Revelation
Revelation, in religion, the disclosure of divine or sacred reality or purpose to humanity. In the religious view, such disclosure may come through mystical insights, historical events, or spiritual experiences that transform the lives of individuals and groups.
Nature And Significance
Every great religion acknowledges revelation in the wide sense that its followers are dependent on the privileged insights of its founder or of the original group or individuals with which the faith began. These profound insights into the ultimate meaning of life and the universe, which have been handed down in religious traditions, are arrived at, it is believed, not so much through logical inference as through sudden, unexpected illuminations that invade and transform the human spirit. Those religions that look upon God as a free and personal spirit distinct from the world accept revelation in the more specific sense of a divine self-disclosure, which is commonly depicted on the model of human intersubjective relationships. In the “prophetic” religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Zoroastrianism), revelation is conceived as a message communicated by God to an accredited spokesman, who is charged to herald the content of that message to an entire people. Revelations received on behalf of the whole community of the faithful are often called “public” (as opposed to “private” revelations, which are given for the guidance or edification of the recipient himself).
The media by which revelation occurs are variously conceived. Most religions refer to signs, such as auditory phenomena, subjective visions, dreams, and ecstasies. In indigenousreligions, revelation is often associated with magical techniques of divination. In the prophetic religions, revelation is primarily understood as the “Word of God,” enabling the prophet to speak with certainty about God’s actions and intentions. In mystical religion (e.g., Islamic Sufism and Vajrayana [Tantric] Buddhism) revelation is viewed as an ineffable experience of the transcendent or the divine.
Types And Variations
Religions of nonliterate cultures
In nonliterate cultures, revelation is frequently identified with the experience of supernatural power (mana) in connection with particular physical objects, such as stones, amulets, bones of the dead, unusual animals, and other objects. The sacred or holy is likewise believed to be present in sacred trees, groves, shrines, and the like, and in elemental realities such as earth, water, sky, and the heavenly bodies. Once specified as holy, such objects take on symbolic value and become capable of mediating numinous (spiritual) experiences to the adherents of a cult. Certain charismatic individuals, such as shamans, who are believed to be in communion with the sacred or holy, perform functions akin to those of the prophet and the mystic in several other religious traditions.
Religions of the East
Eastern religions are concerned with humankind’s struggle to understand and cope with the predicament of its existence in the world and to achieve emancipation, enlightenment, and unity with the Absolute. Western religions, on the other hand, lay more stress on humanity’s obedient response to the sovereign Word of God. The notion of revelation in the specific sense of a divine self-communication is more apparent in Western than in Eastern religions.
Hinduism
In Hinduism, the dominant religion of India, revelation is generally viewed as a process whereby the religious seeker, actuating his deeper spiritual powers, escapes from the world of change and illusion and comes into contact with ultimate reality. The sacred books are held to embody revelation insofar as they reflect the eternal and necessary order of things.
A major form of Hindu thought, Vedanta, includes two main tendencies: the monistic Advaita(Sanskrit: “Nondualism”) and the theistic Vishishtadvaita (“Qualified Nondualism”), which emphasizes bhakti, or devotion. The leading sage of Advaita Vedanta, Shankara (early 9th century), while acknowledging in principle the possibility of coming to a knowledge of the Supreme Reality (brahman) through inner experience and contemplation of the grades of being, held that in practice a vivid apprehension of the divine arises from meditation on the sacred books, especially the Upanishads. In Vishishtadvaita, systematized by the philosopher and theologian Ramanuja (c. 1050–1137), brahman is regarded as personal and compassionate. Revelation, consequently, is viewed as the gracious self-manifestation of the divine to those who open themselves in loving contemplation. The devotional theism of Vishishtadvaita, very influential in modern India, resembles the pietism and mysticism of the Western religions.
Buddhism
Buddhism, the other great religion originating on Indian soil, conceives of revelation not as a personal intervention of the Absolute into the worldly realm of relativities but as an enlightenment gained through discipline and meditation. The Buddha (6th–5th century BCE), after a striking experience of human transitoriness and a period of ascetical contemplation, received an illumination that enabled him to become the supreme teacher for all his followers. Although Buddhists do not speak of supernatural revelation, they regard the Buddha as a uniquely eminent discoverer of liberating truth. Some venerate him, some worship him, and all Buddhists seek to imitate him as the most perfect embodiment of ideal personhood an ideal that he in some way “reveals.”
