Core Questions

CORE QUESTIONS: Unit 2

INSTRUCTIONS

Answer the following questions regarding the reading from the textbooks. 11Please respond to the questions in as full a response as possible. Submit your responses in this Word document to the appropriate dropbox as usual. All the CQs (Core Questions) for Unit 2 are due at the end of the unit. Make the name of your document as follows: Name,THEO-250,2.3a.

The Core Questions throughout this course are meant to engage students in the information that is presented either through the readings or presentations. It is also hoped that these questions will stir up critical reflection about the material discussed. Therefore, please provide more than one-sentence answers to the questions. Reflect on the questions and material in the readings before responding.

Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding

1. Using Flannery O’Connor’s short story (“Revelation”) to provide a central feature of a theology of revelation, Daniel Migliore suggests that “revelation is not something that confirms what we already know. Migliore goes on to explain this further and give some biblical examples of revelation that is a breaking-in on human beings. He later says, “When God is revealed, everything is seen in a new light”.

What do you think of the idea that revelation does not confirm what we already know? Interact with Migliore’s point here.

Answer: It means that revelation provide us with knowledge about something that we are unaware of. It is a gift, unlocking great mysteries and even showing us a glimpse of future. And when god is introduced to the humanity, it gave them the understanding of various phenomenon. And with the help of revelations everything is seen in a new perspective.

2. What are theologians attempting to do by using the language “hidden and revealed” when related to God?

Answer: Theologians trying to convince that God is both hidden and revealed which mean that we know as much about the God as revealed or allowed to us, at the same point He himself is a mystery. There is a mystery of God in everyday things and it is up to us to figure it out. Figuring out such mysteries helps one in discovering God.

3. Avery Dulles wrote a book that compared five models of revelation (called Models of Revelation). Briefly state and then summarize each model as Migliore has outlined them.

Answer: First model: Revelation as doctrine. According to Migliore, revelation of God cannot be reduced to a set of authoritative propositions, thus this model is rationalist.

2nd model: Revelation as history. The revelation of God is the mighty act of God in history. This model separates the act of God from the interpretations from the scripts.

3rd model: Revelation as inner experience. Revelation is an inner feeling of communication with God. Revelation got no connection to Bible or doctrine of church, it is instead an experience gained due to spiritual awakening.

Model four: Revelation as Dialectical Encounter. This model fails to provide a link between God and people as it reflects the limitation of revelation content.

Model five: Revelation as New Awareness. Revelation is a breakthrough in human consciousness expressed in creative imagination and ethical action. This model is completely free from the testimony of Scripture and Tradition.

Chris Hall, Learning Theology with the Church Fathers

4. In the chapter on “Sacred Scriptures,” Chris Hall notes that Irenaeus battled the Gnostics around the year AD 200. The Gnostics taught they had received a secret revelation in some form and that it was superior to Scripture or the tradition of the Christian Church. Not everyone can learn or know of this knowledge, they say, but only those qualified to understand it. Irenaeus counters their thinking by focusing on the authority of the apostolic tradition as based in Scripture.

Chris Hall summarizes Irenaeus’ thoughts with these words: “The mark of heretical teachers is that they believe only they have discovered the truth” (223).

Some people suggest that we have a similar challenge in the Church today with a gnostic-like attitude in which some folks sense they have a special word from the Lord. How might you address such people using Irenaeus’ model? s

Answer: First thing we have to realise that, no prophecy or vision is a word of God. Always gives logical explanations. People who claim that thy have a special word form the Lord they always attacks our believes first. To defend such believe, one should have a good understandings of those believe. Word of God does not always have literal meaning, sometimes it has more complex or just simple meaning.

McGrath, Christian Theology Reader

5. Reading: Wilhelm Herrmann (1846-1922)

Wilhelm Herrmann, a very popular German theologian at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, uses a rather popular religious theme for the modern Protestant liberal movement, namely, the idea that experience is involved in revelation. From this brief reading, what is Herrmann’s suggestion for the role of human experience in revelation? What do you think of this?

Human experience is not opposed to revelation. Neither should it be seen as a thread to the revelation or the teaching of God. Rather. Human experience is an essential source to understand who we are and who God is.