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Theological Table-Talk
By Avery Dulles

REVELATION IN RECENT CATHOLIC THEOLOGY

In the century since Vatican Council I, the theme of revelation has been rapidly developing in Catholic theology. The view of revelation set forth in Vatican I's Dogmatic Constitution on Faith (1870) mirrors, in general, the position of St. Thomas Aquinas. Revelation is viewed as the supernatural action by which God has disclosed himself and his eternal decrees, initially by the prophets and in these last days by his own Son. Revelation is given so that man may have sure access to those truths which man must know in order to direct his life toward the vision of God, which is his last end.¹

Vatican Council II at the opening of its first session (1962) debated the question of the "sources" of revelation, and in its last (fourth) session (November, 1965) adopted a Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, entitled Dei Verbum, which takes advantage of nearly a century of biblical research and scholarly reflection since the previous Council. In terms which are indicative but far too crude to do justice to the complexity of the matter, one may say that Vatican I looks on revelation in a light which is intellectualistic, abstract, scholastic, and, to some extent, proposi-

Avery Dulles, S. J., is Professor of Systematic Theology at Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland. He has written several works on theology, the latest being The Dimensions of the Church (1967). This bibliographical essay incorporates, by permission, some material previously printed in Woodstock Letters, vol. 96/1 (Winter, 1967), pp. 129-137. It is also planned for further circulation through The Furrow, an Irish pastoral magazine with a special interest in biblical studies, edited by the Rev. Peter Purdue, and printed by St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, Ireland. Protestants will be surprised and interested to note that the doctrine of revelation, a major theological consideration since Barth, has taken on special importance for Roman Catholic thinkers. If Protestants seem to have exhausted themselves, if not the theme, Catholics are coming to the doctrine with fresh enthusiasm. Mutual edification is the editorial reason for including this perceptive essay by Father Dulles, but continued dialogue is obviously a theological desideratum.-Ed.
¹ H. Denzinger and A. Schönmetzer, S. J. (ed.), Enchiridion symbolorum (Freiburg i. B.: Herder, 32nd ed., 1963) n. 3004 f.

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tional. By contrast, the outlook of Vatican II may be aptly characterized as vitalist, concrete, biblical, and historical.

The differences between the two documents are due in part to the influence of new philosophical trends; for example, the personalism of Ebner and Buber, the phenomenology of Scheler, the existentialism of Heidegger, and the philosophy of history stemming from Dilthey, Aron, and others. Secondly, Vatican II's view of revelation has been affected by the biblical scholarship which has flourished in Roman Catholicism since the Encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu (1943). Thirdly, it betrays the influence of modern Protestant theology, and most prominently that of the dialectical and biblical theologians of the past generation. Quite appropriately, Protestant theologians such as Oscar Cullmann, Kristen Skydsgaard, and G. C. Berkouwer were able to be present in Rome as observer-delegates and have since commented, quite favorably, on the ecumenical significance of the Constitution on Revelation.

Dei Verbum in its final form was predominantly the work of a group of theologians clustered about Cardinal Bea, himself an eminent biblical scholar as well as ecumenist. The main effect of the document is not to blaze new trails but to give official endorsement to positions which had already gained respectability in sophisticated theological circles before the Council began. The document concentrates on the biblical aspects of revelation, and therefore gives little attention to God's self-revelation outside the biblical religions, to his ongoing revelation in the life of the church, or to his revealing presence in secular history. Several other Council documents, such as the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et spes) are probably more helpful for the Catholic seeking to live his faith in the world today. As Gabriel Moran has remarked, these other documents "rest upon a more developed notion of revelation than that which has yet surfaced."²

Since Dei Verbum represents positions which had already surfaced even before the Council, a grasp of its contents can be only the first step toward understanding the problem of revelation in Catholic theology today. In the following pages an effort will be made to indicate some of the current trends by presenting a

² "The God of Revelation," Commonweal, vol. 85 (Commonweal Papers 1, Feb. 10, 1967), p. 501.

