Questions to Guide Your Reading

René Latourelle, Theology of Revelation, “History and Revelation”

* Note, as before, that there are five sub-sections in this selection.  You should be able to identify the major ideas in each of them.  Use the titles of each section to help you remember the material.

I. History, Framework for Revelation

1. According to Fr. Latourelle, what conception of time did the Hebrew people introduce into human consciousness?

2. What are some of the other views of time that existed among the ancient polytheistic peoples that differed from the Hebrew conception?

3. Given the conception of time among the Hebrew people, what view of salvation and of God did this conception make possible?

4. What, according to Fr. Latourelle, are the two effects of having this conception of revelation in history?

II. History of Revelation

5. According to Fr. Latourelle, God not say everything and do everything all at once.  The interventions of God stretch out over the course of many centuries.  Are these “moments” in history when God reveals Himself random?  Are they isolated points without relationship?  How about this: Does God’s special revelation of Himself in and through history correspond with universal history?

6. According to Fr. Latourelle: “At the beginning of Old Testament revelation, there are first of all events which mark the birth of Israel as a people and which reveal God as the God of history, at work in history.”  What are some of these events?

7. According to Fr. Latourelle, what is the goal of the deliverance of the Jewish people from Egypt?  What, in other words, is the goal of the exodus event?  What gives the exodus its meaning?  What is revealed in this encounter?

8. What essential theme is always present in the creeds of the Old Testament?  Compare this to what Walter Brueggemann says about the “primal narrative” of the Old Testament.

III. Revelation through History

9. According to Fr. Latourelle, God’s activity in history does not become fully intelligible as revelation unless it is accompanied by what?  Explain.

10. What are the three elements that, according to Fr. Latourelle, make up the process of revelation?  Explain.

IV. The Implications of a Revelation in and through History

11. According to Fr. Latourelle, the admission that revelation comes to us primarily in history and through history also implies a certain number of consequences (three, in fact).  Discuss each of these.

V. Conclusion

12. In conclusion at the end of this chapter, Fr. Latourelle summarizes the various senses in which we can speak of historical revelation.  What are they?