Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 665

:

Chap. V]

§ 101.

ao-ainst the "

THE PERIOD OF NAIVETY

wisdom

641

The outbreak coukl not

of tlie world.""

existed and bore rule was rooted too firmly to

tarry.

What

allow

itself to

and the which was the aggressive force, was too idealism to be silenced by satire or shame, by be superseded without a struggle

;

Christian religion, heroic in

the

its

sword or

fagot.

The

eio-hteen centuries this strife

conflict

indeed has come

;

for

has never come to a truce ex-

even now the antithesis of principles in this cept in form struggle is frankly confessed from both sides, and this contest shall be decided only when the Judge of the living and ;

the dead shall weigh the final result of the development of our human race in the Divine balance.

was natural that at first the Christian religion should In its stand most invincible in its attack on religion. first love, of its fires the with aglow youth, strength of early and aged pseudo-religion, contrast to it presented a striking and forms only, in part worn out, maintained for the most held in honor among the illiterate more than in the centres Within the religious domain Paganof culture and power. ism has almost nowhere been able to maintain itself, and Avithout exaggeration it may be said that almost from the very first the chances for the Christian religion as such were Within the ethical-social and those of a veni, vidi, vici. struggle was far more serious, the however, domain, national It

took no less than three centuries of bloody fighting before in Constantine the first definite triumph could be But much more serious still was the first attack recorded.

and

it

Here at its first appearance Christianity stood with but a "sling and a stone from the brook" over against the heavily armed Goliath, and

in that strife within the intellectual bounds.

thanks to the providential leadings of the Lord, this Goliath Christ Himself had also was made at length to eat sand. this antithesis in the intellectual world, when He said " I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast

drawn

revealed them unto babes." this its

And

since theology belongs to

entirely natural, that at domain, and to no other, first appearance theology bears the character of naivety. it

is

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