ShakyamuniBuddha Shakyamuni, metal, copper alloy with traces of paint, Uttar Pradesh, India, late 6th century; in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.Photograph by Howard Cheng. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of the Michael J. Connell Foundation, M.70.17
Chinese religions
Chinese wisdom, more world-affirming than the ascetical religions of India, accords little or no place to revelation as this term is understood in the Western religions, though Chinese traditions do speak of the necessity of following a natural harmony in the universe. Daoism, perhaps the most characteristic Chinese form of practical mysticism, finds revelation only in the transparency of the immanent divine principle or way (Dao). Confucianism, while not incompatible with Daoism, is oriented less toward natural mysticism and more toward social ethics and decorum, though it too is concerned with accommodating life to a balance in the natural flow of existence. Confucius (551–479 BCE), who refined the best moral teachings that had come down in the tradition, was neither a prophet appealing to divine revelation nor a philosopher seeking to give reasons for his doctrine.
Religions of the West
In the three great religions of the West—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—revelation is the basic category of religious knowledge. Human beings know God and his will because God has freely revealed himself—his qualities, purpose, or instructions.
Judaism
The Israelite faith looked back to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament) for its fundamental revelation of God. God was believed to have revealed himself to the patriarchs and prophets by various means not unlike those known to the local religions theophanies (visible manifestations of the divine), dreams, visions, auditions, and ecstasies—and also, more significantly, by his mighty deeds, such as his bringing the Israelites out of Egypt and enabling them to conquer the Holy Land. Moses and the prophets were viewed as the chosen spokesmen who interpreted God’s will and purposes to the nation. Their inspired words were to be accepted in loving obedience as the Word of God.
MosesMoses Showing the Tables of the Law to the People, oil painting by Rembrandt, 1659.Courtesy of Gemaldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz
Rabbinic Judaism, which probably originated during the Babylonian Exile and became organized after the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE, concerned itself primarily with the solution of legal and ethical problems. It gradually developed an elaborate system of casuistry resting upon the Torah (the Law, or the Pentateuch) and its approved commentaries, especially the Talmud (commentaries on the Torah), which was regarded by many as equal to the Bible in authority. Orthodox Judaism still recognizes these authoritative sources and insists on the verbal inspiration of the Bible, or at least of the Pentateuch.
Christianity
The New Testament took its basic notions of revelation from the contemporary forms of Judaism (1st century BCE and 1st century CE) i.e., from both normative rabbinic Judaism and the esoteric doctrines current in Jewish apocalyptic circles in the Hellenistic world. Accepting the Hebrew Scriptures as preparatory revelation, Christianity maintains that revelation is brought to its unsurpassable climax in the person of Jesus Christ, who is God’s own Son (Hebrews 1:1–2), his eternal Word (John 1:1), and the perfect image of the Father (Colossians 1:15). The Christian revelation is viewed as occurring primarily in the life, teaching, death, and Resurrection of Jesus, all interpreted by the apostolic witnesses under the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Commissioned by Jesus and empowered by the divine spirit, the Apostles, as the primary heralds, hold a position in Christianity analogous to that of the prophets in ancient Israel.
The Apostle Paul, though not personally a witness to the public life of Jesus, is ranked with the Apostles by reason of his special vision of the risen Christ and of his special call to carry the Gospel to the Gentiles. In his letters, Paul emphasized the indispensability of missionary preaching in order that God’s revelation in Christ be communicated to all the nations of the world (Romans 10:11–21).
Christianity has traditionally viewed God’s revelation as being complete in Jesus Christ, or at least in the lifetime of the Apostles. Further development is understood to be a deeper penetration of what was already revealed, in some sense, in the 1st century. Periodically, in the course of Christian history, there have been sectarian movements that have attributed binding force to new revelations occurring in the community, such as the 2nd-century Montanists (a heretical group whose members believed they were of the Age of the Holy Spirit), the 13th-century Joachimites (a mystical group that held a similar view), the 16th-century Anabaptists(radical Protestant sects), and the 17th-century Quakers. In the 19th century, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (popularly known as Mormons) recognized, alongside the Bible, additional canonical scriptures (notably, the Book of Mormon) containing revelations made to the church’s founder, Joseph Smith.
