CHAPTER 5: REVELATION

“If the truth is the object of the aspirations of all human beings, it cannot be the exclusive personal property of any
person. The truth cannot be exclusively mine or yours precisely because it must be both yours and mine.”
– St. Augustine

INTRODUCTION

This lesson showcases the central concept of revelation as it is understood in the Catholic faith.
Revelation is the loving self-disclosure of God, in order to establish relationship with His people.
Revelation manifests itself in creation, in the Sacred Scripture, in the Church today and even in other world
religions. However, God is definitively revealed in Jesus Christ, who is the fullness of God’s loving self-gift:
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Through revelation, God creates dialogue with
humanity, hoping to bring them into full union with Him in love.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe the concept of revelation as the loving self-disclosure of God to his people, especially in a
definitive way in the incarnation of Christ;
2. Recognize the presence of revelation in the sources of the faith, Creation and the Incarnation; and
3. Appraise the presence of revelation in other world religions by asserting the inclusivist stance of the
Catholic faith.

EXPOSITION

Revelation, the divine self-gift of God, is communicated in different ways. Primarily, it is

The Church looks to God’s revelation in the Scripture and Tradition as the only authentic and
complete source for our knowledge about God and God’s will for the whole human race. It is the
responsibility of the Church, through her teaching (doctrines), sacraments (worship) and ministries
(morals), to transmit to every new generation all that God has revealed.

A. REVELATION AND RELATIONSHIP

The word revelation (Latin revelatio, Greek apocalypsis) means literally “the removal of a veil” (Latin
velum, Greek kalymma). Revelation indicates disclosure, showcasing that something or someone was
previously hidden or “veiled” and is now made known and “unveiled.” This disclosure was described by
Catholic fundamental theologian Heinrich Fries as:

Re-velare is quite specific in concept: it means to take away the velum, or veil or cover. It means
to make known, to reveal openly: what was previously covered and invisible is now ‘lifted up’ into
sight. When revelare is predicated of God, it assumes that God is a hidden God; the meaning is
that God’s concealment and invisibility are unveiled and manifested. For in the act of revealing,
 some things or some one is always made manifest. Thus revelation includes two things in one:
the act and faculty of revealing and what is revealed in the act.1

Revelation underscores the fact that God, who did not have any reason to disclose himself, did so
out of love. This loving self-disclosure indicates a God who wants to establish a relationship with his
people. Relationship is at the heart of revelation. The best example of this would be the relationship we
have with our friends.

We reach out and maintain this relationship in various ways, and we do not want to lose touch of
such relationship, so we do various things to keep the relationship intact. The same with our relationship
with God. As God reaches out, so too God awaits an eager and active response from us, which is faith.

How does this idea of revelation relate to the ordinary Filipino life? The Catechism for Filipino
Catholics gives an interesting example: “One of the best things you can say about a Filipino is: ‘Marami
siyang kilala’ (He knows many people), or ‘Maraming nakakakila sa kanya’ (Many people know him). On
the other hand, one of the worst things to say about a Filipino is ‘Wala siyang kilala’ (Nobody knows him),
or ‘Walang kumikilala sa kanya’ (No one gives him recognition).”2

At the core of this question of “pagkilala” is relationship. Our relationships with our family and
friends are grounded on a loving knowledge of each other. We reveal our true selves to them, and their
acceptance of us constitutes the relationship. In the Philippines, this need for acceptance and
understanding is very important. One great frustration of the Filipino is to not be understood. This is also
the reason why Filipinos are often very emphatic to the situation of others, trying to understand where
other people are coming from.

In the life of faith, the one who reaches out to us is God, who wants to become our “kakilala.” By
being in relation to God, we come to terms with our true selves, who we are meant to be. This story of
the constant initiative of God and the response of humanity will be the story of Christian revelation.
“Through this revelation, therefore, the invisible God (see Col. 1;15, 1 Tim. 1:17) out of the abundance of
His love speaks to men as friends (see Ex. 33:11; John 15:14-15) and lives among them (see Bar. 3:38), so
that He may invite and take them into fellowship with Himself.”3

What is the purpose of revelation? The purpose of revelation is for the benefit of salvation for all
of humanity. The self-disclosure of God changes and even transforms human beings who hear the divine
word, drawing these people to loving relationship with Him. Dei Verbum highlights that “God is with us to
liberate us from the darkness of sin and death and raise us up to eternal life.”4 God is the light that
illuminates our way towards life ever-lasting.

