Revelatory Events Research Articles

Vision and Voice: Revelatory Experience in the Formation of Christian Identity by Mark D. Batluck

Reviewed by: Vision and Voice: Revelatory Experience in the Formation of Christian Identity by Mark D. Batluck Olegs Andrejevs mark d. batluck, Vision and Voice: Revelatory Experience in the Formation of Christian Identity (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2021). Pp. x + 176. £60/$85. In this insightful monograph, Mark Batluck analyzes the narrative role of the accounts of revelatory experiences in the four canonical Gospels. His objective is to encourage "readers to enter into the experience of early believers" (p. 143). In B.'s view, revelatory events in the Gospels "portray a dialectical process or exchange" whereby Jesus's followers "are prompted to reconcile or 'negotiate' their experience of Jesus with their tradition" (p. 2). The book is divided into eight chapters. In the Introduction, B. discusses the key terms and his methodology. Revelatory events are defined as "Gospel experiences that a character deems 'special' as a communication from heaven" (p. 3). The author explains his intention to analyze each of the Gospels separately. The reader may also wish to consult here the Conclusion, where B. notes that his work "is strictly a narrative project" and that he is not "drawing historical conclusions" (p. 141). Back in the Introduction, n. 21 (p. 7) states that the author assumes the priority of Mark but does not differentiate further between the Synoptic theories based on Marcan priority. The limiting of the discussion to narrative criticism enables the investigation to proceed in the canonical order. In the second chapter, B. provides a Forschungsbericht of religious experience in NT research from 1888 to the present. He identifies three streams of research: (1) phenomenological approaches; (2) religious experience as an effect of the Holy Spirit; and (3) religious experience as a historical factor in the formation of the earliest Christian communities. Each of these approaches receives its own subsection. B. concludes by highlighting how these streams of research converge in his book, specifically in the application of social memory theory (p. 22). Chapters 3–6 are each dedicated to one of the canonical Gospels. The frequently overlapping revelatory accounts help structure the analysis. The chapters mostly focus on the same events: infancy stories (Matthew and Luke); baptism and temptation (Matthew, [End Page 350] Mark, Luke); transfiguration (Matthew, Mark, Luke); crucifixion and resurrection (Matthew, Mark, Luke). The chapter on John's Gospel then discusses the Baptist's report of the Spirit's descent (John 1:32–34); the voice from heaven that confuses witnesses (John 12:27–40); and the Spirit of peace commissioning the disciples at the resurrection (John 20:1–21:25). Each of these events forms a subsection in its chapter. Each chapter receives its own separate conclusion. Because of the focus on the aforementioned Gospel accounts, this book will be of interest to anyone doing research on these pericopes. B. does not hesitate to state his opinion on a number of perennial topics and to engage the existing views. One may especially mention here the engagement with L. A. Huizenga's hypothesis of an Isaac typology in Matthew (The New Isaac: Tradition and Intertextuality in the Gospel of Matthew [NovTSup 131; Leiden: Brill, 2012]) (pp. 40–45) and the discussion of the various elements of the Marcan crucifixion scene (pp. 74–80). In chap. 7, B. seeks to synthesize the separate Gospel accounts, summarizing the divergence and convergence among the four Gospels. He highlights nine ways in which he finds the Synoptic Gospels and John converging in their depiction of revelatory events (pp. 133–36). Finally, in chap. 8 (Conclusion), B. offers several sets of implications of his work: (1) for research on social identity and worship in early Christianity; (2) for research on orality and textuality; (3) for narrative interpretations of devotion to Jesus in the Gospels; and (4) for the relationship between early Christian revelatory experience and the crucifixion and resurrection. I list here some of the notable implications. According to B., the revelatory experiences analyzed here in written form "become paradigmatic for the way first century Christian readers understand Jesus" (p. 138). "From a literary-critical standpoint," the Gospels "do not appear to be unfinished 'notes'" (p. 140, in disagreement with Matthew Larsen—especially with regard to Mark's Gospel). "[T...

