"It is akin to what philosopher Robert Solomon dubs a 'naturalized' spirituality: a non-religious, non-theological, non-doctrinal orientation that is 'right here, in our lives and in our world, not elsewhere".
Like many –isms, naturalism is perhaps better thought of as an orientation with doctrinal implications than as a doctrine per se.
He also rejected the important early 6th-century attempt by the scholarly Severus of Antioch to achieve a doctrinal consensus but with a monophysitic orientation.
When Parliament prays every day that it may conduct its business "in true Christian love and charity one towards another" it is hard to keep a straight face, as when the Christian church, especially the Church of England, is tearing itself apart with internal loathing and prejudice, apparently obsessed with questions of gender and sexual orientation, under a thin doctrinal veil.
The prayer book allowed for the coexistence within one institution of distinctly different interpretations of Christianity, with the unofficial designations of High Church (those parishes inclined toward a more Roman Catholic orientation), Low Church (evangelicals), and Broad Church (those Anglicans tolerant of wide doctrinal interpretations).
The synthesis of the themes of the Bahir and the cosmology of the Sefer yetzira, accomplished by Isaac or by others in the doctrinal environment inspired by his teachings, was and remains the foundation of Kabbala, whatever adjustments, changes of orientation, or radical modifications the composite may subsequently have undergone.
Predestination was its doctrinal core.
Syncretism is common, and doctrinal rigidity rare.
It was a perfectly doctrinal speech.
