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

THE PRINCE TON RE VIEW.
to truth, there is nevertheless a place, if not for it, at least for
metaphysic in theology. In order to exhibit the proper relations of theology and philosophy, one must perform a double
duty. Speaking in behalf of theology, there is a long history of
invasion to be recited, conquered territory to be reclaimed, and
the right of theology to the unmolested enjoyment of her Godgiven domain to be insisted on and defended. Speaking, on the
other hand, in behalf of philosophy, it will be his duty to show
the real service that she may render Christian truth, and, guarding against the impression that her former faults are to be punished with perpetual banishment or penal servitude, to say in
the words of the reformed theblogian Mursinna: Pzilosophia non
est ancilla sedpotius soror theologian.
The word philosophy is used, however, in a somewhat broader
sense than that of apriori speculation, and, in antithesis to theology, to mean the method that reaches truth through inference
and argument, as opposed to that which receives it by direct
divine revelations. In a broad sense, then, we say that Christian
theology is a matter of revelation and not of philosophy. And
yet our system of theology begins with a theistic conception of
the universe. There are a few who would say with Watson that
we owe our knowledge of God to the Bible, and who would
therefore depreciate the theistic proofs; for there are some men
who always imagine that it is a mark of special respect for the
Bible to teach that we can have no knowledge of God without it.
But men honor the Bible most when they believe what it says;
and therefore believe that the heavens declare the glory of God,
and the firmament showeth his handiwork. There are few who
would wish to see the teleological and the moral arguments for
God's existence taken out of the books of systematic theology.
Yet these arguments are not Biblical. They are as truly philosophical as are the arguments that support any scientific hypothesis. Here, then, we have a reasoned theism-a theory of the
universe which, however it originated, is at least defended by the
application of the laws of thought to the facts of the external
world. We have an inferential as opposed to an informational
knowledge of God; and to this extent we have a philosophical
factor in our theological system.
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