synonymous with “doctrine,” it generally has a more restricted meaning. A doctrine is the direct, often naive, expression of a religious truth. It is not necessarily formulated with scientific precision, and when it is, may be merely the formulation of a single person. A religious dogma, on the other hand, is a religious truth based on authority and officially formulated by some ecclesiastical assembly. This meaning of the word is not determined by its scriptural usage, in which it always denotes