Revelation contains God’s self-gift of knowledge and love to humanity. However, revelation does
not contain everything there is to know about God. Truths about God outside of divine revelation are so
immense that they may not be encountered at all by the human mind. And yet, God comes to us in
relationship despite this absolute transcendence. In fact, Saint Augustine explains that despite the
seeming distance of God, the Lord is actually closer to us than we can fathom: interior intimo meo et
superior summa meo, “higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self.”5

In a reflection given by Pope Benedict XVI during Gaudete Sunday, he described where true joy
can be found, in light of Augustine’s reflections in the Confessions:
 True joy is linked to something deeper. Of course, in the all too often frenetic pace of daily life it
is important to find time for rest and relaxation, but true joy is linked to our relationship with God.
Those who have encountered Christ in their own lives feel a serenity and joy in their hearts that
no one and no situation can take from them. St Augustine understood this very well; in his quest
for truth, peace and joy, after seeking them in vain in many things he concluded with his famous
words: “and our heart is restless until it rests in God” (cf. Confessions, I, 1, 1).

Fulfillment and wholeness is intimately connected with relationship with God, and such a
relationship is anchored on the fact that God had revealed Himself to us for the sake of relationship. In
the encounter with God, through Christ, in the Spirit, we find our true selves, and consequently, our true
joy.

In what manner does God reveal Himself? God reveals Himself in many ways: through creation,
through salvation history recorded within the Sacred Scripture, and through the life of the Church. But
God fully and definitively reveals Himself in Christ, who completes and perfects revelation.

B. CREATION AND REVELATION

The first way that God reveals to us is through creation. Creation is the foundation of God’s saving
plan and the beginning of salvation history.6 The world and everything in it are natural signs of God. A
beautiful image in the Sacred Scripture describing the creative process of God is expressed by the prophet
Jeremiah “I went down to the potter’s house and there he was working at the wheel. Whenever the object
of clay which he was making turned out badly in his hand, he tried again, making of the clay another object
of whatever sort he pleased. Then the word of the Lord came to me: Can I not do to you, house of Israel,
as this potter has done?, says the Lord. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand”
(Jeremiah 18:3–6).

The image of a potter, lovingly building up the piece of clay into a beautiful earthen vessel,
showcases the dynamic quality to the process of creation by God. And this process did not end in the past.
Signs of God’s creative presence persist even today. With every infant that is born into the world, with
new music, painting and sculpture that is produced by artists and with every good deed by a human being,
God continues to create, and we too participate in that creative process. Pat Kozak’s reflection on this
reality is quite insightful:

An intimacy develops between the clay and the potter, each dependent on the rhythm of tension
and yielding, on a sensitivity to the moment when the new is ready to emerge. “See, I am doing
something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isa 43:19). The original potter is
found in Genesis. “The Lord God formed the human being from the dust of the ground . . .” (Gen
2:7). The Holy One, hands smeared by dust and mud, holds this earthenware vessel, breathes
Spirit into it, and there, enveloped in holiness . . . is a human person. “See, I am doing something
new. . .” This earthen miracle is present in John’s gospel when Jesus takes earth, adds saliva, and
makes mud, smearing it on the eyes of the one born blind (John 9:6). Do you not see . . . through
this earthenware vessel of grace . . . do you not see? I am creating something new! Not clay but
sight. So common we can miss the miracle. So ordinary that disbelief comes readily. The holy
within the ordinary persists. At the Last Supper, Jesus took a cup, an earthenware vessel, declared
it blessed, and poured out life. The commonplace, an ordinary table cup, becomes a carrier of the
holy.7
 Another helpful image can be taken from Jewish spirituality. The Jewish philosopher Martin
Buber, in his classic work I and Thou, explains that every “you” that we speak contains within it echoes of
“the eternal You.”8 Therefore, every part of creation holds a chance to be sign of God’s presence. This
insight came to him because he was thinking in Hebrew, the language of the Jewish people. The word for
“you” in Hebrew is atah. The first two letters of atah are aleph and tav. These form the beginning and the
end of the Hebrew alphabet. Since the Jewish mystical masters believe that God created the world by
combinations of letters, aleph and tav can be seen to stand for all Creation: All that ever was or will be
comes about only through the letters from aleph through tav.

