Bridge: Revelation and Its Implications

Philosophers of religion and theologians have long wrestled with the concept of revelation. Does God reveal truth to human subjects primarily through sacred texts or audible voices? Through inner experiences or pronouncements of religious leaders? What is the relationship between the truths given in revelation and those discoverable by reason? Revelation is a challenge not only to scholars, but also for churchgoers. How can the same God command one person to do one thing and another to do something quite different? In The Bridge, Michael McGowan explores how a number of great twentieth- and twenty-first-century thinkers understand the concept of revelation. Using insights from their work and some recent advances in literary theory and communication studies, he constructs a model of revelation in which "symbol" and "narrative" figure heavily. Ancient ideas are given new life in this contemporary explication of the nature of revelation, God as the Revealer, and revelation's implications.