God’s Initiative

Feb 20 2010

If revelation is to come to human beings, they need to be changed entirely. Faith itself must be created in them.
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Act and Being

We are what we are because of God’s initiative, not our own. I suppose this idea is fundamentally the problem some have with evolution. How can we be the result of rational evolutionary processes and at the same time the product of divine creation?

The apparent contradiction, however, is false. It is false because it tries to “out-rationalize” science itself. Creationists use logic to defeat logic. Faith may be intelligible, but it need not be rational. It is first and foremost revelation – an act of divine disclosure – that allows us to be open to ever deeper dimensions of God’s being and acting in this world. Evolution is simply our effort to understand the development of biological species in the context of dynamic environments. It is a valid way of knowing in so far as science allows us to go. Revelation, on the other hand, is only grasped by faith. Faith itself is form of revelation – the envelope in which God delivers the messages about God’s self to us.

I think it is one of Christianity’s worse mistakes to condemn those who do not believe as we do. Such a position ironically undoes faith itself, since it credits the thinker as the origin of the thought. Is not God’s revelation a gift to us? Is not grace an act of God’s own choosing, freely extended to us from beyond ourselves? And if it is not, than what is there to believe?

God is acting in this world. I can’t prove it. But I can believe it.

Comments

bthooper

First off - thank you for making a comment on my neglected blog. That puts you in a very elite group.

Second of all - I think Bonhoeffer understood revelation exactly as you seem to object to - as something that comes from beyond ourselves, that is not readily deducible by observation - but that is purely the result of God's grace and intention. Revelation is not "observed" but "disclosed." I think Bonhoeffer would argue that the "eyes of faith" are a gracious gift that God extends to us, allowing us to perceive God's working in the world.

Bob

Although I agree with much of what you wrote, I'm curious about what you mean by "revelation." It sounds like it's something that comes from outside of us and that faith is necessary to perceive it. What if revelation is a way of perceiving the world as created by God? Then, it doesn't rely upon God "giving" it to us, but on our own decision to view ourselves, others and the world through the "eyes of faith."