However, combining those two letters gives us only the word et, a particle used for the direct
object. Aleph and tav by themselves refer to creation and everything in it only as objects. The third letter
in atah is heh. It is used here to stand for the name of God. Add God’s name to aleph and tav and the
word comes alive. With the heh added (and heh is nothing but a breath), the word is no longer “it,” but
“You”! With atah we address the world around us, not simply as an inanimate object, but as dynamic
creation that contains within it traces of the Creator.9

C. THE BIBLE AND REVELATION

The Church believes that the Sacred Scripture is the inspired Word of God. The Bible, therefore,
contains divine revelation. Revelation found in the Bible is clearer and more authoritative, compared to
other sources of revelation, by virtue of the fact that it is in written form. Therefore, the Bible is a very
significant source for drawing out God’s revelation.

While it is true that the Bible in its entirety is the word of God, there are things written in the
Bible—facts, anecdotes, recordings of history, opinions—that tell us absolutely nothing about the person
of God and who God is. For example, in the Book of Tobit, twice there is mention of a dog that seems to
have been Tobias’s pet: “When the boy left home, accompanied by the angel, the dog followed Tobias out
of the house and went with them” Tobit 6:2) and “the dog ran along behind them” (Tobit 11: 4). Scripture
scholars explain that the dog is simply in the story as a remnant of the folk tale from which the story in
the Book of Tobit is taken. However, within the bigger picture of the Book of Tobit and the Sacred
Scripture, the dog serves no revelatory purpose at all. The dog tells us nothing about the kind of person
God is. Therefore, any mention of that dog is not revelatory.10 In conclusion, not all things found in the
Bible is revelation, and thus Biblical interpretation and the guidance of Sacred Tradition become central
in determining which parts of Scripture are revelatory and which parts are not.

At the same time, although the Bible contains revelation, not all revelation is found in the Bible.
God reveals in many and various ways. God reveals through creation, the Church and even other world
religions. The Bible does not have monopoly of revelation, but it is important to point out that the Bible
holds a special place amongst all these sources. The Bible is the norm, the rule and the measure by which
we assess all revelation. Scholastic theologians of old would formulate their answer through a wonderful
exercise in Latin alliteration: Scripture is the norma normans non normata, “the norm which norms all
other expression of the faith but which is not itself normed.”11

The Bible records God’s entering into a special relationship with His chosen people, the race of
Abraham, the people of Israel. In Jewish tradition, Abraham is hailed as the first to be addressed by the
Word, and the first to respond to it in faith. This address-response marks the beginning of salvation history
as such, because for the first time God’s personal act of revelation is reciprocated by an equally personal
reception, the divine call met by the human response of “Here am I” (cf. Genesis 22:1).

God also revealed to his people through prophets. Through chosen men and women—kings,
judges, priests and wisemen— God liberated, led and guided His people. Etymologically, the term prophet
come from the Greek prophētēs, the term means “one who speaks for another.” The significance of
prophecy lies not in those who perceive it but in those to whom the word is to be transmitted. The prophet
has a twofold task: that of receiving and experiencing God’s word, and that of announcing and proclaiming
it.

There are various stages in the prophetic word-event. It begins with a moment of! a revelatory
state of minds. The “word of Yahweh” (in Hebrew dabar YHWH) comes into the prophet from the outside.
These may take the form of visions, auditions, inspirations, inner promptings or symbolic perceptions.
Afterwards, there will be an interpretation of the experience of the prophet, often times having an
intelligible expression and elaboration in poetic form.

Although many prophets spoke many different words, it must be affirmed that there is only one
Word coming from one God. It is a word of salvation, of redemption, of ultimate victory for God’s people
and their safe and joyful return to Him. We can make an analogy to music: there may be different
harmonies, but they comprise only one musical theme.12 For example, among the prophets, Amos’
announcement of God’s justice was swiftly followed by Hosea’s insistence on God’s mercy. Isaiah’s idea
of God’s holiness was richly complimented by Jeremiah’s insight into God’s tender compassion,
culminating in Ezekiel’s vision of God dwelling with his people wherever they may be, even (and most
especially) in exile.

D. REVELATION AND THE INCARNATION

God’s revelation was weakened by the infidelities and hardness of heart of His chosen people.
God, therefore, chose to reveal fully and definitively by sending His Son to be our Savior, like us in all
things except sin. Jesus Christ is the definitive revelation. The word “definitive” came from the Latin root
word “fin,” which means “end,” “boundary,” or “limit.” For example, the word “define” means describing
the meaning or sense of a particular word. In a way, a person who is defining something is placing limits
or boundaries to what that word actually means. Another example is the word “infinite” which means
“endless” or “limitless.”

