_Christian Theology
		by Milton Valentine, D.D., LL.D
		Copyright 1906,
		Lutheran Publication Society
		Printed Philadelphia, PA.
		by The United Lutheran Publication House_
			Pages 1-21
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			CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.

			INTRODUCTION.

Never, perhaps, has there been more need than at
present of settling carefully the great presuppositions
to a correct formulation of Christian theology. The
need has come from the special direction and activity of
modern inquiry and speculative criticism. New condi-
tions have arisen. Theology must face them.

These presuppositions concern the fundamental basis
and scope of theology, its subject-matter, its rightful
sources, and true method. A safe and justly articulated
system of its essential, constitutive doctrines is neces-
sarily conditioned in correct views on these subject.
They, therefore, stand as preliminary and introductory.
The whole theological system, as well as many of its
particular doctrines, must of necessity vary according as
different conceptions are held on these proemial subjects;
for these conceptions take the place of first principles
in determining dogmatic conclusions. This fact shows
the fundamental and vital importance of the questions
which thus meet us on the threshold of theology.

As a result of ever-increasing knowledge from con-
--------------------End of Page 1------------------------
tinued examination and re-discussion, each new genera-
tion attains some additional light for correct and cer-
tified view of these questions. Account must always be
taken of whatever helpful information has been attained.
This rule is justly applicable at all times. But it is
specially enforced in our day; for the latter half of the
nineteenth century and the opening years of this new
century have given these questions an unparalleled atten-
tion and investigation. To a most extraordinary extent
recent scholarship, in comparative religion, in archaeo-
logical exploration, in historical research, in science, in
philosophy, and in criticism, carried forward with untir-
ing industry, and, sometimes, with hostile or revolution-
ary spirit, has concentrated itself upon studies along the
lines touching these presuppositions of theological intro-
duction. The settlement and statement of them now
must be made under all the light which this scrutiniz-
ing scholarship has supplied. Different thinkers may, as
they do, disagree as to the value of the results of this
recent study and discussion, and the degree in which
they are entitled to modify hitherto accepted views.
But whether they be accorded a greater or a less weight
of influence, theological fidelity requires their frank and
discriminating consideration, accepting what is true and
resisting unsustained claims. In this way theology
remains loyal to is fullest light, while conserving its
firmly established truths. It is assuring to Christian
faith in our much agitated age, that, while the modern
progress in knowledge calls for some modification in
the formal setting of some of these presuppositions or
introductory truths, it has in fact verified and strength-
ened the essential foundations and principles of the
Church's theology.
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			CHAPTER I.

		THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF THEOLOGY.

I. Christian Theology is based on the great fact of
Christianity in the world. Its specific materials are found
in the whole history of God's redemptive and light-
giving self-manifestation, and the truths involved and
established in that divine movement. The scope of its
inquiries and formulations, therefore, embraces the
essential facts and meaning of the most unique and
wonderful phenomenon that the records of time pre-
sent, the mightiest and most beneficent power that
proves itself to be not only the spiritual salvation of
men, but social regeneration and advancing civilization
to the nations.

This scope is only partially indicated in the etymology
of the term, as derived from Theos and logos, meaning,
literally, discourse concerning God, or the knowledge of
God. Though sometimes used in this restricted sense
of designating simply the particular discussion "con-
cerning God," it is usually employed to denote the
whole science which treats of the doctrines of religion.
Theology may, therefore, be defined as the doctrine con-
cerning God and the relations between God and the
universe. Some specific things should be noted:

(a) The term comes over from pagan into Christian 
use. It was employed by various heathen writers [1] to
denote the views entertained with respect to the Greek
-------------------------------------------------------------
[1]Pherecydes of Syros (B.C. 600-550; Epimenides of Crete (B.C.
550-500); Plato (B.C. 427-348); Polit. Lib. ii., Republic, 379, Aris-
totle (B.C. 384-322); Metaph. xi. 7.
----------------End of Page 3----------------------------------
gods and their doings in the world. Writers who gave
accounts of the gods and taught concerning their nature
were called "theologians" (theologoi). Aristotle termed the
highest branch of philosophy "theological" (theologike).[1]

(b) The earliest Christian use seems to have been the
very peculiar and narrow one of denoting the Deity of
Christ, according to John i.I, "And the Word (ho Logos)
was God" (Theos), and also the doctrine of the Trinity.
It was from his assertion of this doctrine that St. John
was called "the theologian," and Gregory Nazianzen
was afterward honored with the same title. This
special sense passed away after the Nicene period.

