vol 2: Synopsis
part I: Motivations and possibilities
page 8: Revelation
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Revelation
In the Christian tradition God reveals himself through the words of the prophets recorded in the Bible. Here, where we identify God and the universe, every event and every human experience becomes a revelation of God. Traditional theology explains the Biblical data using hypotheses developed by ancient Greek philosophers, the 'Fathers of the Church', and their successors. Here we identify theology as the broad trunk of the scientific tree, since knowledge of the universe is knowledge of god.
We all feel the need to express ourselves, and the force of our expression relates to the importance of our need. Despite the pain it caused him, the prophet Jeremiah could not avoid proclaiming the word of Yahweh:
I used to say 'I will not think about him,
I will not speak in his name any more'.
Then there seemed to be a fire burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones.
The effort to restrain it wearied me,
I could not bear it. Jeremiah 20:9.
Ancient peoples often believed prophets who claimed to be messengers of God. The prophet was judged by the the strength of his claim that his words were God's, not his own. While most of us have got our heads down trying to feed our families and keep up appearances, a prophets duty is to fly high so as to see the whole picture. He can then shout down instructions and warnings intended to guide his friends in the ways of God.
Prophecy reveals divinity. The Judaeo-Christian tradition has relatively few recognized prophets, but prophecy is generally widespread. But is it truly divine revelation, or simply something from the mind of the prophet? Here great uncertainty enters the field of prophetic utterances.
If the universe is divine, the question of prophetic credibility can be solved by scientific method. Not only are the words of recognized prophets revelation of the divine, but every world spoken by every person, every observable event in our world, is also. By seeking consistency in this vast database, we can overcome individual foibles.
What are we to make of revelation? Thousands of the most acute thinkers in the world have turned their minds to the elaboration of Christian doctrine, filling in gaps in the biblical story, ironing out contradictions and translating ideas expressed in ancient languages into more modern terms. Christianity began as a variant of the Jewish religion. Later, in the 'Patristic' phase it relied heavily on the Platonic tradition of ancient Greek thought.
Later, in the early middle ages, Christianity joined in the rediscovery of Aristotle, who was rather more empirical and closer to the modern idea of science than Plato. A new Christian cosmology began to develop that reached its most complete expression in the work of Thomas Aquinas (1221-1270). Aquinas
Aquinas and his contemporaries were heavily influenced by the Arabic traditions that surrounded their Mediterranean home. These writers, echoing Aristotle, viewed the universe as autonomous, each element of it having a fixed nature which moved it to fit into the overall scheme of things.
This attitude was fertile ground for science, since if the natures of things are fixed, they can be known with certainty. After a few hundred years of false starts, we come to Galileo (1564-1642) and the birth of modern dynamics,
Books
| Ali , Abdullah Yusuf (editor), The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation and Commentary, Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an 1987 Amazon Customer Review: 'The best method to study the Qur'an is of course to study the Arabic language since it is a complex language. However, reading Abdullah Yusuf Ali's translation is a very good place to start. I have the translation of the Qur'an by other authors, none came close to the excellent work by this author. Abdullah Yusuf Ali's translation of the Qur'an comes with the Arabic text alongside with the English translation. It is faithful to the text, and the commentary accompanying the text is well written and balanced. This translation is long regarded as the best book to consult by most Muslims.' Amazon back |
| Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Theologica (translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province), Tabor Publishing 1981 'Brother Thomas raised new problems in his teaching, invented a new method, used new systems of proof. To hear him teach a new doctrine, with new arguments, one could not doubt that God, by the irradiation of this new light and by the novelty of this inspiration, gave him the power to teach, by the spoken and written word, new opinions and new knowledge.' (William of Tocco, T's first biographer) Amazon back |
