When did the RCC develope the doctrine of "Developmental Theology"? When did they invent this? I heard a unia say that the "seeds of the papal doctrine" where always existant. I never even really knew about this as a Catholic.
It looks to me that the "doctrine" of developmental theology, developed too.
In Christ
Nektarios
Nektarios,
If you carefully read the definitions of the RCC for both the "immaculate conception" and "papal infallibility", it becomes very clear that there is no talk of "development of doctrine"; rather, the claim is made in both that these are "apostolic teachings" and that they are the manifest teaching of the Fathers. Of course, this is untrue.
The "baptism" as it were of "doctrinal development" is the child of necessity. The idea itself originated with Cardinal Newman, a convert to Catholicism from Anglicanism in the late 1800's. "Doctrinal development" was his way of rationalizing his conversion to Catholicism, since while there were many things in it that were obviously apostolic and lacking in his Anglican background, there was also quite a bit which he knew was not glaringly obvious in the doctrine of the early Fathers either (to say the least!).
It hasn't been until well into the 20th century, that Newman's ideas became the semi-official explanation of the RCC for it's history of innovation. Now, it's practically considered gospel, particularly if you pay any mind to Catholicism's apologists. It has to be, since it's the closest thing to a justification for what now is obvious to anyone (given that we live in an age of literacy and even people of modest means have access to libraries) with any interest in Church history - that the novelities of Papism do not go back to the "early Church" by any means, many of them being shockingly new in origin.
Seraphim