Readings on the Nature of Revelation

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An account of revelation should speak to a variety of questions. Among them: what has God revealed? (the question of content); how does God reveal? (the question of revelation’s media); and not to be forgotten, where does revelation figure in God’s economy? (the question of revelation’s systematic location). More than a few theologians now have warned that the doctrine only suffers when it’s lifted from its proper dogmatic context and conscripted to serve as the epistemic foundation for the rest of a system. Many more interesting subtopics could be included. So for those with an interest in such matters, here’s a list of relatively recent treatments of the topic. I’ve tried drawing from a variety of perspectives. They’ll give you a sense for the history and current state of the conversation. If I come across other titles that deserve flagging, I’ll add them to the list. Feel welcome to offer your own suggestions.

(listed chronologically — since Barth)

  • Karl Barth, (1932) Church Dogmatics,1.1
  • G. C. Berkouwer, (1955) Studies in Dogmatics: General Revelation
  • John Baillie, (1956) The Idea of Revelation in Recent Thought
  • Emil Brunner, (1964) Truth as Encounter
  • Second Vatican Council, (1965) Dei Verbum
  • Edward Schillebeecx, (1967) Revelation and Theology
  • Gabriel Moran, (1967) Theology of Revelation
  • Wolfhart Pannenberg, (1968) Revelation as History
  • Carl Henry, (1976) God, Revelation and Authority
  • Paul Helm, (1982) The Divine Revelation: The Basic Issues
  • Ronald Thiemann, (1985) Revelation and Theology: The Gospel as Narrated Promise
  • Rowan Williams, “Trinity and Revelation,” Modern Theology 2/3 (1986): 197-212.
  • Avery Dulles, (1992) Models of Revelation, 2nd Ed.
  • Christoph Schwobel, (1992) God, Action and Revelation
  • Colin Gunton, (1995) Brief Theology of Revelation
  • Nicolas Wolterstorff, (1995) Divine Discourse
  • Paul Avis, ed., (1997) Divine Revelation
  • Gabriel Fackre, (1997) The Doctrine of Revelation: A Narrative Approach
  • David Brown, (1999) Tradition and Imagination: Revelation and Change
  • Peter Jensen, (2002) The Revelation of God
  • William Abraham, (2006) Crossing the Threshold of Divine Revelation
  • Richard Swinburne, (2007) Revelation: From Metaphor to Analogy, 2nd Ed.
  • John Frame, (2010) The Doctrine of the Word of God
  • Matthew Levering, (2014) Engaging the Doctrine of Revelation

Against pre-theological prolegomena

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On complicating the relationship between objects and methods of reflection 1. Ludwig Wittgenstein 318. […] there is no sharp boundary between methodological propositions and propositions within a method. from On Certainty 2. John Webster Determining the possibility, nature, and responsibilities of theology requires appeal to material theological doctrine. Indeed, prolegomena to systematic theology is an extension and application […]

Charles Wood on doctrine

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Charles M. Wood on believing with doctrine Concepts … are essentially capacities. To have been taught a concept and to have mastered it is to be capable of doing something one could not do…before. The wisdom that comes with the absorption of Christian teaching is in large part the possession and deployment of a distinctive set of […]

Paul Holmer on Knowing God

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Richard Rollefson on Paul Holmer on Knowing God Although God is not an object, it does not follow that the language of faith is not a referring one. Again, because words do not refer by themselves, individuals have to learn to use the language of faith referringly. But the referring use of this expression means […]