I’ve been thinking of the issue of progressive revelation a bit lately. It keeps coming up the rather feisty discussions around the nature of Scripture, the character of God, and what we do with the Old Testament. Often-times people on both sides of the growing split (and those somewhere in the middle) will appeal to the concept, agree that it’s important for Christians to acknowledge, and yet there remain significant, troubling differences between the conversation partners as to the way this idea ought to be employed in developing our thoughts about God. Actually, it seems that in the current discussions, there is not merely a debate about the application of the concept, but rather there seem to be two entirely different kinds of progressive revelation on offer. Bear with me as I think out loud here.
1. Consistent/Adjunctive. The first concept of progressive revelation I take to be the more traditional of the two. In this case, the progress of revelation means a real growth in the knowledge of God from the beginning of the narrative in Genesis to the end of the narrative in Revelation. At the same time, it is continuous, self-consistent knowledge of God that unfolds and expands as the story progresses. While in the First Testament, we learn that God is by nature one, the New Testament revelation of the Incarnation and the Trinity does not change that, though it significantly alters our understanding of what the confession of God’s oneness means.
In other words, we don’t go from monotheists to tritheists–we go from monotheists to Trinitarian monotheists. It is not the YHWH was lying when he said that he alone was God and that his glory he would give to no other. Instead, it turns out that the Son who took on flesh in Jesus Christ was always to be identified with YHWH. YHWH remains the same today, yesterday, and forever, and all that was said of him in the First Testament is true, but now it there is a deeper layer and dimension to that truth. In a sense, it is by addition, but it’s even more than that. To steal an image from Lewis, it’s less like simply going from a square to a bigger square, but understanding that the square is a cube.
2. Contradictory/Disjunctive. This one we might call the “evolutionary” view in that it often coincides with an evolutionary understanding of religion inherited from the older history-of-religions approach popular in European scholarship of the last couple centuries. This kind of progressive revelation isn’t progression by way of natural narrative development, or by way of simple addition. Instead, it’s more about moving from higher to lower understanding, not simply less clear to more clear. Older, more primitive religious conceptions such as the worship of multiple gods (polytheism) gives way to the worship of a chief god (henotheism), and eventually to belief in one Creator God (monotheism).* It includes the possibility not only of expansion in our knowledge of something, but the contradiction of it. For that reason, we may also term this a “disjunctive” kind of progressive revelation.
The most popular example I’ve been seeing lately is about God’s activity in history. The classic extreme version of this is the Marcionite rejection of the Old Testament God as the revelation of a vicious, deficient, Demiurge who is superseded by the revelation of the loving Father of Jesus Christ who wants to save us from our miserable creation. The more recent model, though, is not that extreme. Instead, many suggest that our knowledge of God progresses by learning that while the Ancient Hebrews had some real encounter and true revelation of the Creating and Redeeming God, the revelation of Jesus Christ in the New Testament reveals that there was much falsehood and error mixed in, given their limited vantage point and backwards cultural presuppositions. The advent of Jesus then, “clarifies”, not only by sharpening edges still fuzzy in the OT, or adding a depth dimension, but by also by straightforward negation. In many ways, God is actually not what Hebrew Scriptures have proclaimed, but only what Jesus in his incarnation reveals him to be. Of this sort of “christocentrism”, we have spoken before.
Revealing Luke Skywalker
Let me clarify illustrate the differences between the two types of progressive revelation by using Star Wars, because Star Wars.
In the first type, we find an analogy in the revelation in The Empire Strikes Back that Darth Vader has actually been Luke Skywalker’s father the whole time. This is the kind of narrative revelation that is mostly consistent and adjunctive. This is a new fact about Luke that is a shock to the viewer, but it is primarily one that fills out his character, even while it does not contradict what we’ve come to see about Luke’s activities, characteristics, and so forth–at least insofar as we haven’t made our entire of Luke dependent on his not-being-Darth Vader’s son. Yes, our understanding is changed of him and that even changes the way we watch the first movie again. We reinterpret Obi-wan’s words, hearing resonances and layers we didn’t see before. But again, this is essentially a filling out of his character that forwards the narrative in ways that do no violence to what has come before.
Now, imagine a different kind of progression in the story. Imagine that in coming to Return of the Jedi, upon viewing Luke Skywalker’s near-exclusive use of light-saber, we are given to now understand that in the first couple of movies, Luke actually never used a blaster rifle, it being inconsistent with his Jedi ways; it was merely the way Leia and Han understood him at the time. On this scenario, yes, Luke is a character throughout the whole story, and yes, there are some strong continuities, but the narrative unity of the storyline is severely disrupted, rendering its coherence seriously suspect and the author rather confused.
None of the above is yet a straightforward argument one way or another, but more of an exercise in clarification. Of course, I do think that proposals which make greater sense of the unity of the narrative are inherently preferable for a number of reasons. First, they give us a greater sense that the ultimate Author of Scripture is the God of Scripture, and not simply a second-trilogy Lucas sans the special effects. This strengthens our ability to affirm a unity of revelation, and therefore the unity of covenant, or the good, saving purposes of the God of both Testaments.**
Still, clarifying our options can be a helpful exercise for further conversation and study on this point and any excuse for a Star Wars analogy in theology, right?
Soli Deo Gloria
*It should be noted that much of this European scholarship was heavily influenced by Enlightenment presuppositions of a colonialist, imperialistic, and Anti-Semitic sort.
**This also makes more difficult the inadvertent Anti-Semitism of the most history-of-religions approach to progressive revelation.