(c) From the fourth century Christian writers appro-
priated the word, according to its etymological sense, to
denote the discussion of the nature, attributes, and
works of God; but it was not until the twelfth century
that it assumed the comprehensiveness of its modern
meaning, as including the entire circle and sum of
Christian doctrine or religious truth as completed in the
redemptory revelation. But from the time of Abelard's
_Christiana Theologia_ this has been the scope of its signif-
ication.

(d) Among Protestants generally the sense of the term
has been deepened in import, so as to mean more than a
cold speculative view of God and the truths of the
sacred Scriptures. It implies, and carries in its method
and content, the living insight of the regenerate mind,
the clarified vision and appreciation of the Christian
consciousness, in accordance with the word of St. Paul
concerning Christian verities: "They are spiritually
discerned." [2] This conception correctly assumes the
----------------------------------------------------------
[1] Metaph. xi.7.
[2] Luther held the maxim: "Oratio, meditatio, tentatio faciunt
---------------End of Page 4---------------------------------
principle that it is only through the experiences of a
living, obedient faith in Jesus Christ that the realties of
redeeming grace and truths of the Christian life can
be rightly and profoundly understood. The true theo-
logian, therefore, must be a genuine Christian, into whose
innermost life the subject-matter of theology has entered
with its self-explaining and guaranteeing power.

The _practical aim_ of theology, as well as the clear,
deep insight into its spiritual verities, implies this same
qualification. Its _end_ is not realized in the mere pro-
duction of a theoretical system. Though no range of
thought is in itself more replete with mental interest, it,
nevertheless, properly looks beyond itself to the religious
and moral service for which the knowledge with which
it deals has been given. It stands for the efficient
exhibition and vindication of the truth designed for
the life of the world and the holiest interests of hu-
manity. Its value is not in its speculative import,
but in its relation to the divine utilities of the kingdom
of God. It is unvitalized and dwarfed if attempted
apart from its Christian spirit and as a mere intellectual
dialectic. It attains its proper relations and dignity only
when it keeps loyally and steadily in view the great
practical service for which Christianity itself  exists in
the world. Were it not so often divorced from this
practical mission and held as having its end in sim-
ple theoretic interest and the exploitation of fresh sys-
tem-building, it would not so frequently appear in specu-
lative misconstructions or modifications which obscure
and confuse the divine adaptations. The sacred truths
----------------------------------------------------------
theologum" (Prayer, meditation, trial make the theologian). Melanch-
thon says: "Pectus facit theologum" (The heart makes the theo-
logian).
---------------End of Page 5------------------------------
of religion are for more serious use than display of ever-
changing theological pyrotechnics; and nothing short
of a genuine experience of their living power and object
will suffice to mould and hold all the theological ex-
planations and systemization in true focus of power for
the accomplishment of the great purposes which form the
reasons of the existence of Christianity.

Combining in a single statement the ideas thus sug-
gested, theology, in the fullest sense now used, denotes
the entire body of truth ascertainable concerning God,
and especially the doctrine embraced in Christianity, as
taught in the Holy Scriptures and apprehended and
developed into accepted view by the sanctified mind and
heart of the Church under the training of the Holy
Spirit.

