THE SOURCES OF REVELATION
I
s the Catholic insistence
on the mutual necessity
of Scripture, Tradition, and
the teaching authority of the
Church simply a means of
“institutional control?” Is it
an end-run around mature
intellectual integrity, relegating us to outdated modes
of thinking and living?
Or is insistence on the mutual interplay
of Scripture, Tradition, and magisterial authority an acknowledgment and outworking within the Church of both the purpose
of God and the nature of human society?
Tradition as Tutelage?
Tradition got a bad rap, beginning especially in the eighteenth century, and continuing in more or less subtle ways to the
present. The loose, social-intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment, which
has profoundly shaped modern, Western
culture, defined its ideal as freedom from
tradition. As the philosopher Immanuel
Kant put it, “Enlightenment is man’s release
from his self-imposed tutelage. Tutelage is
the incapacity to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another. Such
tutelage is self-imposed if its cause is not lack
of intelligence, but rather a lack of determination and courage to use one’s intelligence
without being guided by another.”
When Kant speaks of tutelage here, he
is especially concerned with what we understand as Tradition: the handing-on of
truth, including ethical truth embodied
in a concrete way of life, within a people
over time, and carrying a claim to authority. But can we historical mammals—who
after all cannot learn to reason without
the language we acquire only from those
around us—really escape from tradition?
Alive to those dimensions of human
existence, many recent philosophers are
skeptical of Kant’s confidence in selfsufficient individual reason. And can we
live together in a peace based on truth
without some reasoned adjudication of
the disputes over that truth?
Community Dimension of Divine Plan
Dei Verbum (The Word of God) is one of
the most widely admired documents of the
Second Vatican Council among our Protestant brethren. It depicts the wisdom of
God in providing for his people through a
stable written form of his revelation, borne
upon a living tradition, within a historical
body provided with a concrete authority for
maintaining the unity of the Spirit. The
document speaks not only to the practical
issues of doctrinal formulation and preservation, but it brings out the grandeur of
the divine plan of revelation.
God speaks to human beings out of the
abundance of his love, Dei Verbum tells
us, so that human beings might come
to know him, the triune God, and come
into communion with the Father through
Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. God
speaks to humans as to friends, inviting
them into relationship with him.
That fellowship of love is not confined
to discrete relationships between God
and isolated individuals, but is part of
a broader communion of love in which
men and women have the astounding opportunity to share in the divine nature,
that is, to grow into the likeness of God
in Jesus Christ, as the Lord makes his
presence among us corporately: “It is not
good for man to be alone” (Gn 2:18).
This corporate dimension of the divine
plan of salvation is evident in the whole
history of salvation. God called Abra-
ham from the very beginning to become
a great nation and, through the nation,
the source of blessing to all the earth. He
spoke to and guided the patriarchs of the
people of Israel, and then, through the
prophets, taught his people through long
centuries, preparing the way for the coming of the gospel in a corporate manner.
God’s purpose and his manner of working were bound up with one another: the
revelation of God, even as it came through
individuals, was spoken to a people so to
shape the life of a people who would live
in accord with his character. He taught Israel through commandment and precept;
through admonition, comfort and rebuke;
and through corporate experience interpreted by inspired prophets.
From beginning to end, God has made
himself known through a people, for the
sake of a people, in the course of salvation history.
Written and Unwritten Form
Jesus Christ comes in the final stage of
God’s plan as the keystone, the fulfillment,
and pivot of this history of divine revelation.
He comes as the fulfillment of the whole history of Israel and as the true seed of Abraham by whom all the nations will bless themselves and in whom they will be blessed. He
comes out of a people and out of a history,
Son of God from all eternity and descendant
of David in his human flesh.
“In many and various ways God spoke
of old to our fathers by the prophets; but
in these last days he has spoken to us by
a Son, whom he appointed the heir of
all things, through whom also he created
the world” (Heb 1:1-2).
If God has prepa ɕ