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Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.

Doctrines don't govern policy. They provide a conceptual framework by which policymakers approach their decisions. But there is no such thing as a doctrine that controls policy in every way.

Compare Scripture with Scripture. False doctrines, like false witnesses, agree not among themselves.

To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man.

There are some kinds of Christianity that insist you have to believe literally in doctrine. The Gnostic gospels open out the complexity and multiplicity of approaches to this. If you think the story of the virgin birth is mistranslated, for instance, it doesn't mean you have to throw out the whole thing.

When a person is determined to believe something, the very absurdity of the doctrine confirms them in their faith.

Nuclear doctrine consists of thinking the unthinkable. It involves making threats and promising retaliation that is cruel and destructive beyond imagining. But it has its purpose: to prevent war in the first place.

A faith is something you die for, a doctrine is something you kill for. There is all the difference in the world.

The very fact that doctrine is hewn from bitter controversy and tested through time is sufficient reason to make them a focus of theology.