revelation
- Key People:
- Emanuel Swedenborg
- Joseph Butler
- Related Topics:
- Christianity
- theophany
- divine intervention
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 indigenous religions, 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.”
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.
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 infinite distance 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.
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.