When we speak of Jesus Christ as having definitively revealed God to us, we mean that his
revelation “ends” in Christ. Revelation has been decisively realized and fulfilled in Christ. Jesus Christ
completed and perfected the initial revelation to the chosen people. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus
instructs: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come not to abolish
but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).

We, therefore, affirm that it is in Jesus Christ that we receive revelation definitively and most fully.
He is both the agent and content of revelation. Jesus Christ is agent of revelation, because this revelation
is done through a combination of his words and his deeds. At the same time, the actual matter of
revelation, its content, is also Christ. He is the verbum visibile.13 Christ reveals God himself. Christ reveals
the Trinity, and is the generated Son, incarnated into the world so that the Father may be made known to
the world, in the Holy Spirit.
 At the same time, God’s revelation in Jesus Christ did not stop with his ascension to the Father.
Jesus gathered around him a group of apostles and disciples who would form the core of what will
eventually become the Church. The Catholic Church traces its origins back to this New Testament ekklesia,
a term that means “the people of God called together.” What was once a small band of brothers and
sisters in faith has since grown into a world community. The Church is a “faith-assembly whose root cause
is God’s free call to share His divine goodness and love in Christ. The Church therefore is not just a social
grouping of people drawn together by cultural values and attitudes.”14 God is the ever-present source,
foundation and goal of the Church, and through the Church, God is made known to the world.

What are implications of the incarnation to our human living? It is a reminder of God’s
participation within human history. God Himself entered into our material and limited reality, and in so
doing changed its very fabric. If God can take on human nature, then it must mean that human nature is
not as bad as we assumed it to be. There is much goodness in humanity, so much so that Scripture
proclaims us to be in the image and likeness of God. Thus, our task is to imitate the goodness of God, as
members of the sacrament of Christ, the Church:
So professing faith in a God whose Word became incarnate has to lead us to live a faith embodied
in history. Without ever ceasing to cultivate an intimate relationship with the Lord and living a
faith always rooted in the experience of Jesus Christ, we have to realise that the authentically
Christian interior life is not mere interiority. Our authentic living-out of the faith must be
embodied in history; if it is not, it is heretical. Christian faith is not an enclosed ghetto of belief,
but a radical opening to the world. The God of Jesus took flesh and lived among us, in this world. 15

E. REVELATION IN OTHER WORLD RELIGIONS

The multitude of religions creates a real, intellectual difficulty for many people today. How is this
religious diversity to be interpreted?

For some people, the existence of many religions means that none of these religions are valid
ways to reach ultimate reality. This belief is known as religious nihilism. For religious nihilists, no religion
can claim to be valid avenues for the revelation of ultimate reality.

Other people insist that all religions are equally valid avenues for reaching ultimate reality. This
belief is known as relativistic pluralism. For relativistic pluralists, the question of faith is like an eat-all-you-
can buffet. People can pick and choose whichever religion they want to affiliate themselves with, and
even mix and match religious practices that seem consistent with their personal understanding of the
world and ultimate reality.

These two views, religious nihilism and relativistic pluralism, are incompatible with Christianity. A
Christian cannot be a religious nihilist, because a religious nihilist already discredits any form of belief as
valid. At the same time, a Christian cannot be a relativistic pluralist, because a relativistic pluralist holds
all religions as equal avenues to God, whereas the Christian claim is that Christ is the fullness and
definitiveness of revelation, and holds primacy compared to other religions.

Some Christian denominations, like the Baptists, believe that there is no salvation outside of the
Christian Church. For these Christians, since Christianity is God’s way for all humanity, there is no truth,
no genuine relation to God outside the Christian faith. Other religions must be false. In fact, some Christian
denominations are even more restrictive, claiming that there is no salvation outside of their
denomination. This particular stance is known as exclusivism. “Exclusivism is a theological position that
posits no grace or salvation outside of the Christian confession. Unless one proclaims explicit faith in
Christ, one cannot participate in God’s saving grace: nulla salus extra ecclesiam (or Christum).”16

Exclusivism is invalid in the Catholic perspective. An exclusivist will never be able to dialogue with
other religions, because exclusivists deny the value to be found in other religions, in fear that by accepting
these value, they are denying Christ. Within the Catholic view, this a seriously flawed kind of logic. There
are ways in which we can insist on the primacy of revelation in Christ without discrediting the role that
other religions play, especially in relation to grace and revelation. This can be seen in the Catholic stance
of inclusivism.

