II. In the concrete, religion signifies (1.) subjectively, that inward spiritual state and experience which justly corresponds to the reality of our relations to God ; thus a religious man is one who has an inward religious experience ; (2.) objectively, those doctrines, institutions, and practical observances whereby these relations of God to man, and of man to God are revealed and pro- mulgated, and the duties corresponding to those relations are practiced. In this sense the Mahomedan is a false, and the Chris- tian a true religion. — Dr. Hodge.
2. What is theology, and how is it to be distinguished from religion ?
The English word theology is derived from the two Greek words, Oeog, Xoyoq, signifying discourse concerning God, then that science which systematically comprehends all that is known to man concerning God, and our relations to him. The terms the- ology and religion are contrasted thus :
Eeligion is practical and experimental. Theology is scientific. Every religious man is a theologian just so far as his knowledge is accurate and comprehensive. Every true theologian must be a religious man as far as his knowledge is experimental. The more accurate and comprehensively systematic our religious knowledge, the more is it a theology ; and the more real and practical our knowledge of God becomes, the more is our theology a religion.
Theology is to religion what physical science is to the practi- cal arts. It is not essential, though it would be an evident ad- vantage, if every artizan were a chemist, and every navigator an
38 THEOLOGY AND ITS SOURCES.
astronomer. Yet without science all art would be unintelligent and limited. Theology defines religion, and sets it upon a more certain ground. It purifies it from foreign alloy, and defends it from all hostile attacks. By making it more intelligent, it makes it more worthy of God, and more effective for the salvation of man. — Gaussen.
3. What is the distinction between natural and revealed the- ology ?
Natural theology is that science which proposes to itself the solution of these two great questions, 1st, Does God exist ? and 2d, What may be legitimately ascertained concerning the true nature of God in himself, and concerning his relations to man, from the principles of human reason and conscience, or from the evidences of God's works, either in creation or providence. A distinction here must be carefully observed between that knowl- edge of God to which the human reason was able to attain by means of its own unassisted powers independently of revelation, e. g., the theology of Plato and Cicero, and that knowledge of God which the human mind is now competent to deduce from the phenomena of nature under the clear light of a supernatural reve- lation, e. g., the theology of the modern rationalistic philosophers. Natural theology, as reached by unassisted reason, was fragmen- tary, inconsistent and uncertain. Natural theology, as appropri- ated and vindicated by reason under the clear light of revelation, is itself a strong witness to the truth and supernatural origin of that revelation.
Kevealed theology, on the other hand, is that science which treats systematically, 1st, of the evidences authenticating the Christian revelation as from God ; 2d, of the interpretation of the records which transmit that revelation to us ; and 3d, of all the information furnished by those records of God and his rela- tion to man, and of man and his relation to God.
4. What relation does philosophy sustain to theology ?
Philosophy includes, 1st, the systematic treatment of all that the reason of man teaches with regard to God, and those neces- sary and universal ideas, e. g., space and time, cause and effect, right and wrong, etc., which lie at the basis of all human thought.
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2d. The discovery and systematic treatment of all the known facts of man's spiritual nature, i. e., psychology, or the science of mind. 3d. The discovery and systematic treatment of all the known facts of God's works in material nature, *. e., physical and physi- ological science in all their departments. 4th. The systematic treatment of all the known facts of God's direction of human actions in the events of history.
In its higher departments, philosophy includes the ground of natural theology, as explained under the preceding question.