Perhaps the time has come when theology must learn to live without the support of canon and classical authorities and stand in the world without authority. Without authority, however, theology can only teach by an indirect method. Theology is indeed in a strange position because it has to prove its purity by immersing itself in all the layers of human existence and cannot claim for itself a special realm. In losing itself in the forms of the world, theology would not betray its destiny. […] Theology must remain incognito in the realm of the secular and work incognito for the sanctification of the world. Theology should not strive for the vainglory to present a sacred science "separated" from the sciences by special doctrines or dogmas, but rather it should serve in "lowliness of mind" the secular knowledge and life. Would theology miss its point if instead of insisting on a separating circle, it would make itself of no special reputation and take upon itself the form of incognito? In such a fashion, theology would become more likely to present the relation between the divine and the human in our time.

Jacob Taubes, From Cult to Culture