Climate Emergency as Revelation: The Tragedy and Illusion of Sovereignty in Christian Political Theologies

In this article, the realities of the climate emergency reveal that human beings, especially those of us in the grips of capitalism, imperialism, and nationalism, have little control over nature and we are inextricably a part of nature. This revelation further exposes the tragedy and illusions of sovereignty, which is produced and maintained, in part, by Judeo-Christian scriptures and political theologies. While this revelatory event is disruptive, it also invites us to reimagine political theologies without the belief that sovereignty is existentially or ontologically necessary for political belonging. This includes embracing the revelation of the infinite, non-privileging care of a non-sovereign God for all creation.

On Revelations and Revolutions: Drinking Ayahuasca Among Palestinians Under Israeli Occupation.

The ritualistic use of ayahuasca can induce a feeling of unity and harmony among group members. However, such depoliticized feelings can come in the service of a destructive political status quo in which Palestinians are marginalized. Through 31 in-depth interviews of Israelis and Palestinians who drink ayahuasca together, and through participatory observations, such rituals were examined. In this setting marginalization was structurally rooted by the group’s inability to recognize Palestinian national identity or admit the ongoing Israeli injustice toward Palestinians. Although the groups avoided politics, they still find their way into these rituals. This happened through occasional ayahuasca-induced revelatory events, in which individuals were confronted with a pressing truth related to the oppressive relations between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians. Three case studies of such revelatory events are described in this paper. Affected by emotions of pain, anger, and guilt, these participants developed resistance toward the hegemonic Israeli ritual structure. This was followed by an urge to deliver an emancipatory message to the rest of the group, usually through a song. Moreover, affected subjects developed a long-lasting fidelity to the truth attained at these events. In time, this fidelity led to the expansion of ayahuasca practices to other Palestinians and the politicization of the practice. The article draws on Badiou’s theory in Being and Event (1988) to analyze the relations between the Israeli ritual structure, the Palestinian revelatory event, and the emancipatory fidelity that followed. Badiou’s theory elucidates the egalitarian revolutionary potential, which is part of the sociopsychopharmacology of psychedelics.

Revelatory Events: Three Case Studies of the Emergence of New Spiritual Paths, by Ann Taves.

Revelatory Events: Three Case Studies of the Emergence of New Spiritual Paths, by Ann Taves. 2017. Princeton University Press. Hb. £62.00/$ 75.00, ISBN 13: 9780691131016. Pb. £25.00/$29.95, ISBN-13: 9780691152899

설교에서 거리 문제: 미적 거리의 관점에서

This paper aims to investigate distance in preaching in terms of aesthetic distance. To begin with, the author examines the discussions of the distance in preaching by Fred Craddock and by contemporary North American homileticians who developed Craddock’s idea of distance in preaching further by applying aesthetic distance. Craddock pointed out that there are three kinds of distance in preaching according to the twin task of interpretation in preaching: 1) Distance between the text and preacher, 2) Distance between the text and listener, and 3) Distance between preacher and listener. Craddock claimed that these distances are overcomethrough a dual hermeneutical process that is constructed by distance and participation in and through hearing the sermon inductively, namely overhearing. Particularly, he argued that the distance between the text and listener, as well as the distance between preacher and listener, should be maintained to protect the listener’s autonomous and independent participation in the preaching event.<BR> A group of scholars of performance homiletics, including Charles Bartow, Jana Childers, and Michael Brothers, developed Craddock’s theory further by applying aesthetic distance, a concept of aesthetic experience in performance theory. These scholars approach hearer’s experience in preaching, which Craddock described as overhearing, as an aesthetic experience, and understand distance in preaching as aesthetic distance. Their discussions of distance in preaching contribute to understanding of the listener as an interpretive subject, equal to the preacher, and comprehending that the experience of the gospel is constructed through the listener’s autonomous participation. The author points out that, despite its benefits, these scholars’ understanding of the experience of the gospel in preaching is too anthropocentric, and argues that God should be considered as the ultimate subject of such experience in preaching as a revelatory event.