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conspectus of recent literature. For the sake of brevity I shall limit the discussion to the theme of revelation itself, omitting any explicit consideration of allied subjects such as faith, tradition, magisterium, and dogma. I shall concentrate on works which are, or presently will be, available in English.

COMMENTARIES ON "DEI VERBUM"

No full-length commentary in English has as yet come to this writer's attention.³ Father George H. Tavard, A.A., a Council peritus, published a brief commentary in article form, which has since been reprinted in a pamphlet with the text in English translation.⁴ As one would expect from his earlier work in the field, Tavard is at his best in discussing the notion of tradition in Dei Verbum and the ecumenical significance of the document. "The ultimate purpose of the Constitution on Divine Revelation," he concludes, "is to invite all Catholics to restore the written and preached Word to its centrality in theology and worship." Tavard's translation of the Constitution, which appears (accompanied by only one footnote) in the pamphlet edition, is less idiomatic and on the whole less accurate than, for example, that of Msgr. Joseph Gallagher in The Documents of Vatican II.⁵ The comments of R. A. F. Mackenzie and F. C. Grant in the latter edition are keen and apposite but too brief to be of great value to the serious student.

A remarkably informative, clear, and enthusiastic appraisal of Dei Verbum has recently come from the pen of another Council expert, Gregory Baum, O.S.A.⁶ He takes the position that the heart of the document is to be found in the new concept of revelation set forth in the first chapter, namely that revelation is to be identified with the person of Jesus Christ. In the light of this identification it becomes possible to get beyond various dilemmas

³ Among the commentaries in foreign languages thus far published, notice should be taken of the thorough and informative work of E. Stakemeier, Die Konzilshonstitution über die göttliche Offenbarung (Paderborn: Bonifacius-Druckerei, 2nd ed., 1967) and the briefer work of O. Semmelroth, S.J., and M. Zerwick, S.J., Vatikanum II über das Wort Gottes (Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1966). An irenic and perceptive Protestant commentary is that of R. Schutz and M. Thurian, La Parole vivante au Concile (Taizé: Presses de Taizé, 1966).
⁴ "Commentary on De Revaltione," Journal of Ecumenical Studies, vol. 3 (Winter 1966), pp. 1-35; reprinted as Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation of Vatican Council II (Study Club Edition; Glen Rock, N. J.: Paulist Press, 1966).
⁵ New York: Guild Press, America Press, Association Press, 1966.
⁶ "Vatican II's Constitution on Revelation: History and Interpretation," Theological Studies, vol. 28/1 (March 1967), pp. 51-75.

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and antinomies which had plagued the theology of revelation in recent centuries, such as the relationship between Scripture and tradition, the inspiration, inerrancy, and interpretation of the Bible.

In a very concise but rewarding article, the Dutch Franciscan, Peter van Leeuwen, casts a more critical gaze on the first two chapters of Dei Verbum.⁷ While sympathetic to the main thrust of the document-and especially to its view of tradition as growth-he finds it guilty of various defects. It subordinates the prophetic function of the Word to the explanatory; it treats the Old Testament too exclusively as preparatory for the New Testament; the discussion of "revealed truths" in n. 6 is "an undeveloped and almost alien element" (p. 12); the role of the Holy Spirit is unduly minimized; and the treatment of tradition remains too much in the shadow of the Protestant-Catholic controversies which followed the Reformation.

Still another Catholic commentary on the first two chapters of Dei Verbum is to be found in the concluding section of The Theology of Revelation by René Latourelle, S.J.⁸ Without dwelling on the controversies out of which the document evolved, Latourelle concentrates by preference on the merits of the final text. He finds the leitmotif of the whole Constitution, and especially of the first chapter, in the quotation from I John 1: 2-3 in the opening sentence. "This text of St. John's describes the whole movement of revelation: the life in God, the life which descends towards man and, in Jesus Christ, is manifest to man in order to effect his return to Life" (p. 457). The theocentric view of Vatican I, he observes, is replaced by the Christocentric character of Vatican II (p. 487). As is evident from the constant recurrence of terms such as conversation, dialogue, society, communication, participation, friendship, and love, Vatican II views revelation in interpersonal terms (p. 486).

