Original Thought

I have had the privilege, and responsibility, to read many different books for my classes. Some new works, many old works. I am speaking about strictly non-fiction works as I have little time to read fiction now days. What continues to strike me is the lack of original thought in many of the books I have read. This seems to be extremely prevalent in newer works of research than it is in older works.

I know many people will disagree and say that there are great works out today that bring grand and inquisitive thoughts and ideas. True, I agree actually with that, but is it original? Look at any of these works today and look at how many references there are. There could be dozens if not hundreds of different works cited.

Looking at older works, or ancients works from people such as Augustine, Aquinas (though he does quote some others), they are true original thinkers. These are but two I am fairly familiar with, but there are many others. They may quote a few times, but the vast majority of their works mainly just reference scripture. Even a person I greatly admire, mainly for his theology, Martin Luther, quoted many of the great Father's of the Church, yet even he brought original thought. But is there original thought today?

I am speaking primarily about Theological works because that is what I am most familiar with. So my dilemma is: If you take many other works, reference them, cite them, is it truly original thought? You are taking words from someone else, or many others, and putting them together for your own work. You may come up with a new theory, but is it truly original if you are using others (outside of Scripture)?

And,is it heresy to have original thought in the Church (by this I mean, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, etc..the Church as a whole) that may contradict a small portion of what the current established doctrine is? If the Church is a living growing body, why is original thought at times considered heretical? Should original thought, though maybe going against doctrine, be considered the Holy Spirit working within the person to help the Church grow and listened to? Debated?

It seems frequently original thought today is suppressed when it comes to matters of doctrine (again, not speaking of scripture) as heresy. Can the Church grow like this?