Reformedish 
I think I’ll now be explaining my disdain for Episodes I-III as a Marcionite rejection of the inferior revelation they provide. #midichlorians
Great post and quick question from an infrequent (though growing!) reader. (BTW, I’m afraid I’ll be purchasing the new Vanhoozer based off your review, so my wallet thanks you…)
In your first category of Consistent/Adjunctive, you say ” though it significantly alters our understanding of what the confession of God’s oneness means.” Could we even get rid of “alters?” I love your imagery from Lewis of the square -> cube, so could we say “deepens,” or is that not strong enough? The progress of revelation brings new depths that strain the prior understandings, but never violate them. So is it fair to say that Consistent/Adjunctive is digging deeper on the same plot of ground and expanding downwards/deeper, where Contradictory/Disjunctive is not content with the current borders and is always expanding outwards?
Certainly one of the expensive and very most important things a business that is new should
have is a site. Design it yourself can help you save a ton of cash.
Simply be mindful that you are not that chintzy.
The following advice may help you build a site like the professionals do.
Pull a site up in various browsers, when you design it.
That which you see may not be what consumers will observe.
Research all the commonly used browsers and design so. You
may also want to see your site with an alternate computer os to ensure that everything is
not incompatible whether they are using Apple
Macintosh Windows, or Linux.
Heading to Schools in UAE is an encounter that may assist you to form your nature and build a future that is better
for yourself. It is not unimportant that you just
think about your decision find a method to finance
your education and carefully, examine different colleges and programs.
Read this short article to learn more about Private schools in Abu Dhabi.
It is the hope of every couple relaxed, marriage that their guests feel welcome and amused throughout their big day, which
explains why excellent amusement is crucial to the success of any wedding
reception. Certainly one of the very best & most fiscally accountable selections a wedding coordinator may
make will be to engage an expert DJ who is able to do a lot greater than just provide musical entertainment throughout
the reception. But how may there be a planner confident their guests’ve
discovered the best? Here are some points to
watch out for when hiring london wedding DJ.
In the last few years, a move has been towards consulting a lighting specialist when planning a wedding.
Instead of accepting their sites how they are,
bridegrooms and brides are investigating creative options for personalizing their wedding, setting a disposition, camouflaging characteristics that are unsightly, and emphasizing ones that are amazing.
This really is an outline of the methods by which specialty event production London may be used to enhance a wedding.
A nearby florist can help you find the correct fresh flowers for almost any event.
You may go to the shop yourself and pick your flowers out to create an arrangement much more private,
by using a local florist. Working with a neighborhood florist is
going develop a personal connection by means of your florist.
This connection may create a big difference once
you’ve a need to get a flower shop who will identify in what you’re searching for and make great
recommendations for family events like other occasions,
weddings, or funerals which happen later on. Yet another advantage of working with
a neighborhood florist is you can observe how things will likely be achieved.
If you’re looking for the best florist the Society of flower delivery auckland for your next flowery shipping, indicate the following pointers for you:
Sick and tired of using the outdated patterned traditional leather messenger bag?
You’ll have seen thousands or hundreds of people carrying
the same fashion of bags. At times it becomes not even easy to search for the bag from the others as there’s almost no difference.
In case you are someone who moves silent regularly,
you emerge simply using care of one’s tote and would have spent extra time.
To alleviate you from that indifference, you can find plenty of cool
messenger bags that are available in the industry.
In manufacturing these bags like material, linen, leather etc.
various materials are utilized You can pick the right Trendy laptop bags for your-self and get noticed.
Your trendy messenger bags will be unique just as you. The bags can be in truth called by you as laptop protectors as your laptop is
very protected by them.
The free Gold membership enables basic online performance possible, from creating an original gamer identity and account on the X-Box Live network.
You might be also able enough to make and maintain a record of friends
and buddies you fulfill on the web. You’re
also given access to the Xbox Live Marketplace to be able to obtain personalization options on your Gamertag and presentations.
This account that is Gold does not, nevertheless, give online charges for a few games necessitating such.
I like this view of Luke’s journey better.
He has been taught by his masters that the way to defeat Vader is by killing him. When Luke tells Obi-Wan that he cannot kill his father, Obi-Wan says that then the Emperor has already won. Obi-Wan witnessed first hand the demise of the Jedi, overcomed by the ruthlessness of the Dark Side of the Force. Maybe Obi-Wan has come to believe that to bring balance to the Force, Jedi sometimes should be more like Sith and kill their enemies for the greater good. Maybe this is indeed the will of the Force. Luke, when the time comes, it’s tempted by the Serpent that is the Emperor to use violence to defeat his enemy. But Luke does not give in to the temptation, instead throws down his sword and rejects the way of violence and retribution. His father, moved by the mercy of his son, is brought back to the Light Side, and sacrifices himself to defeat the Emperor and saves the life of his son.
(Yawns)
Also, “Anonymous”, signing your actual name is good protocal for being taken seriously in theological discourse.
I think there’s a third option – Consistent Christocentric. I suggest it’s the majority position of the fathers, reformers and puritans. Knowledge of God might progress but it must progress *from* faith in the distinct Person of the Son/Word/Mediator.
Like I say I think this was the view of the fathers prior to Augustine, of Luther and Calvin and comprehensively set out by puritans like John Owen and Jonathan Edwards. It means that the OT is already proto-Trinitarian. Maybe the cube isn’t labelled as strongly/comprehensively but it’s still a cube. The idea of OT as ‘De Deo Uno’ was an Augustinian novelty (and I suggest that one of the fallouts from it is the false choice we’re offered here between consistency and christocentrism).
For more see christthetruth.net/Christ-in-OT