On one point Latourelle differs from the commentators thus far discussed. He holds that, at least with regard to the canon of Scripture, "the Council recognizes that the objective content of tradition surpasses that of Scripture" (p. 478).

⁷ P. van Leeuwen, O.F.M., "The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation," Concilium, vol. 21, Man as Man and Believer (Glen Rock, N. J.: Paulist Press, 1967). This volume contains an outstanding series of articles on topics such as Faith, Magisterium, Dogma, and Theology by leading Catholic scholars, as well as one by the Protestant, George A. Lindbeck, on "The Problem of Doctrinal Development and Contemporary Protestant Theology" which will repay careful attention.
⁸ Staten Island: Alba House, 1966. See my review article of the original French edition in Theological Studies, vol. 25 (1964), pp. 43-58.

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TWO EUROPEAN MONOGRAPHS

Latourelle's imposing monograph, The Theology of Revelation, provides an exceptionally complete and lucid survey of the Christian idea of revelation as set forth in Scripture, in the Fathers, in the documents of the magisterium, and in classical and contemporary Catholic theology. While he fails to deal adequately with some of the speculative questions being asked in our day, he splendidly synthesizes almost everything of note that has been said by Catholic theologians up to the present. A thorough study of this work would be a most valuable preparation for anyone who wishes to venture into less charted waters. Latourelle's capacity for devout and edifying synthesis is evident not only in this magnum opus, but in a number of recent articles on the signs of revelation which have appeared in Gregorianum, Sciences Ecclésiastiques, Theology Digest, and elsewhere.

In comparison With Latourelle's bulky (and expensive) volume, the brief treatment by Werner Bulst, S.J., Revelation,⁹ offers rather meager fare. While Bulst makes many valid points, his book leaves the impression of recommending the positions of Protestant biblical scholars of a generation ago as the alternative to the tenets of the jejune De revelatione manuals published by Catholics in the same period. This work, which first appeared in German in 1960, barely suggests the range and depth of the new studies of revelation by systematic theologians,. both Protestant and Catholic. which are appearing in great abundance in our time.

KARL RAHNER ON REVELATION

Contemporary Catholic theology of revelation can scarcely be approached without reckoning almost immediately with that giant of theologians, Karl Rahner, S.J. Ever since the original edition of his Hörer des Wortes (1941), Rahner has shown a dominant interest in the theology of revelation. In this early philosophical work he argued that man as a spiritual being is essentially open to the possibility of a divine revelation, and that such a revelation, if it occurs, must come to him in the form of a divine "word" given

⁹ New York: Sheed & Ward, 1965; cf. my review in Theological Studies, vol. 26 (1965), pp. 306-308.

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within history. The book was re-edited in 1963 by Rahner's disciple, J. B. Metz, who has tried to bring it into line with his master's current thinking by adding a number of helpful footnotes referring to later articles. Even though this does not make the book one that Rahner would be likely to write today, Metz has rendered no small service. Some familiarity with this work is a prerequisite for understanding much of Rahner's subsequent theologizing on religion and revelation. An English translation is due to appear soon, published by Sheed and Ward, under the title Hearers of the Word.

In many of his recent theological writings, Rahner dwells on the two-fold character of revelation as an ineffable experience of God and as a determinate message. He distinguishes between a transcendent, non-thematic aspect, consisting of the elevation of man's intellectual horizons by an interior enlightenment, and a predicamental, thematic aspect, having a definite content which can be expressed in words and other objective signs. In his brochure On Heresy¹⁰ Rahner lays particular stress on the necessity that the interior, gracious self-disclosure of God should be correctly translated into human language in order that the revelation may work itself out in man's conscious life and become an effective principle of his concrete behavior. The incorrect formulation of revelation, he maintains, is a threat to the reality of the salvific encounter itself. While the opening pages of this essay sound frighteningly intransigent, Rahner later surprises the reader by conceding that in our time almost any living man must be, at least objectively or materially, in a state of heresy.

