religious doctrine
Faith's core beliefs
Religious doctrine is the formal body of beliefs and teachings held by a faith tradition—the official positions on matters of theology, morality, and practice.
Churches debate doctrine, believers accept or reject it, and scholars study how it develops over time.
The church's doctrine on divorce has softened.
Doctrine often implies authoritative pronouncements from institutional leadership rather than personal interpretation or folk practice.
- Ten CommandmentsScriptural moral code
- commandmentsAuthoritative rules demanding compliance
- BibleChristian sacred writings
- holy scriptureReligious text from deity
- QuranIslam's central scripture
monotheism · divine revelation · articles of faith · salvation · sacraments · original sin · catechism · syncretism · canon law · Torah · schism · dogma · church teaching · apostasy · creed · infallibility · born again · ecumenism
- religious educationreligious education, Bible college, Bible stories, religious instruction, Sunday school
- scriptureBible, New Testament, Old Testament, verses, passages
- Islamic textsQuran, hadith, Islamic law, religious commentary, Sunnah
- animal ethicsanimal ethics, animal welfare, animal rights, animal protection, animal liberation
- divinitydeity, godhood, divine, godhead, holiness
- Islamic jurisprudenceijma, Islamic law, Sharia, sharia court, fatwa
religious doctrinescientific theory
Substantiated explanation of nature
empiricism · free thought · freethinking · rationalism · naturalism
religious doctrinesecularism
Separation of faith, state
atheism · irreligion · nonbelief · civil law