Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 668

644

§ 101.

THE PERIOD OF NArVETY

pains to observe in this

first

[Div. Ill

period of naivety the

of almost all the departments of theology,

it

iirst buds cannot be said

that at that time theology had alread}^ matured as a

self-

power in its organic unity. For this the needed data were wanting the element of genius was too largely absent from the persons and where this genius was unmistakably present in men like Origen and in a few teachers in the North African school, it soon showed itself top-heavy, and by its one-sidedness became heretical. The growth was too early and too exuberant, but there was no depth of soil, and because the development in the root was unequal, this element of genius soon outgrew its own strength. There was conflict between a twofold life- and world-view, which undoubtedly governed the general state of things, but the first issue in this struggle with Paganism is owing to other facconscious

;

;

tors than intellectual superiority.

And

in this first period,

which was entirely naive, theology neither attained unto a

own position, nor to a clearly perceived antithesis in opposition to " the knowledge falsely clearly conscious insight of its

Hence, when, after Constantine's appearance, Paganism withdrew, there was almost no one to perceive

so called."

that the real question of difference on intellectual grounds

was

much

was it surmised that fifteen would again war against the Church of Christ, and, armed to the teeth, would repulse her from more than half the domain which, through the course of the centuries, had appeared invincibly her own. Naively still

unsolved,

less

centuries later the old assailant

they lived in the thought that Goliath lay vanquished once

and

and that the Lord would return before the had also been exhibited in the world of intellect, both as a conflict of principles in the lowest depths of our existence, and differentiated above in all the branches. But however na'ive this first development of theology ma}^ have been, even then it showed potentially all the richness of its colors. In two respects first, although theology is no for all time,

antithesis

:

abstract speculation, but as a positive science has

from

life

itself,

in this first period

sided intellectual activity, that

it

its

origin

furnished a so-mauy-

to-day there

is

almost no

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