SEVENTEEN THESES ON DIVINE REVELATION
Keywords:
Experience, Faith, Mystery, Selfcommunication, Self-revelationAbstract
In the light of teaching from Vatican I (1869-70), developed by Vatican II (1962-65) and St John Paul II, and the best modern theology, this article sets itself to craft seventeen theses about the nature and purpose of the divine revelation given in Christ and through his Spirit. Primarily, revelation means the personal self-revelation of the tripersonal God, and, secondarily, the revealed truths that issue from such encounters. Always a free gift of divine love, revelation brings salvation and has a sacramental character, as communicated through words and deeds. Revelation happens only when it achieves its goal and is received by faith. We need to recognize past or foundational revelation (that ended with the apostolic age), dependent revelation (that happens now), and final revelation (that will come at the end of history). An adequate theology of revelation should distinguish it from and clarify its relationship with tradition and the inspired Scriptures. The divine revelation, which prompts human faith, is available universally, and always depends on the risen Christ and his Holy Spirit.
References
An article (“The Faith of Others: A Biblical Possibility”) forthcoming in The Irish Theological Quarterly documents this claim. Among those who contribute to the theology of religions, Gavin D’Costa is a welcome exception; see his “Revelation and World Religions,” in Paul D.L. Avis, ed., Revelation, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1997.
Keith Ward, Religion and Revelation: A Theology of Revelation in the World’s Religions, Oxford: Clarendon, 1994.
William J. Abraham, Crossing the Threshold of Divine Revelation, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007.
David Brown, Tradition and Imagination, Revelation and Change, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Ingolf Dalferth, ed., Revelation, Claremont Studies in the Philosophy of Religion, Conference 2012.
Richard Swinburne, Revelation: From Metaphor to Analogy, Oxford: Clarendon, 1992.
Keith Ward, Religion and Revelation, Oxford: Clarendon, 1994.
Retrieving Fundamental Theology, Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1993; Rethinking Fundamental Theology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.
Nicholas Wolterstorff, Divine Discourse: Philosophical Reflections on the Claim that God Speaks, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
G. O’Collins, Christology: A Biblical, Historical, and Systematic Study of Jesus, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2ndedn, 2009.
Paul Helm, “John Calvin, the sensus divinitatis and the noetic effects of sin,” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 43 (1998).
