2022/06/21

Full text of "The Christian faith in outline" BY FRIEDRICH SCHLEIERMACHER

Full text of "The Christian faith in outline"

Full text of "The Christian faith in outline"
http://www.archive.org/details/christianfaithinOOschluoft 
Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher.jpg


THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 
IN OUTLINE 

BY FRIEDRICH SCHLEIERMACHER 



TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN WITH THE 
TWO EDITIONS ON OPPOSITE PAGES 

BY 

D. M. BAILLIE, M.A. 



W. F. HENDERSON, Publisher, 

EDINBURGH 

1922. 



NOTE 

Schleiermacher's great treatise on Christian Doctrine 
(Der christliche Glaube, often referred to briefly as the 
Glaubenslehre) was first pubUshed in 1821-22, and a 
second and considerably altered edition appeared in 1830- 
31. The work, which has never been translated into 
English, follows the paragraph method common in 
Continental lecture rooms, i.e. the gist of the argument 
is compressed into short paragraphs, each of which is 
followed by pages of exposition in smaller type. What 
is translated in the present booklet is simply these 
paragraphs, forming but a skeleton of the whole ; and the 
first and second editions are printed on opposite pages 
for purposes of comparison by the student. 

The translator desires to record his great indebted- 
ness, for advice and help with both manuscript and 
proofs, to the Rev. Prof. W. P. Paterson, D.D., and the 
Rev. Prof. H. R. Mackintosh, D.D., at whose request the 
translation was undertaken, and for whose class-work it 
was primarily intended. 

D. M. B. 

Bervie, September^ ig22. 






THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 

First Edition, 1821 and 1822. 



Introduction. 

§ I. Dogmatic Theology is the science which system- 
atizes the doctrine prevalent in a Christian Church at 
a given time. 

§ 2. The science which systematizes the doctrine is 
pursued for these reasons : partly to clear up the confusion 
of one's thinking on the subject of the religious affections ; 
partly to distinguish that thinking the more definitely 
from other kinds of thinking which, while of different 
origin, arrive at the same content. 

§ 3. Thus the Doctrine of the Faith rests on two 
things : first, on the endeavour to set forth in doctrinal 
form the affections of the religious and Christian mind ; 
and secondly, on the endeavour to bring into its exact 
connexions what has been thus expressed as doctrine. 

§ 4. Accordingly the following would be the rules by 
which any Dogmatic must be regulated, to whatever 
Church it belongs. First, never to set forth as doctrine 
anything which was not present in that totaUty of 
religious affections of which the doctrinal system ought 
to be a copy, but directly or indirectly to absorb into 
the system of doctrine whatever was present in these 
affections. Secondly, to set forth every doctrine as it 
appears in its connexions with all others, and therefore 
to leave out of the system nothing which is required 
in order to bring this connexion into view. 

§ 5. As Christianity stands at present, we cannot pre- 
suppose any general agreement as to what is or is not 
the essential in the religious affections of Christendom. 

§ 6. In order to determine in what the essence of 
Christian piety consists, we must go beyond Christianity 
and adopt a higher standpoint, so as to compare it with 
other varieties of faith. 



THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 

Second Edition, 1830 and 1831. 



Introduction. 

§ I. The object of this Introduction is, first, to set 
forth the conception of Dogmatics which underlies this 
work itself ; and secondly, to prepare the reader for the 
method and arrangement followed in it. 

FIRST CHAPTER: DEFINITION OF DOGMATICS. 

§ 2. Since Dogmatics is a theological discipline, and 
thus pertains solely to the Christian Church, we can only 
explain what it is when we have become clear as to the 
conception of the Christian Church. 



§ 7- Such a comparison presupposes that there is some 
common element in all faiths, in virtue of which we put 
them alongside of each other as kin ; and that there is 
some peculiar element in each, in virtue of which we 
separate it from the others. But neither of these can 
be pointed to as a known and given quantity. 

§ 8. Piety in itself is neither a Knowing nor a Doing, 
but a disposition and modification of Feeling. 

§ 9. The common element in all reUgious affections, 
and thus the essence of piety, is this : the consciousness 
of our absolute dependence, i.e. the feeling of dependence 
on God. 

§ 10. Piety is the highest grade of human feehng, 
and it absorbs the lower grade into itself, but is never 
found in separation from it. 

§ II. Only by virtue of this absorption of sensuous 
feeling does piety participate in the antithesis of the 
pleasant and the unpleasant. 

§ 12. Piety forms itself into a fellowship or communion 
through the stimulating power of the utterances of self- 
consciousness ; but every communion which has any 
stable existence appears also as of limited range. 

§ 13. What limits the tendency of religious auctions 
as such to produce communion is the diversity that exists 
both in the strength of the affections and in their 
character. 

§ 14. The religious communions which appear in 
history with clearly defined limits are related to each 
other in two ways : as different stages of development, 
and as different kinds. 

§ 15. Those forms of piety which reduce all religious 
affections to the dependence of all that is finite upon 
One Supreme and Infinite Being, constitute a stage 
to which all other forms are subordinate stages of 
development. 

§ 16. The widest diversity between forms of piety 
is that which exists, with respect to the religious 
affections, between those forms in which the natural in 
human conditions is subordinated to the moral, and those 
in which, on the contrary, the moral is subordinated to 
the natural. 



I. The Conception of the Church : Propositions 

BORROWED FROM EtHICS. 

§ 3. The piety which forms the basis of all ecclesias- 
tical communions is, considered purely in itself, neither a 
Knowing nor a Doing, but a modification of Feeling, 
or of immediate self -consciousness. 

§ 4. The common element in all howsoever diverse 
expressions of piety, by which these are conjointly dis- 
tinguished from all other feelings, or, in other words, the 
self-identical essence of piety, is this : the conscious- 
ness of our absolute dependence, or, which is the same 
thing, of our relation with God. 

§ 5. What we have thus described constitutes the 
highest grade of human self-consciousness ; but it is 
never, in its actual occurrence, separated from the lower, 
and through its combination therewith in a single moment, 
it participates in the antithesis of the pleasant and the 
unpleasant. 

§ 6. The reHgious self-consciousness, like every 
essential element in human nature, leads necessarily in 
its development to fellowship or communion — a com- 
munion which, on the one hand, is variable and fluid, and, 
on the other hand, has definite Umits, i.e. is a Church. 

II. Of the Diversities of Religious Communions in 
General : Propositions borrowed from the 
Philosophy of Religion. 

§ 7. The various religious communions which have 
appeared in history with clearly defined Hmits are related 
to each other in two ways : as different stages of develop- 
ment, and as different kinds. 

§ 8. Those forms of piety in which all religious 
affections express the dependence of all that is finite 
upon One Supreme and Infinite Being, i.e. the monotheistic 
forms, occupy the highest plane, and aU others are related 
to them as subordinate forms, from which men are 
destined to pass to those higher ones. 

§ 9. The widest diversity between forms of piety is 
that which exists, with respect to the religious affections, 
between those forms which subordinate the natural 




§ 17- The peculiarity of any form of communal piety 
is derivable, partly from its own historical origin, and 
partly from a peculiar modification of all that is found 
in every developed form of piety belonging to the same 
kind and level. 

§ i8. Christianity is a peculiar form of piety of the 
teleological type : a form distinguished from all others 
by the fact that everything in it is related to the con- 
sciousness of redemption through the person of Jesus 
of Nazareth. 

§ 19. Every rehgious communion which rests upon a 
history of its own, and in which the rehgious affections 
have a common peculiarity — and thus Christianity among 
others — is characterized by positive content and by 
revelation. 

§ 20. The divine revelation in Christ can be neither 
an absolutely supernatural nor an absolutely supra- 
rational thing. 

§ 21. There is no other way of obtaining participation 
in the Christian communion than through faith ; and the 
fact that the origin of Christianity is bound up with 
prophecies, miracles, and inspiration is a proof of its 
truth only for those who have faith. 

§ 22. In spite of its historical connexion with Judaism, 
Christianity is not to be regarded as a continuation or 
revival of Judaism. Indeed, as far as concerns its 
peculiar character, its relation to Judaism is just the 
same as its relation to Heathenism. 







in human conditions to the moral and those which, on 
the contrary, subordinate the moral to the natural. 

§ 10, Each particular form of communal piety has 
both an outward identity, as a fact of history with a 
definite origin, and an inward identity, as a peculiar 
modification of all that is found in every developed faith 
of the same kind and level ; and it is from both of these 
taken together that the peculiar essence of any particular 
form is to be discovered. 

III. Presentation of Christianity in its Peculiar 
Essence : Propositions borrowed from Apolo- 
getics. 

§ II. Christianity is a monotheistic faith of the teleo- 
logical type, and is essentially distinguished from other 
such faiths by the fact that everything in it is related 
to the redemption accomplished by Jesus of Nazareth. 

§ 12. Christianity does indeed stand in a special his- 
torical connexion with Judaism ; but as far as concerns 
its historical existence and its aim, its relations to 
Judaism and Heathenism are the same. 

§ 13. The appearance of the Redeemer in history is, 
as divine revelation, neither an absolutely supernatural 
nor an absolutely supra-rational thing. 

§ 14. There is no other way of obtaining participation 
in the Christian communion than through faith in Jesus 
as the Redeemer. 

IV. Of the Relation of Dogmatics to 
Christian Piety. 

§ 15. Christian doctrines are accounts of the Christian 
religious affections set forth in speech. 

§ 16. Dogmatic propositions are doctrines of the 
descriptively didactic type, in which the highest possible 
'^degree of definiteness is aimed at. C/'^ '^'-•^ '^^^- 

0^^ § 17. Dogmatic propositions have a twofold value, 
an ecclesiastical and a scientific ; and their degree of 
perfection is determined by both of these, and their 
relation to each other. 

§ 18. The collocation of dogmatic propositions, for the 
purpose of connecting them and relating them to each 



10 



§ 23- It is the business of the Science of Christian 
Doctnne to describe the religious affections which are 
found in the Christian Ufe in such a way that the relation 
to Christ as Redeemer shall appear in the description 
in the same measure in which it is present in the feeUng 
itself ; and so to arrange them as to exhibit their 
completeness. 

§ 24. In order to construct the system of doctrine, 
it is necessary first of all, throughout the whole range 
of what appears as Christian doctrine, to eliminate the 
heretical and to retain only the ecclesiastical. 

§ 25. The natural heresies of Christianity are the 
Docetic and the Nazarean, the Manichean and the 
Pelagian. 

§ 26. A system of doctrine for the present time and 
for the Western Church cannot be indifferent to the 
antithesis between Catholicism and Protestantism, but 
must adhere to one or the other. 

§ 27. Protestantism, in its antithesis to Catholicism, 
is to be regarded not only as a purification and reaction 
from abuses that had crept in, but also as a peculiar 
form of Christianity. 

§ 28. The antithesis may provisionally be put thus : 
Protestantism makes the individual's relation to the 
Church dependent on his relation to Christ, while 
Catholicism, contrariwise, makes the individual's relation 
to Christ dependent on his relation to the Church. 

