Personal convictions are of great importance in this connection. Without being rooted in the Divine Rev- elation, no apprehension of its meaning is possible. The contents of the Revelation as appropriated both by the individual and the Church must accordingly be re- ceived into the scientific consciousness, which indicates the task of scientific tlmih'/i/. The latter, however, does not derive its contents directly from the Bible, but through numerous intermediate agencies, to contem- plate which is the work of Ecclesiastical History, and, in so far as they belong to the present age of the Church, of Ecclesiastical Statistics.
Ecclesiastical History portrays the history of the king- dom of God in time from the founding of the Christian Church on the day of Pentecost to the present day, having the end of prophecy continually in view as its goal. It directs its attention more prominently either to the outward development of that kingdom in the Church and the life as renewed and inspired by Chris- tianity (Church History), or to the consciousness of that development and its contents — the History of Doc- trines and the connected History of Christian Ethics, Literature, and Art. The study of Sources, Geography, Chronology, etc., likewise involves much that is pecul- iar, and requires the separate theological treatment of those branches, in consecpicnce of which originate Pa- tristics, Ecclesiastical Arclueology, History of Liturgies, etc.
The present not only forms the limit of development at which the kingdom of God has arrived, but also the ground on which we stand. The description of this ground is the work of Ecclesiastical Statistics. It in- cludes both external and internal conditions, both of the faith and the life, and gives rise, on the one hand, to Statistics of Churches in different countries and of different denominations and sects, and, on the other, to Historical Symbolics.
Inquiry into the faith and morals of different denom- inations leads from Statistics over to Systenidtic Tkeolorjij. The nature of the latter is determined by the nature of the Christian consciousness as based on a new life in the individual and tlie race. Tiie development of that consciousness into scientific knowledge requires, first, an assured recognition of the principles which underlie the kingdom of God as manifested in Cliristianity ; next, an unfolding of the contents of such principles in sys- tematic form ; and, finally, a recognition of the relation i>f this knowledge to the universe t>f human knowledge. In this way is ol)tained a science of tlie princijtles and the particular phenomena of Christianity as they are given in its history (the science of Christian principles or fundamentals), a science of tlieir doctrinal and ethi- cal contents generally, and also in the particular confes- sions (thctical theology), and a philosophy of Christian- ity (parallel to the philosophy of law in a different field of ethics).
As Systematic Theology does not proceed from the Christian convictions of the individual, but from those
of tlie entire Church or of one of its subordinate parts, it provides room fur Ecclesiastical Tradition. The start- ing-point is the iilea of the kingdom of (iod which rests on tlie Word of (iod as objectively presented to us iii the Canon, as approved in the heart in the character of Christ, and as given in Tradition in the forms of faith, custom, constitution, and methods. The consummation is in the Dogma, in which God's kingdom is the object of the scientific consciousness of the general Church, or, under historical limitations, assumes a definite form in the particular denomination (Denominational Principles or Systematic Symbolics). At this point the doctrinal consciousness discovers its variation from the systems of other denominations and of morbid apparitions with- in the Church to which it belongs. The latter obser- vation gives rise to Polemics, or, better, the Discussion of ethical and doctrinal excrescences in the Church (analogous to pathology in medicine).
The ground has thus been pre])ared for the founding and establishing of Thetical Theology', the confessional Dogmatics and Ethics as traditionally determined on the basis of the underlying faith. Here the dogma, in its character of scriijtural truth subjectively apprehended and handed down in the Church by authoritative tra- dition, attains to its complete development; and here the various doctrines are combined into a system through tlie labors of critical, religiously ethical, and systematic scholars. The true relation is accurately indicated by the oxymoron in the phrase "the science of the faith." Unquestionable certainty is given in the faith, but the mind transmutes this successively and partially into knowledge.
This dogmatico-ethical process begets a system of knowledge respecting God and divine things. This constitutes Speculative Theology, the last result of a phi- losophy of Christianity which was conceived in mysti- cism, unfolded in theosophy, sifted by criticism, and formed by speculation, and now presents Christianity with the science of it as the centre and goal of all cult- ure and as the crown of the scientific labors of the en- tire liimian race. Christianity is here presented as a religion, and as the highest manifestation of religion, and also as the complete realization of the kingdom of God on earth through a progressive development which reaches down to the final consummation ; and in this light Christianity is presented as the central feature in the philosophy of human history.
The duty of the Church to insure its own edification through the power of the Holy Spirit comes into protn- inence here, as it does in the historical department. That edification is Ecclesiastical Praxis, and the scien- tific understanding of its foundations and methods con- stitutes Practical Theology, the third principal branch of theological science. The starting-point of this sci- ence is the energy of the Christian life which is to l)e perfected. Practical theology is the science of human operations witliiii the kingdom of God and as enabled by the Holy Spirit, to the end that that kingdom may be fully developed. Only through God can we arrive at God, in knowledge as in feeling or in practice.