13. The purpose of theology, which it seeks to achieve in man.
The theologian has to take great care not to be misled about the purpose of his activity. The purpose of theology, seen from the point of view of men, is first of all not culture and civil righteousness, although Christianity cultivates men most surely and most quickly and makes them good citizens. Nor, secondly, is the purpose of theology the "satisfaction of the intellectual needs of men" and the enrichment of human knowledge in general, although theology gives answers from Holy Scriptures to many questions which human research strives in vain to answer.415) The purpose that theology should and wants to achieve in man after the Fall is the deliverance from eternal damnation, to which all individuals of the human race are doomed, or, which is the same thing, the leading of man to eternal salvation (σωτηρία, salus aeterna). This purpose of Christian theology is enunciated 1 Tim. 4:16: Τοντο ποιων (namely, if you wait of the Christian magisterium) καί σεαντόν σώσεις και τους άκονοντάς σου. According to Matt. 13:52, every scholar of Scripture is "taught unto the kingdom of heaven" (μαϑητευΰεις τη βασιλεία των ουρανών). By this end the church office of teaching is the most important office on earth, the καλόν εργον in the eminent sense.416) If Luthardt respects the "immediate relation of theology to salvation" in the old Lutheran theologians, but at the same time censures them as "scientifically incorrect," 417) this censure has its reason in the fact that Luthardt represents a theology that has lost sight of its purpose of existence. This is the theology that wants to transform faith into knowledge already in this life and, in order to achieve this purpose, wants to draw the Christian doctrine not from Holy Scriptures but from the Ego of the dogmatizing subject. It is to be acknowledged that Luthardt did not want to relate this theology "directly" to salvation. It would be terrible if salvation depended in any way on a theology that teaches in principle
415) For example, theology provides reliable information about the metaphysical problems of being and becoming (Col. 1:16. 17; Gen. 1:12, 13), about the solution of which philosophy is known to diverge in all directions.
416) 1 Tim. 3:1.<w:tab/><w:t xml:space="preserve">417) Compendium 11, S. 4.
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from within the theologian instead of from the mouth of God. But by renouncing the address from God's mouth and the direct relation to salvation, this theology should also renounce the claim to have in the Christian church "its very inner life, right and support".418) It is an exotic plant in the church and does not belong to the plants planted by the heavenly Father, 419) because in the church of God only God's Word (λόγια ϑεον) is to be spoken and through it the salvation of men is to be sought.420) Walther quotes from Meisner's Philosophia Sobria on the purpose of theology: "He who does not always intend this purpose (the salvation of man) and does not have it in view in all his theory [or γνώσις, knowledge], does not deserve the name of a true theologian." 421)
The terminology of the old theologians about the purpose of theology is not bad at all. They say: Subiectum operationis theologiae est homo peccator, quatenus ad salutem aeternam perducendus est.422) Civil society or the state also has to deal with homo peccator, but not in so far as he is to be led to salvation, but in so far as the state has the purpose of protecting bodily life and bodily goods against the outbreaks of sinful human nature with bodily rebuke. The theologian, on the other hand, and the Christian Church in general, do not concern themselves with the civil punishment of sins, but merely with the revelation of the guilt of sin before God through the sermon of the divine law, in order to mediate thereafter the forgiveness of sins and salvation through the preaching of the Gospel. However, this purpose of theology, the salus aeterna, is not achieved in man by several ways, but only by one way. Every man who reaches the salus aeterna reaches this goal only through faith in Christ or, what is the same thing, through faith in the gospel of the grace of God in Christ, Jn. 3:36: Ό πιοτενων εις τον υιόν έχει ζωήν αιώνιον ο δε άπειϑών τω νιω ονκ δψεται ζωήν, άλλ ή οργή τον ϑεον μένει Ιπ αυτόν. Thus theology, as a "middle end" (finis intermedius), aims first of all at the production and preservation of faith in Christ, as the apostle Paul says of himself that he has his ministry εις νπακοήν πί'στεως.423) Of course, theology also aims
418) Luthardt, Comp., p. 6.<w:t>419) Matt. 15:13.
420) 1 Petr. 4:11; 1 Tim. 1:4; 6:3. — Tit. 1:1- 2 (επ ελπίδι ζωής αιωνίου).
421) L.u.W. 14, 76 f.<w:t xml:space="preserve">422) Baier I, 40.<w:t>423) Rom. 1:5.
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at sanctification and good works. Titus is to teach the believers, καλών έργων προΐστασϑαι.424) But not as the cause or precondition or means of obtaining the forgiveness of sins and salvation, which is a characteristic of the teachers whom the apostle Paul curses,425) but as the consequence and effect of the forgiveness of sins and salvation already obtained without works through faith. In this way, the theologian achieves both the right quality and a pleasing quantity of good works.426)