§ 29. Every Dogmatic, and especially every Pro- 
testant Dogmatic, ought to be characterized by a 
peculiar point of view, which is only more prominent 
in one system and less so in another, and which appears 
more strongly in one point of doctrine than in another. 



II 

other, proceeds from the very same need as the forma- 
tion of them, and is simply a natural consequence of it. 
§ 19. Dogmatic Theology is the science which system- 
atizes the doctrine prevalent in a Christian Church at a 
given time. 

SECOND CHAPTER: OF THE METHOD OF 
DOGMATICS. 

§ 20. Since every system of doctrine, as a presentation 
of dogmatic theology, is a self-contained and closely- 
connected whole of dogmatic propositions, we must, with 
regard to the existing mass of such propositions, establish 
first a rule according to which some will be adopted and 
others excluded ; and secondly a principle for their 
arrangement and interconnexion. 

I. Of the Selection of the Dogmatic Material. 

§ 21. In order to build up a system of doctrine, it is 
necessary first to eUminate from the totahty of the 
dogmatic material everything that is heretical, and to 
retain only what is ecclesiastical. 

§ 22. The natural heresies in Christianity are the Docetic 
and the Nazarean, the Manichean and the Pelagian. 

§ 23. A system of doctrine drawn up at the present 
time within the Western Church cannot be indifferent 
to the antithesis between the Roman CathoUc and the 
Protestant, but must adhere to one or the other. 

§ 24. Inasmuch as the Reformation was not simply a 
purification and reaction from abuses which had crept in, 
but the origination of a peculiar form of the Christian 
communion, the antithesis between Protestantism and 
Catholicism may provisionally be conceived thus : the 
former makes the individual's relation to the Church 
dependent on his relation to Christ, while the latter, 
contrariwise, makes the individual's relation to Christ 
dependent on his relation to the Church. 

§ 25. Every Evangelical (Protestant) Dogmatic ought 
to contain an element pecuhar to itself; only this will 
be more prominent in some systems than in others, and 
sometimes more in some points of doctrine, sometimes in 
others. 



12 

§ 30. The endeavour to establish a common element 
must in the system of doctrine take the form of an appeal 
to the confessional documents, and, where these do not 
suffice, to Holy Scripture, and to the connexion with 
other parts of the system. 

§ 31. Dogmatics is essentially a scientific construction, 
and this must show itself in the dialectical character of 
its language and in the systematic character of its 
arrangement. 

§ 32. At present the Science of Christian Morals is 
separate from the Science of Christian Doctrine, hence we 
require in the first instance an arrangement only for the 
Science of Christian Doctrine in the narrower sense. 

§ 33. Since Christian piety rests upon the felt 
antithesis between one's own inability, and the abiUty 
which comes through redemption, to realize the reUgious 
consciousness, and since this is only a relative antithesis, 
we shall exhaust the range of Christian doctrine if we 
contemplate the religious feeUng both in those expressions 
of it in which the antithesis is strongest and those in which 
it is weakest ; and therefore we divide the whole of 
Christian doctrine into the consideration of reUgious 
feeling apart from the antithesis, and the consideration 
of that feeling under the antithesis. 

§ 34. All dogmatic propositions, in addition to their 
being descriptions of human states of mind, can also 
be set forth in two other forms : as conceptions of 
divine attributes, and as utterances regarding the con- 
stitution of the world ; and these three forms have 
always subsisted alongside of each other in Dogmatics. 

§ 35. Thus as we outline the whole range of Christian 
piety according to the above-mentioned (§ 33) division, 
we shall in each part combine together all three forms 
of reflection. 



13 

§ 26. In the Evangelical (Protestant) Church the 
Science of Christian Doctrine and that of Christian Morals 
have long been separated : here too, therefore, for the 
purposes of our presentation, we eliminate from the 
totality of the dogmatic material such propositions as 
are elements of the Science of Christian Morals. 



II. Of the Formation of the Dogmatic System. 

§ 27. All propositions which claim a place in an 
epitome of Christian doctrine must approve themselves 
both by appeal to Evangehcal (Protestant) confessional 
documents, or in default of these, to the New Testament 
Scriptures, and by exhibition of their homogeneity with 
other propositions already recognized. 

§ 28. The dialectical character of the language and 
the systematic arrangement give to Dogmatics the 
scientific form which is essential to it. 

§ 29. We shall exhaust the compass of Christian 
doctrine if we consider the facts of the religious self- 
consciousness, first, as they are pre-supposed by the anti- 
thesis expressed in the concept of redemption, and second, 
as they are determined by that antithesis. 

§ 30. All propositions which the system of Christian 
doctrine has to establish can be regarded either as tlescrip- 
tions of human states, or as ^ conceptions of divine 
attributes and modes of action, or as titterances regarding 
the constitution of the world ; and all three forms have 
always subsisted alongside of each other. 

§ 31. Thus the division outlined above will have to 
be fully worked out according to all these three forms of 
reflection upon the rehgious affections ; and this must 
be done in such a manner that the direct description of 
these affections will itself be ever57where made the basis. 



First Part of the System of Doctrine : Explication 
of the religious self^consciousncss, as a self^ 
consciousness dwelling in human nature, whose 
antithetical relations to the sensible self-^con^ 
sciousness have first to be unfolded. 

INTRODUCTION. 

§ 36. When in immediate self -consciousness we find 
ourselves to be absolutely dependent, there are therein 
combined our own finite being and the infinite being 
of God ; and that dependence is, in general, the way in 
which alone these two can become one in us as self- 
consciousness or feehng. 

§ 37. This original feeling of dependence is not 
accidental, but is an essential element of himian life, 
and does not even vary from person to person, but is 
identical in all developed consciousness. 

§ 38. The recognition that this feeling of dependence 
is an essential condition of life takes for us the place of 
all proofs of the existence of God ; which proofs have 
no place in our procedure. 

§ 39. The original feeling of dependence, which at 
the same time involves a Supreme Being, only comes to 
actual consciousness, in the case of us who are Christians, 
along with the relation to Christ ; but all Christian 
rehgious affections contain this feeling of dependence. 
Hence throughout the whole compass of Christian piety 
the relation to God and the relation to Christ are 
inseparable. 

§ 40. The religious affection in which the antithesis 
is least prominent is that related to the consciousness 
that we are placed in a universal system of Nature. 

§ 41. In that religious affection in which the feeling 
of dependence relates to our being placed in the universal 
system of Nature, our self-consciousness at the same 
time represents the totahty of all finite being (see § 15). 

§ 42. The representation of such a self -consciousness 
according to the first form (see § 34) will thus contain 
utterances concerning the relation of God to the world ; 



15 



First Part of the System of Doctrine : Explication 
of the religious self^consciousness, as it is always 
pre^supposed, but also always contained, in every 
Christian religious affection. 



INTRODUCTION. 

§ 32. Every religious and Christian self -consciousness 
presupposes and thus also actually contains the immediate 
feeling of absolute dependence, as the only way in which, 
in general, one's own being and the infinite being of God 
can be one in self -consciousness. 

§ 33. This feehng of absolute dependence, in which 
our self-consciousness in general represents the finitude 
of our being, is therefore not an accidental element, nor 
a thing which varies from person to person, but is 
a universal element of hfe ; and the recognition of this 
fact entirely takes the place, for the system of doctrine, 
of all so-called proofs of the existence of God. 



§ 34. The feeling of absolute dependence is contained 
in every Christian religious affection in proportion as in 
the latter, through its co-determining stimuli, we become 
conscious of the fact that we are placed in a universal 
system of Nature, i.e. in proportion as we are therein 
conscious of ourselves as part of the world. 

§ 35- We shall thus, by the norm of the three forms 
we have set up (cf. § 30), have to describe here, first, the 
relation in that self-consciousness between the finite being 
of the world and the infinite being of God ; then, in the 



i6 



according to the second form, doctrines concerning 
attributes of God which relate in general to the worid ; 
and according to the third form, doctrine concerning the 
constitution of the world as determined by its dependence 
on God. 



First Section. — The Relation of the "World to God, 
expressed in our self'consciousness as presenting the 
totality of finite being, 

§ 43. This relation is set forth in the following two 
propositions : The world was created by God, and, God 
sustains the world ; but these two propositions are not 
of equal dogmatic value. 

§ 44. In the connexion with which we are here con- 
cerned, these two doctrines are so Uttle distinguished 
from each other that it can rather be shown how each 
is included in the other, and thus one of the two may 
be dispensed with. 

§ 45. In the confessional documents of the EvangeHcal 
(Protestant) churches these two doctrines are not worked 
out in any distinctive way, and thus they are not to 
be regarded as ecclesiastically settled. 

§ 46. So long as these two doctrines, of Creation and 
of Preservation, are separate from each other, we must 
be specially on our guard against ranking the divine 
activity in the one lower than in the other. 

§ 47. Dogmatic determinations of the creation- 
doctrine, if alien elements are to be kept out of it, can 
only be precautionary. That is, they can only be a 
safeguard against the origin of the world being elsewhere 
so conceived as to contradict in some respect the pure 
expression of our feehng of dependence. This feeling 
itself, however, we can then express in the doctrine which 
deals with Preservation. 

First Doctrine : Of Creation. 

§ 48. The original definitions of the confessional 
documents are simple and pure expressions of the general 
feeling of dependence. 



17 

Second Section, the attributes of God in relation to the 
world, as they appear in that self-consciousness ; finally, 
in the Third Section, the constitution of the world in 
virtue of its absolute dependence on God, as it appears 
in that self-consciousness. 



First Section. — Description of our religious self-consciousness, 
regarded as an expression of the relation between the World 
and God. 

Introduction. 

§ 36. The original expression of this relation, viz., 
that the world subsists only in absolute dependence on 
God, breaks up in ecclesiastical doctrine into the two 
propositions, that the world was created by God, and 
that God sustains the world (Preservation). 

§ 37. Since the EvangeUcal (Protestant) Church has 
adopted both doctrines, but has not in her confessional 
documents given to either of them any distinctive char- 
acter, it behoves us so to treat them that, taken together, 
they will exhaust the meaning of the original expression. 

§ 38. The content of the original expression can be 
evolved out of either of the two doctrines, provided that 
in both of them, as in the original expression, God is 
regarded as the sole Determinant. 

§ 39. The doctrine of Creation should be explicated 
pre-eminently with a view to the exclusion of every alien 
element, lest there should creep into our field, through the 
influence of answers given elsewhere to the question 
of Origin, anything inconsistent with the pure expression 
of the feehng of absolute dependence. The doctrine of 
Preservation should be expHcated pre-eminently with a 
view to bringing out this basal feehng in the fullest way. 

First Doctrine : Of Creation. 

§ 40. The rehgious consciousness which is here our 
basis is inconsistent with any representation of the 
origin of the world which excludes anything whatsoever 
from origination by God, or places God Himself under 
those determinations and antitheses which have only 
arisen in the world and through the world. 



i8 



§ 49. In the more detailed and exact definitions of 
the creation-doctrine which are indicated in the later 
confessional documents, and which arose out of earUer 
discussions, the important points are : (i) the definitions 
about creation out of nothing must be taken in such a 
sense that no similarity to human handicraft is im- 
consciously introduced ; (2) while the notion of time is 
appUed to the act of creation, God Himself must not be 
placed in time ; (3) while creation is regarded as an 
act of the divine Will, God Himself must not be placed 
under the antithesis of freedom and necessity. 

