Dogma meaning: settled beliefs, sacred and secular

Dogma meaning: two senses

1. Religious: a teaching that a faith community, through its recognised authority, declares to be true and binding for believers. Here the word is descriptive and carries no insult.
2. General: any principle laid down as unquestionably true, whether in politics, science, business or art. In this sense calling something dogma usually implies that people hold it rigidly, without evidence or openness to change.

Surrounding words show which sense a writer has in mind. A theology textbook uses the first; a newspaper column complaining about "management dogma" uses the second.

What dogma means in different traditions

• Catholic Church: a dogma is a truth the Church teaches as divinely revealed and formally defined, which Catholics are expected to accept. An example often given is the Immaculate Conception, defined in 1854.
• Eastern Orthodox churches: the word is used mainly for teachings set out by the early church councils, such as the nature of the Trinity.
• Many Protestant churches: speak more often of doctrine and of scripture as the final authority, and some prefer not to use the word dogma at all.
• Other faiths: English writers sometimes use dogma loosely for core teachings in Islam, Judaism, Hinduism or Buddhism, but each tradition has its own terms and its own views on how fixed those teachings are.

Our religion and faith pages explain the broader ideas these sit within.

Dogma definition in everyday speech

So what does dogma mean when it shows up at work or in politics? When people outside religion talk about dogma, they usually mean a fixed belief that resists questioning. The criticism is not about holding beliefs, but about refusing to test them.

The word fits because the rule is treated as beyond debate, protected by authority rather than by evidence.

Example sentences

• The council's statement set out the dogma in careful, precise language.
• Good scientists try not to let any theory harden into dogma.
• The coach questioned the training dogma that runners must stretch before every jog.
• The seminary course covers the history of Christian dogma from the early centuries.
• My grandmother's cooking dogma: never wash a cast-iron pan with soap.

Dogma, doctrine, creed and tenet

Someone who breaks with official dogma may be called a heretic by those who hold it, while firm personal belief without the rigidity is closer to conviction.

Dogmatic and dogmatism

Dogmatic, a handy word once you can define dogma, describes a person or attitude that states opinions as if they were facts and will not consider other views: "a dogmatic teacher," "dogmatic about diet." Dogmatism is that attitude as a noun. In theology, though, dogmatic theology simply means the systematic study of a church's teachings, with no criticism intended.

Roots in Greek thought

The Greek word dogma meant an opinion, a decision or a public decree, from dokein, to seem good or to think. Latin took it over for a philosophical tenet, and it entered English around 1600 in the sense of a settled principle. The Greek plural dogmata was used early on, but dogmas is now normal. Browse sacred and philosophical vocabulary in the religious and spiritual words collection.