# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1859_S4
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

4 Preface to the 1859 Volume.

of the Israelites in the wilderness, of the apostles, etc., the theologian
cannot treat without knowledge of geography, just as we cannot speak of
the course of the stars, of Orion, of the Pleiades, without knowledge of
astronomy. If he wishes to treat of the virtues — of temperance,
generosity, courage, etc. — of political matters, of the magistracy, the
subjects, the laws, the penalties, etc., or of domestic matters, of
husband, wife, children, servants, etc., then the knowledge of practical
philosophy renders him some service. But we have expressly said that
philosophy comes to the aid of theology in the explanation of some
terms, for there are certain purely theological terms to whose
explanation philosophy contributes nothing whatsoever, such as: Christ,
Holy Spirit, election, and so forth. We have also expressly said that
philosophy renders service in the explanation of terms; we therefore
ascribe to it not mastery, but service, in this respect as well. Hence,
however much a term may be a philosophical one, the theologian is
nevertheless permitted to explain it somewhat differently, to apply it,
to free it from all imperfection, and to interpret it according to
theology's own principle of knowledge, namely according to Scripture —
whatever philosophy may otherwise teach for its discussion. If, for
example, the Father in the Godhead is called the Principium, then
indeed the term "Principium" is a philosophical one; yet it does not
follow that all those properties of a principle which are taught in
metaphysics are to be ascribed to the Father, but theology makes use of
this term by its own right and with the addition of a sound
explanation. Generation is a term from physics; but when it is said of
the Father in the Godhead that he begets the Son, it must by no means
be inferred from this that all the properties of generation taught in
physics are to be applied here. Righteousness is a term occurring in
ethics (moral doctrine); yet it must not be judged according to the
rules of ethics that he who acts righteously is therefore righteous
before God, but rather according to Holy Scripture, as it teaches
righteousness. Luther writes in his Judgment on Monastic Vows, in the
third chapter: "Here, in particular, is condemned that repulsive and
shameful whore, the University of Paris, which has recently decreed
that the teaching of Aristotle is not contrary to the teaching of
Christ. Whereas the blind heathen teaches that virtue must be attained
through works, since he says: if one acts temperately, one becomes
temperate; if one acts rightly, one becomes righteous. Which a Christian
conscience banishes as a hellish base broth, and instead says: If I
believe in the temperate Christ, then I become temperate. His
temperance is mine. It is his gift, and not my work." It is therefore
safest to attend solely or chiefly to the manner of expression of the
Holy Spirit, and only afterward, for comparison, to connect with it the
philosophical explanation of the terms. 3. Of the parts of instrumental