§ 50. This then is how the proper safeguard is best 
expressed. Our general feeling of dependence on God 
would be contradicted by any solution of the question 
of the origin of the world by which its entire dependence 
on God was rendered doubtful ; and also by any 
solution which rendered doubtful God's independence 
of all determinations and antitheses which have only 
arisen in the world and through the world. 



First Appendix : Of the Angels. 

§ 51. The idea of inter- world beings, i.e. spiritual 
beings not definitely belonging to any one world but 
able to form for themselves at least a phenomenal 
body in harmony with the constitution of each world, 
does not contain in itself any demonstrable impossibiUty, 
and has thus succeeded in maintaining itself even in 
Christianity. 

§ 52. The confessional documents of the Protestant 
Church adopted the idea of angels incidentally, and the 
system of doctrine may thus leave it altogether a matter 
of uncertainty, without thereby moving away from these 
Symbols. 

§ 53. In the Old Testament the idea passed over 
from the stories of the legendary age into poetic usage. 
In the New Testament the stories of angels do not give 
any authentication that would be generally recognized ; 
and, moreover, the entire absence of any appHcation of 
the idea shows that Christ and the apostles only used it 
as anyone anywhere might adopt popular ideas. 



19 



§ 41. If the concept of Creation is to be further 
developed, the origin of the world must, indeed, be traced 
entirely to the divine activity, but not so as to characterize 
the latter on the analogy of human activity ; and the 
origin of the world must be represented as the event 
which conditions all change, but not so as to make the 
divine activity itself a temporal activity. 



First Appendix : Of the Angels. 

§ 42. This Old Testament idea has passed over also 
into the New Testament, and while on the one hand it 
neither contains in itself anything impossible nor conflicts 
with the ground of the believing consciousness in general, 
on the other hand it never enters into the sphere of 
Christian doctrine proper ; and thus it can continue to 
have its place in Christian language, without laying upon 
us the obligation to reach any conclusion on the 
question of its reahty. 



20 

§ 54- Hence the only doctrine which it seems possible 
to establish with reference to angels is that belief in these 
beings ought not to have any influence upon our conduct, 
and that revelations of their existence are now no longer 
to be expected. 

Second Appendix : Of the Devil. 

§ 55. The idea of fallen angels, who, being in union 
with God and at a high stage of spiritual perfection, 
suddenly set themselves in opposition to God and ever 
since combine the utmost wickedness with the highest 
degree of finite intelligence, is an idea which cannot be 
coherently carried through. 

§ 56. The confessional documents of the Protestant 
Church make no peculiar doctrinal use of this idea, 
and altogether no such use of it as would render it 
indispensable in our system of doctrine. 

§ 57. The Scriptures of the New Testament nowhere 
set up a proper doctrine of the Devil, nor in any way weave 
it into the plan of salvation. 

§ 58. Accordingly, the one thing which might be 
taught about the Devil would be, that, if there is to be 
any mention of him at all, it must be only on the pre- 
supposition that in the Kingdom of God all influence on 
his part is at an end. 

Second Doctrine : Of Preservation. 

§ 59. Everything which affects and determines our 
self-consciousness exists, as such, through God. 

§ 60. The consciousness just described, and insight 
into the determination of what affects us through the 
chain of natural causation, are everywhere entirely 
compatible with each other even when each is most 
complete. 

§ 61. From this it follows that, just as the fact of a 
definite revelation does not carry with it an absolutely 
supernatural element (ace. to § 20), no more can the 
necessity for assuming such an element arise anywhere 
in the whole realm of religion. 



21 

§ 43- The only thing which can be established as a 
doctrine concerning angels is this : that the question 
whether they exist ought not to have any influence upon 
our conduct, and that revelations of their existence are 
now no longer to be expected. 



Second Appendix : Of the Devil. 

§ 44. The idea of the Devil, as developed among us, 
is so unstable that we cannot expect of anybody a con- 
viction of its truth ; but further, our Church has never 
made doctrinal use of the idea. 

§ 45. In the New Testament Scriptures the Devil is 
indeed frequently mentioned, but neither Christ nor the 
apostles set up a new doctrine concerning him, and still 
less do they weave the idea in any way into the plan of 
salvation ; therefore the only thing we can estabUsh on 
the subject for the system of Christian doctrine is this : 
whatever is said about the Devil is subject to the condition 
that beUef in him must in no wise be set up as a condition 
of faith in God or in Christ, and that there can be no 
question of his having any influence within the Kingdom 
of God. 



Second Doctrine : Of Preservation. 

§ 46. The religious self-consciousness, in virtue of 
which we assign everything which affects or influences 
us to absolute dependence on God, is quite in harmony 
with the insight that all such things are conditioned and 
determined by the system of Nature. 

§ 47. The interests of rehgion can never make it 
necessary so to conceive a fact that its dependence on 
God absolutely excludes its being conditioned by the 
system of Nature. 

§ 48. Affections of the self -consciousness which express 
hindrances to Ufe are just as much to be assigned 
to absolute dependence upon God as those which express 
a furtherance of life. 



22 

§ 62. Everything too which affects us as evil, in the 
widest compass of the word, is comprehended with all 
else under the general relation of dependence, and ordered 
by God. 

§ 63. With respect to dependence on God, there is no 
difference of more or less, whether a finite agent has the 
highest degree of vitaUty — freedom — or is confined to 
the lowest — so-called natural mechanism. 



Second Section. — Of the divine attributes which relate to the 
feeling of dependence prior to the development of any 
antithesis therein, 

§ 64. All attributes which we ascribe to God are 
not to be taken as indicating something specific in God, 
but only something specific in the way in which we refer 
to God our feeling of absolute dependence. 

§ 65. God, as indicated in the feehng of absolute 
dependence, can only be so described that His causahty 
shall be, on the one hand, distinguished from, and thus 
set in antithesis to, the causality embraced in the system 
of Nature, and, on the other hand, equated with it as 
regards its range. 

First Doctrine: The Eternity of God. 
§ 66. The eternity of God is only to be understood 
as omnipotent eternity, i.e. as the element in God which 
conditions not only everything temporal but also time 
itself. 

Second Doctrine: The Omnipresence of God. 
§ 67. The omnipresence of God is only to be under- 
stood as omnipotent presence, i.e. as the element in God 
which conditions not only everything spatial but also 
space itself. 

Third Doctrine : The Omnipotence of God. 

§ 68. The conception of the divine omnipotence con- 
tains two things : first, that the entire system of Nature 
in all spaces and times is founded upon the divine 



23 



§ 49- Whether the thing which affects our self-con- 
sciousness, and thus influences us, is to be traced in any 
measure to the so-called mechanism of Nature, or to the 
activity of free causes, the one is ordered by God just as 
much as the other. 

Second Section. — Of the divine attributes which relate to the 
religious self^onsciousness in so far as the latter expresses 
the general relation between God and the World. 

§ 50. All attributes which we ascribe to God are not 
to be taken as indicating something specific in God, but 
only something specific in our manner of referring to 
Him the feehng of absolute dependence. 

§ 51. The absolute causality to which the feeling of 
absolute dependence points back can only be so described 
that, on the one hand, it is distinguished from, and thus 
set in antithesis to, the causahty embraced in the system 
of Nature, while, on the other hand, it is equated with 
it as regards its range. 

First Doctrine : God is Eternal. 

§ 52. By the eternity of God we understand the 
absolutely timeless causality of God, which conditions not 
only everything temporal but also time itself. 

Second Doctrine : God is Omnipresent. 

§ 53- ^y the omnipresence of God we understand the 
absolutely spaceless causahty of God, which conditions 
not only ever5rthing spatial but also space itself. 

Third Doctrine : God is Omnipotent. 

§ 54. The conception of the divine omnipotence con- 
tains two things : first, that the entire system of Nature, 
comprehending all spaces and times, is founded upon the 



24 

causality, which, as eternal and omnipresent, is in 
antithesis to all natural causality ; and secondly, that 
the divine causaUty, as expressed in our feehng of 
dependence, is completely exhibited in the totality of 
finite existence, and thus everything for which there 
is a productivity in God actually exists and comes to 
pass. 

Fourth Doctrine : The Omniscience of God. 

§ 69. The divine omniscience is not related to the 

divine omnipotence as understanding and will are 

humanly related to each other, but is simply the 
spirituality of the divine omnipotence itself. 

Appendix : Of Some Other Divine Attributes. 

§ 70. Of the remaining divine attributes that are usually 
specified, Unity, Infinity, and Simplicity especially are 
of the kind that have no reference to the antithesis which 
exists in the actual affections of the religious conscious- 
ness ; only, they cannot be regarded as divine attributes 
with the same right as those already dealt with. 



Third Sections Of the Constitution of the World as indi' 
cated in the feeling of dependence itself. 

§ 71. The feeling of dependence, as being universal, 
contains the belief in an original perfection of the world. 

§ 72. From the teleological point of view which 
we occupy, this doctrine falls into two parts : the 
doctrine of the original perfection of the rest of the 
world in relation to Man, and the doctrine of the original 
perfection of Man himself. 

First Doctrine : The Original Perfection 
OF THE World in Relation to Man. 

§ 73. If the feeling of absolute dependence is related 
to the world, as opposed to ourselves, this implies the 
two following assumptions : first, that the world offers 
to man an abundance of stimuli to develop all the con- 
ditions in which the consciousness of the Supreme Being 



25 

divine causality which, as eternal and omnipresent, is in 
antithesis to all finite causality ; and secondly, that the 
divine causality, as expressed in our feeUng of dependence, 
is completely exhibited in the totality of finite existence, 
and consequently everything for which there is a causaUty 
in God actually exists and comes to pass. 



Fourth Doctrine : God is Omniscient. 

§ 55- By the divine omniscience is to be understood 
the absolute spirituality of the divine omnipotence. 



Appendix to Second Section : Of some other 
Divine Attributes. 

§ 56. Among the usually specified divine attributes 
would further be found, as attributes that have no refer- 
ence to the antithesis in the affections of the religious 
consciousness, especially the Unity, Infinity, and Simplicity 
of God ; only, these cannot be regarded as divine attri- 
butes in the same sense as those already dealt with. 



Third Section: Of the Constitution of the World as 
indicated in the religious self^consciousness, in so far as 
the latter expresses the general relation between God and 
the World. 

§ 57. The feeUng of absolute dependence, as being 
universal, includes in itself the behef in an original 
perfection of the world. 

§ 58. The said behef is to be set forth in two doctrines : 
one of which treats of the perfection of the rest of the 
world in relation to Man, and the other of the perfection 
of Man himself. 

First Doctrine : Of the Original Perfection 
OF THE World. 

§ 59. Every moment in which we set ourselves in 
antithesis to the existence presented to us externally, 
contains two pre-suppositions : that the world offers the 



26 



can be realized ; and secondly, that the world can be 
treated by man in an abundance of gradations, so as 
to serve him partly as an organ, partly as a medium of 
expression. 

