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T.J. WalsheApologeticsChapter 7

Divine Revelation

Section II.—Idea of Supernatural Revelation

Chapter VII.—Divine Revelation

Art. I.—Catholic and non-Catholic ideas of Revelation.

The word “revelation” suggests the removal of a veil from some truth that is hidden. The same idea is attached to the corresponding Greek word ἀποκάλυψις (Matt. xvi. 17). We speak of natural revelation, indicated in Rom. i. 19, but revelation, in its strict sense, signifies the manifestation of truth by Divine intervention outside the order of nature (1 Cor. ii. 10).

Revelation is supernatural substantially if the truth revealed exceeds for its comprehension the power of created intelligence, e.g., the doctrine of the Trinity; it is supernatural modally if the manner of revelation is supernatural, though the truth revealed may not exceed the power of the human mind to discover, e.g., the goodness of God, the immortality of the soul, etc.

Revelation and Inspiration are distinct. Inspiration does not necessarily mean the manifestation of a new truth, but indicates the divine impulse to judge and write infallibly about truths naturally known. St. Matthew wrote down facts of the life of Christ which he had personally witnessed. But owing to Inspiration, St. Matthew’s Gospel (as the other three) “Deum habet auctorem.”

A scientific definition (“cognitio per causas”) of Divine Revelation may be thus formulated: “Divine action free, and essentially supernatural, whereby God in order to guide the human race to its supernatural end, which consists in the vision of the Divine essence, speaking to us through His prophets and last of all through Christ, manifested, with some obscurity, supernatural mysteries and truths of natural religion, so that thenceforth they might be proposed infallibly by the Church throughout all time without any change of meaning.”

This definition is based upon the causes of Revelation. Note the following chart:

(1) Final Cause.

The end reveals the final cause which is the first of causes. The end of revelation is the future vision of God. St. Thomas notes that “man cannot attain to the supernatural vision of God unless he takes God for his teacher.” Hence as teaching is gradual, Revelation is progressive and obscure until the attainment of perfect knowledge is reached.

(2) Efficient Cause.

(a) The principal efficient cause is God revealing, i.e., God as author of the supernatural order.

(b) The instrumental causes are the prophets and Christ as man (Heb. i. 2).

(c) To secure the integrity of Revelation, the infallible teaching of the Church is needed. This action of the Church is a condition, not a cause, of Revelation, as the Church does not reveal even instrumentally, but merely safeguards Revelation.

(3) Formal cause is the action, free and supernatural, whereby supernatural mysteries and truths of Natural Religion are revealed obscurely by means of speech.

The action is free because Revelation is not due to human nature.

The action is supernatural, essentially and not merely modally, because it concerns the intimate life of God, utterly beyond the reach of human reason. The action is described as a “speaking” (“locutio” Heb. i., 1). Hence Revelation differs from the infusion of the light of Faith. It may be an external “locutio,” e.g., through a preacher, or God may speak to the heart internally as suggested by the Psalmist: “I will hear what the Lord God will speak to me” (Ps. 84-9).

(4) Material cause—the human race. Hence it is not a question of private revelation.

The true idea of Revelation will be still further elucidated by a brief review of heterodox ideas on the subject. The ideas err either “per excessum” producing a pseudo-supernaturalism, or “per defectum” reducing Revelation to naturalism.

1.—Pseudo-Supernaturalism.

(A) So far from exalting Revelation, the pseudo-supernaturalism of early Protestants degenerated into Rationalism.

(a) As regards the exposition of Revelation they substituted for the infallible teaching of the Church an internal criterion. Luther and his disciples held that the meaning of Scripture was shewn to each one by private inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This doctrine led to private judgment.

(b) As regards the nature of Revelation they held that it is due to human nature and consequently natural and not supernatural.

(B) The error of pseudo-Supernaturalism appears also amongst Catholic Traditionalists (Fideists) like Bautain, who taught that reason alone cannot prove the existence of God nor the fact of Revelation.

2.—Naturalism.

There is a twofold following: (A) of those who deny the supernatural character of Revelation, and (B) of those who essentially lower it.

(A) Absolute Rationalism.

(a) Pantheistic Evolution identifies the nature of God with the nature of the created universe. Hegelian teaching regards Revelation as the progressive evolution of our reason and of the religious sense. Christianity is a stage in the process. The Trinity is nothing more than an instance of the fundamental law of evolution, viz., thesis, antithesis, synthesis!

(b) Agnosticism knows nothing beyond phenomena. Hence external criteria of Revelation have no meaning, and men are thrown back upon their own mental experience, because religion is a form of life. Sabatier writes that Revelation is “the sentiment of God’s presence in us awaking our souls to the life of justice and love.”

