@Hanna ja :) ich hab gerade ein Theologiestudium in Deutschland angefangen :-)

I would think that there is then room for interpretation between "there would be" and "there would not have been" for „es gäbe“.

Thank you all for your replies! It seems that there is as much to pay attention to in the German as in the English.

When I say ´if I was in your shoes‘, I am not talking about the past, but of a general theoretical suggestion (wenn ich du wäre.) That is how it is applied in your sentence too.

Hi Naomi, the second translation is not very accurate. You are right that "gäbe" in German Konjunktiv II should be translated as "would be". "never was" as past tense has a different meaning because it limits the meaning to the past, which is not necessarily true for "gäbe". So the first translation is more accurate by meaning but I feel that the wording and syntax makes it a bit confusing. "Would be" is negated by the "no true..." which appears only at the end of the sentence, so on the first glance it looks like a positive statement. But it is grammatically correct, just the reader might have to read it twice to get it. A way to fix it would be: "Without the truth of the doctrine of justification, there would not be and certainly there is not a(ny) true Christian church." Does not sound too elegant either but hope it helps you. 对了，你是神学生吗？我也是神学生~ 哈哈