protology

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)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.”

   “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.”

   “Our task, in what must necessarily be a longer section than those previous, will be first to explore the eschatological dimension of the protological image, then to show how these dual dimensions of protology and eschatology ground Irenaeus' focus on history and salvation as 'recapitulation'.”

2. (countable, uncountable)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.”

   “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.”

   “Linking slavery to the Christian myth of origins and cosmogony is curious; origin myths and protologies describe not so much how things came into being, but why things are the way they are in the present, and they also insinuate how things ought to be.”

3. (alt-of, misconstruction, uncountable)Misconstruction of proctology.

   “The writer states that: (1) during the past decade protology has come to include diseases of the colon, and that the extension is beneficial inasmuch as it encourages and provides for a better diagnosis, and for a more thorough search after etiology.”

   “Instruction in the principles and practices of protology and proctological problems of the institutionalized patient has been given to staff physicians, interns and others who are qualified and interested.”

   “In some specialties, however, no place was seen for assistants of this kind. These specialties were general medicine, general surgery (including urology and protology), obstetrics and gynaecology (practised together), cardiology, dermatology, otolaryngology, neurology, neuro-surgery, plastic surgery and thoracic surgery.”