# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1859_S7
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Preface to the 1859 Volume. 7

heathen, who seek to search out God from the book of nature and live
according to the precept of sound reason, eternal salvation. 2. When
mastery is ascribed to philosophy in the explanation of theological
terms, and it is demanded that the theologian leave the judgment
concerning terms taken over from philosophy entirely to the
philosopher — whereas those terms, once received into the holy
commonwealth of God, often take on a new meaning, and one must learn to
speak with new tongues in the church. Thus it is an abuse of philosophy
when the papists try to prove, from the grammatical composition of the
word justificare (to justify, to make righteous), that justification
consists in an infusion of righteousness and in the producing of
righteous works. 3. When logic no longer serves theology as a handmaid,
but rules over it — that is, when it forms proofs against theological
propositions out of its own topical rules (rules for probable
inferences), and, contrary to the character of true science, commits a
crossing-over into another genus (μετάβασις εἰς ἄλλο γένος — a "shift
into another kind")."

"In the constructive use one abuses philosophy, 1. when one seeks to
confirm the highest mysteries of faith with philosophical grounds,
passing over the one principle of theology, which is the Word of God.
Thus Scotus, Raymundus of Sabunde, and others attempt to develop the
mystery of the Trinity from the principles of philosophy. 2. When the
testimonies of Scripture are placed after philosophical proofs, as if
argumentation with philosophical arguments were more certain than with
the pronouncements of Scripture. Thus Keckermann, wishing to demonstrate
the Trinity of persons from the properties of an intelligent being,
prefaces the following: "We shall make clear to the anti-Trinitarians
that the Trinity of persons flows from the essence of God itself, and
that God could not be God if he did not have three distinct ways of
existing, or persons; and once we have shown this, we shall also produce
the testimonies of Holy Scripture." But with these words he not
obscurely places his philosophical discourse ahead of the divine
testimonies. Thus the Scholastics frequently dispute at length over
articles of faith first from philosophical grounds and the sayings of
Aristotle, and only afterward add pronouncements of Scripture merely for
form's sake. 3. When one holds that saving faith is strengthened by
philosophical grounds, whereas there can be no firmer proof of faith
than God's authority, who speaks in and through Scripture — for God is
truth itself, and his word is of perfectly certain and firm truth,
indeed firmer than heaven and earth. 4. When one thinks that in mixed
questions, as they are called — that is, in which one term is
philosophical and the other theological — the grounds of proof may be
taken from philosophy. But the resolution of a question requires the