§ 74. The fact that the original relation of the rest 
of the world to the human organism has as one of its 
conditions the death of the human individual and all 
that impUes, is in no way prejudicial to the original per- 
fection of the world in relation to man. 



Second Doctrine : Of the Original Perfection 

OF Man. 

§ 75. The original perfection of man consists first in 
the capacity of his organism to be animated by the mind, 
or fin the conjunction of body and soul ; secondly, in 
the sensibility of his cognitive faculty to the surrounding 
world, or in the conjunction of Reason and Nature ; 
thirdly, in the mobility of individual feeling by com- 
munal feeling, or in the conjunction of the Individual 
and the Species ; and finally, in the capacity of uniting 
every mental state with the consciousness of the Supreme 
Being, or in the conjunction of the lower and the higher 
self-consciousness . 

§ 76. The conception of an original state of the first 
man cannot be given the definiteness required for a 
doctrinal concept ; and thus the concept of original 
perfection cannot in his case be didactically proved. 

§ "]"]. The symbolical documents certainly do elucidate 
the concept of the original perfection by a very in- 
coherent representation of the original state of the first 
man ; but in their essential content their assertions 
harmonize completely with the position established 
in §75. 



27 

human spirit an abundance of stimuli for the developing 
of the conditions in which the God-consciousness can 
be realized ; and that the world can be treated by man 
in manifold gradations, so as to serve him as an organ 
and as a medium of expression. 



Second Doctrine : Of the Original Perfection 
OF Man. 

§ 60. The tendency towards the God-consciousness, as 
an inward instinct, includes in itself the consciousness of 
being able by means of the human organism to attain 
to those states of self-consciousness in which the God- 
consciousness can be realized ; and the closely con- 
nected instinct to utter the God-consciousness includes 
in like manner the conjunction of the social conscious- 
ness with the personal self-consciousness ; and these two 
together constitute the original perfection of man. 

§ 61. The ways in which, in virtue of this original 
perfection of human nature, each human Ufe that comes 
into being by generation, continues to develop — it is this 
that furnishes the wealth of experience in the region of 
faith. But as to how imder the same pre-suppositions 
the first men developed, history fails us ; and the hints 
we have on that subject cannot give us a religious 
doctrine in our sense of the word. 



28 



Second Part of the System of Doctrine: Explica- 
tion of the indwelling consciousness of God, 
with reference to the temporary Antithesis 
therein. 

INTRODUCTION. 

§ 78. The above expression means the same as the 
phrase "as it actually appears in reaUzed moments of 
the individual human life." (see § 11). 

§ 79. Inasmuch as the essentially indwelling conscious- 
ness of God, being united with our self-consciousness in 
every actually reUgious moment, appears either in a 
feeling of pleasure or in a feehng of pain, the nature 
of the teleological point of view involves that both the 
arrest and the advancement of the higher life, whichever 
predominates in each moment, are put down as acts of 
the individual. 

§ 80. The pecuHarity of Christian piety consists in 
this, that we are conscious of the reluctance of our sensible 
affections to absorb the consciousness of God into them- 
selves, as our own act ; but are conscious of fellow- 
ship with God solely as something communicated to us 
by the Redeemer. 

§ 81. Although in every religious and Christian 
affection Sin and Grace always appear in combination, 
we must, nevertheless, separate them in order to under- 
stand Redemption ; and while remembering that we are 
only separating for the purpose of examination two things 
which in themselves are always combined, we must first 
treat of the discord between the sensible and the higher 
consciousness, i.e. of Sin, and then endeavour by the 
addition of Grace to grasp the essential content of the 
actual consciousness as removal of the discord, i.e. as 
Redemption. 

§ 82. If in our reUgious affections we widen our own 
consciousness to that of the world in general, then these 
would at the same time tell us that in the world in general 
also, opposite conditions arise through sin in men and 
through grace in men. 



29 



Second Part of the System of Doctrine: Explica" 
tion of the facts of the religious self-conscious^ 
ness, as it is determined by the Antithesis. 

INTRODUCTION. 

§ 62. The God-consciousness which we have described 
comes to fill an actual moment of our experience only 
imder the general form of self-consciousness, that is, the 
antithesis of pleasure and pain. 



§ 63. Now while in general the manner in which the 
God-consciousness shapes itself in and with the affected 
self-consciousness can be traced simply to the act of the 
individual, the peculiarity of Christian piety consists in 
this : that whatever aHenation from God there is in our 
affections, we are conscious of it as our own original act, 
which we call Sin ; but whatever fellowship with God 
there is, we are conscious of it as resting upon a com- 
munication from the Redeemer, which we call Grace. 

§ 64. It is necessary for our presentation to separate 
these two, so as to treat first of Sin and then of Grace ; 
and each of them according to all the three forms of 
dogmatic proposition. 



30 

§ 83. If, however, the consciousness of sin, as a 
rehgious affection, i.e. as a feeling of dependence, is only 
possible in conjunction with the consciousness of grace, 
then the consciousness of sin cannot yield any conceptions 
of divine attributes except in relation to grace ; and it 
follows from the corresponding proposition vice versa, 
that the consciousness of grace also cannot yield any such 
conceptions except in relation to sin. 

FIRST ASPECT: 
EXPLICATION OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN. 

§ 84. We have the consciousness of sin whenever our 
self-consciousness, as determined by the accompanying 
consciousness of God, takes the form of pain. 

§ 85. No explication of the consciousness of sin can 
be correct except that which, while not neglecting the 
reference to divine grace, removes the apparent contra- 
diction of this state with both the general feeling of 
dependence and the above-estabUshed conception of the 
original perfection of man. 

First Section: Sin as a State of Man. 

§ 86. In the consciousness of sin there lies the con- 
sciousness of an opposition between the Flesh, or that 
element in us which produces pleasure and pain, and the 
Spirit, or that element in us which produces conscious- 
ness of God. 

§ 87. Sin appears in us as the power and work of a 
time when the impulse towards the God-consciousness 
had not yet appeared in us. 

§ 88. The consciousness of sin is conditioned by the 
unequal progress of the understanding and the will. 

§ 89. Though sin, thus conceived, does not invalidate 
the conception of the original perfection of man, and 
we can understand how it appears in the temporal develop- 
ment thereof ; nevertheless we can only regard sin as a 
derangement of nature. 

§ 90. We are conscious of sin partly as grounded in 
ourselves, partly as having its ground outside of our own 
being. 



31 



FIRST ASPECT OF THE ANTITHESIS: 
EXPLICATION OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN. 

§ 65. All dogmatic propositions to be here set up must 
harmonize with those of similar form in the First Part ; 
but they must also have regard to the propositions of 
the Second Aspect which unfold the consciousness of 
Grace, the last being meanwhile held in reserve. 



First Section: Sin as a State of Man. 

§ 66. We have the consciousness of Sin whenever the 
God-consciousness which accompanies a mental state, or 
is in any wise added to it, determines our self-consciousness 
as peiin ; and therefore we conceive of sin as a positive 
conflict of the Flesh against the Spirit. 

§ 67. We are conscious of sin as the power and work 
of a time when the impulse towards the God-consciousness 
had not yet appeared in us. 

§ 68. Though sin can be so conceived, from the un- 
equal development of insight and will-power, that its 
presence does not invaUdate the conception of the 
original perfection of man, yet we can only regard sin 
as a derangement of nature. 

§ 69. We are conscious of sin partly as grounded in 
ourselves, partly as having its ground outside of our own 
being. 



32 



First Doctrine : Of Original Sin. 

§ 91. The sinfulness described in §§ 8y, 88, 90, 
grounded in every individual prior to any act, is in every 
case, apart from Redemption, a complete incapacity for 
good. 

§ 92. At the same time, however, original sin is the 
personal guilt of each individual in whom it exists, so 
that it is best represented simply as the collective act 
and collective guilt of the human race. 

§ 93. Inseparable from the consciousness of this 
collective guilt is the feeUng of the necessity of a 
redemption. 

§ 94. If we attribute this sinfulness, which is actually 
presented to us only in men born in the course of nature 
and living in fellowship with others, to the first man 
also, we must take care not to explain sinfulness in him 
as an alteration that has taken place in human nature 
generally. 

Second Doctrine : Of Actual Sin. 

§ 95. From original sin there always proceeds in all 
men actual sin. 

§ 96. In regard to sin there is no essential difference 
between men except the relation in which sin, in them, 
stands to redemption. 



Second Section; Of the Constitution of the World in 
relation to Sin. 

§ 97. Inasmuch as the world is the place of man, sin 
in man involves that there is also evil for man ; and this 
section therefore contains the Doctrine of Evil. 

§ 98. All evil, in its connection with sin, is to be 
regarded as the punishment thereof ; but only social evil 
as directly such, and natural evil as only indirectly. 

§ 99. The dependence of evil upon sin can, however, 
be found in experience only if we consider a commimal 
life as a whole, but not if we try to relate to each other 
the sin and the evil of an individual. 



33 



First Doctrine : Of Original Sin. 

§ 70. The sinfulness which is present in an individual 
before any action of his, and which has its ground outside 
of his own being, is in every case a complete incapacity 
for good, which can only be removed by the influence of 
Redemption. 

§ 71. At the same time, however, original sin is so 
really the personal guilt of each individual who has a 
part in it, that it is best represented as the collective 
act and collective guilt of the human race, and that the 
recognition of it is likewise recognition of the universal 
need of redemption. 

§ 72. Even if the idea we have thus developed cannot 
be applied in the same way to the first human pair, yet 
there is no reason for explaining the universal sinfulness 
by means of an alteration brought about in human nature 
in their person through the first sin. 



Second Doctrine : Of Actual Sin. 

§ 73. From original sin there always proceeds in all 
men actual sin. 

§ 74. In regard to sin there is no difference of worth 
between men, apart from the fact that it does not stand 
in the same relation to redemption in all. 

Second Section: Of the Constitution of the World 
in relation to Sin« 

§ 75. Once sin is present in man, he also finds in the 
world, as his place, persistent causes of hindrance to his 
life, i.e evil ; and therefore this section forms the 
Doctrine of Evil. 

§ 76. All evil is to be regarded as the punishment of 
sin ; but only social evil as directly such, and natural evil 
as only indirectly. 

§ 77. The dependence of evil upon sin can, however, 
be empirically established only if we consider a com- A 
munal hf e in its totality ; we must by no means relate />. t .^^^i^^ 
the evil in an individual's hfe to his sin, as to its cause. v5> 



34 

§ 100. The consciousness of evil is not without an 
effort to remove it ; nevertheless there cannot be any 
specific activity directed towards the removal of evil, 
but such effort resolves itself into the confidence that 
evil vanishes in proportion as sin is removed. 



Third Section: Of the Divine Attributes which relate 
to Sin and to Evil, 

§ loi. Divine attributes which relate to sin and to 
evil belong rather to the section on redemption, except 
in so far as God is the author of sin and evil. 

