Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 680

650

§ lO:].

Even

PREMATURELY CLAIMED TRIUMPH

[Div. Ill

thus, however, there v/as something very beautifnl

in this impulse.

If it hiy in the

nature of the case that the

world of thought of unregeneratecl humanit}- must of neces-

from that of regenerate humanity walking in the light of God's Word, the task of theology was not exhausted in a self-defence against this world of natural thought. She was called, in the first place, to populate her own world

sity be different

of thought

and

to regulate

The content

it.

of the Divine

Revelation had been committed to her, not to possess it as gold in a mine, but to delve it out of that mine, and then to convert that gold into all sorts of ornaments. The content

had not been given dialectically, nor had it been That which had been of discursive thought. form cast in the up as such into taken not be therefore could revealed of God of Revelation

the

human

consciousness.

It

had

first to

be worked over,

What capacity. and its form be changed so as to suit had been shown to the Eastern mind in images and symbols, had to be assimilated by Western thinking and reproduced For this it was indispensable that the believintellectually. ing Christian should also learn how to think, and how to human

sharpen his powers of thought, in order to grasp the content of his faith, not resting until he had succeeded, from the root of palingenesis and by the light of photismos, in leading the human consciousness to a coherent, comprehensive

world of thought entirely its own. And this they failed to do. In the period of naivety the struggle with Paganism had been broken off rather than fought out. Under the inspiration of the Fathers of the Church all the powers of thought had been directed to the establishing of the mysteries, to prevent heresies

;

but in the following ages they neglected to analyze the Thus they failed

further mysteries of the faith to the root. of creating a Christian Philosophy,

which should give

to the

Christian world, to the glory of God, what old Hellas had possessed in Plato and Aristotle, thanks to Socrates' initiative.

feebly.

think.

This want has been

felt

by the Scholastics, if only them how to

that Aristotle could teach

They saw They were ashamed

of the fact that the scholars of

Bajrdad and Cordova excelled the Christians in virility of

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