The fifth volume of Rahner's Theological Investigations¹¹ reproduces, in a clumsier translation, the article "What is Heresy?" which we have just analyzed. It also contains several other articles of great significance for the theology of revelation. One of these, "What is a Dogmatic Statement?" profoundly explores both the necessity and the limitations of conceptual formulations in religious language. Another, entitled "History of the World and Salvation-History," develops the thesis that what we normally call salvation history is a particular segment of the one history of mankind which has been officially and explicitly interpreted by word-revelation; but

¹⁰ Quaestiones Disputatae, vol. 11. New York: Herder & Herder, 1964.
¹¹ Baltimore: Helicon, 1966.

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this special interpretation puts us in a position to see that the general history of grace and salvation is in fact co-extensive with the history of the world. In still another article in this volume, "Christianity and the Non-Christian Religions,"¹² Rahner gives an interesting development to his thesis that all men are touched by grace-understood as the a priori horizon of all man's spiritual acts. He holds that this "unthematic" or "transcendental" revelation can express itself in the extra-biblical religions, which consequently play an effective role in the mediation of revelation and salvation for peoples who have not yet entered into a sufficient historical encounter with Christianity to recognize it as the definitive and universally valid self-manifestation of God. For a fuller exposition of this relatively optimistic appraisal of the non-Christian religions, one may consult H. R. Schlette, Towards a Theology of Religions.¹³

The publication of the fourth volume of Rahner's Theological Investigations at the end of 1966 has made available in English his brilliant essays on the theology of mystery and of symbol, which are important for any full understanding of his views of revelation.

In a lecture delivered in 1964, now translated as "Observations on the Concept of Revelation,"¹⁴ Rahner maintains that the progressive thematization of revelation within the Judaeo-Christian tradition is not a series of discrete interventions from on high, but a providentially directed self-fulfillment of man's innate religious orientation, which is not merely a general openness of human nature as such toward the divine but a positive and supernatural inclination of human nature in the concrete toward the vision of God. The distinction between acquired and revealed religious knowledge, on this theory, is formal rather than material. In actual fact, the self-giving of the revealing God and the self-transcending fulfillment of man seeking communion with the divine are but the obverse and the reverse of an undivided act. In dense and difficult prose Rahner here sets forth some truly explosive ideas which will overturn many of our accustomed ways of thinking about revelation, but which promise to offer an escape from the painful dilemma between a modernistic immanentism and an anti-modernist extrinsicism.

¹² This article previously appeared in the same translation in the compilation The Church: Readings in Theology (New York: Kenedy, 1963).
¹³ Quaestiones Disputatae, vol. 14. New York: Herder & Herder, 1966.
¹⁴ Quaestiones Disputatae, vol. 25. New York: Herder & Herder, 1966; briefly reviewed in Theological Studies, vol. 26 (1965), pp. 722 f.

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Rahner's "quaestio disputata" on Visions and Prophecies¹⁵ is primarily concerned with the question of private revelation, which lies beyond our present purview. But many of his observations on the psychology of mystical experience are pertinent to the questions of prophecy and inspiration in the Bible. His treatment of the relationship between public and private revelation, moreover, throws light on the prophetic function of the church and on the place which "prophets" continue to hold for the People of God.

Rahner's brochure on Inspiration in the Bible¹⁶ made theological history by putting the doctrine of inspiration on a wholly new footing. Departing from the psychological approach in use among scholastic theologians, Rahner views the formation of the Bible in terms of the successive stages of salvation history and the progressive action by which God established his church as the "eschatological community of salvation." Rahner thus brings the doctrine of inspiration out of its previous isolation and relates it closely to the general theory of revelation as well as to ecclesiology. Unlike many theories of inspiration, that of Rahner is able to cope with the gradual process by which the church, in post-apostolic times, drew up the biblical canon.

