url=https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100331.txt}}</ref> }}