THESIS NO.3
The Catholic Church
holds that the christian experience originates (D.V. 4) in the historical event
of Jesus the Christ, who is the fullness of revelation (D.V. 2). The Church
keeps alive and transmits that revelation through Scripture and Tradition and
through magisterial teachings. (ND 210, 216).
In this thesis
these following points are to be highlighted:
1. Christian
experience of God' revelation in the historical event of Jesus Christ
2. This
revelation of God in Jesus Christ is the Fullness of revelation
3. This
revelation is transmitted by the Church through:
a)
Tradition
b)
Scripture
c)
Magisterial Teachings
Introduction
Humans are historical and contingent
beings who by nature tend to go beyond, seek and experience the transcendent
God. As persons human being have power to understand the invitation of God and
they have ability to respond (faith). Faith is possible because of human
ability to respond. Every revelation is a religious experience of the human
being in this historical world. All theories on revelation have to do with the
way the human beings experience the transcendence. This religious experience of
transcendence is a search which occurs in the historical contexts and it takes
place in individual as well as in the communities. Every community which
experiences God's revelation preserves its encounter, the originary experiences
and transmits it to the next generation through Scripture, tradition, creed
cult and Code etc.
a) Revelation of God
God reveals Himself to the human
beings in a way they can experience. Revelation means to remove the veil, or
disclose something that is hidden. It is the Self disclosure of God to human
beings, in a way historical human beings would come to experience and express it.
It is possible only when God takes initiative and human beings respond to it.
Therefore, God's revelation and human response (faith) go hand in hand. It is the combination of both, the divine
initiative and human response. When God reveals, He is no longer hidden, that
is to say, though God is incomprehensible yet He can be known and experienced
tangibly. This revelation or the human experience of the Transcendence is an
act of freedom for personal relationship. It is something happening to the
humans through this Divine encounter and as a result they are prompted to act
in a particular way. Hence this experience provides norms for the behavior of
the human community.
The finite human beings cannot
experience God by themselves. They need help of God to experience God Himself.
Revelation as a divine initiative it takes place always through mediation.
Hence God is always disclosed through someone or something other than God and
other than ourselves. Hence, in order to
communicate Himself God speaks to human beings in various ways. According to
scripture God spoke and creation came into being. Therefore incarnation of
God's word is whole of creation; All that exists because God has spoken and
God's word is seen. God gives experience to all through His creation. God's
revelation takes place through the mediatorship of creation, prophets, Jesus.
But all these mediators are not of the same degree.
b) Historical Revelation
It is God's disclosure to human
through historical realities, events, etc. History is the creative act of God
and as we are historical beings, God reveals Himself in and through history. In
this God involves himself in the human history. God takes the life struggles of
the people seriously in which He is involved personally. Acceptance of this
revelation would mean to listen to the voice of God in history and work for the
purpose for which God involved Himself in the history. The Semitic religions
such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam are great examples of such revelation.
History is both the content and the
context of revelation. So, not only God is revealing in history but also God
reveals history.
Revelation of History
History is the result, and not just
the medium of revelation. History is itself what is revealed. History as such is the horizon of human
existence and action endowed with revelatory promise. Biblical tradition
believes a promise to be fulfilled in history. History without promise is
intolerable. Therefore, revelation may be understood as the promise of an
ultimate meaning to history. Revelation is promise, and without our response of
hope neither revelation nor history's meaning can take hold of us in our
present situation.
Revelation in History
Faith must have some concrete
grounds. Actual deeds and events in history are needed to vindicate our hope
for fulfillment. In order to discern the revelatory nature of the Christ-event
and other instances of God's fidelity requires that we belong to the inner life
a faith community which sees its very identity as having been founded by the
story of divine acts of fidelity to the promise. To those who participate in
this "inner history" such occurrences as the call of Abraham, the
Exodus, the lives of the prophets, the deliverance of Israel & Judah from
captivity the events surrounding the life and death of Jesus, the establishment
of the Church, all have a revelatory significance.
