Christians believe that God's creative activity has a dimension to it that forms the very foundation of their belief and theology. This dimension is known as ‘revelation’. The idea of revelation has already been referred to several times, most notably when dealing with the nature of theology and its primary source, scripture. The time has come to devote specific attention to this important theological concept.

The meaning and significance of the concept ‘revelation’

Taken from the verb ‘to reveal’, ‘revelation’ means the making known to someone of something that was not known by that person, the unveiling of something that was veiled. Theologically, it is used to refer to the knowledge we have of God, particularly that knowledge that cannot be derived from a purely rational consideration of the created character of the universe.

Clearly, if God is the transcendent reality Christianity confesses God to be, the only way in which we can know about God is through divine actions that have as their purpose the imparting to creatures of such knowledge. The very concept ‘revelation’ therefore is a necessary corollary to and reminder of the fact that Christianity's God is one who can only be known through an act of gracious self-disclosure: whether through the very fact of creation or through more extensive and clearer disclosures throughout history.

Revelation and creation

It is somewhat unusual to speak of revelation as a dimension of creation, as I did above. But I do so in order to bring together two forms of God's revealing activity that are often regarded as radically different kinds of divine action.

The difference was traditionally seen as follows: creation is the activity by which God made the world and sustains it in existence; revelation is the activity by which God intervenes in a special way in that created world. The purpose of this special intervention is to open us to God in a way that would not be possible if we were left simply with our experience of the created world. The created world was seen as being part of the ‘natural’ order of things. The revelation given over and above the knowledge obtainable from that world was seen as being part of the ‘supernatural’ order of things. Revelation was not thought of as part of creation but rather as something added to it, using the structures of the created world.