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Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky Orthodox dogmatic theology IntraText CT - Text |
Dogmatics and faith.
Dogmatic theology is for the believing Christian. In itself it does not inspire faith, but
presupposes that faith already exists in the heart. “I believed, wherefore I spake,” says a
righteous man of the Old Testament (Ps. 115:1). And the Lord Jesus Christ revealed the
mysteries of the Kingdom of God to His disciples after they had believed in Him: “Lord, to
whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art
that Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:68-69). Faith, and more precisely faith in the Son
of God Who has come into the world, is the cornerstone of Sacred Scripture; it is the cornerstone
of one's personal salvation; and it is the cornerstone of theology. “But these are written, that ye
might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God- and that believing ye might have life
through His Name” (John 20:31), writes the Apostle John at the end of his Gospel, and he
repeats the same thought many times in his epistles; and these words of his express the chief idea
of all of the writings of the holy Apostles: I believe. All Christian theologizing must begin with
this confession. Under this condition theologizing is not an abstract mental exercise, not an
intellectual dialectics, but a dwelling of one's thought in Divine truths, a directing of the mind
and heart towards God, and a recognition of Gods love. For an unbeliever theologizing is without
effect, because Christ Himself, for unbelievers, is “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” (1
Peter 2:7-8; see Matt. 21:44).