NEW STUDIES ON INSPIRATION

Rahner's doctrine of inspiration is by no means universally accepted in contemporary Catholic theology. The principal contender for supremacy is Pierre Benoit, O.P., a disciple of the great Dominican exegete, M.-J. Lagrange. In a commentary on St. Thomas's treatise on prophecy, issued in 1947,¹⁷ Benoit set forth a theory of biblical inspiration solidly grounded in Thomistic psychology. In the English translation of this work, published in 1961,¹⁸ Benoit introduced numerous revisions modifying the somewhat rigid positions of the earlier edition. A recent collection of

¹⁵ Quaestiones Disputatae, vol. 10. New York: Herder & Herder, 1963. Reviewed together with Laurent Volken, M.S., Visions, Revelations, and the Church (New York: Kenedy, 1963) in Theological Studies, vol. 25 (1964), pp. 453-56.
¹⁶ Quaestiones Disputatae, vol. 1. New York: Herder & Herder; revised translation, 1964.
¹⁷ S. Thomas d'Aquin, Somme Théologique, La Prophétie (2a2ae, qq. 171-178) Ed. de la Revue des Jeunes (Tournai: Desclée, 1947).
¹⁸ P. Synave, O.P. and P. Benoit, O.P., Prophecy and Inspiration, trans. by A. R. Dulles, S.J., and T. L. Sheridan, S.J. (New York: Desclée, 1961).

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several articles, Aspects of Biblical Inspiration,¹⁹ contains a lengthy analysis of the notions of revelation and inspiration. While Benoit is obviously anxious to adopt a more dynamic, historical view, and to take full advantage of modern biblical theology, his efforts to move simultaneously toward the Bible and St. Thomas, while preserving all he can of his own previous positions, involve him in wearisome and oversubtle discussions of terminology. He elaborates his notions of both revelation and inspiration in almost exclusively psychological terms, and distinguishes between them on the ground that while revelation is an elevation of the speculative intellect, inspiration is a supernatural impulse bearing essentially on the practical judgment "in the wide sense of the speculative judgment related to action, that is, speculativo-practical" (p. 124).

Benoit's doctrine regarding inspiration is luminously summarized by Wilfred J. Harrington, O.P., in Record of Revelation: The Bible.²⁰ Harrington's exclusive reliance on Benoit gives pedagogical simplicity to his presentation, while his appendix on the theories of Rahner and J. L. McKenzie provides the reader with a brief introduction to other-and perhaps more fruitful-lines of inquiry.

Whereas Rahner approaches inspiration in the light of salvation history, and Benoit in the perspectives of Thomistic faculty-psychology, Luis Alonso Schökel, S.J., supplements both by his approach through linguistic and literary analysis. In his The Inspired Word²¹ he shows. on the basis of continental European linguistic philosophy and modern literary criticism, that the recent scholastic theories of inspiration (Franzelin, Pesch, and even Benoit) have been based on a crude and misleading schematization of the relationship between thought and language in the process of literary creation. Alonso Schökel's personalistic view of the word, as a medium through which God enters into communion with man, enables him to develop a flexible and nuanced doctrine of biblical inerrancy, or, as he might prefer to say, of biblical truth. The truth of Scripture, on his view, is not a simple matter of correspondence between statements and objective realities; it is primarily a presence of God imparting grace through his word. This rich and original theologico-literary treatise does much to shed light on several state-

¹⁹ Chicago: Priory Press, 1965.
²⁰ Chicago: Priory Press, 1965.
²¹ New York: Herder & Herder, 1965.

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ments in the documents of Vatican II regarding the living presence of God in the biblical word when it is read and proclaimed.

THE THEOLOGY OF THE WORD

Inspired partly by the imposing synthesis of Karl Barth, a number of recent continental Catholic theologians have sought to link the doctrine of revelation and inspiration with Christology in what they call the "theology of the Word." Eminent in this line is the Swiss theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar, a vastly erudite thinker who seems equally at home with the Greek Fathers (Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor) and German idealist poets and philosophers (Novalis, Schiller, Hölderlin, and Goethe). His The God Question and Modern Man (reprinted in paperback with an introduction by John Macquarrie in 1967)²² has assumed new relevance in the light of the current death-of-God controversies. He calls upon the contemporary Christian to experience "the abyss of silence from which springs the Word of God"-a word which paradoxically unveils the Father who is silent in it. In several volumes of essays, notably those included in his Word and Revelation,²³ he ponders the mystery of how Christ, as God's Word, inundates us with his presence and lures us to follow him in his self-abnegation.

