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
AuthorsHorner, Robyn
EditorsJ.-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.

KeywordsMarion; Lacoste; religious experience; secular age; revelation
Page range67 - 105
Year2020
Book titleThe Enigma of Divine Revelation: Between Phenomenology and Comparative Theology
PublisherSpringer International Publishing
Place of publicationSwitzerland
SeriesContributions to Hermeneutics; Volume 7
ISBN9783030281311
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28132-8_4
Research GroupSchool of Theology
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