# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1859_S5
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Preface to the 1859 Volume. 5

philosophy we must speak individually. Logic serves theology in setting
forth the laws of definitions, of divisions, of method, and of
argumentation, so that the theologian may state theological matters
precisely and in order, set forth the points in dispute more clearly,
resolve them more plainly, and refute opponents more forcefully; to this
belong those praises which the ancients bestowed upon logic. Augustine
writes in the second book On Order, in the second chapter: "Dialectic
(logic) is the discipline of disciplines; it teaches how to teach and how
to learn; it knows how to know, and how to make others know." Rhetoric
serves the theologian in that it teaches the rules of eloquence, expounds
figures and tropes, and so forth; hence the study of it is not to be
regarded by a future theologian as a matter of indifference.*) The
constructive use consists in the proving of doctrinal points. But there
are two kinds of doctrinal points in theology. Some concern the highest
mysteries of faith, which exceed all the grasp of human reason, such as
the mystery of the Holy Trinity, of the Incarnation, of the Resurrection,
etc. Others, however, are of such a kind that the human understanding
can attain some knowledge of them through general ideas and through
inferences drawn from the contemplation of created things — such as that
there is a God, that he is good, just, and an avenger of crime. The
doctrinal points of the first kind cannot be proved and confirmed by
philosophical arguments, for that of which philosophy knows absolutely
nothing, it cannot prove and confirm from its own principles. Of this
Ambrose speaks when he writes in the first book On Faith, in the fifth
chapter: "Away with proofs of reason where it is a matter of faith!"
Nevertheless, nothing stands in the way of those mysteries being
explained, for the purpose of some illustration, by certain comparisons
taken from the book of nature, provided only that this be done
carefully, sparingly, and with an indication of the difference that
obtains. Nor can it be flatly disapproved when, in order to convince the
heathen, one cites, in explaining these mysteries, various things from
the books of the heathen — not because it is to be assumed that they
could attain knowledge of them by the light of nature, but because they
came by such things either from reading the divine revelations, or
through contact with the people of Israel, or from the reports
concerning the preaching

*) Luther writes in his introduction to the exposition of the prophet
Isaiah: "Whoever wishes to expound this prophet must understand two
things: first, grammar; but the other science, namely that of sacred
history, is still more necessary, for which it is required not only
that one understand the words and syllables as they read, but also that
one be versed in what belongs to rhetoric and logic." On Isaiah 14:10
Luther makes the remark: "Wherefore the so grave error of the whole
papacy, which has taken this text to refer to the fall of the angels,
should move us to let the studies of the learned sciences and of
rhetoric be commended to us, as things most necessary for a theologian
in the treatment of Holy Scripture."