Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 594

570

§ 87.

empty

but

;

it

WHAT

ITS

PRIXCIPIUM DEMANDS

[Div. Ill

does this the more, since our consciousness

is

already occupied. Now it becomes our duty to expel from our consciousness what is criticised by revelation as untrue,

and

weave together what remains with the content of reveour world- and life-view shall not

to

lation, so that the unity of

be

lost.

And

then follows the third part of the task, by which we what is thus acquired. The duty of

are called to reproduce

witness-bearing and confession calls us to this third action,

without abandoning this practical end, the claim of Apart, also, from the maintenance of God's honor in the face of the denier of His truth, God counts it His but

also,

science

itself.

glory that in the

posed to His error

truth,

human consciousness which He had disand which we had applied to the service of

and falsehood. His truth

is

again reflected.

The

Script-

ure offers us the grain of wheat, but we may not rest until the golden ears are seen in the fields, by which to prove the j)ower potentially hidden in the seed.

Hence,

it is

not

enough that the knowledge of God, which, as a flower in the bud, is hidden and covered in the Scripture, is set forth b}- us in its excellency but that bud must be unfolded, the flower must make exhibition of its beauty, and scent the air with its ;

This can be done spiritually by piety of mind,

fragrance. practically

by deeds

position

No

and

hjmms, parenetidone by scientific ex-

of faith, sesthetically in

cally in exhortation, but

must

also be

description.

theologian, therefore, can go to

or in a speculative manner.

He who

work

in an empirical

empirically takes

reli-

is no theologian, but an ethnological or philosophical investigator of religions. Neither is a speculative thinker a theologian. We do not question the relative right of the speculative method. Conceptions also generate, and rich harvests may be gathered from the fields of logical thought, but he who goes to work in this manner is no theologian. Theology is a positive science, which finds the object of its investigation, i.e. ectypal knowledge of God, in the Holy Scripture, and therefore must draw the insight into its object from the Scripture. The reason

gious phenomena as his starting-point

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