Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 115:458 (Apr 1958)
Article: Revelation and Inspiration in Neo-Orthodox Theology Part I: What is Revelation?
Author: Kenneth S. Kantzer

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BSac 115:458 (Apr 58) p. 120

Revelation and Inspiration in Neo-Orthodox Theology
Part I:
What is Revelation?

Kenneth S. Kantzer

[Kenneth S. Kantzer is the Charles Deal Professor of Theology and Division Chairman at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.]

In a famous essay on revelation, Archbishop William Temple strikes the keynote for theological thinking in our day. He writes: “The dominant problem of contemporary religious thought is the problem of revelation. Is there such a thing at all? Is it discoverable in all existing things or only in some? If in some, then in which? And by what principle are these selected as its vehicle? Where is it found or believed to be found? What is its authority?” (John Baillie and Hugh Martin, Revelation p. 83).

The Importance of Revelation

The contemporary debate about revelation is no tempest in a teapot. It reflects two things. First, it attests once again that the topic revelation is of fundamental significance for human existence. Long before Christians carried the gospel to the ancient world, men had agonized over the question, What is the meaning of life?

It is sadly true that man has not always assented gracefully to the right answers to his questions—even when they have been forthcoming. Desperate minds, nonetheless, have searched after God in the hopes that they might find Him (Acts 17); and no man has found true peace of mind or heart until he has been able to answer the question: How can I know God? How am I to understand myself? What is my proper relationship to God?

BSac 115:458 (Apr 58) p. 121

These are not trivial questions. They are the supreme questions of human existence. And these are the very questions which revelation seeks to answer. No small wonder is it, then, that modern man cannot ignore this crucial topic.

The current debate over revelation reflects also the theological bankruptcy of the mid-twentieth century. Orthodoxy has lost its grip upon the minds of men. Modernism has finally spent its strength and, at least in the form in which it previously exhibited itself, is no longer a live option. To the present moment no alternative has proved capable of capturing and holding the allegiance of modern man. The old gods, so it would seem, are gone. Old authorities have been discarded. Men are too sophisticated to choose blindly any of the competing alternatives. Nothing has been found to replace the religion of the previous generation. Hearts and minds, therefore, are empty; and men are without direction or meaning for life. As C. G. Jung puts it: “Side by side with the decline of religious life, the neuroses grow noticeably more frequent…everywhere the men...

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