Our very faith, by its catholic nature, affirms the understanding that the Church does not have the
monopoly of revelation or salvation. We do not fully know the workings of the Spirit. But our catholic faith
attests that the Spirit does move even and most especially beyond the Church:

The word “catholic” refers to the universality of the church. This means that we as members of
the church cannot draw lines that determine who is or who is not member of the true church of Christ.
Our Lord has told us that there are other sheep, and therefore we must understand that when we speak
of the church as being catholic, we are referring to the mystery of the church. We cannot speak of who is
a part of it and who is not: this is not for us to decide, for we cannot know who Christ has called his own.17

Thus, Catholics must take on an inclusivist stance. Inclusivism is the belief acknowledging the truth
to be found in other religions, but insists that everything true in these religions finds its deepest meaning
and perfect completion in Christ:
Inclusivism posits that Christ is the absolute savior and that his saving grace is operative outside
of the formal Christian confession. This position is built on three assumptions. The first is that God
desires that all people be saved. Second, all experiences of truth, goodness, and so on, are
experiences of God’s grace. Thus to seek the good and respond to it is to implicitly seek God and
respond to God’s grace working in one’s heart. Finally, all grace is mediated through Christ. This
position too can boast of biblical support [. . .] This position is the most widely embraced in
mainstream Christianity and is the formal position of the Catholic Church.18

The following are seven theses that relate to other world religions, in light of the inclusivist perspective:

1. Not everything in other world religions is true and good.

Because of the fallen nature of man, religions as institutions are imperfect. Some religions have
practices that many of us consider immoral, such as human sacrifice or the unjust treatment of women.
Religion has also been used as a reason to justify wars. History tells us that European monarchs used God
as the reason to rationalize the pursuit for colonization, which subjected many peoples to oppression. In
the modern times, various religious extremists promote violence and death. As such, we must affirm that
not everything in world religions are true and good.

One example of unjust religious practice is sati, a disturbing practice of Hindu women being so
devoted to their husbands that when the husband died, the widow was said to be so overcome with grief
that she would leap onto the funeral pyre and burn herself alive. Although culturally acceptable in the
past, there began circulating rumors of women being forced onto their husband’s funeral pyres in historic
Hinduism. It all came to a head following a well-documented case of sati from 1987 was that of 18-year-
old Roop Kanwar. Following the outcry after this particular case of sati, the Indian Government passed
the Sati Prevention Act of 1987, which it made it illegal to support, glorify or attempt to commit sati. 19

Even the Catholic Church acknowledges its history of imperfection. Whether it is the Crusades
or the Inquisition, the Church has had its sins. This is to be expected, for the Church is a communion of
sinners—both repentant and unrepentant. “We cling together in this Church not because we believe
ourselves to be pure and just, but precisely because we know we are not. Our belief in Christ, however,
guarantees for us that all things can be redeemed, both within the Church and outside of it.”20

2. There is much that is naturally good in other religions.

Despite the imperfection of the world religions, there is much that is true and good in these
religions. They inculcate in their followers’ virtues such as prayer, self-denial, love of neighbor, and so
forth. Therefore, the Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in other religions:
Religions, however, that are bound up with an advanced culture have struggled to answer the
same questions by means of more refined concepts and a more developed language. Thus in
Hinduism, men contemplate the divine mystery and express it through an inexhaustible
abundance of myths and through searching philosophical inquiry. They seek freedom from the
anguish of our human condition either through ascetical practices or profound meditation or a
flight to God with love and trust. Again, Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical
insufficiency of this changeable world; it teaches a way by which men, in a devout and confident
spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect liberation, or attain, by their own efforts
or through higher help, supreme illumination. Likewise, other religions found everywhere try to
counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing “ways,”
comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites. The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is
true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of
life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she
holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men.
Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6),
in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to
Himself.21

As such, the Church’s stance must be one of dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other
religions, as we aim to recognize, preserve and promote the good values and practices found in other
religions.22

3. Other religions may bear traces of the supernatural.

Supernaturality is defined “as what is beyond or above nature or natural law, often proposed as
a distinguishing feature of world religions.”23 These world religions are nevertheless made by men who
live in a supernatural order, in a “graced world.” This means that since the world is God’s creation, it bears
marks of God’s grace. As such, God’s activity is present in other religious traditions.

