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Carmelo
Dotolo, The Christian Revelation: Word, Event, and Mystery
Translated by
Cavallo Domenica
Philosophical and Cultural Studies in Religion
In an age
characterized by religious, cultural, and social pluralism, where
the crisis of religion and the return of the sacred live side by
side, it is in the declared meaningless of the problem of God and
the continuous search for the meaning of existence that the question
of the Christian revelation becomes central and decisive. Believers
and non-believers are obliged to confront themselves with those
truths that God, with his revelation, wanted to communicate. But how
can we explain these truths? How can we discuss the Christian
revelation, the most profound essence Christianity? In what manner
does the Christian message distinguish itself from the message of
other religions? It is to all these inquiries that this book
responds, introducing the Christian revelation through three key
categories: word, event, and mystery. To rediscover the meaning of
the Christian revelation does not mean to learn something, but to
encounter Someone who’s love is the principle of our freedom…
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 — Revelation, Religious Experience and Theology
Beyond the
sacrifice of reason; Religion: An unexpected guest in postmodern
culture; In order to understand the mystery of existence: Religious
experience; The three-fold meaning of the concept of revelation;
Revelation, the starting point of theology
Chapter 2 — God
in Search of Man: Revelation in the Bible
The foundation
of revelation: The uniqueness of God’s break-in in history; God’s
initiative; Revelation in the Old Testament; Jesus Christ, Truth of
God and Truth of Man: Revelation
in the New Testament; Conclusion
Chapter 3 —
Revelation: Initial and Original Foundation of Theological
Reflection
Revelation as
salvation and knowledge; The criticism of revelation and religion
according to
the Enlightenment; The credibility of revelation: Vatican Council I;
Revelation in the novelty communicated by Jesus Christ: Vatican
Council II; Revelation, a truth that is food for thought; The
dimensions of revelation in contemporary theology
Chapter 4 —
Revelation and Christian Existence
God’s
self-communication, a mystery that poses questions; Revelation, an
event of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; Revelation and life’s
time; History, the meeting of two freedoms; Love, revelation’s form
Chapter 5 —
Christian Revelation and Revelations in Other Religions
The context of
religious pluralism; Theology of the various religions: A brief
overview; Some questions; Christian revelation as a universal sign;
Revelation in the diversity of various religions; Revelation in
Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam; The uniqueness of Jesus’ revelation:
A brief conclusion
Chapter 6 —
Conclusion
Notes
From the Introduction
Here is the central
motive for this book: to tune in to the still unheard elements of
what God has revealed to humanity in the person of Jesus of
Nazareth. This reveals a truth that is not easily believed. This is
the provocation that Christian theology introduces to history:
the Christian revelation constitutes the sign of a Presence that
cannot be captured like any object or theorem. On the contrary, it
is inviting man, on the threshold of freedom, to begin an adventure
that answers to that nostalgia of the Absolute and of the Infinite
that doesn’t fade with the flowing of time. In this sense, Christian
revelation proposes itself as that exception in the presence
of which it is worthwhile to remain ever attentive and ever
reflective. Such an exception is not at all easy-going or allied to
compromise, but, on the contrary, it represents a paradox, and, as
the Christian thinker Søren Kierkegaard writes, a scandal.
The only possibility is to abandon the idea of a God of necessity,
because this calculation contradicts the Christian revelation that
proclaims the God of the Covenant who draws near to humanity, not
according to our schemes, representations, and interests, but
according to God’s own. Its entry in history is on the order of a
free gift, apparently incomprehensible, but a gift that gives to our
existence a quality of life and that discloses to us the way of
living. And, to show us that this is not only a hypothesis, we are
confronted with the objective content of the story of Jesus of
Nazareth: a story that, in its determined historicity, reveals the
truth of God and of man. Here is the exception and the
paradox of Christianity that the believing community of the
origins has experienced and testified (cf. Jon. 14:6; Eph. 4:21):
that the truth that Jesus communicates and his historical being are
inseparable.
The hope for this
writing is then an invitation to a discovery, and a rediscovery of
the meaning the Christian revelation has for every man, before which
skepticism can turn into wonder and reason can let itself be
embraced by the amazement of a truth that humanizes history. It is
not the question of something to learn, but of a Someone to be met,
whose advent represents the offering of meaning for every person, an
offer formulated through three key-words: word, event, and
mystery.
To understand revelation
as the Word of God means to affirm that listening is a decisive
experience, without which existence is incapable of opening itself
to an encounter with God and with other human beings: a difficult
encounter, certainly, that requires readiness to move and to search,
but also a seductive one and rich with promise, because it is
capable of transforming the way of seeing life in its reality. This
listening breaks man’s securities, it contributes to the pregnancy
of new and meaningful relationships, it invites man to assume the
destiny to which he has been called.
Review
“Carmelo Dotolo
is one of the most distinguished theologians Italy has produced in
the past decade. After having contributed to the building of a
concise dialogue between fundamental theology and postmodern
philosophy in his previous books, in The Christian Revelation. Word,
Event and Mystery he applies the message of Christian revelation to
our globalized culture through the works of Thomas Aquinas, Spinoza,
Nietzsche, Rahner, Bultmann, Pannenberg, Kasper, Ratzinger, and many
others. It is not just through these different authors that he
manages to individuate the meaning of the revelation for our new
century, but also for religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and
Islam that play, side by side with Christianity, an essential role
in our world. This book of striking originality and depth has
already become an indispensable tool for all those, like us, who are
interested in the meaning, return, and future of religion and, like
his earlier works, The Christian Revelation will be a reference for
many generations to come.”
Gianni Vattimo,
University of Turin
Santiago Zabala,
Pontifical Lateran University of Rome
Author
Carmelo Dotolo
is Professor of Theology of Religion at both the Pontifical
Urbaniana University and the Pontifical Gregorian University of
Rome. He has served as President of the Società Italiana per la
Ricerca Teologica (SIRT) since 2004. Among his many publications are
Sulle Tracce di Dio (1992), Teologia e sacro (1995),
La teologia fondamentale davanti alle sfide del “pensiero debole”
di Gianni Vattimo (1999), and Il Credo Oggi (2001)
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