§ 102. Inasmuch as sin and grace are opposed to each 
other in our self-consciousness, the former cannot be 
traced to the divine causaUty precisely as the latter is ; 
and thus God cannot be regarded as the author of sin 
precisely as He is of redemption. But inasmuch as we 
never have a consciousness of grace without conscious- 
ness of sin, and the former is thus conditioned by the 
latter, we cannot deny that the existence of sin alongside 
of grace is also ordained by God. 

§ 103. This contradiction is solved in ecclesiastical 
doctrine by the position that God is not the author of 
sin but sin is grounded in the freedom of man. 

§ 104. What holds true of sin holds true also of evil, 
because of its connexion with sin ; and thus of evil also 
God is not the author, but it is grounded in the freedom 
of man. 

First Doctrine : The Holiness of God. 
§ 105. The divine holiness is that divine attribute in 
virtue of which in the entire Ufe of man Conscience is 
found conjoined with the need of redemption. 

Second Doctrine : The Justice of God. 
§ 106. The divine justice is that attribute in virtue of 
which God ordains, in the state of general sinfulness, a 
connexion between evil and actual sin. 



35 

Postscript to this Doctrine. 
§ 78. The consciousness of this connexion does not 
demand a passive endurance of evil on account of sin, 
nor does it entail an endeavour to bring on evil on account 
of sin, nor yet on the other hand an endeavour to do 
away with evil in itself. 

Third Section: Of the Divine Attributes which relate 
to the Consciousness of Sin, 

§ 79. Divine attributes which relate to the conscious- 
ness of sin, even if only through the fact that redemption 
is conditioned by sin, can only be established if we regard 
God as at the same time the author of sin. 

§ 80. Inasmuch as sin and grace are opposed in our 
self-consciousness, God cannot be thought of as author 
of sin in the same way in which He is author of redemption. 
But inasmuch as we never have a consciousness of grace 
without consciousness of sin, we must also assert that the 
existence of sin alongside of grace is ordained for us by God. 

§ 81. If ecclesiastical doctrine seeks to solve this con- 
tradiction by the proposition that God is not the author 
of sin, but that sin is grounded in the freedom of man, 
then this needs to be completed by the statement that 
God has ordained that the continually imperfect triumph 
of the spirit should become sin to us. 

§ 82. What has been said concerning the divine 
causahty in regard to sin holds also in regard to evil, in 
virtue of its connexion with sin. 

First Doctrine : God is Holy. 
§ 83. By the hoUness of God we understand that divine 
causahty through which in every human Ufe Conscience 
is found conjoined with the need of redemption. 

Second Doctrine : God is Just. 
§ 84. The justice of God is that divine causahty through 
which, in the state of general sinfulness, there is ordained 
a connexion between evil and actual sin. 

Appendix : Of the Mercy of God. 
§ 85. The ascription of mercy to God rather befits the 
province of homiletic and poetical language than that of 
dogmatic. 



36 

SECOND ASPECT : 
EXPLICATION OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF GRACE. 

§ 107. Every approximation in the life of the 
Christian to the state of blessedness is represented in 
his self-consciousness as an abrogation, effected by God 
and grounded in a new corporate life, of the misery 
developed in the corporate life of sin. 

§ 108. This consciousness on the part of the Christian 
implies that the misery involved in our natural state 
cannot be taken from us either by the recognition that 
sin is inevitable or by the supposition that after the 
lapse of an infinite length of time it will pass away. 

§ 109. This abrogation of misery is in the conscious- 
ness of the Christian traced back to the pure sinlessness 
and supreme perfection which actually existed in Christ 
and are communicated by Him. 

§ no. In the same sense in which it is impossible 
to say that sin as such is ordained by God, it is also 
impossible to say that redemption as such is ordained 
by God ; but, regarded from this point of view, the 
appearing of Christ is nothing but the completion of 
the creation of human nature. 

§ III. The propositions which work out, according to 
the three modes of presentation mentioned in § 34, the 
material here sketched in a general way bring to its com- 
pletion the System of Christian Doctrine, as a description 
of the immediate religious consciousness. 

First Section: Of the state of the Christian as conscious 
of Divine Grace. 
§ 112. The advancement of the higher hfe in the 
religious self-consciousness of the Christian being 
ascribed to the Redeemer (see § 80 f.), the being of the 
Redeemer in this intercourse of the two is regarded as 
active, while the being of the subjects of grace is regarded 
as receptive and appropriating. 

FIRST DIVISION I OF CHRIST. 

§ 113. The activity of the Redeemer and His pecuHar 
dignity are identified in the rehgious consciousness of 
the beUever. 



37 

SECOND ASPECT OF THE ANTITHESIS: 
EXPLICATION OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF GRACE. 

Introduction. 

§ 86. The more distinctly conscious we become that 
the misery involved in our natural state cannot be removed 
by the recognition that sin is inevitable, nor by the sup- 
position that it decreases of itself, the higher appears the 
value of Redemption. 

§ 87. We are conscious of all approximations in the 
Christian life to the state of blessedness as grounded in a new 
divinely-effected corporate life, which works in opposition to 
the corporate life of sin and the misery therein developed. 

§ 88. In this corporate life which goes back to the 
influence of Jesus, redemption is effected by Him through 
the communication of His sinless perfection. 

§ 89. In the same sense in which it can be said that 
sin is not ordained by God and does not exist for Him 
(cf. § 81), the term redemption also would not be suitable 
for this new communication of a powerful God-conscious- 
ness : and thus from that point of view the appearing 
of Christ and the instituting of this new life would have 
to be regarded as the completion, only now accomplished, 
of the creation of human nature. 

§ 90. The propositions which work out, according to 
the three points of view given in § 30, the content of the 
consciousness of grace as here set forth, bring to its 
completion the System of Christian Doctrine as we here 
conceive its bounds. 

First Section: Of the state of the Christian as conscious 
of the Divine Grace. 
§ 91. We have fellowship with God (cf. § 63) only in 
such a living fellowship with the Redeemer, that in it 
His absolutely sinless perfection and blessedness represent 
a free spontaneous activity, while the recipient's need of 
redemption represents a free assimilative receptivity. 

FIRST DIVISION : OF CHRIST. 

§ 92. The pecuhar activity and the exclusive dignity 
of the Redeemer point to and imply each other, and 
are inseparably one in the self-consciousness of believers. 



38 



First Doctrine : Of the Person of Christ. 

§ 114. The advancement of the higher Ufe in the 
consciousness of the Christian being traced back to the 
Redeemer, this consciousness relates itself to the 
historical and the ideal in His person as inseparably 
united elements. 

§ 115. Now if these two, historical and ideal, are 
thus united in the Redeemer, the ideal must appear in 
the form of the historical, i.e. the Redeemer must have 
a development in time ; but each historical moment 
must at the same time express the essence of the ideal, 
and thus that which is not conditioned by time. 

§ 116. In virtue of this union of the historical and 
the ideal the Redeemer is on the one hand, as regards 
His human nature, completely Uke ourselves ; but on 
the other hand, as the originator of a new life destined 
to spi^ead over the whole human race, He is distinguished 
from all other men by the fact that the God-consciousness 
which dwelt in Him was a real existence of God in Him. 

§ 117. First Theorem. — In Christ divine nature and 
human nature were combined into one Person. 

§ 118. [Second Theorem], — As regards His humanity, 
Christ was distinguished from all other men by His super- 
natural conception, by His peculiar excellence, and by 
the impersonal character of human nature in Him, apart 
from its union with the divine nature. 

§ 119. Third Theorem. — In the union of the divine 
essence with the human nature in Christ, the divine 
essence alone was active or self-imparting, and the human 
nature alone passive and in process of assumption ; but 
in the actual state of union, every activity was a common 
activity of both together. 

§ 120. The facts of the Resurrection and Ascension 
of Christ, and the prediction of His coming again for 
Judgment, do not stand in any direct and close connexion 
with the proper doctrine of His Person. 

Second Doctrine : Of the Work of Christ. 

§ 121. The redeeming activity of Christ consists in 
His communicating to us His sinlessness and perfection. 



39 



First Doctrine : Of the Person of Christ. ^ 

§ 93. If the spontaneity of the new life is original in 
the Redeemer and proceeds from Him alone. He must, 
as a historical individual, be at the same time ideal, i.e, 
the ideal must in Him become completely historical, and 
each historical moment of His life must have Hkewise 
borne within itself the ideal. 

§ 94. The Redeemer, accordingly, is hke all men in 
virtue of the identity of human nature, but distinguished 
from all men by the constant strength of His God- 
consciousness, which was a veritable existence of God 
in Him. 

§ 95. The ecclesiastical formulas concerning the Person 
of Christ need to be subjected to a continual criticism. 

§ 96. First Theorem. — In Jesus Christ divine nature and 
human nature were combined into one Person. 

§ 97. Second Theorem. — In the imion of the divine 
nature with the human, the divine alone was active or 
self-imparting, and the human alone passive or in process 
of assumption ; but in the actual state of union, every 
activity was a common activity of both together. 

§ 98. Third Theorem. — Christ was distinguished from 
all other men by His essential sinlessness and His absolute 
perfection. 

§ 99. The facts of the Resurrection and Ascension of 
Christ, and the prediction of His coming again for 
Judgment, cannot be taken as properly constituent parts 
of the doctrine of His Person. 



Second Doctrine : Of the Work of Christ. 

§ 100. The Redeemer assumes beUevers into the power 
of His God-consciousness (cf. § 88), and this is His 
redemptive activity. 



40 

§ 122. The reconciling activity of Christ consists in 
His assuming us into the fellowship of His blessedness. 

§ 123. Ecclesiastical doctrine divides the whole 
activity of Christ into three ofi&ces : the prophetic, the 
priestly, and the kingly. 

§ 124. First Theorem. — The prophetic office of Christ 
consists in teaching, prophesying, and working miracles. 

§ 125. [Second Theorem^. — The priestly office of Christ 
includes : (i) His perfect fulfilment of the Law, or His 
active obedience ; (2) His atoning death, or His passive 
obedience ; and (3) His intercession with the Father 
for believers. 

§ 126. [Third Theorem]. — The kingly office of Christ 
consists in the fact that everything which the community 
of believers requires for its subsistence continually pro- 
ceeds from Him. 



SECOND DIVISION : OF THE MANNER IN WHICH REDEMP- 
TION IS APPROPRIATED BY THE SOUL. 

§ 127. The analysis of the self-consciousness which 
characterizes the redeemed man, as such, is comprehended 
in the two doctrines of Regeneration and Sanctification. 



First Doctrine : Of Regeneration. 

§ 128. The divine activity on which the commence- 
ment of the new life rests is, as in Scripture, designated 
by the term Justification ; but the change which there- 
with takes place in a man is designated by the term 
Conversion. 



First Theorem : Of Justification, 

§ 129. God's justifying of man includes the forgive- 
ness of his sins and his recognition as a child of God. 
But the justification of the man is established only in 
so far as the man has true faith in the Redeemer. 



41 

§ loi. The Redeemer assumes the believers into the 
fellowship of His imclouded blessedness, and this is His 
reconciling activity. 

