Slaves, be obedient to your human masters with fear and trembling. Isn’t slavery a sin! How does St. Paul accept it as somehow appropriate for a Christian? And let’s flip the question over: how can the Church call slavery a sin when it is acceptable in the Bible? The answer is found in understanding the development of doctrine. The moral teaching and doctrinal statements of the Church are not set in stone but are something living. They grow and develop upon deeper experience and reflection in the Church. The Church document describing this phenomenon, Ecclesiam Suam, compared it to the growth of a child. An adult is not like a baby but everything that the adult is has developed from who the child was. Similarly, the Church recognizing the sinfulness of slavery developed out of the foundational truth that every individual is made in the image and likeness of God and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect as a result. Doctrine develops, and not deforms, as long as it stays true to its roots.
