By the Reverend Abraham Kuyper, D.D., LL.D.1
In keeping with an ancient custom, it will be a rule at our University that the exchange of the rectorate shall be accompanied by an oration; and it is preferred that each rector shall take a theme from his own department. I also desire to observe this rule, and therefore the Annale Academici and the inaugural of the new rector are preceded by this address on Present-day Biblical Criticism, viewed from the point of its dangerous tendency to the church of the living God. I am deeply sensible of the importance of the task imposed on me by this choice of subject; I feel what modesty is demanded of me when I undertake to differ from celebrated and talented colleagues, who are for the most part my superiors; I know my need of greater courage than my own heart prompts, when I raise my hand and voice boldly against current opinions;—but may I refrain when the dangers that threaten the church compel me to speak? And, I add, do you expect anything else, when for several months past a reply has been invited from our side about this cardinal point in the conflict of spirits? It is indeed our conviction which, with an appeal to your considerate judgment but without the least uncertainty, we express,—that the biblical criticism of the present day is destructive of the best interests of the church of the living God, for the reason that it revokes her theology, robs her of the Bible, and destroys her liberty in Christ. Give me your attention as, in the development of these three propositions, I shall show that biblical criticism as it is prosecuted in our times at almost every Protestant university on the continent of Europe, must result in the utter destruction of theology; that it cannot continue without robbing the church of the Holy Scriptures; and that it must end in surrendering her, utterly defenseless, into the arms of the most unbearable, because intellectual, clericalism. And may He, before whose glory I reverently bow and for the welfare of whose church I plead, be in this the inspirer of my word and the judge of my thoughts; while in this sacred task, also, our help is in the name of the Lord Jehovah, the Rock of our strength, and the Strength of our life.
I.
Biblical criticism of the present day tears the parts of theology out of their relation, violates its character, and substitutes for it something which is no theology. Such is the threefold complaint in which I treat the first part of the subject in hand, as I undertake to prove the proposition that present-day biblical criticism must end in the destruction of theology.
Theology is a science which, if it is analogous to philosophy and psychology, is distinguished from all other sciences by this fundamental point, that it does not occupy itself with the knowledge of the creature, but of the Creator; hence of a God who, as creator, cannot be included in the range of the creaturely. The object of theology, therefore, is God. Not God and something besides which is coördinated with him; but God alone, and under him the creature is considered only in so far as it either instrumentally reveals the knowledge of God or for his glory takes this knowledge up into itself. In anthropology, man is the centrum, and the Almighty is considered only as the interpretation of the religious sense; but in theology God himself is the centrum, and no mention of man is justified, except in so far as God uses him for his own sake.
Again, in all other sciences man observes and thoughtfully investigates the object, and subjects it to himself, but in theology the object itself is active; it does not stand open, but gives itself to be seen; does not allow itself to be investigated, but reveals itself; and employs thinking man as instrument only to cause the knowledge of his Being to radiate. Hence the confession of God, the Holy Spirit, speaks of him also as ‘Ὁ θεόλογος, Ecclesiæ Doctor; “the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God,” “for the Spirit searcheth all things. Yea, the deep things of God” (1 Cor. ii. 10); and all real theology is essentially one beautiful building which, in all ages and among all nations, has been reared, according to a fixed plan, by that Spiritus Architectonicus whom we, who are called theologians, merely assist as upper servants.
And, finally, theology is not born, like other sciences, from the motive of need or from the impulse after knowledge, but from the impulsion of the Holy Spirit. In giving us a theology, God has a purpose to fulfill. He wills that the knowledge of his Being shall be received by us; and that, having been cast into the furrows of our minds and hearts, it shall germinate; and, having germinated, that it shall bear fruit to the honor of his name. It is therefore a positive science in which object as well as end are not first to be found, but are posited in advance; and in its origin, power of development, and direction it is determined by one and the self-same principle,—the Self- revealing God. As Thomas puts it, “Deo docetur Deum docet, ad Deum ducet”; or, better still, in the words of one of our own divines: “A theologian is ὁ τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐκ Θεοῦ ἐνώπιον τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰς δοξὰν Θεοῦ λέγων.”2