Revelation and History

Abstract

"A theology which asks the question "What is the meaning of revelation ?" is peculiarly a child of modern times. Theologians and school children alike knew the answer throughout most of Christian history in terms of a simple distinction between natural or rational and revealed knowledge, the former a function of the unaided human mind, the latter direct communication from God Himself. To be sure, theologians of the Middle Ages might encourage a questioner to approach God from either direction, but from the thirteenth century onward, there was often an insistence upon a separation of the two ways of knowing. St. Thomas Aquinas and his followers all made the distinction. Even the breakup following the Middle Ages did not notably disturb its terms even while shifting its balance of emphasis"