Systematic Theology Introduction (15): "An important distinction between science and religion"

There is a certain real sense in which Systematic Theology is a science. There is another sense in which Theology must be distinguished from all sciences, as Herman Bavinck notes [his use of "religion" here being essentially the same with our consideration of "Theology"]:

“An important distinction between science and religion is that the first can be satisfied with human certainty but the latter demands nothing less than divine certainty. The object of faith must be the wholly reliable, infallible, eternal truth so that we can count on it in life and death, for time and eternity. In most earthly matters we can tolerate lesser or greater degrees of probability. But in religion, which in its deepest ground always concerns man's eternal salvation, total certainty is an indispensable requirement. The basis of our hope for eternity cannot be a human word, a result of scientific inquiry, an ideal shaped by our imagination, or a proposition built on human reasoning, for all these are shaky and fallible. They cannot support the building of our hope, for soon it would collapse into ruin. Faith— religious faith—can by its very nature rest only on a word, a promise from God, on something that proceeds from His mouth and is revealed to man either naturally or supernaturally.” [Herman Bavinck, The Certainty of Faith (Ontario: Paideia Press, 1980), 51. Emphasis added. This was originally published to this blog on 10/10/18.]