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The Christian religion lies entirely outside the realm of human science. This is obvious as soon as we realize what the Christian religion is. The Christian religion does not consist, as many erroneously think, in the knowledge that there is an almighty God. If the Christian religion consisted only in this knowledge, human science would also know something about the Christian religion. Why? Because all creatures which we see before us and which are subject to our observation testify to the existence of an almighty God who created and sustains them. Just as certain goods made in Germany or in England bear the stamp: "Made in Germany", or: "Made in England", so all creatures that surround us bear the stamp of the Almighty God who made and sustains them. Kepler says: “In creation I grasp God, as it were, with my hands.” But in this [Page 291] recognition does not consist, as already said, the Christian religion. Scripture and history testify that this knowledge is also found among the heathen. Furthermore, the Christian religion does not consist in the knowledge of the divine law and the endeavor to live up to the divine law. If the Christian religion consisted in this, then human science would know about the Christian religion. For in every human heart there is still a knowledge of the divine law, as Scripture and experience show. The apostle Paul says of the heathen that they “know the righteousness of God” (Rom. 1:32) and are “a law unto themselves,” (Rom. 2:14) [according to Luther’s Bible] although they do not have the Law written in the Holy Scriptures. But now the Christian religion consists neither in the knowledge of the Law nor in the effort to live according to the Law. The Christian religion is something completely different. The Christian religion is the exact opposite of any religion of the Law. According to the Christian religion, a man is saved neither by doing good nor by refraining from evil, but without any works of his own, because Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, kept God's Law in place of man and bore God's punishment for man's transgression of the Law. According to the Christian religion, one becomes saved without Law, through faith in Christ. This is the essence of Christianity! The essence of Christianity consists in the Gospel, in the Gospel of Christ crucified. But no man knows the least thing about the Gospel, whether by nature, by so-called innate ideas, or by research. Nothing of the Gospel stands in the stars, nor on the heights of the mountains, nor in the depths of the sea, nor even in the heart of man, but the Gospel has become known to us men only through the divine revelation now available to us in the Holy Scriptures. The apostle describes the Gospel of Christ or the essence of Christianity thus: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man.” (1 Cor. 2:9) This is also proven by experience. No heathen nation and no heathen religious book knows of the doctrine that one becomes saved without works, through faith in Christ crucified. Prof. Max Müller of Oxford [sic: Monier Monier-Williams], the well-known Orientalist, once said in a lecture that he had studied the religious books of the pagan Orient for a lifetime and found the doctrine in all of them: man must achieve salvation by his own works. Only the Christian religious book, the Bible, teaches the exact opposite, namely, that man becomes saved without works, through faith in Christ. But if it stands thus, that the Christian religion exists only in the revelation of the Holy Scriptures—and so it stands—it is evident [Page 292] that the Christian religion lies entirely outside the domain of human science, that the Christian doctrine can neither be drawn from human science, nor judged and measured by it. Those who still want to do this are acting entirely unscientifically. Only the method that leads to knowledge is scientific, that is, adheres to the sources of knowledge peculiar to the field of knowledge in question. Whoever wants to do astronomy must look at the stars and not, for example, at a potato field. Whoever wants to recognize, explain and evaluate the Christian doctrine must not look at the stars or at the sea or at the heart of man, but at the Bible, which is the only revelation of the Christian doctrine. Our ancient teachers established the principle: Quod non est biblicum, non est theologicum [“What is not biblical is not theological”], what is not taken from the Bible is also not theological, does not belong to Christian doctrine.
%20Christian%20doctrine.jpg "science claims dominion (over) Christian doctrine")
This principle is genuinely theological, but at the same time genuinely scientific. And if it is followed, the greatest part of the quarrel between church and human science is already gone. For just as most wars in the world are caused by the shifting of boundaries—think of the wars that are being waged at the present time—so also most of the struggles between the church and human science have their cause in the fact that human science claims dominion in the field of Christian doctrine, which is quite alien to it. It is not the science that does honest research in its own field that comes into conflict with the Christian church, but the science that undertakes bandit-like raids on foreign territory. The Apostle points to this kind of “science” when he says: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy.” With this post-science [Afterwissenschaft] we want to remain unconfused in our educational institutions. Human science, which imagines that it knows something of the Christian doctrine and therefore puts the Christian doctrine before its forum, has become mad.
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