Supernal Dreaming: On Myth and Metaphysics

The following article is an exploration of supernal dreaming, a type of dream that engages the dreamer as a profound, participatory, and often revelatory event. Dream types are not well developed in dream research; this article contributes to the development of a more typological approach to dream analysis. Four dream types are presented and contextualized with reference to their metaphysical and ontological significance. The types discussed are normative-rational dreams, mythic-imaginal dreams, psychic-intuitive dreams, and supernal-transpersonal dreams. The various types are illustrated with examples from the author’s extensive dream journal in order to highlight the subtle distinctions between the dream types, and how they might intersect or overlap. The dream morphology is placed within a larger context of metatheory based on the ontological significance of agency and its relationship, through dreaming, to a sentient cosmology. This cosmology is based on a creative, process-based metaphysics, in which dreams function to sustain and promote human development. Dreaming is presented as a visionary capacity leading to new enactive and embodied ways of life. The article shows how dreams can act as a stimulus for ontological insights and become a basis for paranormal perceptions and an inspirational approach to dream actualization.

Sacramental Preaching in the Culture of Ableism

One of the challenges of preaching is that it may not simply be teaching about God but can itself become a revelatory event in which listeners experience the presence of God. In Preaching the Prese...

Making the Gods Speak: The Ritual Production of Revelation in Chinese Religious History by Vincent Goossaert (review)

Reviewed by: Making the Gods Speak: The Ritual Production of Revelation in Chinese Religious History by Vincent Goossaert Gilbert Z. Chen (bio) Vincent Goossaert. Making the Gods Speak: The Ritual Production of Revelation in Chinese Religious History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2022. 368 PP. Hardcopy $60.00, isbn 978-067-427-094-7. For any students of Chinese religious history, the sheer number of various kinds of religious texts (canonical scriptures, ritual manuals, etc.) supposedly handed [End Page 181] down by an assorted group of divine entities to mankind is nothing but overwhelming: thousands, if not tens of thousands, of them have appeared since the early medieval era. Until recently, however, this vast body of revelation texts, except for a few prominent titles which have secured canonical status within their respective religious traditions, has largely remained unscrutinized. Part of the reason for this scholarly neglect was the widely shared assumption that these texts usually fall into the amorphous category of folk or popular religion, which for long has occupied a marginalized position in the field of religious studies. Fortunately, a small but growing group of scholars has begun to address the omission over the past decades.1 Even though their works have greatly augmented our understanding of revelation texts and their significance in Chinese religious history, they collectively suffer from several noticeable limitations. First, scholars often focus on a selected number of texts produced within a specific religious or sectarian tradition. Consequently, we have a number of fine case studies but lack a framework for a more holistic and comparative perspective. Moreover, previous scholarship has primarily analyzed the content of revelation texts with little consideration of the ritual context in which revelations took place. Vincent Goossaert's new book under review here, which is the culmination of years of meticulous research, squarely addresses these shortcomings. Consequently, it succeeds in providing the hitherto most systematic and comprehensive study of the subject, significantly deepening our understanding of the evolution of the ritual production of revelation throughout Chinese history. Making the Gods Speak consists of two parts besides the introduction and the conclusion. In the first part (chapters 1 and 2), the author mainly introduces an overarching theoretical framework to account for different modes of human-divine interaction or "divine presence" (p. 6) and offers a typology to classify different types of revelation. Building upon these analytical tools, the second part (chapters 3–8) zooms in to provide a more dynamic narrative to chart and explain several turning points of far-reaching significance in the history of revelation. Goossaert begins the book by identifying two paradigms of divine presence in Chinese religious history. The first is that of spontaneous presence in which gods come to interact with humans on their own initiative without any forewarning. This type of presence may take various forms. In a typical scenario, a person unexpectedly encounters a god in a reclusive area (e.g., remote mountains), and the latter then bequeaths a sacred text to the former. In contrast to spontaneous presence underlining divine agency in the process of divine–human interaction, the second model of ritualized presence foregrounds human agency; that is, religious practitioners employ a set of ritual techniques to initiate communication with divine beings. [End Page 182] Divine presence often, but not necessarily, generates revelation. The author defines revelation as discursive content that is depicted as originating from a spirit and is of general interest to humanity, which is analytically opposed to divine response answering an individual's specific needs. Based on three criteria of the ritual technique used, the scenario of the event of revelation, and the form and content of the revealed text, Goossaert proposes a typology of five ideal-typical categories of revelation. In the sutra type, there is no mention of how a revealed text reached humanity. By contrast, in the encounter type, the reader is informed of the details surrounding the revelatory event. Nevertheless, the receiver apparently does not employ any ritual technique to materialize the revelation. In the possession type, divine pronouncements are made through possessed mediums. Occasionally, rituals are performed to bring about spirit possession. Ritual techniques, however, become crucially important in the visualization type in...