In his vast undertaking, Herrlichkeit,²⁴ three bulky volumes of which have thus far appeared, Urs von Balthasar has set about constructing what he calls a "theological aesthetic," which aims to show how the Infinite has emerged from its ineffable transcendence so as to shine forth historically in the lives of Jesus and the saints. "The splendor of this self-revealing mystery," he writes, "cannot be compared with any other aesthetic attraction in the world."²⁵ With his remarkable capacity to build bridges between theology, spirituality, art, and literature, Urs

²² New York: Seabury Paperback edition, 1967. This book was previously published in English under the title Science, Religion, and Christianity (Westminister, Md.: Newman Press, 1958).
²³ New York: Herder & Herder, 1964.
²⁴ Herrlichkeit, eine Theologische Aesthetik (Einsiedeln: Benziger, 1961 ff.)
²⁵ Herrlichkeit, vol. 1, p. 110.

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von Balthasar writes in an involved, unsystematic style, and is most difficult to classify. He has aroused controversy by his strong opposition to Teilhard de Chardin's evolutionary philosophy of history and, more recently, to Rahner's doctrine that the unevangelized can be regarded as "anonymous Christians."

An excellent anthology of Catholic writing on the "theology of the Word" may be found in the volume, The Word, compiled by American seminarians at the Canisianum, Innsbruck.²⁶ Along with selections by authors already mentioned (such as Rahner and Latourelle) one finds essays on the Johannine theology of the Logos and on the theology of preaching. Outstanding in this volume is the article, "Revelation in Word and Deed," by Edward Schillebeeckx, O.P., who has developed a profound theology of the word with the help of recent phenomenological investigations by philosophers such as Buytendijk and Gusdorf, whose work is too little known in this country.

In another article, "Exegesis, Dogmatics, and the Development of Dogma," in the collection, Dogmatic vs. Biblical Theology,²⁷ Schillebeeckx outlines the theory of revelation and faith as a dialogue between God and man carried on within the context of salvation history. A valuable collection of Schillebeeckx's articles on revelation and theology, Openbaring en Theologie,²⁸ which includes the two articles just mentioned, has already appeared in German and French translations²⁹ and will hopefully find an English translator soon.

For a more systematic Catholic study of the theology of the Word, the reader would be well advised to turn to The Preaching Word by Otto Semmelroth, S.J.³⁰ Subtitled "On the Theology of Proclamation," this study is primarily concerned with the salvific efficacy of Christian preaching and its relation to the sacraments as channels of grace. But the first half of the book offers a well-rounded discussion of the word as revelatory. The author explains how words and deeds complement each other in constituting the fullness of revelation, and how the word, besides communicating what it objectively signifies, communicates something of the speaker himself.

²⁶ New York: Kenedy, 1964.
²⁷ Edited by H. Vorgrimler (Baltimore- Helicon, 1964).
²⁸ Bilthoven: Nelissen, 1964.
²⁹ Offenbarung und Theologie (Mainz: Grünewald, 1965); Révélation et Théologie (Brussels: Editions du C.E.P., 1965).
³⁰ New York: Herder & Herder, 1965.

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MIRACLES AND SIGNS

The preceding works deal with revelation primarily under its aspect as word; but, as the Constitution Dei Verbum repeatedly tells us, the mighty deeds of God in history are themselves revelatory. For this reason it is important for the dogmatic theologian-and not merely for the apologist-to concern himself with the traditional theme of miracle. A very comprehensive and fully documented study of this subject has been recently published in English translation: Signs and Wonders, by Louis Monden, S.J.³¹ In the first half of this book Monden develops a dogmatic theology of the miracle as a sign and symbol, a dramatized word whereby God communicates with man. In the second half he goes on to discuss the apologetic value of miracles as evidences supporting the case for Catholic Christianity. While acknowledging that the decision to believe cannot be coerced by the evidences, and that the discernment of miracles depends upon subjective factors such as prudence and good will, Monden shows that the argument from miracles can still be presented in a very impressive way. Whether or not the "proof" from miracles is convincing by itself, Monden's careful gathering and sifting of the evidence is an unquestionable service to theology.

