Introduction: Traditionally
when Christians have attempted to explain what they know about God and how they
have access to that knowledge, they have appealed to something called
‘revelation.’ In most versions of
Christianity, revelation has served as epistemological basis for theology; that
is, an appeal often has been made to revelation in order to account for
knowledge of God. Today, however, it is
no longer clear what revelation means or how it provides knowledge of God.
General understanding: Revelation
has been generally understood to be correlative with faith. Christians feel compelled to talk about faith
in terms of ‘revelation,’ because they believe that faith is not the result of
human enquiry or discovery. Faith does
not discover its object; it is, on the contrary, constituted by it. Christian faith is human response to what has
been unveiled or disclosed by faith’s object.
The unveiling or disclosure is what theology refers to as ‘revelation.’ Therefore, revelation is the basis and
content of Christian faith.
Interpretation of revelation: There
are three aspects of broad interpretation of revelation:
1
First,
revelation means an unveiling or a disclosure.
When revelation takes place a veil is dropped and that which had been
hidden from view is disclosed.
2
Second,
the event in which this unveiling occurs cannot be initiated by human
activity. The initiator is not the
individual who witnesses the disclosure but the agent unveiled or disclosed in
the event. The very use of words,
‘unveiling,’ or ‘disclosure’ suggests that what makes itself known in a
‘revelatory event is the stuff of mystery.’ Revelation yields not the solution
to the mystery but the unveiling of a mystery.
3
Third, although
faith is a human act, revelation is not.
Because revelation refers to an event in which what is made known
exceeds the grasp of human inquiry, the event is attributed to God’s
grace. Whatever else the doctrine of
revelation is about; it is the statement about the grace of God. Revelation is not at the disposal of human
inquiry and control, and consequently it becomes an event only by means of
grace.
Objective and Subjective dimensions:
Usually revelation is interpreted as having both an objective and a
subjective dimension. The objective
dimension refers to what is revealed while the subjective dimension refers to
how revelation is received.
The objective dimension of revelation may be construed
in various ways. It may be understood to
be a proportion, an infallible teaching of scripture, the Gospel or word of
God, of the moral order. The subjective
dimension refers to the appropriation of what is objectively revealed. God illumines the mind so that it can see
what it cannot see by means of reason alone.
For Augustine, the word of God is not only that which illumines the
darkness of the intellect, evokes faith and makes understanding possible, but
also that which is itself illumined and made known to the believer.
Views on revelation: Views
on revelation by theologians throughout the ages are available for study. We will see a few of them:
(a)
Sixteenth
Century: In the 16th
century, both illumination model and the Word and Spirit model reflected a
common metaphysical view of (truths about) God.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) did not deny the possibility of revelation but
he did insist that reason could never affirm the actuality of revelation and
that “all attempts to employ reason in theology in any merely speculative
manner are altogether fruitless.”
(b)
Nineteenth
Century: In the 19th
century several interpretations of revelation were offered. Schleiermacher acknowledged that revelation
refers primarily not to the apprehension of propositions but “the originality
of the fact (Jesus Christ) which lies at the foundation of a religious communion.” This original fact, the foundation of the
community’s life cannot be explained wholly in terms of the natural
forces. To account the originality of
Jesus Christ Schleiermacher uses the category of revelation. For him, God cannot be known directly. Redemption, however, does provide a
legitimate basis for language, and knowledge about God. What is known as the consequence of
redemption is that God’s nature is love.
According to G. W. F. Hegel, the Christian symbols of Incarnation and
crucifixion are the religious representation of the nature of the Spirit as
self-revealing.
(c)
Twentieth
Century: In the 2oth century,
revelation became again a major topic on theological discussion. For Karl Barth and E. Brunner, the object of Christian faith is
God’s self-disclosure in Jesus Christ.
The basis of Christian faith is God’s self-disclosure as Word. God’s word, for Barth, is God’s activity of
self-revelation. He claimed that what is
revealed in God’s Word is God’s name or identity, as Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit (which is to say, as revealer, revelation and revealedness). For Barth, the Word of God has three forms:
first, historical event of Incarnation (the Word became flesh); second and
third, a mediated reality in the human words of Scripture and proclamation
(preaching and the Sacrament.
Biblical Usage: In the
Bible, the word is used in proper and exact sense. The mystery that is disclosed is nothing less
than God’s own will and purpose. What is
revealed is not the body of information concerning various things but it is
information concerning the nature, mind and purpose of God. It is not information about God that is
revealed but the very God himself incarnated in Jesus Christ.
Although in the OT there are some references to
revelation through nature (cf. Ps.19:1; 18:13; 29:3) and in visions (cf.
Ex.33:22; Num.24:4; Isa.6:1ff.) and dreams (cf.Gen.28:11ff; 1 Sam.28:6),
revelation is mainly understood directly as the hearing of God’s Word (cf.
Isa.5:9; Jer.23:18, 22) and indirectly as the perception of God’s activity in
the history of individuals (cf. Ps.3:1ff.; 118:13f.) and of the nation (cf.
Ex.15:1ff; Ps.98:2f; Jer.33:16). It is
also regarded eschatologically in terms of the complete manifestation of God
and the culmination of his purpose in ‘the day of the Lord’ (cf. Hos.2:19ff;
Jer.31:31ff.).
In the NT, while ‘revelation’ occasionally refers to the
miraculous reception of supernatural knowledge (cf. Mat.11:27; 16:17; Gal.2:2;
1 Pet.1:12), the dominant use of the concept is to refer to that future event
in which God finally discloses himself (cf. 1 Cor.13:12; 1 Jn.3:2) or his
Messiah (cf. Lk.17:30; 1 Cor.1:7) in judgment and salvation(cf.Rom.8:18f; 1
Cor.3:13; 1 Pet.1:5). It is an event
which those who have faith perceive to have been effected already in the event
of Jesus (cf.Jn.3:17ff; 9:39; Rom.1:17; Heb.9:26; 1 Pet.1:20).
Conclusion: It can be held
that all theological understanding is a matter of gaining insights into the
ultimate nature of reality. Though the ultimate justification is by showing
that the resulting understanding is a coherent, comprehensive, fruitful and
convincing view of the fundamental character of all reality.
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