2. The subject-matter is _scientific_, and theology is a
science. The method of theology is the scientific
method of thorough investigation, exact definition, and
logical conclusion. "Wherever observation establishes
a group of facts, visible or invisible, linked together by
internal relations, forming a distinct class in the midst of
others, there is room for a special science." This is
the case here. The disclaimers on this point by a few
Christian writers and the denials often made by scientists
are alike based on misconception either of the necessary
constituents to science or of the actual data of theology.
Phenomena become subjects for science, not by reason
of their source, but by reason of their existence--not by
virtue of their class, but by virtue of their occurrence.
The phenomena of religion, especially those of Chris-
tianity, are among the most outstanding, indubitable,
and operative in the history and experience of the
world, and as truly open for investigation, elucidation,
-------------End of Page 6----------------------------------
and theoretic view as any facts that form the subjects of
the most fully recognized sciences. The distinction
between material and spiritual phenomena, or between
natural and supernatural, cannot legitimately be pleaded
against a possible science of theology. For the plea is
but an assumption, prejudging the very question
involved, when it assumes that the universe, of which
this world is a part, includes and manifests no spiritual
or supernatural reality, purpose, and movement. The
notion could be of force only after its advocates had
shown the falsity of the whole teleological conception of
the world, which hold to the existence of God as Creator
and Moral Governor, who seeks moral ends through an
historical movement of creation, providence, revelation,
and redemption--ends which form the divine reason for
the existence and order of the physical cosmos. There
is no reason why God may not be a God of order in the
sphere of spiritual and supernatural activity as well as
in the sphere of material movements--especially if the
order be the higher and supremely authoritative one of
_moral_ relations, necessities, causation, and manifestation.
As long, therefore, as it is recognized that there _are_ spirit-
ual realities embraced in human life and well-being, and
that there is a God over and in the world, whose absolute 
supernatural reason, love, will, and power hold and sub-
ordinate to their divine aims the whole system of nature
and the course of history, so long the phenomena and
teachings of Christianity must be entitled to the careful
and comprehensive consideration and formulation which
mark the genuine scientific spirit and method in its loving
search after the truth. And when this method is justly
applied, the result reached, and logically validated by the
actual facts, forms an organized knowledge which has a
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distinct and authentic place in the circle of known truth.
Moreover, as the subjects of which theology treats are of
the highest order, the culminating realities and truths in
the realm of being and interests, such as God, His pur-
poses and plans in nature and history, the moral capaci-
ties, obligations, responsibilities, and destinies of men,
its position among the sciences or groups of organized
knowledge must be highest of all. Not without propri-
ety, therefore, has it often claimed to be the "queen of
the sciences." Even Aristotle, with his limited pagan
material for scientific theology, gave it rank as the "first
philosophy."

Not only is its material capable of scientific formu-
lation, but the supreme interest which thus attaches
to its high rank specially impels to such treatment;
for it means verification and assurance. The subject-
matter attracts the strongest affinities of the scientific
faculties of the human mind. There was, therefore, a
deeper reason than the mere necessity of safeguarding
Christianity from the attacks of disbelief and per-
version of heresies, that led Christian scholars in the
early centuries of the Church to begin to formulate,
define, and systematize its facts and doctrines. Back of
such practical necessity, and even deeper than that, was
the scientific instinct toward exact theoretic explana-
tion, attracted by the grandeur of the verities and doc-
trines brought to view. These doctrines rose to the
loftiest problems of thought and possibilities of life and
destiny. Pagan philosophers, when converted to Christ,
could not fail to bring these problems under the defining
and constructive action of their trained faculties. At
the root of the theological movement lay the scientific
aptitude and propensity of the human mind. This
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incentive to theology is an abiding one. It operates in
all ages, and, concurring with the practical aim, ever-
more insures the turning of this peculiar and supremely
important material into systematized view.