| Dei Verbum, in Walter M Abbott and Joseph Gallagher (translation editors)The Documents of Vatican II: Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Geoffrey Chapman 1972 'God, who through the Word creates all things (cf. Jn. 1:3) and keeps them in existence, gives men an enduring witness to Himself in created realities (cf. Rom. 1:19-20). Planning to make known the way of heavenly salvation, He went further and from the start manifested Himself to our first parents. Then after their fall His promise of redemption aroused in them the hope of being saved (cf. Gen. 3:15), and from that time on he ceaselessly kept the human race in His care, in order to give eternal life to those who perseveringly do good in search of salvation (cf. Rom. 2:6-7). para 3, page 112. Amazon back |
| Haight, Roger, Jesus Symbol of God, Orbis Books 1999 Jacket: 'This book is the flagship of the fleet of late twentieth century works that show American Catholic theology has indeed come of age. Deeply thoghtful in its exposition, lucid in its method, and by turns challenging and inspiring in its conclusions, this christology gives a new articulation of the saving "point" of it all. ... Highly recommended for all who think about and study theology.' Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, Fordham University. Amazon back |
| Jeremiah, and Alexander Jones (editor), in The Jerusalem Bible, Darton Longman and Todd 1966 Born about 646 bc. 'Called by God as a young man in 626 ... he lived through the tragic years preceeding and succeeding the ruin of the kingdom of Judah. ... The prophet's own inner conflicts were as dramatic as the events in which he played a part. Of affectionate and gentle disposition, he was nevertheless called to 'tear up and to knock downm, to destroy and to overthrow' (1:10). ... During his lifetime Jeremiah was a failure; after his death he grew steadily in stature. His docgrine of a new covenant of the heart made him the father of all that was best in Judaism. ... '. Introduction to the prophets, pp 1125-1126 Amazon back |
| Jones, Alexander (ed), The Jerusalem Bible, Darton Longman and Todd 1966 Editor's Foreword: '... The Bible ... is of its nature a written charter guaranteed (as Christians believe) by the Spirit of God, crystallised in antiquity, never to be changed ... . This present volume is the English equivalent of [La Bible de Jerusalem] ... an entirely faithful version of the ancient texts which, in doubntful points, preserves the text established and (for the most part) the interpretation adopted by the French scholars in the light of the most recent researches in the fields of history, archaeology and literary criticism.' (v-vi) Amazon back |
| McGrath, Alister E, A Scientific Theology volume III: Theory, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company 2003 Amazon product descrip[tion: '"Theory" is the third and final volume in a truly groundbreaking work by one of the world's best-known theologians. As a whole, Alister McGrath's "Scientific Theology" is the most extended and systematic exploration of the relation between theology and science ever undertaken. Now complete, it will surely become a standard entry into modern Christian thought. In Volume 3 McGrath deals with the question of how reality is represented in Christian theology and the natural sciences. Building on the insights of thinkers like Martin Heidegger and Jürgen Habermas, McGrath argues that theory is to be conceived in terms of the "communal beholding of reality." Thus understood, theory is primarily a response to experienced reality, which, for the Christian community, demands theological expression. In the course of unpacking the implications of this perspective, McGrath addresses such subjects as the explanatory dimensions of theology, the place of metaphysics in Christian theology, and the nature of revelation itself.' Amazon back |
| Misner, Charles W, and Kip S Thorne, John Archibald Wheeler, Gravitation, Freeman 1973 Jacket: 'Einstein's description of gravitation as curvature of spacetime led directly to that greatest of all predictions of his theory, that the universe itself is dynamic. Physics still has far to go to come to terms with this amazing fact and what it means for man and his relation to the universe. John Archibald Wheeler. ... this is a book on Einstein's theory of gravity (general relativity).' Amazon back |
| Pais, Abraham, 'Subtle is the Lord...': The Science and Life of Albert Einstein, Oxford UP 1982 Jacket: In this ... major work Abraham Pais, himself an eminent physicist who worked alongside Einstein in the post-war years, traces the development of Einstein's entire ouvre. ... Running through the book is a completely non-scientific biography ... including many letters which appear in English for the first time, as well as other information not published before.' Amazon back |
| Revelation, and Alexander Jones (editor), in The Jerusalem Bible, Darton Longman and Todd 1966 Prologue: 'This is the revelation given by God to Jesus Christ so that he could tell his servants about the things that are to take place very soon.; he sent his angel to make it known to his servant John, and John has written down everything he saw and swears it is the word of God guaranteed by Jesus Christ. Happy the man who reads this prophecy, and happy those who listen to him, if they treasure all that it says, because the Time is close' 1: 1-3. Amazon back |
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