Swinburne, Richard, ed. 1989. Miracles. New York: Macmillan.
Tillich, Paul, 1951. Systematic Theology. Vol. I. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Excerpt in Swinburne 1989, 71–74.
FOR FURTHER READING
Flew, Antony G. N. 1961. Hume's Philosophy of Belief. London: Routledge & Kegan
Paul.
Lewis, Clive Staples. 1960. Miracles. London: Collins Fontana Books.
Mackie, J. L. 1982. The Miracle of Theism. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Swinburne, Richard. 1992. Revelation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
end p.322
13 FAITH AND REVELATION
C. Stephen Evans
The concepts of faith and revelation, though logically distinct, are related in a variety of
ways. All of the great theistic religions, especially the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam, have traditionally taught that God can be known only through
revelation. Because God is conceived by these traditions to be all-powerful and all-
knowing, it is impossible for anyone to gain knowledge of God unless God is willing for
this to occur. In some sense, all knowledge of God is made possible by God's decision to
allow himself to become known.
Reflection on God's revelation in these traditions has generally distinguished between
God's general revelation and what are termed special revelations. General revelation
encompasses what can be known about God from the natural world, drawing on general
features of that world such as its contingency and purposiveness, or general features of
human experience, or specific experiences that are generally available to humans, such as
experiences of moral obligation, aesthetic delight, and feelings of dependence and awe.
Although some theists have claimed that faith, understood as something like a
willingness to know and relate to God in a trusting fashion, is a condition for the proper
reception of general revelation, the concept of faith has been more closely associated with
special revelation.
Special revelations can consist of particular events, experiences, and/or teachings, often
mediated through a prophet, apostle, or other exceptional religious individual. A
paradigm would be the revelations associated with Moses, Elijah, and other figures of the
Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament). For example,
end p.323
in Exodus, chapters 3 and 4, God catches the attention of Moses by a bush that burns but
is not consumed by the fire, and then speaks a message to Moses, appointing him to
deliver Israel from Egypt. While the story of such revelatory events and the content of