In his doctrine of miracles, Monden relies heavily on the theory of signs and their discernment as developed earlier in this century by authors such as Blondel and Rousselot. Readers wishing to explore these questions more deeply will be grateful for the recent publication, in English translation, of Blondel's so-called Letter on Apologetics.³² In essence this letter is a defense and explanation of his thesis in L'Action (1893) that philosophy prepares the paths of faith by disclosing man's need for grace and revelation.

A contemporary theologian heavily influenced by Rousselot, Guy de Broglie, S.J., has explored the logic of belief with great acumen in his Revelation and Reason.³³ The central theme of this book is its analysis of knowledge by signs, which de Broglie believes to be discernible by a type of concrete logic reducible neither to scientific induction nor to deduction. Once this is granted, it is evidently futile to seek strictly demonstrative knowledge of the occurrence or significance of miracles, let alone the fact of revelation.

³¹ New York: Desclée, 1966.
³² New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1965.
³³ Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism, vol. 9. New York: Hawthorn, 1965.

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The old-style apologetic treatise on revelation, which would attempt a full demonstratio christiana on the basis of miracles and prophecies, has probably seen its day. If de Broglie is right, the judgment of credibility depends in great part upon the Christian message itself. Apologetics must therefore include some examination of the contents of Christianity-an undertaking which lies beyond the scope of the traditional treatise, De revelatione.

Some of the present writer's thoughts on apologetics are set forth in his Apologetics and the Biblical Christ.³⁴ This brief sketch argues that even a New Testament apologetics must take account of the corporate testimony of the church itself as sign and herald of revelation, and that it cannot achieve its goal by employing only the objective techniques recommended in positivistic historiography.

NORTH AMERICAN AUTHORS

On this side of the Atlantic several young theologians are beginning to attract notice for their views on revelation. The first to be mentioned is the Canadian layman, Leslie Dewart, whose The Future of Belief³⁵ was unquestionably the most discussed Catholic theological work of the past year, although by no means the most widely acclaimed. In an utterly radical manner, Dewart argues that Christianity must be de-hellenized and de-ontologized in order to align itself with the experience of contemporary man. Revelation, in his view, must no longer be regarded as a message or a doctrine. It is an event that happens today, through God's present self-communication. Revelation was complete in the first century in the sense that the "new and eternal covenant" was established in Christ; but within the age of the incarnation, God's self-revelation, and the dogmas by which the human consciousness expresses it, continue to evolve. It they did not, Dewart argues, revelation would no longer be a reality, but simply a memory of the past. The Christian, from a standpoint within faith, experiences God as present, but not as an empirical fact. "It is always possible to look at the same facts and to find nothing but the absence of God"

³⁴ Woodstock Paper, No. 6. Westminister, Md.: Newman, 1963.
³⁵ New York: Herder & Herder, 1966.

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(p. 178). The believing Christian must always conceptualize his experience, but he does not have to accept concepts formulated in the past, such as the scholastic notion of God as a supernatural Being. What is essential is that he should experience God as an expansive force impelling him to give and to serve.

Dewart's book has been severely attacked on the ground that it caricatures scholastic philosophy and fails to furnish any clearly articulated alternative. His epistemology, and especially his doctrine of truth, have distressed many reviewers. Yet all will admit that he has touched a neuralgic point. The attention given to his book makes it clear that he is working with problems which are central for a modern theology of revelation. Many thoughtful Catholics are profoundly discontent with the widening gap between verbal orthodoxy and contemporary forms of experience.

