Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 349

;

Chap.

§ 64.

1]

DEFOKMATIONS OF THEOLOGY

325

gian should shrink from this qualification of defoniiation, this conception of deformation contains, on the other hand,

an element of appreciatiovi, and therefore a sentence against confessional absolutism. Deformation passes judgment on the imperfection of the form, but honors the essence.

Whether

outcome of schism, and consequent onesidedness, by the contraction of the energy of truth at one single point; or whether it has found its origin in heresy, i.e. this deformation is the

in the adoption into one's confession of

foreign to the truth, can 3^ou

make no

elements that are In either case

difference.

acknowledge that there is a "knowledge of God," and which calls itself theology is truly possessed of the

that that

theologic character.

It is still

commonly accepted

in the con-

an ectypal knowledge of God, that in the natural way this cannot lead the sinner to saving results, and that there is a special revelation to supply this want. The canonical books also of the Old and New Testaments are honored by all these churches together as the Divine documentation of this revelation. Difference only begins with the addition to these Scrij^tures of the apocrypha, of fessions that there

is

tradition, of papal inspiration, of the mystic inspiration by

the internal light (lumen internum), side

we

are abundantly able to

etc. Thus from either show how the deformation

originated with the other; and this yet this does not destroy what

is

is

the point of attack;

common

in all confessions

and theologies.

And

if this opens the way to the appreciation and use what has been prepared also by theologians of other confessions, in what is common to us all, it leads at the same

of

time to

still

another consideration.

Even Rome does not

deny that charismata are also at work outside of her church and where in this way even Rome maintains a unitv, our Protestant principle includes the open recognition of the correlation of the other churches with ours. No single confessional group claims to be all the church. We rather confess that the unity of the body of Clnist extends far beyond our confessional boundaries. The theological gifts that operate

outside

of

our circle

may supply what

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