Theology is not required of every person for salvation, yet the church cannot stand without it

Many things are commonly disputed about theology in the schools. But what we now propose to teach on this subject will be referred to these heads: first, what and how great is the necessity of theology; second, what is its nature, where we must inquire into its genus and difference; third, what is the dignity of theology and its excellence above the remaining sciences.

As to the first: it is certain that theology is not in itself necessary for each person unto salvation — that is, it is not necessary that all who come to eternal life be endowed with theological science. For in the church all are not teachers, as the Apostle teaches (1 Corinthians 12:29); nor are they for that reason deprived of salvation. For the salvation of individuals, faith suffices; a fuller and wider knowledge of the things of faith is not necessarily required.

Nevertheless theology — that is, such a science of divine things as can defend, explain, and commend the faith itself — is necessary in the church, so that the church may stand and be preserved, and so that individuals may obtain salvation. This the Apostle teaches (Ephesians 4:11-14), where besides other things he affirms that Christ appointed teachers in his church for the perfecting of the saints and the building up of the body of Christ, and so that we may not be children tossed and carried about by every wind of teaching. From this it is plain that there is danger, if there are no teachers in the church, that its frame be dissolved, the building fall, and private persons fall away from the faith, carried off by many and various errors. And the same Apostle requires as a necessary condition in a bishop that he be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict (Titus 1:9) — which cannot be done by one who is not more learned in sacred things than the common run of the faithful.