Concerns analogous to those of Dewart are evident in the writings of the young American theologian, Brother Gabriel Moran, F.S.C., who, like Dewart, expresses himself in smooth and fluent prose. He has made himself known to the theological community through his concise and penetrating little study, Scripture and Tradition.³⁶ At the end of this work he pointed out that the question whether all revelation is contained in the Bible cannot be answered until one has dealt with the prior questions of what revelation is and how any revelation is contained in the Bible. Recently he has set forth his views on these matters in his Theology of Revelation.³⁷ Following the general direction of contemporary European phenomenology, Moran holds that revelation is essentially "a personal union in knowledge between God and a participating subject in the revelational history of a community" (p. 93). Putting the accent on personal encounter, he tends toward a somewhat actualistic position, and evaluates the historical and doctrinal aspects of revelation almost entirely in terms of their power to contribute to a present existential communion with God. Having reached its unsurpassable fullness in the consciousness of the risen Christ, revelation continues to be given in the history of the church and of the world.

Moran has rather independent views on the manner in which revelation should be taught. His latest book, The Catechesis of

³⁶ New York: Herder & Herder, 1963.
³⁷ New York: Herder & Herder, 1966; cf. review in Commonweal, vol. 84 (Sept. 16, 966), pp. 591 f.

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Revelation,³⁸ emphasizes the need of proportioning religious instruction to the needs and capacities of the student, neither overburdening him with exegetical and doctrinal materials which have no religious meaning for him, nor demanding a fullness of commitment which his youth cannot yet sustain. Moran's observations on making catechesis relevant to the contemporary American adolescent offer a clear and forceful challenge to the prevalent biblical-kerygmatic approach.

In a number of recent articles, Moran has begun to speak with a radicalism not apparent in his earlier work. While admitting that there is a God who is in the process of revealing, he rejects the idea that Christ delivered any revealed truths or that Christians can lay claim to any knowledge which others do not have. "The distinctive character of Judaic-Christian revelation is that God has left us no revelation."³⁹ The Christian, therefore, should renounce the effort to deliver any message, whether dogmatic or biblical. "Other religions demand that men accept this or that thing. Christianity only invites men to accept themselves and their own freedom in a community with God."⁴⁰

Moran's position is actually more nuanced than these isolated sentences would seem to suggest. He protests quite rightly against any tendency to look upon revelation as something in man's possession or at his disposal. He insists that our knowledge of God, especially within faith, is slippery and elusive. "God reveals and conceals himself in the naming of every truth.⁴¹ In the incarnation, God does not become obvious and comprehensible but, on the contrary, more paradoxical than ever before.

While Moran's views seem at first sight incompatible with Rahner's evaluation of dogma as "thematized truth," the gulf is not so wide as one might think. Rahner maintains that dogma lives off mystery, the thematic off the unthematic. For him as for Moran, revelation does not adequately consist of the formulas and professions of faith which have won approval in the community. Indeed, the formulas are not revelation at all unless they are seen against the horizons of a spirit which is tending into the unfathomable mystery we call God.

³⁸ New York: Herder & Herder, 1966.
³⁹ "The God of Revelation" (cf. note 2, supra), p. 502.
⁴⁰ National Catholic Reporter, April 13, 1966.
⁴¹ "The God of Revelation," P. 502.

365 - Theological Table-Talk

Catholic theology of revelation, as we have seen it through the writings of some of its most eminent exponents, is grappling in a new way with the classical problems: Is revelation a present event or a memory of the past? Is it given exclusively to the biblical peoples or generally to all men? Does it come through a structured community or immediately from God? Can it be expressed in definite formulas or only in myths and symbols? These questions are not new, but there is a new realization that the alternatives should not be presented as a simple either-or. Many would hold that revelation is an event today precisely because it is a memory of the past, and even more, perhaps, a hope for the future; that it is available to all men just because it is given in Christ alone; that it comes immediately from God insofar as it becomes actual in the church of God; that the dogmas are valid because they can be interpreted within a context of myth and symbol. By overcoming its own internal dilemmas, Catholic theology of revelation may be expected to assist in healing the divisions among Christians -divisions often brought about by a narrow and possessive understanding of a mystery too rich for comprehension and of a love which cannot be known except as that which surpasses knowledge (cf. Eph. 3: 19).