1. Christian Revelation: A Historical Revelation of God
For a Christian history is not just
place or a context in which God communicates eternal truths to humankind,
rather history is the created act of God through which God is manifested. The
moment of climax in history is always the Christ-event because God is disclosed
in the totality of history, we come to a knowledge of God as we reflect on the principal
events of our history. Revelatory events that took place in historical Jesus
the Christ affected the community and it became meaningful to us.
Christian
revelation is Self-disclosure or Self-communication of God in Christ-event for
the salvation of men and women in history
Through this self disclosure in and
through Jesus Christ God has entered into dialogue with the humankind freely
and by this, our human needs are met and the history of our lives reaches its
completion. God has revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ yet he
cannot be objectified. The God in whom the Christians believe is not an
abstract idea but personal as proclaimed by Jesus Christ. Mystery of God
present in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus which takes place in, and
transforms, brings salvation to humankind and human history. In him the human
history reaches its climax not chronologically but Kairologically. By this
event human history is oriented towards a new direction and achieves its
fulfillment. God is seen as the one who intervenes at decisive moments of life
of humankind. God becomes one with human history guiding and leading the
humankind to Himself. Christian revelation is centered around Jesus Christ as
the fullness of revelation and in him revelation reached its definite point.
(cf. Mt. 11:27; Jn.1:14,17; 14:6; 17:1-3; 2 Cor 3:16; 4:6; Eph 1:3-14).
2. Jesus is the Fullness of Revelation
God's revelation takes place in the
process of human history. According to Christian belief, the christian historical
revelation begins with the call of Abraham. Centuries ago, the Biblical stories
say, a man called Abraham, got the revelation in the form of `promise', a hope
for a great future. That hope was handed down in the line of humanity through
Moses and the Prophets and the Patriarchs to acknowledge Him as the one true
living God, the provident Father and a just judge. For Christians the person of
Jesus of Nazareth constitutes the decisive breaking in of the promise
fulfillment felt long ago by Abraham. Thus God addresses himself to humans and
makes them partners of His plan. Through the covenant with Moses and the event
of Exodus, God reveals himself as the liberator of the Israelites. This
historical revelation reaches its fullness in Jesus Christ. "After God has
spoken in many and various ways through the prophets, in these last days, he
has spoken to us by the Son" (Heb. 1:1-2). This Son is the eternal word
who enlightens all men (Jn.1:1-18). He is the climax and the epitome of all the
signs of revelation; he marks the total disclosure of God. To see Jesus is also
to see the Father (Jn. 14:9). Christ is the perfection, fullness and the
totality of the self-gift of God to the humans. There is nothing `beyond' and
`after' Christ. In him God's dialogue has achieved its goal. Jesus brings
revelation to its final perfection through his words, deeds, death and
resurrection and by sending the spirit of truth.
Jesus Christ, the Son is the
fullness of God's revelation because He spoke through him the word and manifested through his deeds. What
God speaks comes into being. In the historical Jesus God's word incarnated or
became flesh. Jesus says he who sees me sees the Father. God has revealed
Himself through the words and deed of Jesus Christ. Seeing the deeds of Jesus
Christ we have seen God, and hearing the words of Jesus we have heard God's
word. Therefore, Jesus Christ is the fullness of revelation.
Jesus is fulfillment of revelation
for He makes himself present. This present is seen in his death and resurrection
and sending His Spirit. God has given fullness of revelation in and through
Jesus Christ which is the ultimate, not the end but the fullness of revelation.
He is the mediator, not the center of revelation but God in Trinity is the
center of revelation. Trinitarian God is foundation and model of Christian
community. The way we become mediators, God's revelation will be continued.
Revelation is complemented by faith
or response. An obedient of faith is to respond to God of self giving, self
disclosure Who communicates His divine life to us. By His self communication He
invites us to share his divine nature and any respond to it is the self giving
to Him in Faith. Faith is an intellectual accent to the truth that God reveals
to us. Intellectually what we grasp is that what God reveals to us. In this
whole life is involved therefore our response cannot be merely intellectual but
total self giving to God. It calls for a total self surrender and commitment
without any compulsion because God doesn't compel but only He invites us. He
opens our eyes and hearts and in that openness and awareness we freely response
to God's revelation.
The Nature and purpose of God's Revelation
God's revelation is purposive event.
