Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 602

578

§ 89.

RELATION TO SPIRITUAL REALITY

[Div. Ill

can be no question of theology outside the pale of the Church, because outside of this pale there is neither palingenesis nor a spiritual enlightening, both of which are indispensable to

But from

theology.

this it does

tuted corporation, the

Church

not follow, that, as an

itself

insti-

should study theolog}'.

This institution has a limited official task, and covers, by no means, the whole of our Christian life. Outside of this institution endless factors of our human life are at work within the

Church taken as an organism, upon each of which must exert His influence. One of these factors is science, and so far from proceeding from the instituted Church, science includes the Church in its object, and must be subservient to her in the accomplishment of her pale of the

the Spirit of Christ

task.

The

subject of Christian science

Christian theology

;

or,

how

is

also the subject of

could theology otherwise take

a place in the organism of science

?

The

instituted

Church

can never be the subject of the Christian science, and consequently it cannot be this of the science of theology. Hence, the dilemma: Your theology has the instituted Church for

which case it is no science or if it is a the Church as an institution cannot be its subject.

its subject, in

§ 89.

;

Relation

to

the Spiritual Reality

In connection with this there to

it.

is still

another, no less impor-

which both affects theology and The Church owes its rise not to the

tant, factor

science,

is

indispensable

Word

alone, but

in a deeper sense to the supernatural spiritual workings,

which go out among men, and whose central point

is

palin-

In a supernatural sense this creates a spiritual reality, which, in so far as the sphere of the consciousness

genesis.

is

concerned, cannot dispense with the Holy Scripture, but

wdiich potentially does not proceed from the Scripture, but

from the Holy Ghost, or

if

you please concentrically from

This spiritual reality does not consist merely in the Christ. deed and in the thing wrought by palingenesis, but from this central point it radiates also subjectively in those

are

basis in

who

and enlightened, and objectively finds the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Body

sanctified

its

of

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