Culturally, the experience of the supernatural is familiar with Filipinos: “we Filipinos are spirit-
oriented. We are often said to be naturally psychic. We have a deep-seated belief in the supernatural and
in all kinds of spirits dwelling in individual persons, places and things. Even in today’s world of science and
technology, Filipinos continue to invoke the spirits in various undertakings, especially in faith-healings and
exorcisms.”24
4. Other religions may serve as means of grace for their followers.

Even during the time of the early Church, the Church Fathers like Irenaeus, Origen, Clement of
Alexandria, Cyprian of Carthage, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom have already expressed the
possibility that even people who do not know the gospel explicitly can experience God’s saving grace in
their lives. We can justify this by appealing to the incarnational structure of grace. God’s grace encounters
people “where they are,” in their particular experiences, culture and ways of life. “This God is revealed as
love and service; kneeling, He washes our feet (John 13:1–13). This is a God who is engaged with the
person and with history, the One who takes the initiative in going out to meet us (Mark 5:21–33). God
places Godself at the service of each of us, and tells us that if the Master and Lord, does this, we too must
do the same (John 13:14–15).”25

Saint Augustine had grappled with the idea of the possibility of salvific encounter with God for
people who did not necessarily identify as Christians. He notes:

So when we hear and read in the sacred scriptures that God wills everyone to be saved . . . we
might understand by everyone the whole race of humankind in all its diversity, kings and private citizens,
nobles and commoners, important people and humble ones, the learned and uneducated, the healthy
and the weak, the clever, slow-witted, the foolish, the rich, the poor and those of moderate means, men
and women, infants and children, adolescents, young people, middle-aged people, old people, of all
languages and customs, skills and professions, with their innumerable number of desires and thoughts
and everything else which makes human beings different from one another. Is there any group out of
which God does not will that human beings of all races should be saved through his only Son our Lord,
and so does not save them, for the Almighty cannot will in vain anything that he wills?26

God’s love and his encounter of grace is all encompassing. This understanding is a definite feature
of the Catholic faith. For Augustine, the Lord’s ways are beyond the ways of human beings, and our
understanding of God’s encounter of grace to people of other faiths is ultimately mystery. There is just
too much that can be known about God, so much so that this cannot be captured fully within the human
intellect and human understanding. However, despite this mystery, Catholics must believe that in some
manner, all of humankind has been given avenue and access to God, and that the world is charged with
God’s presence, even and most especially in other faiths.

5. Other religions may also contain revelation.

Revelation is the invitation of God for people to understand Him and His will, to establish
friendship, common life and relationship between Him and His people. In some way, it is possible that this
invitation by God extends in some way to other religions. This is obviously true of faiths which derive from,
or have been influenced by Judaism or Christianity, such as Islam.

There is a reciprocal relationship between Christianity and other religions. Non-Christian religions
complement Christianity and Christianity complements non-Christian religions. This twoway reciprocity is
why dialogue between religions works to mutually enrich both sides. At the same time, there is also a
reciprocal relationship between Jesus and other “savior figures” insofar as Jesus’s revelation and salvation
are also complemented by God’s self-revelation and redemption manifest in other teachers of non-
Christian religions.27
6. The members of other religions may be considered “anonymous” or “latent” Christians.

As early as the time of the Church fathers, Christians have tried to grapple with the reality of the
possibility of salvation and access to God by non-Christians. “Broadly, church fathers believed that pious,
devout Jews and Gentiles who lived before Christ were saved by the preexistent Word (Logos). Justin
Martyr spoke of the seeds of the Word (Logos spermatikos) planted in the hearts of these pious souls, and
many of the great architects of Christian orthodoxy held the same view.”28

Theologians since then have tried to grapple with the idea as well. Karl Rahner speaks of
“anonymous Christians.”29 This term attempt to highlight how even people from other religions are able
to live lives consistent with the vision of God, even without the intentional assent to the Christian religion.

