In
Models of
Revelation,
Avery Cardinal Dulles presented five models (descriptions) of revelation that
seem to be in conflict: (1) propositions about God (including the statements in
the Bible), (2) God’s deeds and the prophets' insights about these events,
which are recorded in the Bible, (3) an inner and immediate experience of
communion with God, (4) a dialectical presence in which God speaks to a
believer who better understands his true powerlessness, and (5) a new
perspective or higher level of consciousness that leads to activity to
transform the world.
Dulles gave a definition inspired by all five models:
Revelation
is God’s free action whereby he communicates saving truth to created minds,
especially through Jesus Christ as accepted by the apostolic Church and
attested by the Bible and by the continuing community of believers.
Dulles then proposed an approach based on the power of symbols,
which are divine signs that suggest more meanings than they clearly state and have properties in common with revelation: they are engaging, transforming, influential, and insightful.
I would synthesize his ideas as follows: First, in the
past, God revealed Himself in deeds and events and through the life, death, and
crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.
God’s people
have perceived (and continue to perceive) these events as symbols, and the
propositions (doctrines) of the Church (in the Bible and Tradition) state
truths that interpret and explain these symbols (in a limited way), but the
symbols also express things that propositions cannot.
Second, a person may have an inner experience
of God, but this must be through symbols that provide a way for the person to
articulate the experience.
Third, through God's grace, with
or without an inner experience, any Christian, by knowing about God’s deeds and
agreeing to the Church’s doctrines, can hear God speaking to him (through these
symbols) and better understand who God is.
Moreover, “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know
what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his
glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of
his power in us who believe,” (
Ephesians 1:18-19) the Christian will have a new
perspective on his vocation and the meaning of his life, which will yield a
higher consciousness that results in serving God and transforming the world by
loving his neighbor.
References cited:
Avery Cardinal Dulles, Models
of Revelation, Orbis Books, 1992.
