ABSTRACT
The ecumenical movement in the Catholic Church had been enthusiastically endorsed. The Pope's "indecisiveness" seemed to mark him as siding with those who interpreted "renewal and reform" in minimal fashion. Perhaps he estimated that the Church had already been opened; there was no need to demand absolute victory and trample non-historical orthodoxy underfoot. Most of the bishops of the world had begun to proceed from the other direction than that from which non-historical orthodoxy begins. A fundamental defect in non-historical orthodoxy is that it employs a geometrical model for intellectual development, a model which does not allow contact with the dynamic, organic system of living things. The growth of the doctrine of the Church has been internally consistent and progressive, but not according to an axiomatic logical system which automatically yields its implications. In recent centuries the Church has insisted on an immoderate uniformity in doctrine, worship, and discipline, neglecting legitimate liberty.
