Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 612

588

§91.

THE CHURCH AND THE OFFICE

[Div.

HI

workings that arise from re-creation. There is a Christian disposition and a Christian fellowship, there is a Christian knowledge and a Christian art, etc., which indeed spring from the field of the Church and can flourish on this field alone, but which by no means therefore proceed from the The instituted Church finds her province instituted Church. bounded by her offices, and these offices are limited to the ministry of the Word, the Sacraments, Benevolence, and Church government. These are the only offices that have been appointed as special functions in her life. All other expressions of Christian life do not work by the organ of the special offices, but by the organs of the re-created natural life

;

the Christian family by the believing father and mother. artist, and Christian schools

Christian art by the believing

by the believing magister. From which it follows that in this domain of palingenesis science also does not come to revelation by organs sj)ecially appointed for this purpose, but by By making an exception of the regenerated natural organs. theology here, it is assigned a place outside the organism of Christian knowledge, which prevents it from having one and the same subject in stood, sciences.

behalf of her

common with

If

own

the other, Christianly under-

then for want of a better school, or in safety, the instituted

Church may found

a seminary for the education of her ministry, such a semi-

nary is never a scientific institution in its absolute sense. Neither are we authorized, in view of such a seminary, to withdraw ourselves from the obligation of prosecuting the If preachers are to be science of theology for its own sake. not merel}^ Ministers of the Word, but theologians as well, the university training

But from

is

indispensable.

this it does not follow that the instituted

Church

as such should not be of profound significance to the science The case indeed is this sufficient knowledge of theology. :

God ad hoc flows from the Holy fold way personal, ecclesiastical and of

:

consider

scientific

theology

first,

then

Scripture in a threescientific. it

is

If

clear

now we that

its

beginnings are very slow, that its growth covers the lapse of ages, and that it is not only still very incomplete, but

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