Islam
Islam, the third great prophetic religion of the West, has its basis in revelations received by the Prophet Muhammad (c. 7th century CE). Shortly after his death these were collected in the Qurʾān, which is regarded by Muslims as the final, perfect revelation a human copy of the eternal book, dictated to the Prophet. While Islam accords prophetic status to Moses and Jesus, it looks upon the Qurʾān as a correction and completion of all that went before. More than either Judaism or Christianity, Islam is a religion of the Book. Revelation is understood to be a declaration of God’s will rather than his personal self-disclosure. Insisting as it does on the absolute sovereignty of God, on human passivity in relation to the divine, and on the infinitedistance between creator and creature, Islam has sometimes been inhospitable to philosophical speculation and mystical experience. Yet in medieval Islam there was both a remarkable flowering of Arabic philosophy and the intense piety of the mystical Sufis. The rationalism of some philosophers and the theosophical tendencies of some of the Sufis came into conflict with official orthodoxy.
Kūfic script. Double page opening of a Qurʾān from Syria, 9th century AD. In the collection of R. Pinder-Wilson.Courtesy of R. Pinder-Wilson
Zoroastrianism
A fourth great prophetic religion, which should be mentioned for its historic importance, is Zoroastrianism, once the national faith of the Persian empire. Zoroaster (Zarathushtra), a prophetic reformer in the 6th century BCE, apparently professed a monotheistic faith and a stern devotion to truth and righteousness. At the age of 30 he experienced a revelation from Ahura Mazdā (“Wise Lord”) and chose to follow him in the battle against the forces of evil. This revelation enabled Zoroaster and his followers to comprehend the difference between good (Truth) and evil (The Lie) and to know the one true God. Later forms of Zoroastrianism apparently had an impact on Judaism, from the time of the Babylonian Exile, and, through Judaism, on Christianity.
Themes And Functions
Recurrent questions concerning revelation include: the relationship between general and special revelation; the relationship between word and deed as media of special revelation; the authority of the sacred books; the revelatory value of tradition; the nonverbal component in revelation; the interpersonal dimension of revelation; and the relationship between faith and reason.
General revelation: the role of nature
The Eastern religions, on the whole, differ from Western religions in that they place less emphasis on a special or exclusive revelation received by a “chosen people” and rather speak of the manifestation of the Absolute through the general order of nature. There is, however, no irreconcilable opposition between general and special revelation. Vedanta Hinduism and Buddhism, even if they do not speak of special revelation, believe that their religious books and traditions have unique value for imparting a saving knowledge of the truth. The Bible and the Qurʾān, conversely, proclaim that although God has specially manifested himself to the biblical peoples, he also makes himself known through the order of nature. The failure of some nations to acknowledge the one true God is attributed not to God’s failure to disclose himself but rather to the debilitating effects of sin on the perceptive powers of human beings.
Special revelation: the role of history
The Western religions differ somewhat among themselves in the ways in which they understand how special revelation occurs. Some focus simply on the direct inspiration of the divinely chosen prophets. The Judeo-Christian tradition, however, characteristically looks upon the prophets as witnesses and interpreters of what God is doing in history. Revelation through deeds is conceived to be more fundamental than revelation through words, though the words of the prophets are regarded as necessary to clarify the meaning of the events. Since the Hebrew term for “word” (davar) signifies also “deed” or “thing,” there is no clear line of demarcation between word-revelation and deed-revelation in the Hebrew Bible. The biblical authors look upon the national fortunes of Israel as revelations of God’s merciful love, his fidelity to his promises, his unfailing power, his exacting justice, and his readiness to forgive the penitent sinner. The full disclosure of the meaning of history, for many of the biblical writers, will occur only at the end of time, when revelation will be given to all peoples in full clarity. The Judeo-Christian notion of history as progressive revelation has given rise to a variety of theological interpretations of world history, from St. Augustine (354–430) to G.W.F. Hegel (1770–1831) and other modern thinkers.
Revelation and sacred scriptures
In those religions that look for guidance to the ancient past, great importance is attached to sacred books. Theravada Buddhism, while it professes no doctrine of inspiration, has drawn up a strict canon (standard or authoritative scriptures)—the Pali-language Tipitaka—in order to keep alive what is believed to be the most original and reliable traditions concerning the Buddha (see also Pali literature). Mahayana Buddhism, while it has no such strict canon, considers that all its adherents must accept the authority of the sutras (basic teachings written in aphorisms). Zen Buddhism, a popular branch of Mahayana thought in East Asia, sometimes goes to the point of rejecting any such written authority.