Revelatory Events: Three Case Studies of the Emergence of New Spiritual Paths, written by Ann Taves

Revelatory Events: Three Case Studies of the Emergence of New Spiritual Paths, written by Ann Taves

Visions, Enlightenment, and Other Revelatory Events: Spirit Work in the Study of Religion

Visions, Enlightenment, and Other Revelatory Events: Spirit Work in the Study of Religion

AnnTaves. Revelatory events: Three case studies of the emergence of new spiritual paths. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016. 357 pp. $29.95 (paper). ISBN: 978‐0‐691‐15289‐9; $75.00 (cloth). ISBN 978‐0‐691‐13101‐6.

Journal of the History of the Behavioral SciencesVolume 54, Issue 2 p. 151-153 BOOK REVIEW Ann Taves. Revelatory events: Three case studies of the emergence of new spiritual paths. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016. 357 pp. $29.95 (paper). ISBN: 978-0-691-15289-9; $75.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-0-691-13101-6. Sandra Lee Dixon, Sandra Lee Dixon Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Denver, Denver, COSearch for more papers by this author Sandra Lee Dixon, Sandra Lee Dixon Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Denver, Denver, COSearch for more papers by this author First published: 17 April 2018 https://doi.org/10.1002/jhbs.21905Citations: 1Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume54, Issue2Spring 2018Pages 151-153 RelatedInformation

Humanity in Schillebeeckx’s Hermeneutic Phenomenology. Towards a Methodology

ABSTRACTThis paper offers an analysis of Edward Schillebeeckx’s insights on different perceptions of revelation as related to concepts like salvation, God, church, human experience and creation in the work Jesus in Our Western Culture. The incentive of Schillebeeckx’s hermeneutical method in nowadays Western phenomenology, upon which God “breathed his breath of life”, triggered our interest in meanings which Schillebeeckx ascribes to human history as the realm of God’s work for the benefit of men and women. This meaning is suggested in the very beginning of the book by its original Dutch title If Politics is not Everything. As stated in this work’s introduction, Schillebeeckx’s main theme is the origin of salvation in the humanum, from the Abba experience to nowadays revelatory events. Our attempt is to see how Schillebeeckx’s humanum, which is the embodiment of human experience of consciousness, becomes relevant for the Christian doctrines and why Schillebeeckx reckons that bringing them together would impact both his worldview and Western culture.

