REVELATION
1. What is the meaning of "revelation"? In common usage, even outside a religious context, the term "revelation" signifies some knowledge, awareness, or insight beyond that which a person can gain from his ordinary experience and his own unaided efforts. The term often connotes that the knowledge is received as a gift, that it comes in a sudden or unexpected manner, and that it is profoundly significant and capable of effecting a profound inner transformation of the recipient. 2. What Is the meaning of "revelation" as a theological term? In a religious or theological context "revelation" generally denotes the action by which God freely communicates to creatures a share in his own knowledge, including his intimate self-knowledge. The term frequently suggests a sudden or unexpected insight leading to a deep personal conversion on the part of the recipient. 3. What distinctions are necessary In order to avoid confusion In the use of the term "revelation"? Two distinctions are of particular importance. First: revelation is said to be "immediate_" in the case of those who originally receive th~ insights upon which a particular religion is based: "mediate" in the case of those to whom the insights are passed on. Second: revelation is said to be "public" when it is communicated to a prophet or apostle or other messenger to be communicated to the whole religious group; "private" when destined for the benefit of the original recipient or of a particular group within the community of faith. 4. Is "revelation" a key concept for Christianity? Revelation is absolutely central. since the entire Christian life is built on the conviction that God has spoken to man and that the central teachings of Christianity rest upon public revelation given immediately to the prophets and apostles of biblical times.
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