Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 319

Chap.

THEOLOGY AS SCIENCE

I]

this alone,

is

its

object of investigation.

would be superfluous

tion

295

if

this

revealed to us in a dialectic, discursive form. the

human mind would The knowledge

God were Then, indeed, of

be released from all necessity for

But such

assimilating this knowledge of God. case.

investiga-

Tliis

knowledge

of

God

is

form, just such as was necessary in order that

it

valid for every age and people, for every time of of development,

Not the

and condition.

not the

revealed to us in a veiled

is

grade

dialectically acute

man from

Greek, but the mystic-symbolic

might be life,

the East, was

chosen as the instrument to reveal to us this knowledge of

God. Hence a considerable distance still separates this knowledge of God, as it has been revealed, from the world of the entirely clarified human consciousness, and the consciousness of

man

has yet to perform a giant's task, before

it

has appropriated the treasures of that Revelation with trans-

parent purity and has reflected

This labor, therefore, its entire

ment

extent.

is

it

from

itself.

nevertheless not scientific labor in

There are lower grades in the developthough they do not bear

of our consciousness, which,

The God by our human

the scientific stamp, are yet productive of early fruit. assimilation of the revealed knowledge of

consciousness has gone through all these grades. labor of thought devoted to this

has had for

its

knowledge

of

There is a God, which

exclusively practical purpose the persuasion of

him who stands

There is a labor of afar off to confess Christ. thought expended upon this Revelation with no other purpose than to defend it against opposition and heresy. This knowledge of God has been reflected upon by the human consciousness in the personal application of

it

to one's

own

condition

and experience of soul. Human power of thought has entered upon this knowledge of God in preparation for preaching and catechizing. No less in the formulation of dogma has human power of intellect labored in the sweat of its brow. And all that national acumen and the spirit of a given age, or the sense of a peculiar confession, could produce in rich variation has been applied with indefatigable diligence and indomitable perseverance to cause the beauty of this

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