Review of Ann Taves, Revelatory Events: Three Case Studies of the Emergence of New Spiritual Paths

Review of Ann Taves, Revelatory Events: Three Case Studies of the Emergence of New Spiritual Paths

Revelatory Events: Three Case Studies of the Emergence of New Spiritual Paths

Revelatory Events: Three Case Studies of the Emergence of New Spiritual Paths

그리스도의 현현 사건으로서의 예배 - 기독론적 예배신학을 위한 연구 -

본 연구는 기독교 예배에 대한 신학적 이해를 기독론에 입각하여 정립하기 위한 하나의 시도이다. 신론 중심의 현대 신학의 흐름 속에서 기독교 예배는 우주적이며, 보편적인 하나님 이해의 신학에 기초하여 ‘하나님과 인간 간의 만남’으로서 이해되어 온다. 이러한 이해는 기독교 예배를 일반 종교적 제의들의 영역으로 포함시켜, 보다 풍성한 예배의 이해와 실천의 가능성을 열어주었다. 그러나 기독교 예배에 대한 보편적 접근이 강화될 때, 기독교 예배가 지닌 신학적 특성이 약화되거나 간과되곤 한다. 따라서 본 연구는 기독교 예배가 지닌 신학적 특수성이 무엇인지를 재고하면서 기독론적 예배 신학을 정립하려 한다. 이를 위해 본 연구는 기독교 예배를 ‘그리스도의 현현 사건’으로 정의한다. 그리스도의 현현은 일반 종교적 제의들에서 추구하는 신과의 연접과 차별되는 예배의 신학적 측면으로서, 기독교 예배는 말씀해 오시는 하나님의 주권적이며 선행적인 자기 계시의 사건, 곧 그리스도의 사건으로 촉발되는 현상이다. 동시에 하나님의 주권적인 자기 계시의 사건은 교회로 세상 속에 존재케 하는 사건을 발생시킨다. 이러한 하나님의 주권적 자기 계시를 통한 예배의 이중적 사건성은 기독교 예배를 기독론에 정초한 신학 위에 올려 놓는다. 기독교 예배의 규범은 말씀으로 예배 공동체에 임재하시는 그리스도이시며, 예배의 권위는 그리스도의 현현에 있다. 그리스도에 정초한 기독교 예배는 예배 공동체로 하여금 예수 그리스도의 진리의 말씀과 삶을 송축하며 기뻐하는 그리스도의 윤리 공동체로 세운다. 나아가 그리스도의 현현 사건으로서의 기독교 예배는 세상 한 가운데 진리의 말씀인 그리스도의 임재를 소망하고 기원하는[epiklesis] 교회의 실천이 된다. 따라서 기독교 예배에 대한 기독론적 신학은 예배를 기독교 신학의 특수성인 하나님의 계시 사건에 정초되게 하고 교회로 하여금 세상과의 긴장 관계 속에서 그리스도의 윤리 공동체로 세워져가도록 도울 수 있다. 이러한 연구의 전망을 가지고 본 논문은 기독교 예배의 정체성과 기능, 그 실천적 방향을 재고하고자 한다.

Our Lady of the Rock: Vision and Pilgrimage in the Mojave Desert by Lisa M. Bitel

