Oct 18 2008
General Introduction To Dogmatic Theology (Part 1)
General Introduction To Dogmatic Theology
PART 1
Notion, Rank, and Division of Dogmatic Theology
1. General definitions of Theology.-Dogmatic theology forms an essential part of theology in general, and therefore cannot be correctly defined unless we have an adequate notion of the latter. Theology, then, generally speaking, is the science of faith.
a) Theology is a science. Every science deduces unknown truths from know and certain principles, by means of correct conclusions. The dogmatician receives, and believingly embraces as his principle, the infallible truths of Revelation, and by means of logical construction, systematic grouping and correct deductions, erects upon this foundation a logical body of doctrine, as does the historian who works with the facts of history, or the jurist who is occupied with the statutes, or the scientist who employs bodies and their phenomena as materials for scientific construction.
It is true that some Scholastics, i.e., Durandus and Vasquez, have denied theology the dignity of a science, because it affords no intrinsic insight into the How and Why of Catholic dogmas, particularly the mysteries of the Most Holy Trinity, the Hypostatic Union, etc. But neither do the profane sciences afford us always and everywhere an insight into their highest principles. Euclidean geometry, for instance, stands and falls with the axiom of parallels, which have never yet been satisfactorily proved;-so much so that of late years there has been made an attempt to establish a “non Euclidean geometry” independent of that axiom. To this should be added the consideration that there are sciences which derive their basic principles as lemmata from some higher science. Such, for example, is metaphysics, which is quite generally admitted to be a true science. Hence it is plain that the notion of a science, while of course it includes certainty, does not necessarily include evidence on the part of its principles. According to the luminous teaching of St Thomas Aquinas: “Sacred doctrine is a science. We must bear in mind that there are two kinds of sciences. There are some which proceed from a principle known by the natural light of intelligence, such as arithmetic and geometry and the like. There are some which proceed from principles known by the light of a higher science: thus the science of perspective proceeds from principles established by geometry, and music from principles established by arithmetic. So it is that sacred doctrine is a science because it proceeds from principles established by the light of a higher science, namely, the science of God and the blessed. Hence, just as the musician accepts on authority the principles taught him by the mathematician, so sacred science is established on principles revealed by God.” (ST. Ia, q. 1, art 2).
b) Its specific character theology derives from the fact that it is the science of faith, taking faith in both its objective and in its subjective sense. Objectively considered, theology comprises all those truths (and those truths only) which have been supernaturally revealed and are contained in Scripture and Tradition, under the care of the infallible Church (depositum fidei). Hence all branches of sacred theology, including canon law and pastoral theology, are bottomed upon supernatural Revelation. Subjectively considered, theology as a science presupposes faith; for, though reason is the theologian’s principle of knowledge, yet not pure reason, but reason carried as it were beyond itself, borne, ennobled, and transfigured by supernatural faith. It was in this sense that the Fathers insisted on the proposition: Gnosis super fidem aedificatur,” just as Scholasticism was founded on St Anselm’s famous axiom, “Fides quaerit intellectum.”
Hence a sharp distinction between philosophy and theology. Philosophy, too, especially that branch of it known as Theodicy, treats of God, His existence, essence, and attributes; but it treats of them only in the light of unaided human reason; while theology, on the other hand, derives its knowledge of God and divine things entirely from Revelation, as contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, and proposed to the faithful by the infallible Church. To elicit the act of faith demanded by this process, requires an interior grace (gratia fidei). While philosophy never transcends the bounds of pure reason, and therefore finds itself unable to prove the mysteries of faith by arguments drawn from its own domain, theology always and everywhere retains the character of a science founded strictly upon authority.
Part 2 will deal with “the high rank of theology,” while part 3 will be a “definition of dogmatic theology.
