About this map

Examined Doctrine shows how Christians through history have answered the big questions of the faith. Each question has its views side by side, who holds each one, and their own words wherever they can be quoted.

What is on it

19 questions, from the authority of Scripture to the last things, and 33 people and 7 councils and confessions, from the early church to today. That makes 594 positions, and 405 of them quote the figure directly with a source you can look up.

How it is sourced

Every position is labelled with how far it can be checked: read in the figure's own writing, taken from a standard account, a reading that scholars dispute, or not located at all. Where a common summary of someone's view is wrong, the position carries a correction. Where a figure never addressed a question, the map says so rather than guessing from their tradition. The methodology sets out the rules in full.

Whose map it is

It is one person's map, not a denomination's or a seminary's. It began as a study of baptism: why some Christians baptize babies and others only believers, where each view came from, and what Christians have held since the beginning. One question led to the next. Its author holds views on these questions too, and the statement page sets them out, so you can weigh that as you read. The map's job is to show each view fairly and in its own words.

It is free

Every page is free and will stay free.