i8 7 o] A THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 157 



supposed natural, and which the written word always 

 presupposes, are consequences, not presuppositions, of 

 true Christian faith, it follows that Christianity is in the 

 first instance so absolutely a thing of the heart that it 

 has to construct for itself even the very elements of a 

 knowledge of God. The subjective consciousness of 

 union with God in Christ is absolutely the first thing in 

 true Christianity, and it is from this consciousness out 

 wards that the Christian develops for himself a true 

 notion of God and a true notion of man. All doctrine 

 even of revelation that had previously been presented 

 to a man s mind from the outside has to be made over 

 again from the inside as soon as the Holy Spirit has 

 begun true faith in the soul. 



Thus the rejection of natural theology in the sense of 

 the old theology bears with it the characteristic principle 

 of the new theology that subjective religion necessarily 

 precedes true religious knowledge. That is, theology is 

 no longer the sum of those doctrines by believing which 

 we are united to God in faith and which, from the witness 

 of the Holy Spirit to this their saving power, are received 

 as indubitably true ; but the doctrines of theology are 

 the product of faith, the knowledge of the subject and 

 object of faith which are evolved by dialectical necessity 

 from the assurance of the primitive act itself. 



It may perhaps be granted that there is force in the 

 argument which repels the accusation of rationalism so 

 often brought against the new theology. But then, 

 some will say, you fall back into the no less dangerous 

 extreme of mysticism, giving an unbounded play to an 

 unrestrained subjectivity. The analogy just mentioned 

 will readily suggest the true answer here. A conscious 

 ness originally subjective in character is not, therefore, 

 purely subjective in origin. And so the Christian con 

 sciousness does not arise in man from within. Faith is 

 wrought in the believer only by the Holy Spirit making 

 known Christ unto us. It is a real objective revelation 