God reveals Himself for the universal salvation. In His infinite goodness he
has ordained human beings to a supernatural end, namely, to share with us the
good things of Himself which utterly exceed the intelligence of human mind. It
is not for Christians alone but for whole human beings. Revelation is the
knowledge of salvific plan of God. It is not manufactured by rationalist but it
is revealed by God and through the Scripture and creation. God in Christ has
reconciled not only christians but with the whole world. Hence promise of God
is realized as universal salvific Reconciliation. Therefore, we human beings in
this sinful nature can know God because He has revealed Himself as
reconciliation.
God reveals himself to invite us to
share divine life. This invitation is beyond human understanding. It is not a natural revelation which human
being can invent. In this invitation God
takes initiative. As 1 Cor 2:9 says "that which my eye has not perceived,
beyond human life God invites for that life." There is an invitation given
to us in the name of God to confirm that God is at work. Miracles of Jesus is
to confirm to that God's grace given to us. So, purpose of revelation is God's
invitation for divine life. From our part as response to this invitation or
revelation is faith. Only through faith we can experience and share God
life.
The word of God is revealed in Jesus
Christ through the Holy Spirit. By this revelation, the Trinitarian God is
manifested. Therefore Christian experience of revelation is the experience of
God the Trinity. It is an invitation to the Trinitarian life of God the
Trinity. The purpose of His revelation
is to draw men to Himself, His nature. The spirit of risen Lord still
gives this experience of our being drawn to God because in Jesus God speaks to
us out of love and makes us his friend. Therefore Jesus speaks to us God's love
and in that love God is drawing us to Himself. All that I heard from the Father
make known to you. He speaks words of Father and lives among us and through him
we share salvation and life of divine.
3. Transmission of the Revelation through Scripture, Tradition
and Magisterial teachings
The Christian revelation which
originates in the historical event of Jesus Christ is transmitted by the
Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the magisterial teachings.
Traditionalist say that long ago God
gave revelation and this revelation became tradition and this we need.
Tradition is going back to the Scripture. Even today God reveals Himself
through scripture or tradition.
a) Tradition
Tradition is the giving over from one
to another, or the handing down from one to another. It can be viewed as a
giving over (an activity) of something (a content) to another. It is the
collective acceptance and communication of truths, customs, practice belief
etc. in the community and an act of handing down the originary experience or
the revelation in these forms. It is a process by which revelation coming from
Jesus Christ, through his apostles is communicated and unfolded in the
community of the Church. Tradition makes it possible to preserve a value in a
community. Thus the living tradition is a channel through which divine
revelation comes to us.
"Tradition ensures the
continuance of what has been once begun; and through the wisdom and experience
of one's ancestors gives one a perspective in which to classify and evaluate
new experiences. "Tradition appears
as perception, insights, understandings, myths, values, wisdom of past ages,
cultural images -- in a word, a whole complex of factors which make up the life
of a community in all its varied aspects. These factors are handed over from
generation to generation so that persons are enabled to evaluate new
experiences and integrate them fruitfully in their lives.
The function of tradition is that it
enables persons of different times, places and situations to share common
heritage, to determine their freedom meaningfully, and ultimately to form human
community. It includes a past that needs to be retrieved and, in the process,
to be reinterpreted. In a religious community, there is a constant need for its
members to be linked with an originary experience and at the same time to cope
successfully with contemporary challenges.
Tradition supposes a sense of
rootedness. Rootedness means that there is `givenness' with which every human
person begins life. The context in which we begin our lives and make our
decisions is shaped by others. The notion of being created, contingent, or
finite is linked with the concept of rootedness. Yet rootedness does not negate
our freedom. We can decide to live by values which are different from those by
which our forefathers lived. We may perceive that certain aspects of tradition
become stifling and need to be discarded. We may become aware of new insights
and also the need of modifying what is given us from the past.
The Christian Tradition is what the
apostolic community hands over to us concerning Jesus Christ. This tradition
begins from an originary experience: faith in Jesus Christ, the final and
definitive manifestation of God in this world. This foundational experience is
articulated in writings, liturgies, in the structures of the Church and in the
way of life of the early Christians. Already in the first century, we discover
different Christologies in the New Testament which have been elaborated by different
communities. At the same time, we are made aware of the efforts of the New
Testament community to clarify the essential nature of Christian salvation and
the process that was used for this purpose.
