Revelation and Theology: The Gospel as Narrated Promise

Arguing that the Christian doctrine of revelation is necessary for understanding the prevenience of Gods grace Ronald Thiemann defends the doctrine of revelation by focusing on the identity and reality of the promising God depicted in the biblical narrative. According to Thiemann The crisis of revelation has occurred within a cultural context decisively marked by radical pluralism. The modern defender of Gods reality must seek to show how God is both in relation and prior to those human concepts by which we seek to grasp his reality. He or she must do so by an argument which resists the reduction of theology to anthropology. In analysis of such diverse thinkers as John Locke Friedrich Schleiermacher and Thomas Torrance Thiemann criticizes the epistemological foundationalism adopted by theologians to provide theoretical justification for the divine origins of Christian beliefs. He argues that the doctrine of revelation must be seen as an account supporting the intelligibility and truth of a set of Christian convictions. His notion of the narrated promise reveals Gods prevenience as promiser and humanity as recipient of the promise. In an examination of the Gospel of Matthew Thiemann shows how the biblical narrative identifies God as the God of promise and invites the reader to participate in Gods prevenient reality. ROBERT F. THIEMANN is Professor of Theology and of Religion and Society at Harvard Divinity School. He is the author of Constructing a Public Theology and Religion in Public Life. He is also co-editor of Who Will Provide? The Changing Role of Religion in American Social Welfare.