THE TEACHING OF THEOLOGY 305 



by authority. That which to the eye of the ecclesiastical court 

 appears as the tortuous and variable path of the uncontrolled truth- 

 seeker, may, to that Eye which sees all things as they are, be as the 

 path of the arrow to its mark. 



It may be urged as a demurrer to what has been presented that 

 theology cannot be reckoned among the exact sciences; and that it 

 is, therefore, fallacious to set this accent upon truth and ascertained 

 fact in connection therewith, the data of theology being largely 

 matters of belief, properly regulated by the authority of the Church. 

 It is, without doubt, to be granted that theology is not an exact 

 science in the mathematical sense, its material being related to the 

 Infinite and the Unseen. But, equally without doubt, there is a 

 formidable basis for regarding theology as, relatively, an exact 

 science. To ignore that basis might result in enthroning superstition 

 in the seat of intellect. The theology of the Christian religion rests 

 primarily upon documents that claim for themselves no immunity 

 from the laws and tests establishing documentary evidence. To 

 presume to exempt them from those tests may be an act of faith. 

 But the peril of the act is great, and daily becoming greater. These 

 documents, attested by critical research, have content which has 

 relation to the history of thought, the data of experience, the data 

 of ethics. In the ages of ecclesiasticism the continuous effort has 

 been to impose upon the content of Holy Scripture systematic in- 

 terpretations predetermined by authority and to bind the will and 

 conscience thereto. They may have been true interpretations; in 

 many respects they are true; but, being made the instruments of 

 authority, they place between the minds committed to them and 

 the original sources of theology a barrier to intellectual freedom, a 

 temptation to intellectual insincerity. The teaching of theology in 

 an atmosphere exempt from ecclesiastical tests means direct access 

 to the content of the documentary basis of the Christian religion, 

 with no compelling motive other than that of the quest of divine 

 truth. The door of immediate entrance thereto is the comparatively 

 new discipline of Biblical theology. Biblical theology may conceivably 

 be employed in the interest of positions previously established by 

 sectarian authority or popular usage. This might be done uncon- 

 sciously and honestly, as in the blind fervor of a zeal without know- 

 ledge. Or it might be done of set purpose. The diplomatic manipu- 

 lation of Scripture to buttress an ecclesiastical structure of dogma 

 is not unknown in the annals of the Church. But, however done, 

 unconsciously or with intention, its effect must be to impart to the 

 discipline an unmerited aspect of weakness. Biblical theology, 

 pursued in an atmosphere purged of ecclesiastical and secular 

 animus, is, of necessity, a strong and great discipline. For it is 

 essentially historical. It occupies itself with documents previously 



