Lehre und Wehre St. Louis, Missouri — April 1913, Seite 147

German transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

Cited in Eckhardt's Reallexikon (1907) under: Synoden

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Moderner Unglaube in der Generalsynode. 147

and isolation of interest swecp one out of the main current of present-
day problems, and leave the student stranded on the bank of à once
vigorous stream. To deny that modern thought has any new truths
to offer is to deny the presence and leadership of God in thought
and life. It is à kind of atheism. The gradual unfolding of truth,
the progressive discoveries in astronomy, chemistry, and biology, the
patient investigations in anthropology and primitive beliefs, the
gradual realization of democracy, the world-wide religious move-
ments tending toward fraternity and the federation of the forces of
Christendom, are as real revelations of truth and the ways of God
as the promulgation of the Mosaie law on Sinai or the Acts of the
Apostles.“ (554 f.) Ein großer Nachteil sei es darum auch, daß unsere
theologischen Seminare nicht in Berührung ständen mit den großen
Universitäten und ihrem Leben. „It is peculiarly important, then, for
us to keep informed, through literature, at least, as to the assured
knowledge and beliefs of all those disciplines which modify theological
SyStems.“ (555.) „The conservative temper is needed to hold fast
to thosé assuréd truths Wwhich areé of unquestioned worth in society,
science, and theology; but the progressive or radical temper is just
as important, for it goes to the root of things and lays bare the
new truths which have béen discoveréd in the investigation of
literature, history, and life.“ (555.) „It is the further sifting, re-
valuation, and additional knowledge which the modern scholar has
brought to these older beliefs“ (bei Anaximander, Plato, Aristoteles,
Augustinus, Erigena, Berns, Cusa, Descartes, Leibniz, Herder, Kant,
Schelling, Hegel, Astruc, Eichhorn, Colenso, Schleiermacher, du Perron,
Mavx Müller, Sir Thomas Moore) yhich présent the problem of
theology in a new light.“ (556.) „The first cçontributive factor in
the interpretation of theology is our knowledge of nature. Let us
be open-minded and candid, and we shall see that every theology
unconsciously accepted the known science of its day — the prevailing
world-view of phenomena, and incorporated it into its scheme of
religious thought and writing.. . . Theology, then, must necessarily
be modifled in its form of expression by that knowledge of nature
furnished by the scientifie belief of the age. The earlier conceptions
of the method of creation, the dualistic force in nature, the nature
of man, have all undergone changes in the history of theological
science. The unitary Nature of the force and method of creation
by which God works and reveals Himself has modified all theology
Which shall persist and claim the allegiance of modernly educated
men.“ (558.)

Für derartige Modifikationen und Neugestaltungen der christlichen
Lehren durch die moderne Wissenschaft hat nach Delk das lutherische
Bekenntnis auch genügend Raum gelassen. Er schreibt: „The wise
and humble framers of our Confession recognized that they could

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