An evaluation of the Models of Revelation

The story of the Confession of Peter (Matthew 16:13-20) is a good specimen to evaluate the 5 models of revelation (1983) put forth by the late Cardinal Avery Dulles (1918-2008). This Matthean version of the story also includes the text which proves the primacy of Peter --- Jesus gave Simon a new name Peter and on this Peter(Rock), Jesus would build his Church (Matthew 16:18) etc. The audience of the Gospel of Matthew was Jewish and this text reads very much like an etymology story which is a popular genre in the Pentateuch (the Five Books of Moses). The audience understood it and had no problem accepting it well. Gentile readers like us may not be able to appreciate the suggestive force of such genre. Anyhow today, I would like to focus more on the question of revelation.

First of all, let's take a look at the idea of revelation. For us Christians, we believe that there is something out there beyond the physical realm in which we exist. For convenience's sake, let's call this something God. Furthermore, we will never know this something, this God unless it/He communicates with us. Therefore, revelation is God's self-communication to us. We still maintain our autonomy. We may accept His revelation or we may reject it. We believe that God reveals Himself in many different ways: the nature, beautiful things, disasters and the human history etc. But we Christians believe that Jesus is the greatest revelation of God. When we see Jesus, we see the Father.

Now, let's turn to theology, the study of God. Since God is transcendental, the methods we use in the study of sciences will become very inadequate in doing the job properly. First and foremost, we do not have a precise language to describe God and His activities. Therefore, we use images and analogies to speak about Him. For example, we find many images such as father, rock, shield and living water etc. in the Bible to express the authors' experiences of God. Secondly, God is not an inanimate object. He is a free person. Therefore, we cannot establish any formulae or laws to predict His activities. Still, theologians can make use of some images as ideal types, as reference points to discuss a theological topic. These ideal types are called models. They are "useful in guiding theological investigations, in framing hypotheses and in writing descriptions." (Method in Theology by Fr. Bernard Lonergan, 1971, pg. 285)
Nine years after Vatican II, in 1974, Cardinal Dulles made use of the methodology of model to study ecclesiology and wrote "Models of The Church". Nine more years later in 1983, he published one more book, this time applying the methodology of model to the study of revelation. He defended the validity of using models to study revelation. Then, he summarized the efforts of generations of theologians into 5 models.

1. Revelation as Doctrine: This is the traditional view which upholds the belief that revelation is found in the Scripture and, for Catholics, the Tradition and the teaching office of the Church. That is the official documents released by the Magisterium.
2. Revelation as History: God reveals Himself in the great deeds He does in the salvation history of mankind. It reaches the climax in the Jesus-event.
3. Revelation as Inner Experience: Revelation is a direct, unmediated encounter with God.
4. Revelation as Dialectical Presence: Christ is the Revelation. He makes us know our sins and saves us. (That explains why the model is called dialectical.) Therefore, revelation is also salvific.
5. Revelation as New Awareness: Revelation helps us breakthrough our limitations to a more advanced stage of human consciousness.

Models are descriptive and help generate hypotheses. Now, which model or models best describe the Confession of Peter? Which model(s) generate meaningful hypotheses from the Confession of Peter? As an exercise for you, dear readers, try to answer the two questions. I will write up my position after Thursday August 25.

Dear Lord, I confess with Peter. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16). Amen.