CONCLUSIONE TEOLOGICA. - A phrase indicating the deduction made from two premises, one of which is of faith and the other of reason. E.g., the single divine nature is common to all the persons of the Most Holy Trinity (= truth of faith, revealed); now nature is the proximate principle of operation (= truth of reason, philosophical); therefore the operation (ad extra) is common to all the persons of the Most Holy Trinity. For there to be a true and proper t. c., this must be derived from its principles by way of rigorous demonstration, obtained through a deductive syllogism, not merely explicative or analytical, as would be the following: Jesus Christ is man; man consists of soul and body; therefore Jesus Christ consists of soul and body.
All admit that the t. c., being indissolubly connected with Revelation, falls within the scope of the Church's infallibility, but it is debated whether it belongs to the indirect or direct object of infallibility, that is, whether it is the object of ecclesiastical or divine faith and therefore definable as a dogma. This divergence of opinions stems from the difficulty, often encountered, in distinguishing the deductive syllogism from the simply analytical one, and, consequently, the true and proper t. c. from that which is such only in a broad sense, virtual revelation from formal revelation. Thus, e.g., the Immaculate Conception of Mary, a truth formally revealed, before the bull Ineffabilis Deus was admitted by many only as a t. c., as a virtually revealed truth. The value of the t. c. and its applicability in theology was recently and vigorously contested by L. Charlier, in the work Essai sur le problème théologique (Thuillies 1938), placed on the Index by decree of the Holy Office on Feb. 4, 1942.