Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 579

Chap.

THE WITNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

II]

555

duces the image of Christ and His work into the human conPreaching is here taken in tlie broadest possible

sciousness.

and as preaching of the communication of man to man, orally or in writing, by which the form of Christ is brought in relief before the seeking eye of faith. So far, therefore, the link of the Church claims our notice, and in proportion as this appearance of the Church is purer or less pure, faith sense, not merely as catechization

Word, but

as including all

Christ will be richer or poorer. Augustine's saying, " Evangelio non crederem nisi ecclesiae me moveret autoritas " (i.e. " I could not have believed the Gospel, except as in

moved by

the authority of the Church"), contains some-

thing more

still. In this saying, the Church appears not merely as the preacher of truth, but as an imposing phenomenon in life which exerts a moral power, and which, itself

being a work of Christ, bears witness to the " founder of Church" (auctor ecclesiae). It is the revelation of the

the

spiritual

power of Christ

in His Church,

which as a spiritual For this very reason the interAugustine by the Romish dogmati-

reality takes hold of the soul.

pretation of this

word

of

an auctoritas imperii^ or imperial authority, to be attributed to the instituted Church, is wrong, and it was equally wrong to interpret the Gospel Evangelium as the " Inspired Sacred Scripture," for then Augustine should have begun by subjecting himself to this ofBcial authority of the Church. Suppose, indeed, that such an arbitrary subjection would have been conceivable, the word moveret would have been put to an impossible use. An imperial authority does not move (movet), but commands (iubet) and compels (cogit). What remains of this, therefore, is no other than ciaus, as

what we,

too,

confess; viz. that as a herald of the Gospel

and as an imposing spiritual pheone of the factors used by the Holy Spirit in bringing the regenerate to a conscious faith in Christ. To this is added, in the second place, the very important (praedicatrix Evangelii)

nomenon, the Church

significance of " the is

is

communion

of saints."

Even though

it

not impossible in the absolute sense that faith can be main-

tained in isolation, isolation, nevertheless, goes against the

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen