Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 328

304

§ 62.

DEGENERATIONS OF

[Div. Ill

which in a negative sense In another must likewise run its course to the end. volume this will be more fully explained. Here \\q can only locate the point of view where one must stand, in order that the organic relation between our own confession and that of Paganism may fully exhibit itself again, and at the same time the danger be avoided of weakening the distinction between these two to a relative difference. deterioration of false theology,

To

preclude the possible objection, that the theology of

Greek philosophy stands higher and approaches nearer to the truth than the Animistic and Fetishistic forms of paganism, we observe:

first,

that

it

should not be consid-

ered proper to link the theological representations of a negro tribe to those of a people so highly cultured as that which gave being to Greek philosophy. The hypothesis that all nations have begun with Animism, and have gradually mounted the several rounds of the scale, is entirely unsupported. Our second observation is, that dissimilar magnitudes cannot be compared, and hence the cultus-forms of any people cannot be compared to the theological teachings (theologumena) of philosophers. For comparison the cultus-forms of paganism must be contrasted with the practical religion of these philosoiDhers,

and their theological teachits workings

ings with the ideas concerning the infinite and

which are fundamental

to the cultus-forms

of lower standing, or of the Greeks.

of the nations

By which comparison

it appears at once that the philosophers had wo cultus-forms, and obtained them only when in Neo-Platonism, Gnosticism,

they had adopted elements from tlie Christian religion. This shows that Natural Theology operated in them more as an intellectual power than as a devotional impulse, a fact etc.,

—

which of itself leads to our third observation, viz. that however high, from an intellectual point of view, the theological teachings of Greek philosophy maj^ stand, in the main they exhibit a

knowledge

much

of God,

stronger deterioration

inasmuch

of

the

true

as they destroyed the feeling

of dependence, in place of which, in Stoicism, they substi-

tuted

human

self-sufficiencv.

In the negro,

who

trembles as

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