Buddhist Pali manuscript from Kandy, Sri Lanka, about 45 cm (18 inches) long. The palm-leaf pages are threaded with twine, and the covers are wood with painted decoration; in the Newberry Library, Chicago.Courtesy of Newberry Library, Chicago
Many religions view their holy books as inspired and inerrant. According to a very ancient Hindu tradition, the sages of old composed the Vedas by means of an impersonal type of inspiration through cosmic vibrations; the Vedas are thus regarded as Shruti (“Heard”). Judaism, on the other hand, looks upon the Bible as divinely inspired by a personal God. The idea of verbal dictation from God, which occurs here and there in the Bible, was applied by some rabbis to the Pentateuch, which was believed to have been written by Moses under verbal inspiration, and even to the whole Bible. Christianity, which generally accepts both the Old and New Testaments as in some sense inspired, has at times countenanced theories of verbal dictation. According to the Mormons, the Book of Mormon was composed in heavenand delivered on tablets of gold to Joseph Smith. Islam holds that the Qurʾān, an eternal heavenly book, was dictated verbatim to Muhammad. The Prophet’s companions testified that he would often turn red or livid, sweat profusely, and fall into trances while receiving revelations.
Revelation and tradition
The great religions frequently make a distinction between those scriptures that contain the initial revelation and others, at the outer fringe of the canon, that contain authoritative commentaries. In Hinduism the four Vedas and three other ancient collections—the Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads—are Shruti (i.e., constitutive revelation); the other sacred writings (the sutras; the law books; the Puranas; the great epics Mahabharata and Ramayana; and the Bhagavadgita, or “Lord’s Song,” a long poem that is part of the Mahabharata but often treated as a separate text) are Smriti (“Remembered”; i.e., tradition). Later Judaism, while recognizing the unique place of the Bible as the written source of revelation, accords equal authority to the Talmud as traditional commentary. Among Christians, Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox believe that revelation is to be found not only in the Bible but also, by equal right, in the apostolic tradition. Protestants emphasize the objective sufficiency of Scripture as a source of revelation, but many Protestants today are careful to add that Scripture must always be read in the light of church tradition in order that its true message be rightly understood. Islam holds that the Qurʾān alone contains revelation in the strict sense (waḥy), but it accepts tradition (Hadith) as a supplementary source of Islamic law (Sharīʿah). Special significance is attached to the practice (Sunnah) of the Prophet himself and to the traditions handed down by his immediate companions.
Revelation and experience
In most religions, nonverbal communication plays an important part in the transmission of revelation. This can occur in art (notably in icons, statues, and idols), in sacred music, in the liturgy, and in popular dramas, such as the mystery plays common in medieval Europe or those still performed in Indian villages. For a deeper initiation into the revelation, it is believed to be necessary to live under the tutelage of a guru (see also Guru), monk, or holy man. To the extent that revelation is identified with a profound and transforming personal experience, the spiritual preparation of the subject by prayer and asceticism is stressed. Among the great living religions of the world, there is wide agreement that revelation cannot be fully communicated by books and sermons but only by an ineffable, suprarational experience. In Hinduism the Upanishads emphasize the hiddenness of God. Leaving behind all created analogies, the adept is led to the point where he comes to praise God in an adoring silence more exalted than speech. Buddhism of the Mahayana, especially its Zen varieties, likewise advocates ecstatic contemplation.
The Eastern mystics are here in close agreement with the Jewish Ḥasidim (mystical pietists), with the Islamic Sufis, and with the great Christian mystics, such as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Meister Eckhart, and St. John of the Cross. Many theologians within Judaism (e.g., Maimonides) and Eastern Christianity (e.g., St. John Chrysostom and St. John of Damascus) have contended that God is best known through a negative, or “apophatic,” theology that makes no positive statements about God. This idea, never absent from the medieval Scholastic(intellectualist) tradition, was newly emphasized by Martin Luther, who insisted that the revealed God (Deus revelatus) remains the hidden God (Deus absconditus), before whom human beings must stand in reverent awe. Modern Roman Catholic theologians, such as Karl Rahner, maintain that even in heaven God will not cease to be, for the finite human mind, an unfathomable mystery. Revelation makes human beings constantly more aware of the depths of the divine incomprehensibility.
