It is worth noting that, according to Pelikan's definition, doctrine is corporate and not individual; it is the "we believe" and not the "I believe" - the usual texts of the Apostolic Creed and Nicene Creed begin with credo - "I believe" - but the Athanasian Creed includes a credamus - "we believe." Even with the first person singular of the credo, the set text and the corporate recitation of the text give a corporate aspect.
Although Pelikan made a career out of doctrine and theology, he notes that doctrine is not the main function of the collected followers of Jesus. Christians serve mankind, worship God, work to improve this world, and anticipate the joys of the next world: none of those functions are doctrinal. Yet all of those functions are informed by doctrine. Christians serve mankind, being instructed to do so by their doctrine; and the ways in which they serve mankind are shaped by doctrine: Christians must show charity to all people impartially. Christians worship God, identifying Him by their doctrine and praising His properties as those properties are set forth in doctrine. Christians work to improve this world, guided by peculiarly Christian doctrines which value peace over war, which value every human life, and which value each individual and his freedom - even if that individual opposes Christianity and uses his freedom to do so. Christians anticipate the joys of the next world, knowing by means of their doctrine that such joys are an utterly unearned and unmerited gift bestowed by a loving and gracious God.
Doctrine may not be eternal. Once this world has passed, we will have no need of doctrine, for, as Paul writes,
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
When we know perfectly and see perfectly - when we have an experience of the direct unmediated presence of God, an experience which in our present state we can neither imagine nor comprehend - doctrine will be superfluous and unneeded. Doctrine is provisional; it serves us as long as we are in this life. Once I have been brought to my destination, I no longer have need of the schedules and maps which showed me the route. Doctrine will end:
where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
Despite its provisional nature, doctrine is important, because it shapes the church's ministries. Teaching doctrine is therefore a good and necessary task, not for its own sake, but in the service of the larger nature of Christ's corporate body on earth. Pelikan writes:
What the Church of Jesus Christ believes, teaches and confesses on the basis of the word of God: this is Christian doctrine. Doctrine is not the only, not even the primary, activity of the church. The church worships God and serves mankind, it works for the transformation of this world and awaits the consummation of its hope in the next. 'Faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love" - love, and not faith - and certainly not doctrine. The church is always more than a school; not even the age of Enlightenment managed to restrict or reduce it to its teaching function. But the church can not be less than a school. Its faith, hope and love all express themselves in teaching and confession. Liturgy is distinguished from ceremonial by a content that is declared in the Credo; polity transcends organization because of the way the church defines itself and its structure in its dogma; preaching is set apart from other rhetoric by its proclamation of the word of God; biblical exegesis avoids antiquarianism because it is intent on discovering what the text teaches, and not merely what it taught. The Christian church would not be the church as we know it without Christian doctrine.
Its corporate nature is one thing, among several, which makes doctrine what it is. Theology can be the work of an individual: the history of Christian thought illustrates this. But doctrine is the collective expression of those who follow Jesus. Jaroslav Pelikan has done well to bring this to our attention.
