Revelation as a problem for our age
Book chapter
Horner, Robyn. (2020). Revelation as a problem for our age. In In J.-L. Marion and C. Jacobs-Vandegeer (Ed.). The Enigma of Divine Revelation: Between Phenomenology and Comparative Theology pp. 67 - 105 Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28132-8_4
Authors | Horner, Robyn |
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Editors | J.-L. Marion and C. Jacobs-Vandegeer |
Abstract | Redolent with the idea of supernatural intervention in the everyday, the notion of revelation rarely figures in the public imagination. If it is considered at all, it is often dismissed as implausible in educated society. I suggest that this is because revelation is considered first as a matter of belief rather than as a question of experience. Revelation presents a problem for our age in three, interconnected ways. Culturally, revelation has become both unintelligible and unimaginable; in lives largely bounded by the immanence of the world, the concept of revelation seems arcane or anachronistic. Philosophically, revelation resists the kind of analysis that we readily identify with many Western philosophical approaches; there is little place for a concept of revelation linked to the particularity of religious traditions. Theologically, revelation is often understood as a set of things that have to be believed, things seemingly bearing no relation to present experience. In all three cases, belief or lack of belief becomes an obstacle to the very possibility of revelation. I will argue here that revelation can be a meaningful possibility and that we have to allow for that possibility within experience, even as we affirm its impossibility as experience at the same time. |
Keywords | Marion; Lacoste; religious experience; secular age; revelation |
Page range | 67 - 105 |
Year | 2020 |
Book title | The Enigma of Divine Revelation: Between Phenomenology and Comparative Theology |
Publisher | Springer International Publishing |
Place of publication | Switzerland |
Series | Contributions to Hermeneutics; Volume 7 |
ISBN | 9783030281311 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28132-8_4 |
Research Group | School of Theology |
Publisher's version | File Access Level Controlled |
https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/8qz95/revelation-as-a-problem-for-our-age
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