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 

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 

8 

§ 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, 

1 

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.