The very purpose and mission of Christianity requires
this process. The proper preservation of it in its purity
and power demands it. The self-revelation of God,
through His Son Jesus Christ, as recorded in the sacred
Scriptures, having advanced from the beginning to the
completion of redemptory provision and of needful
teaching, furnished, indeed, at once the essential saving
facts and truths of Christianity, the standard of all doc-
trine and the living fountain of all practical instruction
and life in the Church. But there is evermore needed a
distinct and consolidated view of all these facts and truths
of the original deposit, in order to the proper conserva-
tion of Christianity in its integrity. It must have the
strength and security which stand in exact statement of
its essential parts and a clear integration of all in a con-
sistent unity of the full truth. Except by St. Paul, it does
not appear to have been made an object of scientific reflec-
tion in the New Testament writings. The time of com-
pleting the data had not yet closed. But when the
apostles were gone, came the need of gathering the
manifold facts and teachings into such orderly view as
would insure them against being lost or corrupted. We
have the first step towards this arranging and system-
atizing labor in the earlier forms of the Apostles' Creed,
though this is rather a simple aggregation of items of
truth or historic facts, without theoretic elucidation--a
mere enumeration of the cardinal points in the Christian
faith. But the work could not stop with this. Differ-
ing interpretations of the items in that creed called for
------------------End of Page 9------------------------------
settlement, and enforced a process of development of
the great essentials of doctrine. Creed after creed from
the Councils of the Church formulated one truth after
another, as the urgencies of the times required. These
formulations by the regenerate mind of the Church, as
its general consensus of doctrinal understanding, have
been a strong factor in exhibiting Christian truth to the
world and fortifying its position. A similar service has
been done by the great Church Confessions in the begin
ning of the modern centuries. By their combinations of
terse statements of the fundamental doctrines they have
become anchorage amid the shifting tendencies of indi-
vidual opinion to the saving content of Christian teach-
ing. They protect it against changeful, erratic specula-
tion tending to varied reshapings inconsistent with the
abiding permanence and self-identity of truth. The elab-
orate monumental works of Biblical and churchly dog-
matics have had a like fortifying and strengthening force.
And though both confessions and dogmatic theologies may
sometimes incorporate some incorrect, defective, or one-
sided views, and carry them along, perhaps through cen-
turies, yet the boldness and vigor with which the great
determinative fundamentals are set forth and accentuated,
tend to maintain the central and essential current of doc-
trinal view aright, and thus prove corrective also of partial
errors or faults.

3. Theology in this comprehensive sense is naturally
divided into various branches according to the particular
subject-matter and its peculiar place in the whole investi-
gation.

The first underlying division is that into Natural and
Revealed Theology. This division rests upon a differ-
ence in the sources.
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(a) NATURAL THEOLOGY denotes the knowledge of
God as it may be derived by reason from the works of
nature. These works, rationally interpreted, become a
natural revelation of His existence, will, essential attri-
butes, and relation to the world. The primary idea
upon which this theology proceeds is that if there be a
God as the Creator and First Cause of the universe, His
being and character must be found impressed upon it
and discoverable from it. The author of a work is
revealed in the work he does. The world is viewed as
an understandable expression of the existence and the
thought of its Source. One of the fundamental concep-
tions of science is that nature holds and presents in its
constitution and order some record, legible to the reason
of those who honestly study it. Natural Theology,
therefore, examines this record, takes its testimony, and
thus ascends through nature up to nature's God.

But while it thus certifies some great and moment-
ous truths, it falls sadly short of affording the degree of 
knowledge for which the condition and needs of human-
ity imperatively call. It is voiceless as to the supply of
man's most deeply-felt necessity of _redemption_, deliver-
ance from conscious guilt and the sore bondage of human
life to moral evil. Though Natural Theology is able
to discern, and, in fact, recognizes the great reality of
moral law, and hears the ceaseless cry which the sense
of guilt and helpless weakness is ever forcing from the
heart of the race, it is able to give to this cry no satisfy-
ing response from God.

(b) REVEALED, OR CHRISTIAN, THEOLOGY is that
which grounds itself upon the data of the special revela-
tion given in the Christian Scriptures. While it recog-
nizes and incorporates whatever pertinent truth is fur-
-----------End of Page 11------------------------------
nished by Natural Theology, it constructs its system out
of the material furnished in God's supernatural self-
disclosure and teaching, as recorded in the Old and New
Testaments. It assumes--what will be vindicated in
another section--both the possibility and reality of a
_supernatural_ divine manifestation in the world, and the
validity of the distinction between this and the simply
natural revelation which God makes of Himself in His
creative activity and its products in the universe.
Revealed Theology is rightly divided into four leading
departments, namely: Exegetical, Historical, Systematic,
and Practical.

_Exegetical Theology_ is concerned with the interpreta-
tion of the Holy Scriptures, and investigates all ques-
tions as to their origin, authorship, character, history,
and teachings. It is a field of wide and varied inquiry.
It includes Archaeology, Criticism, Hermeneutics, Intro-
duction, and Interpretation--all the different studies by
which the teachings of the Scriptures are understood
and exhibited. The other branches of theology depend
on this and use the material which it furnishes. It has,
therefore, the first place in the logical order of theological
work.