7. Christianity is the fulfilment of all that is valid in other religions.

However, at its very heart, we must insist that Christianity is the fulfillment of all that is valid in
other religions. “Christianity represents absolute revelation, while other religions will ultimately see their
goodness and some of the truths they hold as being raised to a higher perfection in the Christian faith.”30
Even apologetically, the statement is not condescending or gratuitous. Jesus is the unique and universal
savior, but we affirm that does not exclude non-Christians from being saved. This understanding of Christ
as definitive revelation in relation to other religions has been affirmed in the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith’s document, Dominus Iesus:

As a remedy for this relativistic mentality, which is becoming ever more common, it is necessary
above all to reassert the definitive and complete character of the revelation of Jesus Christ. In fact, it must
be firmly believed that, in the mystery of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, who is “the way, the
truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6), the full revelation of divine truth is given: “No one knows the Son except the
Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him”
(Mt 11:27); “No one has ever seen God; God the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has revealed
him” (Jn 1:18); “For in Christ the whole fullness of divinity dwells in bodily form” (Col 2:9-10).31

In fact, “there is a reciprocal relationship between Christianity and other religions. Non-Christian
religions complement Christianity and Christianity complements non-Christian religions. This two-way
reciprocity is why dialogue between religions works to mutually enrich both sides.”32Jesus Christ as the
one redeemer of all people simultaneously acknowledges that conversations between Catholics and other
religions can open certain aspects of the mystery of Christ more deeply to us.33

Unity is a deep desire of the heart of God and the ultimate hope of the human race. The creation
story in Genesis, while it tells us nothing scientific about the origin of humanity, beautifully expresses the
truth that God created humanity as one family. That family, however, was split apart by sin. Ironically, and
tragically, one of the most evident sources of division among humans is religion. The Church today urges
us to overcome religious division, and come together as one family once more. The Church also clearly
warns against any form of discrimination against members of other religions. “The Church reproves, as
foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against men or harassment of them because of their race,
color, condition of life, or religion.”34

This new age of globalization is a time of great opportunity, because globalization is making us
more aware of the situation of our sisters and brothers of every nation and ethnic group on earth. Because
of mass media and the Internet, contemporary people know more about other religions than any previous
generation. At the same time, the Second Vatican Council opened the windows of the Church not only
toward other Christian denominations and the other monotheistic religions, Judaism and Islam, but even
toward the other world religions. But these positive forces toward religious unity are counteracted by
economic greed, ethnic hatred, fundamentalist extremism and social intolerance.35

The efforts of the Catholic Church at conversations with other religions is called interreligious
dialogue. The Church must enter interreligious dialogue with our own faith tradition behind us rather than
in front of us.36 In other words, we do not advance into dialogue as if going unto a battlefield with our
tradition as shield against heresy or paganism or, worse yet, as a sword with which to vanquish the other.
At the same time, however, we do not simply leave our faith tradition and enter the conversation with a
blank slate. Rather, we enter securely rooted in our Christian faith which we have internalized through
study and practice as our own living spirituality, knowing that our truth can never be ultimately threatened
by the truth of “the another”. However, there is much to hope when it comes to this matter, as there has
already been precedent set before us in relation to interreligious dialogue, as explained by Sandra
Schneiders:
The path to reconciliation among religions is one we have so recently begun to walk that we have
no adequate theological foundation upon which to proceed [. . .] Nevertheless, the last half of the
20th century was marked by extraordinary efforts at inter-religious encounter led by such
remarkable individuals as Thomas Merton, Raimundo Panikkar, Enomiya Lasalle, Bede Griffiths,
Pascaline Coff and others. However rocky the road ahead the movement toward reconciliation
among the world’s religions must and will go forward.

SUMMARY

As a final reminder, revelation must be understood as the dynamic self-disclosure of God to His
people. Therefore, the term revelation should be restricted to a verb form. Revelation is a fairly common
term in secular speech; it usually refers to what has been a secret and has now come to light. The Church
does not simply collect the revealed truths of the faith as if they were mere possession. We can only speak
of God revealing (a verb), and humans responding (also a verb) with the act of believing in God.37 The
Bible and the earliest tradition of the church are a deposit of faith, not a deposit of revelation; there is no
object that is a divine revelation.38