Christian Tradition includes the way
of life lived by Jesus which was understood and accepted by the apostolic
community. This community and succeeding generations of Christians have handed
down this tradition to us.
Christian tradition that
communicates to us the Jesus way of life would include the following: the
values of the Kingdom which Jesus proclaimed in his words and deeds; the Bible
(Scripture) that reflects the apostolic community's experience of Jesus; the
liturgies, creeds; the writings of the early Fathers of the Church; the
teachings of the bishops, religious practices, prayers, etc. The Bible
(Scriptures), while holding a unique place among all these, remains a part of
the Christian tradition.
b) Scripture
Scripture is the sacred writing of
the community's God experience. It is community's core experience of God in written form. It is
the theological articulation of the religious experience or the divine
revelation in the person of Jesus or Christ-event. Thus the scripture is both
the experience and interpretation of the reality of revelation.
Church transmits this originary
experience through scripture. She accepts 72 books in the scripture. The
apostolic community saw these 72 of which OT 45 and NT 27) books as reflecting
(directly or indirectly) its experience of Jesus. The Christian Bible (God's
revelation in written form) may be viewed as the Constitution of the Church.
The apostolic community existed before the bible was put together. Yet once the
Bible came into being, the Church found in the Bible the norms which could help
to shape her life and witness faithfully to Jesus' way of life.
Tradition as a source of revelation
was unanimously rejected by the reformers. Luther Held `Sola scriptura' -
Scripture alone is the norm for Christian living. He noted that some elements
in the Christian tradition were superstitions (e.g. buying and selling of
indulgences, treating the sacraments life magical charms, etc.) and that they
distorted the true meaning of God's revelation to us in Jesus Christ. He
therefore decided to restrict himself only to the Bible to know the way of life
of Jesus, since he believed that only there the truth of God's word be found.
As a written text the Bible could not be changed and hence God's truth would
remain undistorted.
Catholics Church accepts the Bible
as God's word because they accept the whole Christian Tradition. Council of Trent said saving truth and rule
of conduct are present in Scripture (written) and Tradition (unwritten) (ND
210). Vat I reaffirms the word of the Trent that the Gospel was promised of old
though the prophets in the sacred Scriptures, Our Jesus Christ, Son of God,
first promulgated it from his own lips; he in turn ordered that it be preached
through the apostle to all creatures as the source of all saving truth and rule
of conduct. The council clearly perceives that this truth and rule are
contained in the written books and unwritten tradition which have come down to
us, having been received by the apostles from the mouth of Christ himself or
from the apostles by the dictation of the Holy spirit, and have been
transmitted as it were from hand to hand (ND 210).
Church holds that the books of Old
and New Testaments are to be received as sacred and canonical in their
integrity, with all their parts. Church holds them to be sacred and canonical
not because, having been carefully composed by mere human industry, they were
afterwards approved by her authority, nor merely because they contain
revelation with no admixture of error, but because, having been written by the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God for their author and have been
delivered as such to the church herself (ND 216).
Both Scripture and Tradition are the means of
transmission of revelation
According to Vat.II revelation is
passed on by the heralds of the Gospel, the apostles and their successors.
Sacred Tradition has its origin from the apostles. The Council is concerned
with doctrinal tradition, not with ecclesiastical laws or customs. The emphasis
is laid on the active role of the church and on the development of the content
of revelation with the help of the Holy Spirit. The vexed question concerning
`two sources' is dealt with a positive way in the sense that both Scripture and
Tradition are presented as two functions with the living historical transmission
of truth rather than as static sources of ideas. The controversy on the
sufficiency of scripture alone is thus avoided by situating the problem on the
higher plane. The council does not affirm that Scripture is insufficient in the
sense of not containing all matters of faith, but it states that the Church
does not derive her certainty from Scripture alone.
