_7_Christian Religion and Christian Theology

In ecclesiastical terminology a distinction is made between Christian religion and Christian theology, religion (in the subjective sense) designating the knowledge of God and divine matters which all Christians have, and theology (in the subjective sense), the special knowledge of the teachers of the Church. We can accept this distinction. Scripture teaches (a) that all Christians have a knowledge of divine matters, for “they shall be all taught of God” (John 6:45); and (b) that the teachers of the Church should possess a special knowledge.61 But there is no difference between these two kinds of knowledge as to their source. The teachers derive their knowledge of God and divine things from the very same source from which all other Christians derive it — from Holy Scripture. There is no other source open to theologians.

Modern theologians are not agreed on the relation between “religious” and “theological” knowledge. Some want to “connect them as closely as possible,” while others want to separate them as widely as possible. At the present time much is being written on the difference between “religious” and “theological” knowledge.62 According to the Scriptural, the Christian, standard we must maintain that “religious knowledge” and “theological knowledge” do not differ essentially regarding source and medium of cognition. That is to say, theological knowledge begins and ends where all the knowledge of all Christians begins and ends — by believing the Word of God as we have it in Scripture. The theologians, the teachers of the Church, do not progress in their knowledge of the Christian doctrine one inch beyond God’s revelation in His Word. That is the clear teaching of Scripture.63

The textbooks in which the divine knowledge of all Christians is systematically arranged according to the chief parts of the Christian religion (religion in the objective sense, as doctrine) are usually called catechisms, Religionslehre, handbooks of the Christian doctrine, etc.64 The manuals in which the special divine knowledge of the teachers of the Church (theology in the objective sense) is presented are called: Textbooks of Theology, Dogmatics, Systematic Theology, Scientific Theology, die christliche Lehre in wissenschaftlicher Darstellung, etc…. formerly loci communes, systema theologiae Christianae, etc. — May the terms “science” and “system” be applied to theology? Yes and no. Because of its importance this matter will be discussed at length in the chapters “Theology and Science” and “Theology and System.”