For this reason, from the very beginning of the Church, the “standard of teaching” (cf. Rom 6:17) has been linked with baptism to entrance into the mystery of Christ. The service of doctrine, implying as it does the believer’s search for an understanding of the faith, i.e., theology, is therefore something indispensable for the Church. Theology has importance for the Church in every age so that it can respond to the plan of God “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the