(Originally written February 7, 2007 in Book 7)
Philosophy of Religion
John Hick
Chapter 5 (continued)
A non-propositional view of revelation and faith
The Heilsgeschichte view of revelation became popular amongst protestants in the 20th century. According to this view revelation is God's coming within the realm of human experience by acting in history. This non-propositional view is connected with the modern emphasis on the personal nature of God.
Why does God not overwhelm humanity with a manifestation? Answer - there must necessarily be a freedom of will to believe or disbelieve in God in a loving, trusting relationship.
In this view tot become conscience of God is to see oneself as a created, dependent being.
In this view, faith is the correlative of freedom. "Faith is related to cognition as free will to conation" (Hick, 69).
In this view history can be viewed both naturalistic and/or religiously. This is shown numerous times in the Bible.
A corresponding view of the Bible and theological thinking
The Bible is both a work of God and the works of human beings.
The New Testament and the Hebrew Scriptures (The Old Testament) constitute the given basis of Christian thought.
The New Testament was formed by appealing to apostolic authority (though there is present debate on this).
God's self revelation in and through the stream of saving history is called "Heilsgeschichte"
The non-propositional view of revelation and faith rejects the notions of revealed and natural theology. It rejects the notion of revealed theology on the basis that revelation is God's actions in human experience, not a set of God's truths disclosed in some text. It rejects natural theology on the grounds that natural theology attempts to discover without faith what must be discovered through faith.
This rejection of natural and revealed theology is grounded in a form of Christian empiricism.
All religious knowledge must be ultimately based on human experience.
Reason is used to build upon this human experience.
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