_Historical Theology_ traces the historical development
of Christianity in the thought and life of the Church.
It is theology as embodied in Ecclesiastical History,
especially in the History of Doctrines. It studies Creeds,
ecclesiastical writers, controversies, decisions of Coun-
cils, and Church Confessions, noting from the first
onward through the Christian centuries, the rise and
settlement of doctrinal questions, the elimination of
heresies, the agreements and differences of view and types
of belief within the Church, and withal the character-
-----------End of Page 12-----------------------------
istic ethical and spiritual life which the different types
produce. In its result it exhibits Christian theology in
its historical setting and reality.

_Systematic Theology_, termed also Didactic, Dogmatic,
or Thetical, arranges the material thus available in the
order and form required by the real relations, depend-
encies, and bearings of the essential truths of Chris-
tianity, exhibiting each in its separtate integrity, and
all together in their logical and consistent unity. Its
work is exact definition and just sytemization. It pre-
sents Christianity in its total doctrinal view, which be-
comes at once a vindication of it and an enlargement
of its practical power. For these clear statements of
the divine truth, all throwing their light in impressive
unity on the one great design of redemptive love, cannot
but tend to strengthen the intellectual conviction and
quicken the religious affections. This branch has its
proper place after the two already named, because it
uses both the results of Biblical study and those presented
by the history of discussion and doctrinal development.
In every age systematic theology is helped by the pre-
ceding ages.

_Practical Theology_ directs the use of all theological
truth for the conversion of men and their present and
eternal salvation, It, therefore, passes beyond the
determination of the true theoretical view and doctrinal
content of Christianity, and seeks their right and best
application to all the ends for which Christianity has
been divinely established in the world. It is concerned
especially with the place and function of the Church
and the duties of the ministry, both in preaching and
pastoral care, and in all the branches of service these
functions imply. It includes as its subdivision such
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topics as Homiletics, Liturgics, Catechetics, Church
Polity, Missions, Education, and Charities.

These divisions of theology are closely allied. They
move on co-operative lines of mutually helpful study
and aim, converging to the great ends for which the
Gospel has been given. And it is plain that Systematic
Theology, which is here to engage us, has its position in
the centre of general theology, employing the material
furnished by the Exegetical and Historical branches,
and looking, all the time, forward to Practical Theology.

4. RELIGION must be included in the subject-matter
of theology. It presents the phenomena out of which
theology arises, and which underlie all its investigations.
The Christian religion existed before the scientific
examination and formulation of its realities and doctrines.

What is religion? The term needs distinct definition.
Though applied to almost endlessly diverse and change-
able manifestations, it nevertheless designates essentially
the same fundamental fact. And the fact, wherever
found in the human race, is _worship and service of deity_.
This is the most generic and universally applicable sense
of the term. [1] The word if differently derived. According
to Cicero, it is from re and legere, to read again or to
reflect, because of the thoughtfulness and meditation
involved. He says: "_Qui omnia quae ad cultum deorum
pertinent diligenter tractarent, et tanquam relegerent
sunt dicti religiosi, ex relegendo_" (De Natura Deorum,
-----------------------------------------------------------
[1] Definitions have greatly varied. Plato, identifying it with virtue,
and designating it by its effects, made religion mean "likeness to God"
(homoiosis to theo). This effect comes by making God's "ideas" or
thoughts our own. Cicero, according to his definition given above,
conceives it after the same manner. He makes it consist in thought-
ful, reverential worship of the gods, in meditation with pure, obedient
minds (_De Nat. Deorum_, ii, 28).
----------------End of Page 14-----------------------------------
ii. 28). But Lactantius derives it from re and ligare,
to bind back or again, because it results in fixing obliga-
tion in the conscience toward some supreme power. He
writes "_Hoc vinculo pietatis obstricti deo et religati
sumus; unde ipsa religio nomen recipit; non ut Cicero
interpretatus est, relegendo_" (Institutiones, iv. 28). With
this Augustine agrees (City of God, x. 3).

