The essential content of revealed philosophy is viewed by the Apologists
(see A, B) as comprised in three doctrines.[420] First, there is one
spiritual and inexpressibly exalted God, who is Lord and Father of the
world. Secondly, he requires a holy life. Thirdly, he will at last sit
in judgment, and will reward the good with immortality and punish the
wicked with death. The teaching concerning God, virtue, and eternal
reward is traced to the prophets and Christ; but the bringing about of a
virtuous life (of righteousness) has been necessarily left by God to men
themselves; for God has created man free, and virtue can only be
acquired by man's own efforts. The prophets and Christ are therefore a
source of righteousness in so far as they are teachers. But as God, that
is, the divine Word (which we need not here discuss) has spoken in them,
Christianity is to be defined as the Knowledge of God, mediated by the
Deity himself, and as a virtuous walk in the longing after eternal and
perfect life with God, as well as in the sure hope of this imperishable
reward. By knowing what is true and doing what is good man becomes
righteous and a partaker of the highest bliss. This knowledge, which has
the character of divine instruction,[421] rests on faith in the divine
revelation. This revelation has the nature and power of redemption in so
far as the fact is undoubted that without it men cannot free themselves
from the tyranny of the demons, whilst believers in revelation are
enabled by the Spirit of God to put them to flight. Accordingly, the
dogmas of Christian philosophy theoretically contain the monotheistic
cosmology, and practically the rules for a holy life, which appears as a
renunciation of the world and as a new order of society.[422] The goal
is immortal life, which consists in the full knowledge and contemplation
of God. The dogmas of revelation lie between the cosmology and ethics;
they are indefinitely expressed so far as they contain the idea of
salvation; but they are very precisely worded in so far as they
guarantee the truth of the cosmology and ethics.
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