protology

Noun

protology (countable and uncountable, plural protologies)

1. The branch of theology pertaining to origins and first things.
   • And hence the progress of the history of salvation is the progress of protology in the progressive development of its starting-point.1975, Karl Rahner, Encyclopedia of Theology: A Concise Sacramentum Mundi, →ISBN, page 320
   • The Chalcedonian defender of thoroughgoing aphtharsia, driven into a corner, now seeks refuge in protology, that is, in referring to the original condition of Adam in Paradise, with whom he compares Christ.1995, Aloys Grillmeier, Theresia Hainthaler, Christ in Christian Tradition, →ISBN, page 226
2. A text or oral history giving the origins of a people.
   • Or, alternatively, perhaps they are the first human beings as described in tribal protologies.1997, Jace Weaver, That the People Might Live, →ISBN
   • Their fear, it is claimed, is that analysis of remains will "disprove" traditional tribal protologies, which often state that the tribe in question has been on its ancestral lands since creation.2001, Jace Weaver, Other Words: American Indian Literature, Law, and Culture, →ISBN, page 165