|
Some people hold that God can communicate with man in a way that gives direct, propositional content: This is termed verbal revelation. Orthodox Judaism and traditional Christianity hold that the first five books of Moses were dictated by God in such a fashion. Non-verbal propositional One school of thought holds that revelation is non-verbal and non-literal, yet it may have propositional content. People were divinely inspired by God with a message, but not in a verbal-like fashion. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel has written that "To convey what the prophets experienced, the Bible could either use terms of descriptions or terms of indication. Any description of the act of revelation in empirical categories would have produced a caricature. That is why all the Bible does is to state that revelation happened; how it happened is something they could only convey in words that are evocative and suggestive."[8] However it is contended[by whom?] that the Bible does indeed state exactly how certain prophets received revelation. Such as Isaiah, who writes that he received his message through visions, where he would see YHWH the God of Israel, speaking to angelic beings that surrounded him. Isaiah would then write down the dialogue exchanged between YHWH, and the angels. This form of revelation constitutes the bulk of the text of the Book of Isaiah. The same formula of divine revelation is used by other prophets throughout the Tanakh, such as Micaiah in 1 kings 22:19-22[9][better source needed]. Progressive revelation Main articles: Progressive revelation (Christianity) and Supersessionism "Continuous revelation" is a term for the theological position that God continues to reveal divine principles or commandments to humanity. Rationalism and Deism With the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, beginning about the mid-17th century, the development of rationalism, materialism and atheism, the concept of supernatural revelation itself came to be seen in a sceptical light. Thomas Paine in The Age of Reason (1794–1809) develops the theology of deism, rejecting the possibility of miracles and arguing that any revelation can only be considered valid for the original recipient.[10] Existentialism In the 20th century, religious existentialists proposed that revelation held no content in and of itself; rather, they hold that God inspired people with his presence by coming into contact with them. Revelation is a human response that records how we responded to God. One of the major trends in modern Jewish philosophy was the attempt to develop a theory of Judaism through existentialism. One of the primary players in this field was Franz Rosenzweig. His major work, Star of Redemption, gives a philosophy in which he portrays the relationships between God, humanity and world as they are connected by creation, revelation and redemption. Conservative Jewish philosophers Elliot N. Dorff and Neil Gillman take the existentialist philosophy of Rosensweig as one of their starting points for understanding Jewish philosophy. (They come to distinct conclusions, however.) Paul Johannes Tillich (1886–1965) was a theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher. Tillich was, along with contemporary Karl Barth, one of the more influential Protestant theologians of the twentieth century. Tillich's approach to Protestant theology was highly systematic. He sought to correlate culture and faith such that "faith need not be unacceptable to contemporary culture and contemporary culture need not be unacceptable to faith". Consequently, Tillich's orientation is apologetic, seeking to make concrete theological answers that are applicable to ordinary daily life. Tillich sought to reconcile revelation and reason by arguing that revelation never runs counter to reason (affirming Thomas Aquinas who said that faith is eminently rational), but both poles of the subjective human experience are complementary. Tillich's radical departure from traditional Christian theology is his view of Christ. According to Tillich, Christ is the "New Being", who rectifies in himself the alienation between essence and existence. Essence fully shows itself within Christ, but Christ is also a finite man. This indicates, for Tillich, a revolution in the very nature of being. The gap is healed and essence can now be found within existence. Thus for Tillich, Christ is not God per se in himself, but Christ is the revelation of God. Whereas traditional Christianity regards Christ as wholly man and wholly God, Tillich believed that Christ was the emblem of the highest goal of man, what God wants men to become. Thus to be a Christian is to make oneself progressively "Christ-like", a very possible goal in Tillich's eyes. According to Tillich, Christ is not God in the traditional sense, but reveals the essence inherent in all existence. Thus Christ is not different from mankind except insofar as he fully reveals God within his own finitude, something that can be done by anyone, in principle. In Tillich's book Systematic Theology I, he argued that: "God does not exist. He is being itself beyond essence and existence. Therefore to argue that God exists is to deny him."[11] Systematic theology Main article: Systematic theology Systematic theology is the attempt to formulate a coherent philosophy which is applicable to the component parts of a given faith's system of belief. While a systematic theology must take into account the sacred texts of its faith, it also looks to history, philosophy, science, and ethics to produce as full a view and as versatile a philosophical approach as possible. Thomas Aquinas believed in two types of revelation from God, general revelation and special revelation. General revelation occurs through observation of the created order, leading to important conclusions, such as the existence of God. Special revelation is the knowledge of God and spiritual matters which can be discovered through supernatural means, such as scripture or miracles. Direct revelation refers to communication from God to someone in particular. Though one may deduce the existence of God and some of God's attributes through general revelation, certain specifics may be known only through special revelation. Aquinas believed that special revelation is equivalent to the revelation of God in Jesus. The major theological components of Christianity, such as the Trinity and the Incarnation, are revealed in the teachings of the church and the scriptures and may not otherwise be deduced. Special revelation and natural revelation are complementary rather than contradictory in nature. General revelation Main article: General revelation In general revelation, God reveals himself through his creation, such that at least some truths about God can be learned by the empirical study of nature, physics, cosmology, etc. |
About us|Jobs|Help|Disclaimer|Advertising services|Contact us|Sign in|Website map|Search|
GMT+8, 2015-9-11 21:59 , Processed in 0.121739 second(s), 16 queries .
