§ 1. THEOLOGY, in the sense in which the word is constantly taken here, is a positive science, the parts of which are connected into a whole, only by their common relation to a determinate mode of faith, that is, a determinate form of the God-consciousness; those of Christian Theology, therefore, by their relation to Christianity.
A positive science, namely, is, in general, a body of scientific elements which have a connectedness of their own,—not as if, by a necessity arising out of the very idea of science, they formed a constituent part of the scientific organization,—but only in so far as they are requisite in order to the solution of a practical problem. If, on the other hand, a Rational Theology has, in past times, been exhibited as an essential part of the scientific organization: it is true that this also has reference to the God of our God-consciousness; yet, being a speculative science, it is altogether a different thing from the Theology with which we have to do.
§ 2. A Theology will be formed in connexion with every determinate mode of faith, in the measure in which the latter is communicated rather by the aid of mental representations1 than of symbolical actions, and in the measure in which, at the same time, it obtains historical importance and independence; which Theology, again, may be different for every different mode of faith, because it is connected with the individual character of the latter, as it respects both form and contents.
Only in the measure stated; because, in a community of small extent, the necessity for a Theology, properly so called, does not arise; and because, in the case of a preponderance of symbolical actions, the ritual Technology [Technik] which contains the interpretation of the latter, hardly deserves the name of a science.
§ 3. Theology is not the business of all who belong to a particular Church, nor in so far as they belong to it; but only when and in so far as they have a share in the Guidance of the Church: so that the contrast between such persons and the mass [of Church Members], and the prominent appearance of Theology, are matters each of which implies the existence of the other.
The expression “Guidance of the Church” is here to be taken in the broadest sense, without reference to any one particular form.
§ 4. The more the Church advances in its development, and the more numerous the regions of language and of culture over which it extends itself, the more many-partedly does Theology also become organized; for which reason, Christian Theology is that which has attained to the highest state of cultivation.
For, the more these two things come to pass, the more numerous are the differences, both in men’s conceptions and in their modes of life, which Theology has to connect together, and the more various the historical material which it has to investigate.
§ 5. Christian Theology, accordingly, is the collective embodiment of those branches of scientific knowledge and those rules of art, without the possession and application of which a harmonious Guidance of the Christian Church, that is a Christian Church-Government, is not possible.
This, namely, is the relation laid down in § 1; for the Christian Faith, in and for itself, does not need such an apparatus in order to its efficacious activity, either in the individual soul, or in the circumstances connected with the social life of the family.
§ 6. The said branches of knowledge, when they are acquired and possessed without reference to the government of the Church, cease to have a theological character, and become assignable to those sciences to which, according to the nature of their contents, they respectively belong.
These sciences are, then, according to the nature of the case, Philology and History, Psychology and Morals; together with certain disciplinæ which are off-shoots from the latter,—the Doctrine of Art in general, and the Philosophy of Religion.
§ 7. By virtue of this relation, the variety of knowledge referred to is, to the will to be efficient in the Guidance of the Church, as the body to the soul.
Without this will, the unity of Theology is lost; and its parts become disintegrated into the different elements of which it is composed.
§ 8. But, as these heterogeneous branches of knowledge are connected into such a whole, only by the presence of an interest in Christianity, so also this interest in Christianity can manifest itself in an appropriate activity, only by being coupled with the possession of the said branches of knowledge.