On the Development of Christian Doctrine - Vincent of Lerins

From the Book of Instructions by St. Vincent of Lerins

Is no religious development possible in the Church of Christ? There is indeed, and it is very extensive. Who could be so jealous of their companions and so hateful to the Lord as to try to prevent such development? But it must be genuinely a development of the faith, not a changing of it. Development implies that a thing becomes more fully itself; change implies the transformation of one reality into another.
There must be extensive growth, then, for individuals and for the whole Body, in understanding, knowledge, and wisdom; but it must be growth in kind, that is, the truth and its meaning must remain the same. Religion in this respect follows the pattern set by the body: the body grows in weight and size and develops its members, yet it remains ever the same body. The flower of youth and the ripeness of old age are quite different things, yet the old person is the same person who was once young. One and the same person’s stature and outward guise changes yet the nature and person are the same.
The following, then is undoubtedly a legitimate and correct rule for the occurrence of true development and of growth in the proper sense of the word: the years reveal in the grown-up those parts and shapes with which the Creator wisely endowed the child.
If the human form were changed into something of another species or if some vital members were added or take away in the course of time, the whole body would either perish or become a monstrosity or, at the very least, be seriously weakened. The truth of the Christian religion follows these same laws of development: time and age can only consolidate it, broaden it, and make it more sublime.
Our fathers in early times sowed the seeds of faith in the field of the Church; it would be very wrong indeed if we their descendants reaped the weeds of error. Beginning and end may be discrepant, then; wheat was planted, wheat must be reaped.