§ 102. Ecclesiastical doctrine divides the whole activity 
of Christ into three Offices : the prophetic, the priestly, and 
the kingly. 

§ 103. First Theorem. — The prophetic office of Christ 
consists in teaching, prophesying, and working miracles. 

§ 104. Second Theorem. — The priestly office of Christ 
includes His perfect fulfilment of the law, or His active 
obedience, His atoning death, or His passive obedience, 
and His intercession with the Father for behevers. 

§ 105. Third Theorem. — The kingly office of Christ 
consists in the fact that everything which the community 
of behevers requires for its well-being continually pro- 
ceeds from Him. 

SECOND DIVISION : OF THE MANNER IN WHICH FELLOW- 
SHIP WITH THE PERFECTION AND BLESSEDNESS OF 
THE REDEEMER EXPRESSES ITSELF IN THE IN- 
DIVIDUAL SOUL. 

§ 106. The self-consciousness which characterizes the 
man who has been assumed into living fellowship with 
Christ is set forth under the two conceptions of Regenera- 
tion and Sanctification. 



First Doctrine : Of Regeneration. 

§ 107. This assumption into living fellowship with 
Christ, when regarded as a changed relation of the man 
to God, is his Justification ; when regarded as a changed 
manner of hfe, it is his Conversion. 

First Theorem : Of Conversion. 

§ 108. Conversion, as the beginning of the new Ufe in 
fellowship with Christ, manifests itself in every individual 
through Repentance, which consists in the combination of 
regret with a change of mind ; and through Faith, which 
consists in the appropriation of the perfection and blessed- 
ness of Christ. 



43 

Second Theorem : Of Conversion. 

§ 130. Conversion, or the transition from the fellow- 
ship of sin to the fellowship of grace, manifests itself in 
every individuad through Repentance, which consists in 
the combination of regret with a change of mind ; and 
through Faith, which consists in the appropriation of 
the sinlessness and blessedness of Christ. 



Second Doctrine : Of the Life of the Redeemed 
IN Fellowship with Christ; or, Of Sancti- 

FICATION. 

§ 131. Through his adoption as a child of God there 
arises in the regenerate soul a new power, which more 
and more takes possession of all his activities, so as to 
produce a life akin to the sinlessness and blessedness of 
Christ ; and the growth of this life is the state o f 
Sanctification. 

§ 132. The advances in the process of sanctification 
spring from the activity of faith working through love, 
but the checks arise from the after-workings of the past 
selfish state of the carnal personahty. 



Second Section: Of the Constitution of the "World in 
relation to Redemption. 

§ 133. That in the world which appeals to us as 
directly akin to the divine grace within us, and which 
we must therefore trace Ukewise to redemption and 
regard as the result thereof, is the fellowship of beUevers 
in the world ; hence this section contains the doctrine 
of the Christian Church. 

§ 134. Now since the corporate life of Christians 
forms the antithesis to the corporate hfe based on the 
sinfulness of men, and has its beginning only through 
Christ, the first point for consideration is how the Church 
appears to us as forming and increasing itself out of the 
midst of the world ; and so the first division treats of 
the origin of the Church. Next we must become clear as 
to how, while the two exist side by side, the Church can 



43 

Second Theorem : Of Justification. 

§ 109. God's justifying of the convert includes the 
forgiving of his sins and the recognizing of him as a child 
of God. But this transformation of his relation to God 
results only in so far as the man has true faith in the 
Redeemer. 

Second Doctrine : Of Sanctification. 
§ no. In Uving fellowship with Christ the natural 
powers of the regenerate are put at His disposal, whereby 
there is produced a Ufe akin to His perfection and 
blessedness ; and this is the state of Sanctification. 

First Theorem : Of the sins of the regenerate. 
§ III. The sins of those in the state of sanctification 
always carry their forgiveness with them and are unable 
to annul the divine grace of regeneration, because they 
are continually being combated. 

Second Theorem : Of the good works of the Regenerate. 

§ 112. The good works of the regenerate are natural 
effects of faith, and as such are objects of the divine good- 
pleasure. 

Second Section: Of the Constitution of the World 
in relation to Redemption* 

§ 113. All that comes to exist in the world through 
redemption is embraced in the fellowship of believers, 
in which all regenerate people are always found ; hence 
this section contains the doctrine of the Christian Church. 

§ 114. If we are to gather together all the utterances 
of our Christian self-consciousness concerning the fellow- 
ship of believers, we shall first have to treat of the origin 
of the Church, or the manner in which it forms itself out 
of the midst of the world ; next of the manner in which 
the Church maintains itself in antithesis to the world ; 
and lastly, of the abrogation of this antithesis, or the 
prospects of the consummation of the Church. 



44 

be recognized in its antithesis to the world and its 
independent identity ; and so the second division treats 
of the doctrine of the Church in the narrower sense. 
Finally, as the Church proceeds from Christ and grows 
by His divine power, so the world that is opposed to 
it must decrease ; and in this consciousness of the increase 
of the Church and decrease of the world, there Ues hke- 
wise the expectation that the co-existence of Church and 
world will come to an end, and that the latter will some 
time be entirely resolved into the former ; and so the 
third division treats of the doctrine of the consummation of 
the Church. 

FIRST DIVISION : OF THE ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH. 

§ 135. Inasmuch as the corporate life of the redeemed 
is conditioned by the fact that individuals are through 
the divine justification received into the living fellow- 
ship of Christ, the thing that now remains to be 
elucidated is the diversified manner in which this divine 
activity behaves towards the mass of individuals ; and 
this is the subject of the doctrine of Election. On the 
other hand, inasmuch as the antithesis of each individual 
to the world is conditioned by the fact that all beUevers 
form one corporate life and have one and the same 
common Spirit, there still remains to be discussed the 
manner in which each individual possesses this common 
Spirit, and the relation of its indwelling in individuals 
to its indwelling in the whole community ; and this is 
the subject of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. 

First Doctrine : Of Election. 

§ 136. From the fact that God willed the salvation 
of men under the form of a Kingdom of God, whose 
founder is Christ, it necessarily follows that, so long as 
the human race continues on earth, those Uving at any 
one time are never all in the Church. 

§ 137. Christian sjmipathy feels no uneasiness over 
the fact that some are adopted earher, some later, into 
the fellowship of redemption ; but there does remain 
for it an insoluble discord on the supposition that one 



45 



FIRST DIVISION : OF THE ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH. 

§ 115. The Christian Church is formed by the 
coining together of regenerate individuals into an ordered 
reciprocation and co-operation. 



§ 116. The origin of the Church becomes clear through 
the two doctrines of Election and Communication of the 
Holy Spirit. 

First Doctrine : Of Election. 

§ 117. In accordance with the laws of the divine 
government of the world, so long as the himian race 
continues on earth, all those Uving at any one time can 
never be uniformly adopted into the Kingdom of God 
founded by Christ. 

§ 118. Even if Christian sympathy feels no uneasiness 
about the earUer and later adoption of one and another 
individual into the fellowship of redemption, yet on the 
other hand there does remain an insoluble discord if. 



46 

part of the human race is to possess exclusively the 
salvation of this fellowship, while another part is to 
remain completely excluded from it. 

§ 138. First Theorem. — There is only one divine pre- 
destination, namely, the election of those who are 
justified to salvation in Christ. 

§ 139. Second Theorem. — Election, considered apart 
from the universal divine ordering of the world, rests 
upon the foreseen faith of the elect ; but considered in 
the universal ordering of the world and as the real centre 
thereof, it appears as determined solely by the divine 
good-pleasure. 



Second Doctrine : Of the Holy Spirit. 

§ 140. Everyone who is in the state of Christian 
sanctification is conscious, in his union with like-minded 
people, of a common Spirit which he must regard as due 
not simply to nature but to grace. 

§ 141. This common Spirit could not fully develop 
itself until after the departure of the Redeemer from 
earth ; but since then, to receive this Spirit into oneself 
and to be received into the fellowship of Christ are 
exactly the same thing. 

§ 142. First Theorem. — The Holy Spirit is the union 
of the divine essence with human nature under the form 
of the common Spirit which animates the corporate life 
of behevers. 

§ 143. Second Theorem. — Just as the sending of the 
Spirit depended from the first on the appearing of Christ 
and on His personal activity, so now for each individual 
Christian to possess Christ and to possess the Holy Spirit 
are one and the same thing. 

§ 144. Third Theorem. — The Christian Church, sub- 
sisting as it does through the fellowship-forming union 
of the divine essence and human nature, is in its com- 
plete form a copy of the Redeemer who subsists through 
the person-forming union of these two ; and everyone 
who through regeneration has become partaker of the 
Holy Spirit, is a necessary and constituent member of that 
fellowship. 



47 

on the supposition of survival after death, we are to think 
of a part of the human race as completely excluded 
from this fellowship. 

First Theorem : Of Predestination. 
§ 119. The election of those who are justified is a 
divine predestination to salvation in Christ. 

Second Theorem : Of the Grounds of Election. 
§ 120. Election, considered as influencing the divine 
government of the world, is grounded in the foreseen 
faith of the elect ; but considered as resting on the divine 
government of the world, it is determined solely by the 
divine good-pleasure. 

Second Doctrine : Of the Communication 
OF THE Holy Spirit. 

§ 121. All who are Uving in the state of sanctification 
are conscious of an inward impulse to become ever more 
and more one, in communal co-operation and reciproca- 
tion, this being the common Spirit of the new corporate life 
founded by Christ. 

§ 122. The Holy Spirit could, as this common Spirit, 
only be fully communicated and received after the 
departure of Christ from earth. 

§ 123. First Theorem. — ^The Holy Spirit is the union 
of the divine essence with human nature in the form of 
the common Spirit which animates the corporate life of 
believers. 

§ 124. Second Theorem. — Every regenerate person par- 
takes of the Holy Spirit, so that there is no Hving fellow- 
ship with Christ without indwelling of the Holy Spirit ; 
and vice versa. 

§ 125. Third Theorem. — The Christian Church, ani- 
mated by the Holy Spirit, is in its pure and complete 
form the perfect copy of the Redeemer, and every 
regenerate individual is a necessary and constituent part 
of this fellowship. 



48 



SECOND DIVISION : OF THE SUBSISTENCE OF THE 
CHURCH ALONGSIDE OF THE WORLD. 

§ 145. The fellowship of believers, as hitherto 
described, is always the same in its relation to Christ 
and in regard to the Spirit which animates it ; but in 
its relation to the world it is subject to change and 
variation. 

First Half : The Essential and Invariable Features o£ the Church. 
§ 146. Inasmuch as the Church only subsists through 
the transition from receptivity towards Christ to active 
fellowship with Him (cf. § 140 f.), it remains always self- 
identical in the sense that this transition always comes 
about through the same influence of Christ ; and this 
happens by means of Holy Scripture and the Ministry of 
the Word of God. Inasmuch as the Church only subsists 
through the fact that the share which each individual, 
according to the indwelling of Christ in him, has in the 
common Spirit of the Church, rests upon the activity 
of this Spirit in the Church as a whole, the Church remains 
always self-identical, in the sense that this influence of 
the whole upon the individual is always based upon the 
same ordinance of Christ ; and this fact is represented by 
the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. But 
inasmuch as the existence of the Church and its extension 
are, from our present standpoint, inseparable from each 
other, it will always remain self-identical in the sense 
that whatever is done by individuals for its extension 
under the impulse of the divine Spirit is at the same time 
the activity of Christ Himself ; and this appears in the 
exercise of the Power of the Keys and in Prayer in the Name 
of Christ. These are therefore the doctrines to be treated 
at this point. 

