Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Religion
Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)
Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Baptists -- Doctrines; Theology, Doctrinal
As theology deals with objective facts and their relations, so its
arrangement of these facts is not optional, but is determined by
the nature of the material with which it deals. A true theology
thinks over again God’s thoughts and brings them into God’s order,
as the builders of Solomon’s temple took the stones already hewn,
and put them into the places for which the architect had designed
them; Reginald Heber: “No hammer fell, no ponderous axes rung;
Like some tall palm, the mystic fabric sprung.” Scientific men
have no fear that the data of physics will narrow or cramp their
intellects; no more should they fear the objective facts which are
the data of theology. We cannot make theology, any more than we
can make a law of physical nature. As the natural philosopher is
“Naturæ minister et interpres,” so the theologian is the servant
and interpreter of the objective truth of God. On the Idea of
Theology as a System, see H. B. Smith, Faith and Philosophy,
126-166.
III. Possibility of Theology.
The possibility of theology has a threefold ground: 1. In the existence of
a God who has relations to the universe; 2. In the capacity of the human
mind for knowing God and certain of these relations; and 3. In the
provision of means by which God is brought into actual contact with the
mind, or in other words, in the provision of a revelation.
Any particular science is possible only when three conditions
combine, namely, the actual existence of the object with which the
science deals, the subjective capacity of the human mind to know
that object, and the provision of definite means by which the
object is brought into contact with the mind. We may illustrate
the conditions of theology from selenology—the science, not of
“lunar politics,” which John Stuart Mill thought so vain a
pursuit, but of lunar physics. Selenology has three conditions: 1.
the objective existence of the moon; 2. the subjective capacity of
the human mind to know the moon; and 3. the provision of some
means (_e. g._, the eye and the telescope) by which the gulf
between man and the moon is bridged over, and by which the mind
can come into actual cognizance of the facts with regard to the
moon.
1. The existence of a God.
_In the existence of a God who has relations to the universe._—It has been
objected, indeed, that since God and these relations are objects
apprehended only by faith, they are not proper objects of knowledge or
subjects for science. We reply:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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