Religion is rooted in man's nature and relations. It
is a necessary product of forces that act in him and upon
him. It springs out of his essential constitution and
environment. The world in which he lives and moves
becomes to his intelligence and conscience a constant
revelation of some power above him, awing into rev-
erence and fear. Not only is he evermore touched by
mysterious powers, but compelled to see in many of
them the reality of evident purpose and will. Spon-
taneously and necessarily, to greater or less degree, he
recognizes Mind acting in and through the energies and
movements of nature, impressing him with the con-
viction of a sovereignty which he must respect and obey.
This presence of an intelligent Power in the order and
adaptations of the world is one of the mighty funda-
mental facts of human experience, forcing an unavoid-
able impression, however faint or confused it may often
be, of some divine _Will_, fixing law and penalty in the
world, to which deference must be paid and homage
must be rendered. It cannot but be true that man meets
God walking among the trees of every garden of nature's
order, life, adaptations, and beauty. The existence of
religion becomes an inevitable consequence of what _man
is_ and what the _world is_, establishing an omnipresent
living relation between man and the Author of nature.
Nature is vocal with divinity. "From the things which
---------------End of Page 15--------------------------
are made," the invisible reality, even "the eternal power
and Godhead are understood," necessarily evoking some
recognition, however low and confused, in the human
reason and consciousness. This furnishes adequate
explanation of the origin and universality of religion.
It is the human effort, impelled by the deepest realities
in the soul and its environment, to adjust itself to
the mysterious divinity that moves and speaks through,
and out of, the great universe of nature. Religion,
therefore, is normal to man's faculties and relations, the
tendency toward it manifesting itself spontaneously and
by a certain necessity the world over and in all ages,
even where no positive institutes of religion are _super-
naturally_ given.

The immense _diversity_ in the types and forms of
religion in the various parts of the race and in different
times becomes fully explicable in this understanding of
its natural basis and genesis. When it appears altogether
apart from supernatural revelation, its forms and mani-
festations depend, of course, upon the degree of the
intellectual and moral development of the people. If
the race or tribe is low and undeveloped, or brutalized,
the religious discernments are crude and indistinct. In
the worst ignorance and barbarisms, it is not wonderful
that the coarse and untrained thinking fails to distinguish
the Divine Mind which is working in and through
nature from nature itself, and the religious manifestation
appears largely as only a fetichistic worship or reverence
of natural objects. This has been, to a great degree,
characteristic of pagan religionism. In higher intellectual
conditions, the discernments distinguish the Mind, whose
presence is recognized, from the physical forms and
movements which exhibit it, and a higher conception of
-----------------End of Page 16---------------------------
God as an intelligent Spirit who is the former of the
world, is reached. In the best of these discernments the
divine Intelligence is apprehended as One, a unity, both
above and in nature, as in the case of henotheistic [1] and
monotheistic religions, according to the discovered unity
and harmony of the system of nature itself. Sometimes,
instead of this high and philosophic theism of mono-
theistic belief, gross polytheism prevails, crude thought
peopling all parts of nature with special and local
divinities, an idolatry of imaginary gods. Sometimes
the fetichistic confounding of the mind in nature with
nature itself assumes pantheistic form. This reappears 
again and again, even in cosmic philosophies. But
while the interpretation of the divine Intelligence and
moral Authority which nature and life reveal, thus pre-
sents a bewildering and endless confusion of form, the
one great fact of recognition of a Divinity that shapes
the ends of nature and claims the reverence and homage
of men persists, through all times and in all the world.
It is, however, only when and where God has added to
this self-disclosure in nature a supernatural revelation of
Himself and His relations to the world, of His will and
human duty and destiny, that the great truths of religion
are adequately and reliably known and defined.

The comparative study of religions, which in recent 
years has been pursued in widest range and with able
scholarship, has greatly enlarged our information of
the subject. It has made clear both the truth embodied
in the ethnic or non-Christian religions and their defects,
-------------------------------------------------------------
[1] From eis, mia, hen, genitive henos one, and theos, God, the stage of
thought which affirms there is "a God," before it advances to positive
monotheism (monos, one only, and theos), which affirms that there is
"only one."
-----------------End of Page 17--------------------------------
insufficiencies, and errors. Even the greatest and best
of them, however ancient or prevalent, clearly appear as
simply natural products of human thought, seeking to
interpret the world and human life. They exhibit the
fruits of effort, in different degrees of success, to read
the revelation which nature gives to the existence,
power, character, and will of its Author, and to learn
therefrom how men should conduct themselves in order
to escape evils and attain happiness. The study of this
prolonged and manifold effort is full of deep interest
and varied instruction. It shows us both how much
and how little human reason alone, interpreting nature,
can furnish for the moral and spiritual need of man-
kind.