Reviewed by: Our Lady of the Rock: Vision and Pilgrimage in the Mojave Desert by Lisa M. Bitel Wendy M. Wright Our Lady of the Rock: Vision and Pilgrimage in the Mojave Desert. By Lisa M. Bitel. Photographs by Matt Gainer. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2015. 200 pp. $24.95. As a medievalist familiar with apparitional accounts from the past, Lisa Bitel has taken it upon herself to increase her understanding of this religious phenomenon by investigating a present day Marian apparition. Since 1995, pilgrims have journeyed to a remote location in the Mojave Desert where seer Maria Paula Acuña reportedly converses with the Virgin Mary on the thirteenth of each month. Bitel, accompanied by photographer Matt Gainer, spent a number of years as a quasi-pilgrim herself in order to explore the diverse ways visitors and visionaries alike engage in age-old practices as well as utilize modern technology as they “make religion” at the apparition site of Our Lady of the Rock. Bitel’s descriptions and analyses are thick and shaped by multi-disciplinary perspectives. She factors in not only the historical and theological import of such revelatory events within the Christian faith, but the local cultural context of the site on the borderland between Mexico and the United States, contemporary Roman Catholic ecclesial perspectives, and academic theories of sight, perception, and belief. She first situates her account in the two-thousand-year-old Christian revelatory tradition, illuminating the way in which ancient themes such as desert pilgrimage prepare the ground for such a new appearance. She then turns her attention to the visionary, showing how Maria Paula’s self-understanding and public persona, which have evolved over the years, are shaped by historical Catholic expectations about authentic visionaries. Although she is a lay woman (her activity in the Mojave necessitates that she lives apart from her husband and grown family), Acuña and her close associates in her “Marian Movement” dress in identifiably traditional religious garb. Her messages from the Virgin echo similar well-known Marian utterances recorded at sites such as Fatima, Knock, and Lourdes: they decry cultural and personal sin and urge conversion. [End Page 84] Next, the pilgrims themselves are considered: their varied motives, backgrounds, testimonies, belief or skepticism. Acuña’s complex relationship with those who come to the grotto is evident. While she clearly wants to spread the messages the Virgin communicates, the visionary is guarded about means of modern communication. She is not supported by local clergy. She is also protective of her own prerogatives as the chosen seer and interpreter of Mary’s monthly visitations. Most interesting here is Bitel’s exploration of the numerous methods of discernment of spirits and visions employed by visitors to the sacred site. She spends considerable time with three pilgrim informants who themselves claim to be privy to visitations: Juan, a ninety-year-old from Mexico whose precarious immigrant status has led him into difficult situations from which the Virgin has rescued him; Adelia, whose harrowing immigrant passage from Nicaragua led her eventually to consult Maria Paula, even as she questions aspects of the visionary’s ministry; and Carolina, a college-educated publicist who wrestles with her own doubts about divine interventions despite her experience of such. The final chapters of Our Lady of the Rock are concerned with the changing contemporary visual means by which pilgrims “make religion.” Visitors bring cameras and cell phones in order to train them on the sky when Maria Paula’s actions indicate that a visitation is occurring. They pass on and refine tips to each other about capturing and interpreting the images that are said to indicate supernatural presence. The experience of Bitel’s photographer companion, both the way he is welcomed and later shunned, his skill as a visual journalist, and the limits of his medium to communicate what is essentially ineffable, are also treated. Finally, Bitel considers the use of new visual technologies, including the internet, where communal discernment of a huge range of historic and contemporary apparitions is taking place and shifting the sacra lingua of divine encounter. The scholarly voice that narrates Our Lady of the Rock is well informed and...

Truth and Disclosure in Qualitative Research: Implications of Hermeneutic Realism

The purpose of this essay is to describe hermeneutic realism as an overarching philosophical commitment for qualitative research and to present its principal implications. Hermeneutic realism, based on the work of Martin Heidegger and other hermeneutic philosophers, emphasizes an expressivist ontology and meaningful human participation, or what might be termed concernful involvement. Concernful involvement allows for the disclosure of truth about aspects of the world, but truth, from this perspective, must be understood as unfolding, multifaceted, and inexhaustible. Hermeneutic realism, as a philosophical basis for qualitative research, offers four general implications concerning: inquiry as a revelatory event, disclosure as significant insight, experience as concernful involvement, and the centrality of temporal-narrative themes. These general implications are connected with specific research practices concerning qualitative researchers’ purposes, roles, framing assumptions, and data collection and analysis activities.

