Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 314

;

290

ECTYPAL THEOLOGY

§ CO.

as well as the relation

in

which

this

[Div. Ill

content as a whole

stands to the past, to the antithetical powers, and to personal faith

and

This apostolic knowledge

practice.

the complement of revelation

itself,

is,

therefore,

since this revelation

would

produce the roots from be incomplete if it did not which the understanding must develop itself. This developitself

ment can only follow when it finds its point of departure Even then this development is not left itself.

revelation

in to

abstract and independent thought, but remains dependent

upon the inworking and guidance of the Holy Spirit. The human logos, as weakened by sin, can certainly deal with the content of this revelation, as has been the case in all ages but as soon as this movement has reached out after something

more than a mere

superficiality, it has

become

at once anti-

thetical, has placed itself in opposition to revelation, and has Hence the sought, and still seeks, logically to destroy it.

development we referred to can only come from that circle in which the divine illumination operates, and the logical action of

the circle outside

the action of

make them

those

of this can only serve to stimulate

who have been enlightened and

careful of mistakes.

to

Since in the circle of the

"enlightened" the Holy Spirit operates not merely in inand in the whole circle, it is actually the Holy Spirit who, as "the teacher of the Church," interprets the content of revelation, and so enriches and purifies the knowledge of God not, however, by the suppression of logical action, but by stimulating and by employing it as its instrument. The necessary outcome

dividuals, but also in groups

;

of this is that this itself it

by

all sorts of

working

is

not perfect; that

it

propels

vibrations between truth and error; that

only gradually obtains more firmness, and finally results dogma of the Church.

in the

But even this does not end the task of the logical action. The understanding of Revelation must be taken up into the general understanding, from which of itself the need arises of giving an organic place in the unit of our knowledge to that knowledge of

God lodged

under the guidance

of the

Holy

in the regenerate,

and which

Spirit the Church, in deadly

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