The amount of its showing can easily be summed up.
It appears in two general results: (a) _A greatly varied
and confused rational theism, and_ (b) _a large body of
ethical truth and precepts for the right order and conduct
of life_. From the two sources of the world of external
nature and the action of conscience within men, the
world-wide effort of reason has established many of the
great natural truths concerning God and the life of duty.
Culled out of the immense and often inane or mislead-
ing material thus accumulated, appear some precious
findings of theistic truth and many gems of moral con-
ception and teaching. These precious though broken,
insights into the truths of the being and character of
God and into the principles of ethical obligation, have
captivated many minds and led to much overestimation 
of some of these religions. In the most ancient relig-
ions of Egypt and China, in Buddhism and Confucian-
ism, and in Zoroastrian teaching, some imagine they
discover close approaches to the excellence of Christian-
-----------End of Page 18-----------------------------------
ty--so close as to require us either to assume for
them a divine inspiration or to abandon such claim for
Christianity. But such views and claims are hasty and
superficial. For the truths in question are, after all,
plainly within the reach of purely rational finding.
Moreover, the conceptions which these religions give of
the nature, character, and will of God, and of His relations
to the world, as well as many of their moral directions,
are radically defective and misleading. While among
the immense rubbish of their moral counsels many single,
isolated rules of conduct are found, here and there, which
stand parallel with and rival in excellence and beauty
the highest and noblest Christian precepts, yet their
ethical systems, taken _as systems_, are greatly inferior and
fail either to disclose the full foundations of virtue or
to supply an adequate dynamic for the realization of the
ethical task. Their isolated moral rules are not inte-
grated in the living principle or force of any adequate
religious provision or power. This ethical defect brings
to view the fatal lack in the ethnic faiths as _religions_.
This needs to be distinctly noted. To the question
of deliverance from the guilt and thraldom of sin, the
great reality which forms the deepest and most persist-
ent fact in human life, these religions are either voiceless
or mutter only incoherent and misguiding suggestions.
In most of them God is either reduced to identity with
the merciless forces of wasting and pitiless nature, in
fatalistic pantheisms, or He is enthroned in such absolute
transcendence above the world as to take no concern or
interest in human affairs. Though the wail of the
race's misery has piteously cried to the heavens for
deliverance from the bondage and consequences of sin
and vanity, yet through these ethnic religions no effective
---------------------End of Page 19---------------------------
answer of salvation has come. Not one of them [1] is
_redemptory_. In not one is God conceived of as a Being
of redeeming love and redemptive administration. Not
a single one of them exhibits God as lovingly and
actively a Saviour from the consequences and power of
sin or moral evil. In Christianity alone He is presented
as historically carrying forward for man a course of
_redemptory activity_, whose manifestation and record
form revelation, and whose effects become a gracious
forgiveness of sin and recovery of the sinful to an
obedient, holy, happy, eternal life. This is the great,
unique fact in Christianity, setting it apart from all the
ethnic religions, and still justifying the distinction which
theology has been wont to make between it and all the
rest when it classes the rest as "false religions." They
do not truly unfold God's gracious way of love and sal-
vation. In Christianity alone there has been adequately
furnished a true knowledge of God, of His character,
relations, will, and government, the way of deliverance
from the guilt and evil of sin, right and holy worship,
duty and destiny.

These brief statements concerning the fact of religion
as a reality, normal in some form or other to the relations
and life of man, everywhere and always, and the expla-
nation thus given of its universal appearance in various
manifestations in all the world, together with the unique
position of Christianity, will suffice to indicate how
Christian Theology stands related to the whole subject
of religion. It is secondary to the great fact of religion,
and must treat of the materials which religion pre-
---------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Buddhism is claimed by Albert Reville, D. D., as redemptory:
_Prolegomena of the Hist. of Religions_, Hibbert Lectures of 1884
(Williams & Norgate), p. 97. But the claim is not sustained.
-----------------End of Page 20---------------------------------
supposes and furnishes, and develop its systematic view
out of the essential realities and implications thus pre-
sented. Underneath Natural Theology lies the whole 
realm of natural religion, and under Christian The-
ology are all the divine activities, facts, and truths em-
bodied in the Christian religion.
----------------End of Page 21-------------------------------------

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