A Response to My Critics

A Response to My Critics Robert Larmer (bio) Miracles and Science: More (but Not Less!) Than a Miraculous Relationship: A Reply to Yiftach Fehige In "Miracles, Divine Agency, and the Laws of Nature" I defended what I termed a "supernaturalist" understanding of the concept of miracle. Such an understanding, in contrast to deistic and occasionalist views, sees miracles as dramatic revelatory events produced by supernatural interventions that override what secondary created causes would otherwise produce. In defending this understanding of miracle, I argued first that the biblical data, when read in a hermeneutically responsible way, supports supernaturalism rather than occasionalism or deism, and that such an understanding of miracles is in no way at odds with the findings of science. [End Page 164] In his response, Yiftach Fehige chooses not to engage with my argument that the biblical data support supernaturalism, but rather criticizes me on the basis that: 1. my claim that a supernaturalist account of miracle does not imply that the laws of nature are in any way violated does not contribute anything of value "to existing vindications of a supernaturalist model of miracles," and 2. my defence of a supernaturalist understanding of miracle does not support my "claim about the compatibility of Christianity and science." Regarding the first point, Fehige does not give serious attention to the fact that it is far from clear that the concept of a law of nature being violated or suspended is logically coherent. Simply asserting that God is the originator and sustainer of all laws of nature does not in itself settle the question of whether it is logically possible to think of them as having exceptions. If, as many philosophers have argued, the laws of nature must be conceived as exceptionless, then the fact that God is their originator and sustainer no more implies that he can violate them than the fact that he is the originator and sustainer of bachelors implies that he can create a married bachelor. It is true that some philosophers, notably Richard Swinburne, have attempted to defend the concept of a violation of a natural law by suggesting that miracles constitute non-repeatable counter-instances to such laws. They have been strongly criticized, however, on the basis that a non-repeatable counter-instance would be sufficient to falsify a presumed law of nature, and that insofar as miracles are the sole instances of non-repeatable exceptions to the laws of nature, "it might appear that the category has been invented just for them, in which case the quasi-scientific underpinning of miracles by calling them nonrepeatable counterinstances of scientific laws looks somewhat suspect."2 It is clear that there are, to say the least, difficulties surrounding the concept of a violation of a law of nature. It is also clear that advocates of a supernaturalist model of miracle are routinely viewed as logically committed to defining miracles as violating the laws of nature. This seems to suggest that, on a supernaturalist model, belief in miracles at best commits one to pitting the evidence for miracles against the evidence for the laws of nature, and at worst commits one to trying to believe in exceptions to exceptionless regularities. It is evident, therefore, that if, as I spend the latter part of my paper arguing, it can be shown that a supernaturalist model of miracle is not committed to viewing miracles as violations of the laws of nature, this would, contra Fehige, "add philosophically to existing vindications of a supernaturalist model of miracle." Fehige's second criticism is that my defence of a supernaturalist understanding of miracle does not support my "claim about the compatibility of Christianity and science." In raising this criticism, he may be taking me to have been addressing a broader issue than what I actually discussed in the paper. I had two goals in the paper, the first being to argue that the biblical [End Page 165] authors presuppose a supernaturalistic account of miracle, the second being to argue that a supernaturalistic understanding of miracle does not commit one to the claim that belief in miracles is unscientific in the sense of requiring one to believe that the laws of nature are violated...

Sense, Being and the Revelatory Event: Deleuze and Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis is a sudden change, a ‘becoming-other’ in life or in philosophical perspective. A revelatory event initiates in a double manner the move from Heidegger's futile search for a transcendental IT that delivers perceptible beings to the confident positing of Deleuze's transcendental empiricism, suffused with the IF of incorporeal sense. In the process Deleuze dramatically enacts his personal connection between sense (Sinn) and being (Sein).

The interpretation of the revelatory events in John 17:24-26: An exegetical exercise

John 1:18 spells out the purpose of the incarnation of the Son of God (to make God known - ejxhgei`sqai) and functions as the transition from the prologue to the rest of the Fourth Gospel. With verse 18 the Evangelist signals that the revelation of God, through his Son, is intrinsic to the composition of the Fourth Gospel. This is particularly evident in chapter 17(:24-26), where we find an explicit reference to a triadic revelation: revelation during Jesus’ ministry, post-resurrection revelation, and future eschatological revelation. The aim of the investigation of Jn 17:24-26 is to gain an understanding of what Jesus (and the Fourth Evangelist) tries to emphasize and to communicate to his disciples (and the readers) concerning his revelatory (-salvific) mission. In the exposition of this text it is pointed out what each phase in the triadic revelation comprises, and how these phases of revelation link to one another.