(B) Semi-Rationalism. Some Catholic writers admitted the supernatural character of Revelation, but supernatural only modally. In their view all dogmas, even that of the Trinity, may be proved by reason after Revelation.

Art. 2.—Analysis of the Catholic idea of Revelation.

I.—Revelation is formally a supernatural communication (“locutio”) from God to man—a communication made immediately to the prophets, and through them mediately to others. The word “locution” is, of course, taken analogically in the analogous sense known in logic as the analogy of proportion. Goudin explains that an analogy of proportion (metaphorical or real) exists between things whose name is identical when the meaning signified by the name, though diverse in its application, is nevertheless similar from the standpoint of proportion. We use expressions “God spoke” and “man spoke.” There is a similarity of proportionality between human speech in relation to its effect as compared with Divine speech in relation to its effect. To illustrate still further this analogy of proportionality, the examples of sensitive cognition and intellectual cognition may usefully be considered. Sensitive and intellectual cognition, though both named “cognition,” are distinct, but there is a likeness of proportionality between them. As the sensitive faculty bears a relation to its sensitive object, so, correspondingly, the intellect bears a relation to its intellectual object. Again the analogy of proportion may be real or only metaphorical. It is real when the attribute indicated by the name (e.g., wisdom) exists formally and truly in both subjects (“God is wise; man is wise”), even though there is an infinite distance between the unbounded wisdom of God and the limited wisdom of man. The analogy of proportion is metaphorical when the attribute joined to the subject—an attribute suggestive of imperfection—is real in the one case (“anger of man”) and merely metaphorically attributive in the other.

Applying this distinction, the word “locution,” understood in its literal sense as a human utterance, is attributed only metaphorically to God, but understood in its spiritual sense as a manifestation of thought it may be applied to God analogically in a true and real sense.

II.—The notion of Divine Revelation as described in the Old and New Testaments is a spiritual communication of God to men and an exercise of His magisterial power. “I will listen to what the Lord may say” wrote the Psalmist (lxxxiv. 9). “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all in these days has spoken to us by His Son” (Heb. i. 1-2). That Our Blessed Lord spoke magisterially as Teacher is evident from the testimonies of St. Matthew and St. John. “The people were in admiration at His doctrine, for He was teaching them as One having power, and not as the Scribes and Pharisees.” “You call me Lord and Master and you say well, for so I am” (Matt. vii. 28, 29; John xiii. 13). That the word “locution,” taken analogically, is correctly applied to Divine Revelation has been defended by St. Thomas: “When we speak, we give utterance not to the thing the notion of which we desire to convey, but to the sign of that thing. So God, when He gives His interior inspiration, does not reveal Himself, but gives some sign of Himself, some spiritual likeness of His wisdom.” And because of His infinite wisdom, His communication is necessarily magisterial.

III.—Divine Revelation is given by (1) a supernatural manifestation of the truth and (2) by the gift of supernatural light necessary for its recognition.

St. Thomas has written on the art of teaching. He holds a middle course between Plato’s system of innate ideas and the empiricism of the sensist school. According to Plato, instruction is a revival of knowledge; according to the empiricists, knowledge is possible only of phenomena and of succession of phenomena. But St. Thomas points out that the art of teaching consists in making a proposition clear and convincing in itself by showing its dependence on first principles. To teach is to help the intellect to see the truth, just as a physician helps nature to regain its normal healthy state. Hence two conditions are necessary for knowledge: (1) Statement of a truth; (2) Intellectual light either to recognise the truth in itself, or to accept it on the authority of one who is competent to judge.

In this way the truth becomes either intrinsically evident or reasonably credible, and the power of intellectual comprehension is developed and assisted by effective human teaching.

But when the teaching is Divine, inasmuch as many supernatural statements are beyond human comprehension, the authority and infallibility of the teacher are the guarantee of their truth. Here, too, two conditions are necessary: (1) The proposition of the truth; (2) Supernatural light. And the proposition must enunciate:

(a) A hidden truth, because Revelation is distinct from Inspiration.

(b) The truth must be taught in a determinate sense.

(c) The divine origin of the Revelation must be clearly manifested.

Finally, if intellectual light is needed for the comprehension of the truths of nature, supernatural light will be needed for the acceptance of truths divinely proposed.

Art. 3.—Different kinds of Revelation.

(1) Revelation may be supernatural in substance (e.g., doctrine of the Trinity) or merely in the mode of its manifestation.

(2) Revelation may be given through the senses, the imagination or the intellect.

(3) Revelation may be active (the illuminating influence of the Holy Spirit) or passive (the perception of the Divine illumination).

(4) Revelation may be immediate or mediate—immediate to the prophets, mediate through the prophets to others.

(5) Revelation may be public or private, i.e., made for the general benefit, or for the benefit of one or of a few individuals.