Article of Faith
ARTICLE OF FAITH
The term was unknown in the age of the Fathers. Though it came into use before the time of St. Thomas Aquinas, it was he who apparently first gave it precise meaning. For him an article of faith has three qualities: it is a formally revealed doctrine (that is, its meaning is made known by God in a supernatural way) conceptually distinct from other doctrines; it embodies a truth of salvific importance; and it is incorporated into an official Church creed.
The articles of faith are the basic expressions of Christian belief. They are interrelated in the organically unified body of Church teaching. Some are more fundamental than others, the less fundamental being amplifications of the more fundamental. Thus, the articles of faith are the building blocks of theology, which is the science of first revealed principles. In the course of the centuries the Church makes explicit the doctrines implicitly contained in them, and it strives to show ever more clearly the interrelationships existing among them, and between them and the doctrines derived from them.
See Also: deposit of faith; dogma.
Bibliography: r. ruch, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique 1.2:2023–25. h. bacht, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d new ed. Freiburg 1957–65), 4:934–935.
[p. f. chirico]