The Place of Philosophy in the Theological Curriculum [pp. 103-124]

PHILOSOPHY IN THE THEOLOGICAL CURRICULUM. I05
pacity of ajudge. Accordingly he might be expected to enter
upon his duties with no foregone conclusions, and to divest
himself of all dogmatic bias in order that he might act with
scrupulous fairness toward the contending parties in a protracted
litigation. But this view of the matter results from a misconception of the relations of dogmatic faith to free inquiry, and a
forgetfulness of the relations which nearly all theological seminaries sustain to definite confessional theology. It cannot be
said that the condition of fair investigation is antecedent and
universal scepticism. A man should be ready to see evidence
that contradicts his own opinions. But it is not necessary that
he should begin investigation without opinions. The scientific
man even is not asked to be such a thorough-going Cartesian in
his method as to give up every belief as the condition of prosecuting with fairness a new subject of investigation; and the
theologian should have as much liberty in this respect as the
man of science. If, therefore, he may enter upon his work in
possession of distinct and definite opinions, there is no reason
why he should not enter upon it believing in a complete system
of theology; in other words, there is no reason why his avowal
of belief in a distinct type of confessional theology should hinder his quest of truth or prevent him from recognizing evidence
whenever he sees it. The fact, therefore, that our theological
seminaries are founded, as a rule, in the interests of the doctrine and polity of the communions which they respectively
represent, and therefore that professors in those seminaries
enter upon their work with foregone conclusions, is the occasion
of no real difficulty. For a man should have made up his mind
as to the place of Christianity in the world before taking the
position of a teacher in a school of divinity, and he can honestly
hold his place in an ecclesiastical organization only so long as
he is in sympathy with the ends for which the organization
exists. Assuming then that the professor of the department
to which reference is made comes to his work under the assumptions of a confessional theology, the work before him is one of
great amplitude. It will not be necessary for him to construe
the title of his chair in the terms of a minimism of theology,
and it would be quite correct to say that the whole area of dog.