Dogma

• A. adj. 1. Pertaining to the setting forth or laying down of opinion; didactic. rare.

1678 GALE Crt. Gentiles III. Pref., To render our Discourse the lesse offensive, we have cast it into a thetic and dogmatic method, rather than agonistic and polemic. 1875 JOWETT Plato (ed. 2) V. 5 He is no longer interrogative but dogmatic.

2. Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of, dogma or dogmas; characterized by or consisting in dogma; doctrinal.

1706 PHILLIPS (ed. Kersey), Dogmatical or Dogmatick, relating to a Dogma, instructive. 1727-38 GAY Fables II. xiv. (R.), Dogmatick jargon learnt by heart. 1841 W. SPALDING Italy & It. Isl. II. 28 The rest of his compositions are versified treatises of dogmatic theology. 1859 MILL Liberty ii. (1865) 15 A..Christian in all but the dogmatic sense of the word. 1883 FROUDE Short Stud. IV. v. 350 No inclination to substitute dogmatic Protestantism for dogmatic Catholicism.

3. Proceeding upon a priori principles accepted as true, instead of being founded upon experience or induction, as dogmatic philosophy, medicine.

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1696 PHILLIPS (ed. 5), Dogmatick Philosophy, is that which [ed. 1706 being grounded upon sound Principles] positively assures a thing, and is opposed to Sceptic. 1823 CRABB Technol. Dict., Dogmatic sect (Med.), an ancient sect of physicians, at the head of which is placed Hippocrates. 1864 BOWEN Logic x. 330 The foundations of all philosophy, whether dogmatic, critical, or sceptical.

4. Of persons, their writings, etc.: Asserting or imposing dogmas or opinions, in an authoritative, imperious, or arrogant manner.

b. Of assured opinion, convinced. Obs. rare.

• B. n.1. A philosopher of the dogmatic school; = DOGMATIST 3. Obs.

a1631 DONNE Paradoxes (1652) 22 The Skeptike..was more contentious then..the Dogmatick. 1650 HOBBES De Corp. Pol. 165 All these Opinions are maintained in the Books of the Dogmaticks, and divers of them taught in Publick Chaires. 1702 tr. Le Clerc's Prim. Fathers 57 A Suspension [of judgment] suited not with the Dogmaticks, who can hardly confess that they know not all things.

b. A dogmatic physician; see quot. 1883. Obs.

2. A dogmatic person. Obs.

1640 HOBBES Hum. Nat. xiii. §4 The fault lieth altogether in the dogmatics, that is to say, those that are imperfectly learned, and with passion press to have their opinions pass every where for truth.

3. Chiefly in pl. form dogmatics: A system of dogma; spec. dogmatic theology.

1845 GEO. ELIOT in Life (1885) 137 ‘Dogmatik’ is the idea, I believe{em}i.e. positive theology. Is it allowable to say dogmatics, think you? 1857 M. PATTISON Ess. (1889) II. 222 The Reformation dogmatic rests on..the exclusive sufficiency of Scripture. 1858 Lond. Rev. Oct. 220 To expound the polemical dogmatics of the Reformation. 1893 FAIRBAIRN Christ in Mod. Theol. I. I. i. 29 note, The book ‘De Theologicis Dogmatibus’, published at Paris 1644-50..the first attempt at a scientific history of dogmata, and..notable as suggesting to modern theology the term Dogmatics. 1894 MITCHELL tr. Harnack's Hist. Dogma i. 28 Dogmatic is a positive science which has to take its material from history.

Hence dog{sm}maticism, dogmatic quality.

1880 FAIRBAIRN Stud. Life Christ ix. (1881) 156 The dogmaticism he subtly concealed.