First Doctrine : Of Holy Scripture. 

§ 147. Holy Scripture is, on the one hand, the first 
member in the continuing series of presentations of the 
Christian Faith ; but, on the other hand, it is the norm 
for all succeeding presentations. 



49 



SECOND DIVISION : OF THE SUBSISTENCE OF THE 
CHURCH ALONGSIDE OF THE WORLD. 

§ 126. The fellowship of believers, animated by the 
Holy Spirit, remains ever self -identical in its attitude to 
Christ and to this Spirit, but in its relation to the world 
it is subject to change and variation. 



First Half : The Essential and Invariable Features of the Church. 

§ 127. The Christian fellowship, in spite of the muta- 
bility inseparable from its co-existence with the world, 
is, nevertheless, always and everywhere self-identical, 
inasmuch as, first, the witness to Christ remains in it 
ever the same, and this is found in Holy Scripture and 
in the Ministry of the Word of God ; inasmuch, secondly, 
as the formation and maintenance of hving fellowship 
with Christ rests upon the same ordinances of Christ, 
and these are Baptism and the Lord's Supper ; inasmuch, 
finally, as the reciprocal influence of the whole on the 
individual, and of individuals on the whole, is always 
uniformly ordered, and this is seen in the Fower of the 
Keys and in Prayer in the Name of Jesus. 



First Doctrine : Of Holy Scripture. 

§ 128. The authority of Holy Scripture cannot be the 
foundation of faith in Christ ; rather must the latter be 
presupposed before a peculiar authority can be granted 
to Holy Scripture. 



50 

§ 148. The authority of Holy Scripture is in no wise 
the preliminary foundation of Christian faith ; on the 
contrary. Christian faith is presupposed when anyone 
grants a peculiar authority to Holy Scripture. 

§ 149. First Theorem. — ^As regards its origin Holy 
Scripture is authentic; and as a norm for Christian 
doctrine it is sufficient. 

§ 150. Second Theorem. — The individual books of Holy 
Scripture are inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the 
collection of them took place under the guidance of the 
Holy Spirit. 



Second Doctrine : Of the Ministry of the 
Word of God. 

§ 151. In the fellowship of Christian piety, some 
members of the Christian Church must maintain chiefly 
the receptive attitude, others chiefly the communicative. 
These latter perform the Ministry of God's Word, which 
is partly an indeterminate and occasioral ministry, partly 
formal and prescribed. 

§ 152. First Theorem. — There is in the Christian 
Church a public ministry, which is a definite office 
committed to men under fixed forms, and from which 
all organization of the Church proceeds. 

§ 153. Second Theorem. — ^The pubUc service of the 
Church is everywhere bound to the Word of God. 

Third Doctrine : Of Baptism. 

§ 154. Regarded as an action of the Church, Baptism 

simply signifies that act of the Church's will by 

which it receives individuals into its fellowship ; but 

inasmuch as there rests upon it the promise of Christ, 






51 

§ 129- The Holy Scriptures of the New Testament are, 
on the one hand, the first member in the series, ever 
since continued, of presentations of the Christian Faith ; 
on the other hand, they are the norm for all succeeding 
presentations. 

§ 130. First Theorem. — The individual books of the 
New Testament are inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the 
collection of them took place under the guidance of the 
Holy Spirit. 

§ 131. Second Theorem. — As regards their origin the 
New Testament Scriptures are authentic, and as a norm 
for Christian Doctrine they are sufficient. 

§ 132. Postscript to this Doctrine. — The Old Testament 
Scriptures owe their place in our Bible partly to the 
appeals the New Testament Scriptures make to them, 
partly to the historical connection of Christian worship 
with the Jewish Synagogue ; but the Old Testament 
Scriptures do not on that account share the normative 
dignity or the inspiration of the New. 

Second Doctrine : Of the Ministry of the 
Word of God. 

§ 133. Those members of the Christian fellowship who 
maintain chiefly the attitude of spontaneity perform by 
self-communication the Ministry of God's Word for those 
who maintain chiefly the receptive attitude ; and this 
Ministry is partly an indeterminate and occasional 
ministry, partly formal and prescribed. 

§ 134. First Theorem. — There is in the Christian Church 
a public Ministry of the Word, as a definite office com- 
mitted to men under fixed forms ; and from this proceeds 
all organization of the Church. 

§ 135. Second Theorem. — The public worship and 
service of the Church is in all its parts bound to the Word 
of God. 

Third Doctrine : Of Baptism. 

§ 136. Baptism as an action of the Church signifies 
simply the act of will by which the Church receives the 
individual into its fellowship ; but inasmuch as the 



52 

which cannot be ineffectual, Baptism is at the same 
time the channel of the divine justifying activity, through 
which the individual is received into the living fellowship 
of Christ. 

§ 155. First Theorem. — Baptism bestowed according to 
the institution of Christ confers, along with citizenship 
in the Christian Church, salvation also as conditioned by 
the divine grace of regeneration. 

§ 1556. Second Theorem. — Infant Baptism is a perfect 
Baptism only when the profession of faith which comes 
after the subsequent instruction is regarded as the act 
which consummates it. 

Fourth Doctrine : Of the Lord's Supper. 

§ 156. The Lord's Supper, as a partaking of the body 
and blood of Christ according to His institution, is a 
strengthening of the reciprocal vital fellowship of 
Christians, and at the same time also a strengthening 
of the fellowship of each with Christ, and vice versa. 

§ 157. With regard to the conjunction of the bread 
and wine and the body and blood of Christ, the Evangelical 
(Protestant) Church only takes up a definite attitude in 
opposition, on the one hand, to those who would make 
this conjunction independent of the act of participation, 
and, on the other hand, to those who would not admit 
any connexion between bodily participation in the bread 
and wine and spiritual participation in the body and 
blood of Christ. 

§ 158. First Theorem. — The use of the Sacrament 
conduces in the case of all believers to confirm their 
union with Christ. 

§ 159. Second Theorem. — Unworthy participation in 
the Lord's Supper conduces to judgment for the partaker. 

Appendix to the Last Two Doctrines : Of 
THE Concept "Sacrament'* in General. 
§ 160. Under this name (which is equally foreign to 
the language of Scripture and to the structure of the 
system) we can include only these two observances, 
which were instituted by Christ Himself and which re- 
present His priestly activity. 



53 

effectual promise of Christ rests upon it, it is at the same 
time the channel of the divine justifying activity, through 
which the individual is received into the living fellowship 
of Christ. 

§ 137. First Theorem. — Baptism bestowed according to 
the institution of Christ confers, along with citizenship in 
the Christian Church, salvation also as conditioned by 
the divine grace in regeneration. 

§ 138. Second Theorem. — Infant Baptism is a complete 
Baptism only when the profession of faith which comes 
after further instniction is regarded as the act which con- 
summates it. 

Fourth Doctrine : Of the Lord's Supper. 

§ 139. Christians in partaking of the Lord's Supper 
experience a pecuhar strengthening of the spiritual Ufe ; 
for therein, according to the institution of Christ, His 
body and His blood are administered to them. 

§ 140. With regard to the connexion between the 
bread and wine and the body and blood of Christ in the 
Lord's Supper, the EvangeUcal (Protestant) Church only 
takes up a definite attitude in opposition, on the one hand, 
to those who regard this connexion as independent of the 
act of participation, and, on the other hand, to those who, 
regardless of this connexion, would not admit any con- 
junction between participation in the bread and wine and 
spiritual participation in the flesh and blood of Christ. 

§ 141. First Theorem. — Participation in the body and 
blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper conduces in the case 
of all believers to confirm their fellowship with Christ. 

§ 142. Second Theorem. — Unworthy participation in the 
Lord's supper conduces to judgment for the partaker. 



Appendix to the Last Two Doctrines : Of 
the Name '* Sacrament." 

§ 143. The Evangelical (Protestant) Church uses the 
name Sacrament only for these two institutions. Baptism 
and the Lord's Supper, which were instituted by Christ 
Himself and which represent His priestly activity. 



54 

Fifth Doctrine : Of the Power of the Keys. 

§ i6i. Solely by reason of its co-existence with the 
world the Church comes to have a legislative and 
executive power, which is an essential effluence from the 
kingly power of Christ. 

§ 162. Theorem. — The Church exercises the right of 
deciding what belongs to the Christian life, and of 
judging each individual according to the measure of his 
conformity with these decisions. 

Sixth Doctrine : Of Prayer in the name of Jesus. 

§ 163. It befits the Christian Church to have a right 
prevision of what will be salutary for it in its co-existence 
with the world ; and this naturally becomes Prayer. 

§ 163a. Theorem. — Every prayer in the name of Jesus 
is heard ; but only such prayer has this promise. 

Second Half : The Mutable Element in the Church in virtue o! its 
cO'Cxistence with the World* 

§ 164. Inasmuch as the co-existence of the Church 
with the world involves certain influences of the world 
upon the development of the Church, there is thereby 
established an antithesis between the Visible and the 
Invisible Church. 

§ 165. The antithesis may be comprehended in these 
two heads : that the Visible Church is a divided church, 
the Invisible an undivided unity ; and that the Visible 
Church is always subject to error, the Invisible always 
infallible. 

First Doctrine : Of the Plurality of the Visible 
Churches in Relation to the Unity of the 
Invisible. 

§ 166. The Christian Church has never been without 
separations ; but it can never be without the endeavour 
to reunite the separates. 

§ 167. First Theorem. — The complete suspension of 
fellowship between two churches is unchristian. 

§ 168. Second Theorem. — All separations in the Chris- 
tian Church are temporary. 



55 

Fifth Doctrine : Of the Power of the Keys. 

§ 144. By reason of its co-existence with the world 
there exists in the Church a legislative and an adminis- 
trative power, which is an essential effluence from the 
kingly office of Christ. 

§ 145. Theorem. — The Power of the Keys is the power 
in virtue of which the Church decides what belongs to 
the Christian Hfe, and disposes of each individual according 
to the measure of his conformity with these decisions. 

Sixth Doctrine : Of Prayer in the 
Name of Christ. 
§ 146. The right prevision which it befits the Church 
to have of what will be salutary for it in its co-existence 
with the world, naturally becomes Prayer, 

§ 147. Theorem. — Every prayer in the name of Jesus 
— but only such prayer — has the promise of Christ that 
it is heard. 

Second Half: The Mutable Element which belongs to the Church 
in virtue of its co^existence with the "World. 

§ 148. The fact that the Church cannot form itself out 
of the midst of the world without the world exercising 
some influence on the Church, establishes for the Church 
itself the antithesis between the Visible and the Invisible 
Church. 

