Explain and illustrate the differences between prepositional and non-prepositional revelation.

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Gemma Louise Lang – 13BM

Revelation is when, how and through whom or what God reveals himself to us. It is said god reveals himself to mankind through miracles before us. God also shows himself in everything around us. God created miracles in making grass and trees, animals, night and day and also the miracle of birth and if you believe in these miracles you will notice God is revealing himself to mankind through everything.

For millions of years the argue concerning propositional and non propositional revelation has been a main subject of many whilst discussing revelation. However many people state prepositional revelation is non prepositional revelation because revelation is based on people’s experience. However, no simple answer has yet been found.

Propositional revelation is when god reveals himself in propositions or statements, which are then recorded as scripture. There are many times since the birth of the Christian religion where people say examples of prepositional revelation have been disclosed. People mention both the miracle of the crossing of the red sea and the Apostles creed as prepositional revelation.

Non-propositional revelation is when God reveals himself through experience. There are many examples of this kind of revelation, such as, miracles, speaking in tongues, personal experiences such as an awareness of god, sense of personal conviction that you ought to do something, healing, sense of unity and praying. People continuously dispute the different sorts of revelation by saying, all revelation is non prepositional as it is based on peoples experience, however the difference is some revelation has to be prepositional else it would undermine the bible. All revelation is an experience of God and the Bible, which contains peoples experiences portrayed in many ways.

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Concerning non-propositional revelation there have been many arguments both for and against its existence.

Swinburne argued for non-propositional revelation in saying the following, “If you think something happened or someone says something happened, then it probably did, unless you have good reason not to believe the person.”

James was another philosopher who believed in the existence of non prepositional revelation, he stated, “If the effects have such an affect on someone life then it must be a religious experience.”

Another argument for non prepositional revelation is that from the Bible, which states, “Those who believe in experiences will think ...

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Concerning non-propositional revelation there have been many arguments both for and against its existence.

Another argument for non prepositional revelation is that from the Bible, which states, “Those who believe in experiences will think that experiences are possible and who are we to question?” All of the mentioned argument agreeing with non-propositional revelation is both valid and understandable, however there are also very strong arguments against non-propositional revelation.

Wittgenstein explained his argument in this way, “Seeing as drawing a line of dots may mean something different to someone else”, he also believed, everything can mean something different as it is concerned with the way in which people interpret things. In simple terms Wittgenstein was stating, what someone may think of as a revelation may have a simple reason and answer to another person, and again if we questioned either of those people would we not be taking away that person free will? Free will – a gift God gave us?

Hare also argued against non prepositional revelation in saying it is an unverifiable and unfalisifiable way of looking at the world – he called this theory a ‘blik’.

In conclusion, people have said that God reveals himself to everybody as we all have a concept of him. We are only of limited ability so we should just accept God – if we do not have the intelligence to comprehend God and revelation and context of its revelations then we should not question him. However criticising the above is the following statement, “God always respects our free will and so he will not reveal himself in a way which gives us no choice about whether to believe him or not.” This is again is a valid point, though it truth must be decided by personal choice.

Literalists are people who believe everything is true whereas non literalists believe the Bible is the true meaning but no literal. However, literalists believe the Bible is true simply because it says it is, this is a circular argument which holds no actual evidence. Non literalists believe it is sometimes impossible to translate everything literally hence they believe the Bible is not the literal meaning.

It is know to us all that we have a major problem when we try and understand God, a major problem is this how do we use finite language to describe an infinite God – in spite of this people may argue the reason for this is because God wants to remain mystical is a certain range to enable us to choose and therefore enable us to keep our free will.

A further theory is that we know about Gods existence because he reveals himself through nature. He is said to have created everything and therefore is present in everything.

Many people describe God as a human being in human terms or human ways, this is known as anthropomorphism.

Though many Christians believe God reveals himself through nature many also believe he reveals himself through reason. Unfortunately some people are shown a revelation from God but choose not to accept it, some people see this as very unfortunate and believe it is a pity that not everyone can experience the true magnitude of Gods existence.

However, if God reveals himself to everyone through nature why do so many reject him and how reasonable is the claim that God reveals himself through nature – many people question why has God such a great wonderful existence leave so much up to peoples personal opinion? Another example of prepositional revelation is that of prophecy, however, why does prophecy not verify God’s revelation?

Most believers believe miracles show how God intervened in something, however how do we know that it is not pure coincidence, has a scientific explanation? Are miracles not over riding peoples free will, open to interpretation and if not why does God not perform miracles for everyone to see and believe – again this is a concept leaving many to make up their own minds.

Finally, while studying the topic of prepositional and non-propositional revelation it enables you to come to only one conclusion, there is no simple answer. Many theories are left for personal opinions to made up, however there is no real answer and for the near future we see no answers coming forth……I wonder if this is Gods way of giving us our free will and remaining uncomprehendable due to his magnificence?, again just a personal opinion.