Revelatory relationships
In certain forms of mysticism, particularly prevalent in the Eastern religions, the envisionedgoal is an absorption into the divine, involving the loss of individual consciousness. In the Western religions and in Bhakti Hinduism the abiding distinctness of the individual personality is affirmed. Islamic orthodoxy, looking upon revelation as a declaration of the divine will, stresses not so much the communion of humanity with God as rather humanity’s obedient submission to the Creator. Sufism, however, resembles Hasidism and Christianity in its aspiration for personal union with God. For many modern religious thinkers, such as the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber and the Roman Catholic philosopher Gabriel Marcel, revelation involves a mutual self-giving of the revealer and the believer in personal intercommunion. According to Karl Rahner, revelation consists primarily and essentially in God’s gracious communication of his own divine life to human beings as a personal spirit. In his view, the articulation of revelation in the scriptures and creeds is a secondary stage, presupposing an experiential encounter with the divine. This secondary phase, however, is viewed as necessary in order that the individual may realize himself in his humanity as a believer and achieve solidarity with his fellow believers. In general, the Western religions tend to attach more importance to the idea of a community of faith than do the Eastern religions. Revelation in the biblical and Islamic view is addressed not to individuals as such but to a whole people, which achieves its identity, in part, by articulating its faith in writings that are approved as authentic expressions of what God has revealed.
Revelation and reason
The problem of the relationship between revelation and reason arises, on the one hand, because revelation transcends the categories of ordinary rational thought and, on the other hand, because revelation is commonly transmitted by means of authoritative records, the contents of which cannot be verified by the believer. Buddhism, since it does not attribute inspiration or inerrancy to its canonical sources, allows some scope for individual reason to criticize the authoritative writings, but, like other religions, it has to face the charge that the illumination to which it aspires may be illusory. Orthodox Hindus, giving full authority to the Veda, hold that human reason errs whenever, on the grounds of perceptual experience, it takes issue with the sacred writings. Hinduism, however, allows for great freedom in the exegesis (interpretation) of its sacred books, some of which are more poetic than doctrinal.
The tension between faith and reason has been particularly acute in the Western religions, which find revelation not simply in holy books but in prophetic words that call for definite assent and frequently command a precise course of action. The ambiguities of scripture in these religions are frequently cleared up by creeds and dogmas of the community, calling for the assent of true believers. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, moreover, came into close contact with Hellenistic culture, which held up the ideal of rationally certified knowledge as the basis for the good life. They therefore had to face a problem: Could assent to an authoritative revelation be justified before the bar of reason? Some theologians took a “fideist”(faith-based) position, maintaining that reason must in all things submit to the demands of revelation. Others, such as the Arabic philosopher Averroës and his followers (both Muslim and Christian), accepted the primacy of reason. They reinterpreted the content of revelation so as to bring it into line with science and philosophy. A third school, in which the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides and the medieval Christian Scholastic theologian Thomas Aquinasmay be included, sought to maintain the primacy of faith without sacrificing the dignity of reason. According to the Thomist theory, human reason can discern the credibility of revelation because of the external signs by which God has authenticated it (especially prophecies and miracles). Reason, moreover, makes it possible for the believer to understand, in some measure, the revealed mysteries. This intellectualist position continues to appeal to many Christians, but some maintain that it overlooks the qualitative differences between faith—as a transrational assent to mystery—and scientific knowledge, which operates within the categories of objectivizing reason.
In some theological circles the concept of revelation is rejected on the ground that it is bound up with mythological and anthropomorphic conceptions and introduces an unassimilable element into the history of religions. It would seem, however, that the concept can be purified of those mythical elements and still be usefully employed. In the sphere of religion, wisdom is often best sought through privileged moments of ecstatic experience and through the testimony of those who have perceived the sacred or holy with unusual purity and power. The self-disclosure of the divine through extraordinary experiences and symbols is fittingly called revelation. Because of the pervasiveness of the idea of revelation in the world’s religions and because the various religions have had to cope with similar theological problems concerning revealed knowledge, revelation has become a primary theme for dialogue among the great religions of humankind.
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