§ 149. The antithesis between the Visible and the In- 
visible Church may be comprehended in these two pro- 
positions : the former is a divided church, while the latter 
is an undivided unity ; and the former is always subject 
to error, while the latter is infalhble. 

First Doctrine : Of the Plurality of the Visible 
Churches in Relation to the Unity of the In- 
visible. 

§ 150. Whensoever separations actually occur in the 
Christian Church, there can never be lacking an endeavour 
to unite the separates. 

§ 151. First Theorem. — The complete suspension of 
fellowship between different parts of the visible Church 
is unchristian. 



56 

§ 169. Postscript — When it is asserted that from the 
first beginning of the human race there has been only 
one true Church, which will always remain one and the 
same, this is not to be understood in the sense that the 
Christian Church properly so-called is itself only a part 
of a larger whole. 



Second Doctrine : Of the Fallibility of the 
Visible Church in Relation to the Infalli- 
bility OF the Invisible. 

§ 170. In every branch of the Visible Church error is 
possible, and therefore also in some respects actual ; 
but there is never lacking the corrective power of truth. 

§ 171. First Theorem. — No presentation of the Christian 
religion issuing from the Visible Church contains pure 
and perfect truth. 

§ 172. Second Theorem. — All errors in the Visible 
Church come to be removed, while the truth, which con- 
stitutes the essence of the Invisible Church, always dwells 
also in the Visible. 



third division : of the consummation of the 

CHURCH. 

§ 173. The consummation of the Church, in the sense 
provisionally indicated above (§ 134), is not to be attained 
in the course of human Ufe on earth ; and the representa- 
tion of it has thus directly only the value of an ideal. 

§ 174. The belief in the eternal perpetuation of the 
union of the divine essence with human nature in the 
person of the Redeemer contains in itself also the belief 
in the eternal perpetuation of human personality in 
general. Thus there arises for the Christian the further 
task especially of forming a conception of the state that 
succeeds death. 

§ 175. The two ideas here indicated, that of the 
consummation of the Church and that of the state of 
men after death, are united in the Christian ideas of the 
Last Things ; but we cannot ascribe to these ideas the 
same value as to the other doctrines of the Faith. 



57 

§ 152. Second Theorem. — All separations in the Chris- 
tian Church are merely temporary. 

Second Doctrine : Of the Fallibility of the Visible 
Church in Relation to the Infallibility of the 
Invisible. 

§ 153. As in every branch of the Visible Church error 
is possible, and therefore also in some respects actual, 
so also there is never lacking in any the corrective power 
of truth. 

§ 154. First Theorem. — No presentation of the Chris- 
tian rehgion issuing from the Visible Church contains pure 
and perfect truth. 

§ 155. Second Theorem. — All errors which are generated 
in the Visible Church come to be removed by the truth 
which never ceases to work in it. 

§ 156. Appendix to these two Doctrines. — The assertion 
that the true Church began with the beginning of the 
human race and remains one and the same on to the end 
of it, must not be understood to imply that the Christian 
Church properly so-called is in itself only part of a larger 
whole. 

THIRD division I OF THE CONSUMMATION OF 
THE CHURCH. 

§ 157. Since the Church cannot attain to its con- 
summation in the course of human Mfe on earth, the 
representation of its consummated state is directly useful 
only as a pattern to which we have to approximate. 

§ 158. As the beUef in the immutabihty of the union 
of the divine essence with human nature in the person 
of Christ contains in itself also the beUef in the per- 
sistence of human personality, this produces in the 
Christian the impulse to form a conception of the state 
that succeeds death. 

§ 159. The solution of these two problems, to represent 
the Church in its consummation and the state of souls 
in the future life, is attempted in the ecclesiastical doctrines 
of the Last Things ; but we cannot ascribe to these doctrines 
the same value as to the doctrines already handled. 



58 



First Prophetic Doctrine : Of the Return of 
Christ. 

§ 176. Christ during His life gave His disciples comfort- 
ing promises of His return, which they could not 
regard as fulfilled by the days of His resurrection ; and 
we beheve that these promises will come to fulfilment 
along with the termination of the earthly state of men. 
Now since this carries with it the separation of the good 
and the bad, our expectation is of the Return of Christ for 
Judgment. 



Second Prophetic Doctrine : Of the 
Resurrection of the Flesh. 

§ 177. Christ sanctioned the idea, prevalent among 
His race, of the resurrection of the dead, i.e. of the re- 
union of the human souls that have lived here on earth, 
with their bodies : He sanctioned it not only by figurative 
utterances, but also by His teaching, inasmuch as the 
continuance of souls as individual beings cannot be con- 
ceived apart from re-embodiment. Further, the idea 
that Christ will awaken the dead, and that this will happen 
simultaneously to all, is taken from His own utterances ; 
and it is only a perfectly natural extension of this idea 
to say that this awakening of the dead will in a sudden 
manner interrupt the usual course of human life on 
earth. 



Third Prophetic Doctrine : Of the Last 
Judgment. 

§ 178. Since the consummation of the Church is 
conditional upon the cessation of aU the influences which 
the world has upon it, the state of consummation must 
begin with the complete separation of the Church ; and 
this, in combination with the leading ideas of the fore- 
going doctrines, gives the idea of the Last Judgment, 
an idea whose elements are hkewise found in the utter- 
ances of Christ. 



59 



First Prophetic Doctrine : O^ the Return 
OF Christ. 

§ i6o. Since the disciples of Christ could not consider 
the comforting promises of His return as having been 
fulfilled by the days of His resurrection, they expected 
this fulfilment at the end of all human affairs upon earth. 
Now since with this is bound up the separation of the 
good and the bad, we teach a Return of Christ for 
Judgment. 



Second Prophetic Doctrine : Of the Resurrection 
OF THE Flesh. 

§ i6i. Not only did Christ sanction, by figurative 
utterances and also by His teaching, the idea, prevalent 
among His race, of the resurrection of the dead, but He 
further in His utterances ascribed this awakening to His 
own agency ; and it is an extension of this His teaching — 
a perfectly natural extension based on kindred utterances 
— to say that the general awakening of the dead will in a 
sudden manner interrupt the usual course of human life 
on earth. 



Third Prophetic Doctrine : Of the Last Judgment. 

§ 162. The idea of the Last Judgment, the elements 
of which are likewise found in the utterances of Christ, is 
meant to set forth the complete separation of the Church 
from the world, inasmuch as the consummation of the 
former excludes all influences of the latter upon it. 



6o 



Fourth Prophetic Doctrine : Of Eternal 
Blessedness and Eternal Condemnation. 

§ 179. From the resurrection onwards, those who have 
died in fellowship with Christ will find themselves in a 
state of unchangeable and unclouded blessedness in the 
vision of God ; while, in antithesis to this state, we are led 
by certain figurative utterances of Christ's (though not 
in a degree sufficient to satisfy us) to conceive the state 
of those who have died outside the fellowship of Christ as 
a state of unabating misery. 



Third Section: Of those Divine Attributes which relate 
to Grace and Redemption* 

§ 180. When we trace our consciousness of fellowship 
with God, restored through the efficacy of redemption, 
to the divine causality as a feehng of dependence, its 
content is that the planting and extension of the Christian 
Church is the object of the divine government of the world. 

§ 181. The divine activity in the government of the 
world presents itself to us as Love and as Wisdom. 



First Doctrine : Of the Divine Love, 

§ 182. The divine love is the attribute of the divine 
nature in virtue of which it imparts itself, and is seen 
in the work of redemption. 

§ 183. God is Love. 



Second Doctrine : Of the Divine Wisdom, 

§ 184. The divine wisdom is the divine self-imparting 
which is evinced in redemption, as the principle which 
orders and determines the world. 

§ 185. The world, as the scene of redemption, is the 
perfect revelation of the divine wisdom, or the best 
[possible] world. 



6i 



Fourth Prophetic Doctrine : Of Eternal 
Blessedness. 

§ 163. From the resurrection of the dead onwards, 
those who have died in fellowship with Christ will find 
themselves, through the vision of God, in a state of un- 
changeable and unclouded blessedness. 



Third Section: Of those Divine Attributes which 
relate to Redemption. 

§ 164. When we trace to the divine causahty our 
consciousness of fellowship with God, restored through 
the efi&cacy of redemption, we posit the planting and 
extension of the Christian Church as the object of the 
divine government of the world. 

§ 165. The divine causahty presents itself to us in 
the government of the world as Love and as Wisdom. 



First Doctrine : Of the Divine Love. 

§ 166. The divine love, as the attribute in virtue of 
which the divine nature imparts itself, is seen in the 
work of redemption. 

§ 167. Theorem. — God is Love, i John iv. 16. 

Second Doctrine : Of the Divine Wisdom. 

§ 168. The divine wisdom is the principle which orders 
and determines the world for the divine self-imparting 
which is evinced in redemption. 

§ 169. Theorem. — ^The divine wisdom is the ground in 
virtue of which the world, as the scene of redemption, 
is also the absolute revelation of the Supreme Being, and 
is therefore good. 



62 



Conclusion: Of the Divine Trinity. 

§ 1 86. All that is essential in the Second Part of our 
presentation, which has just been completed, is also what 
is essential in the Doctrine of the Trinity ; and thus this 
last is the true coping-stone of the System of Christian 
Doctrine. 

§ 187. The ecclesiastical dogma, however, that in the 
one and undivided divine nature there are three Persons 
of like nature and hke power, has not in this form equal 
value with the other proper doctrines of the faith, but 
is simply a summary statement. 

§ 188. This doctrine did not receive any fresh treat- 
ment when the Evangelical (Protestant) Church was set 
up ; hence there is all the less reason to regard it as finally 
settled, as its then form dated from the first centuries. 

§ 189. It is impossible for us to conceive the Trinity 
as an eternal fact in the divine nature, without making 
either the unity or the Trinity appear less than the other, 
and thus being always at variance with the fact and 
contradicting our hypothesis. 

§ 190. If this doctrine is to be completely in line with 
the religious self -consciousness, which recognizes the higher 
element in Christ and the Holy Spirit as the truly and 
properly divine, the three Persons should be completely 
identified ; but this, while demanded on all hands, has 
not been really carried out in any ecclesiastical presenta- 
tion of doctrine. 



63 



Conclusion: Of the Divine Trinity, 

§ 170. All that is essential in this Second Aspect of 
the Second Part of our presentation is also posited in 
what is essential in the doctrine of the Trinity ; but 
this doctrine itself, as ecclesiastically framed, is not an 
immediate utterance concerning the Christian self- 
consciousness, but only a combination of several such 
utterances. 

§ 171. The ecclesiastical doctrine of the Trinity 
demands that we think of each of the three Persons as 
equal to the divine nature, and vice versa, and each of 
the three Persons as equal to the others. Yet we cannot 
do either the one or the other, but can only represent 
the Persons in a gradation, and thus either represent the 
unity of the nature as less real than the three Persons, 
or vice versa. 

§ 172. We have the less reason to regard this doctrine 
as finally settled since it did not receive any fresh treat- 
ment when the Evangelical (Protestant) Church was set 
up ; and so there must still be in store for it a trans- 
formation which will go back to its very beginnings.