Models of Revelation

...Still, given his concentration on symbol, it would have been valuable to see how he relates his own insights to David Tracy's Analogical Imagination...

...Obviously, one cannot expect an author to do everything in one book, and Dulles has certainly handled a packed agenda in this volume...

...Having said this, a judgment of this book must be an enthusiastic recognition of its many merits...

...Given this link, there is a particular appropriateness to "symbolic communication" as a model for thinking about revelation...

...Dulles himself acknowledges this...

...One might also ask how far Dulles really trusts non-verbal symbols as heuristic tools for discovery or as means of communication...

...This is more surprising because Dulles is so extensively influenced by Karl Rahner's theology of symbol...

...This is not exactly an original insight, but this book provides a clear and convincing picture of symbol's indispensable role in revelation...

...The careful reader of Models of Revelation should come away with an objective and structured knowledge of recent opinions about the nature of revelation and of Dulles's own careful evaluation of these opinions...

...and for that very reason will trigger questions and differing opinions...

...Perhaps we can look forward to some such dialogue in future...

...Revelation" is, of course, one of those central elements of Christian belief which involve everything else...

...Another question is whether Dulles gives enough weight to a person's experience of God as perhaps itself the fundamental symbol involved in the divine-to-human communication...

...Art forms, liturgy, the poetic do not seem to qualify as genuine alternatives to "true affirmations," even though Dulles espouses a "symbolic communication" model...

...In treating the symbolic dimensions of history, Dulles seems at times to concentrate too exclusively on the "externals" of historical happening and to overlook the centrality of human experience in historical event...

...Dulles continues to enhance his reputation as a leader in fundamental theology.mental theology...

...For that reason, any adequate treatment of the topic must take into account Christology, ecclesiology, theologies of faith and grace, eschatology-as well as a range of philosophical and social scientific issues...

...One gets the feeling that these five models are not quite that distinct and that several of the theologians studied actually utilize more than one model in their explanation of revelation...

...Granted that we must respect personal preference for one or other mode of thought, for logic rather than poetry...

...recognizes clearly enough the dis-tinctiveness of historical symbolism as contrasted with natural symbols, a dis-tinctiveness that is critically important for Christianity as an "historical religion...

...Though he recognizes the arbitrariness at times in assigning various thinkers to this or that particular model, he is able with considerable objectivity to present most of the important views about revelation within this structure...

...But he does not treat this "inner word" in human knowledge as the key to God revealing in symbol...

...Dulles organizes his presentation around five models: revelation as doctrine, as history, as inner experience, as dialectical presence, as new awareness...

...Dulles is equal to the task...

...Dulles tells his reader that the chapter on symbolic mediation is the key to the book, and so it is...

...The positions it takes, even if one does not completely agree with one or other, are solid and well-grounded and creative...

...On the other hand, one might ask if Dulles (e.g...

...Apart from a couple of footnotes, Tracy's position goes unmen-tioned, though it is one of the most important recent contributions to the matters Dulles is discussing...

...This gives him, moreover, a manageable framework within which to organize his evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the various views he examines...

...and when he turns to his own model, that of symbolic communication, he claims to draw the best from each of the other five models while avoiding their pitfalls...

...Bernard Cooke USING the technique of "models" which he successfully employed in his Models of the Church, Avery Dulles is able in his newest book to bring into coherent synthesis most of modern theological reflection about divine revelation...

...Yet at several points one gets the impression that theological reflection reaches the state of accuracy only when it has come to rational formulation and verbal expression...

...In exposition it is logical, balanced, and irenic...

...Basically, the chapter is a stimulating and valuable discussion of the role of symbol in religious knowledge, a discussion that engages fully in present-day study of symbolism...

...Moreover, Dulles then has a basis for drawing into his own model the best features of the other models he examines...

...In style it is clear, precise,orderly, and readable...

...True, he discusses at length the models of inner experience and new awareness, and admits the overlap between these and his own model...

...in his description of metaphor, symbol, etc...

...This book never loses its focus, the process of divine communication with humans, but it examines this process in the concrete context of God's revelation in Jesus as the Christ and the continuation of this in the revealing existence of the church...

...It would not be fair to compress into a sentence or two the point of view that Dulles explains in careful and detailed fashion, but the focus of his approach is the intrinsic correspondence he sees between revelation and the function of symbol in personal communication...