Both Tradition and Scripture try to
portray or faithfully articulate the Christ-event. The first Christian
community experienced God's revelation in Christ, shared and accumulated the,
lived that experience in the form of scripture and Tradition with an intention
to invite future generation to enter into that experience of God's revelation
in Christ and thus enter into the process of self-giving. So the Scripture and
Tradition become normative in so far as they enable us to enter into the
process of self-giving with the particular context of ours.
They are like a mirror in which the
pilgrim church on earth looks at God from which she has received everything
until it is brought finally to see Him as He is, face to face (DV 7). What was
handed on by the apostles includes everything which contributes to the holiness
of life, and the increase in faith of the people of God, and so the church in
her teaching life, worship perpetuates and hands on to all generations all that
she herself is, all that she believes (DV 8). They both contain the message of
salvation from God. The message of Jesus, which is transmitted to us through
both Scripture and Tradition. The Source of which is God Himself. The purpose
of both Scripture and Tradition are also same. They transmit the will of God or
word of God, the message of salvation in its entirety.
Trent affirms that "the church
does not draw her certainty about all revealed truths from the Holy Scriptures
alone. Hence, both scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with
equal feelings of devotion and reverence." The church teaches that the
Scriptures as well as Tradition have their origin in "Christ the Lord and
the Holy Spirit" (DV 9).
In short, Scripture is the record of
both the experience and the interpretation of the reality of revelation. The
Scripture is profoundly understood only when it is read within the tradition.
Scripture is a normative element to correct tradition. On the one hand
tradition controls the reading of the scripture and on the other the Scripture
is constantly actualized through tradition.
Relation between Scripture and Tradition
There is close connection and
communication exists between Scripture and Tradition. For both of them flow
from the same divine spring, in a certain way merge into a unity, and flow
towards the same end. For Sacred Scripture is the word of God in as much as it
is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. While the
Sacred Tradition takes the word of God entrusted by Christ the Lord and Holy
Spirit to the apostles, and hands it on to their successors in its integrity so
that, led by the light of the Holy Spirit of truth, they may in their preaching
of this word, preserve it faithfully, explain it and cause it to spread.
Consequently it is not from Sacred Scripture alone that the church derives her
certainly about the whole content of revelation. And so both Scripture and
Tradition are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and
reverence. Scripture and tradition complete one another,$not so much in a
quantitative sense but rather in a sense that each shed light up on the other.
(DV.10) Sacred Scripture and S. Tradition make up a single sacred deposit of
the word of God.
c) The Role of Magisterial Teachings in the Transmission
of Revelation
Magisterium is the teaching office
of the church endowed with pastoral authority ultimately derived from Christ.
It has the task of authentically interpreting the word of God. It's authority
is to exercise in the name of Jesus Christ and to interpret the word of God
with such authority as their learning confers on them. This teaching office has
responsibilities to guide the faith community in the line of originary
experience. This magisterium is not above the word of God but a servant of it.
It teaches only what has been handed on, listens to it devoutly, guards it
conscientiously, and explains it faithfully, by divine commission and with the
help of Holy Spirit. From this one deposit of faith it draws everything which
it presents for belief as divinely revealed (DV.10).
Appendix
Difference
between Tradition, Traditions and Tradition
Tradition
It would mean the entire Christian
tradition which includes the Scriptures and all the other traditions in the
Church. Such Christian tradition precedes the formation of the Christian
Scriptures and, therefore, of the Bible.
Traditions
These would include practices which
have disciplinary and dogmatic in the Church and which owe their origin to
historical circumstances in the life of the Church. Examples of these are
devotional practices, novenas to saints, ways of gaining indulgences for
oneself and others, etc. Some of these practices grow out of a faulty concept
of God and his dealings with us; others are born out of greed for money. Both
types do not offer the Christian an authentic witness to Jesus' way of life. It
is these traditions which caused Luther to decide on Sola Scriptura.
Tradition
Since the magisterium has the task
of interpreting authentically the word of God in the Bible, the Church teaches
concerning the Bible is significant. "Tradition is the living teaching
office of the church, which authoritatively interprets and complements
scripture".( Hubert Jedin, "Grasping the Tradition: Reflections of a
Church historian, TS 45 1984, p.159). Here, tradition is identified with the
magisterial teaching of the Church. But it must be kept in mind that the
magisterium is the servant of the word, not its master.
