# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1860_S14
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

14

(Contributed.)
Theology Then and Now.

In the following remarks I had before my mind the judgments of Dr. Luther, which he pronounced concerning the most celebrated Church Fathers with as much reverence as impartiality. I also became ever more convinced of the correctness of Melanchthon's eulogy — the shortest and most forceful of all known to me: Luther is all in all. To the purpose of these hints, and to their success, I should like to apply the word of Jeremiah 6:16: "Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls; but they said, We will not walk therein."

1. Formerly the subject matter was the master and the author the servant; now it is the reverse. — If it was a matter of interpreting Scripture or setting forth doctrine, the word always rang through: thus says the Lord; if it was a matter of the history of the Church or of the world, it was said: thus reports history. One finds one's own views and opinions seldom, and usually only where the nature of the subject really allows a difference of opinion — for example, in the interpretation of individual verses or words of Holy Scripture; and there, especially with Dr. Luther, it is put this way: this is my opinion, yet I force it upon no one, but neither will I let anyone force his opinion upon me.

The nearer one comes to our own time, the more the most varied views and opinions accumulate — all sorts of newly discovered standpoints and principles, many so-called original, ingenious thoughts and interpretations, and the like. Then it is said: if one views the matter from this side, it appears thus; if one views it from another side, it appears different again — indeed, often exactly the reverse. So it goes, then, with a subject, as with the colored bits of glass in a kaleidoscope, which, as one turns it, one sees within the joined mirror-surfaces in ever new forms, which seem to form a whole, even though they are only separate fragments. Now, the more famous the man is who puts forward such little inventions of men, the more seductive it is — as happened, and still happens, in the Papacy with the glosses of the Fathers; and such errors become even more forceful when they assert themselves by appeal to the general conviction of scholars, and with such and similar turns of phrase: it is universally acknowledged, it goes without saying, no one doubts it, etc.

One need only compare the earlier and later interpretations of the history of creation, including all objections to the rotation of the earth, the descriptions of the apostolic age, and, in the most recent time, the various writings and essays on Church and Office. Whoever would find his way out of such a labyrinth of the most contradictory opinions, with their countless proofs and counter-proofs, and, amid all such different standpoints, arrive at an independent, firm judgment according to doctrine