At the same time, the Church’s use of revelation as a metaphor of divine activity should always
be in the singular, never the plural. “There is one God, one creation, one revelation to which Jews,
Christians, Muslims, and others respond. The church has to listen for a divine speaking and look for a
divine revealing throughout all creation. Since other religious groups have a legitimate claim on the term
revelation, the church would do well to listen to other voices, in addition to its own, for understanding
the revelation of God.”39
REFERENCES:
1
Heinrich Fries, Revelation: Mysterium Salutis (New York, NY: Herder & Herder, 1969), 20.
2
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, Catechism for Filipino Catholics, Special Subsidized Edition for
Filipino Catechists (Manila: Episcopal Commission for Catechesis and Catholic Education, 2005), para. 62. Hereafter
refer to as CFC with paragraph number
3
Pope Paul VI, Dei Verbum (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1965), para. 2. Hereafter refer to as DV with
paragraph number.
4
DV 4.
5
Augustine, Confessions 3.6.11.
6
CFC 314.
7
Pat Kozak, “Earthen Vessels,” Bible Today 53, no. 5 (September 2015): 307.
8
See Martin Buber, I and Thou, trans. Ronald Gregor Smith, Second Edition (New York, NY: Scribner, 1958).
9
Arthur Green, These Are the Words: A Vocabulary of Jewish Spiritual Life (Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing,
1999), 7–8.
10
Cf. Ian Knox, Theology for Teachers, Revised Edition (Ottawa: Novalis, 1999), 72–73.
11
Richard R. Gaillardetz, By What Authority?: A Primer on Scripture, the Magisterium, and the Sense of the Faithful
(Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003), 36.
12
Joaquin C. Yap, “‘Word’ and ‘Wisdom’ in the Ecclesiology of Louis Bouyer” (Oxford University, 2003), 26
13
The neologism comes from Augustine’s Homilies on the Gospel of John 124, tractate 80, which reads: “Accedit
verbum ad elementum, et fit Sacramentum, etiam ipsum tanquam verbum visibile,” translated as “The Word comes
to the element and so there is a sacrament, that is, a sort of visible word.” As mentioned in CFC 529: “Christ himself,
as Son and Savior, is in Person the Primordial Sacrament of God’s presence among us.” For further reading about
the sacramental principle, refer to the previous chapter of this book.
14
CFC 1355.
15
Emmanuel da Silva e Araújo, “Ignatian Spirituality as a Spirituality of Incarnation,” The Way 47, no. 1/2 (January
2008): 67–80.
16
Peter Feldmeier, “Perils and Possibilities of Multiple Religions Belonging: Test Case in Roman Catholicism,” Open
Theology 3, no. 1 (2017): 76.
17
Philip V. Peacock, “Putting Justice at the Heart of Faith: Reflecting on Ecumenism from an Asian Perspective,” The
Ecumenical Review 69, no. 4 (December 2017): 500.
18
Feldmeier, “Perils and Possibilities of Multiple Religions Belonging,” 76–77.
19
See Sikata Banerjee, “Women, Muscular Nationalism and Hinduism in India: Roop Kanwar and the Fire Protests,”
Totalitarian Movements & Political Religions 11, no. 3–4 (September 2010): 271–87.
20
Leonard J. DeLorenzo, “Communion of Saints and Sinners: Loving an Imperfect Church,” America 212, no. 4
(February 9, 2015): 23.
21
Pope Paul VI, Nostra Aetate (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1965), para. 2. Hereafter refer to as NA with
paragraph number.
22
NA 2.
23
Simon Dein, “The Category of the Supernatural: A Valid Anthropological Term?,” Religion Compass 10, no. 2 (2016):
36.
24
CFC 43
25
Araújo, “Ignatian Spirituality as a Spirituality of Incarnation,” 79.
26
Augustine, The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope and Love 27.
27
Cf. Peter Phan, Being Religious Interreligiously: Asian Perspectives on Interfaith Dialogue (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis
Books, 2004), 66–67.
28
Feldmeier, “Perils and Possibilities of Multiple Religions Belonging,” 78.
29
Karl Rahner, “Anonymous Christians,” in Theological Investigations, trans. David Bourke, vol. 6 (New York, NY:
Seabury, 1974), 390.
30
Feldmeier, “Perils and Possibilities of Multiple Religions Belonging,” 80.
31
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dominus Iesus (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2000), para. 5.
32
Phan, Being Religious Interreligiously: Asian Perspectives on Interfaith Dialogue, 66.
33
See Walter Kasper, “Jesus Christ: God’s Final Word,” Communio 28 (Spring 2001): 61–71.
34
NA 5.
35
Cf. Sandra M. Schneiders, “Religion vs. Spirituality: A Contemporary Conundrum,” Spiritus: A Journal of Christian
Spirituality 3, no. 2 (2003): 178.
36
Cf. Paul Lakeland, Postmodernity: Christian Identity in a Fragmented Age (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1997),
87–113.
37
Cf. Gabriel Moran, “A Verb, Not a Noun: The Perils of ‘Revelation,’” Commonweal, no. 16 (2016): 15.
38
DV 10.
39
Moran, “A Verb, Not a Noun,” 15.