* Indication of biography about this matter for
personal deepening:
. SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, 1962-1965,
Vatican City. Nostra Aetate. Available in, http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html. Access on 08 de dec. 2017.
.
______. Dignitatis Humanae. Available in:
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651207_dignitatis-humanae_en.html. Access
on 08 de dec. 2017.
. CONSENTINO, Francesco. Immaginare Dio. Assisi: Cittadella Editrice, 2010.
. LA BIBBIA DI GERUSALEMME. Bologna: Centro Editoriale
Dehoniano, 1977.
. LIBÂNIO, João Batista. Deus e os homens:
os seus caminhos. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1990.
.
_______. Teologia da revelação a partir da modernidade. São Paulo: Loyola, 1992.
. PANGRAZZI, Arnaldo (Org). Salute, malattia e morte nelle grandi
religioni. Torino: Ed.
Camilliane, 2002.
. PANIKER, Thomas. Theology
of revelation and faith. Available in,
https://archive.org/stream/TheologyOfRevelationAndFaith/RevelationAndFaith_djvu.txt. Access
on 10 de dec. 2017.
. SANNA, I. Teologia come esperienza di Dio: la prospettiva cristologica di
Karl Rahner. Brescia: Queriniana,
1997.
. SPINELLA, G.
Si può parlare di rivelazione nelle altre religioni? Disponível em:
http://digilander.libero.it/catholica/htm/religioni/rivelazione_e_religioni.htm. Acesso em 10 de dez. 2017.
. TEIXEIRA, Faustino. Deus não tem
religião. Disponível em: http://www.ihu.unisinos.br/?catid=0&id=553135. Acesso em 26 dez. 2017.
. TORRES QUEIRUGA, Andrés. A revelação de Deus na realização humana. São
Paulo: Paulus, 1995.
.
_______. O diálogo das religiões. São Paulo: Paulus, 1997.
. _______. Repensar o
pluralismo: da inculturação à
inreligionação. Concilium, Petrópolis-RJ, n. 319, p.110-113, jan.
2007.
. _______ . Repensar a
revelação. São Paulo: Paulinas, 2010.
. VIGIL, José María. Escritos
sobre pluralismo. Disponível em:
http://www.servicioskoinonia.org/LibrosDigitales/LDK/Vigil-EscritosSobrePluralismo.pdf.
Acesso em 10 de dez. 2017.
.
WIKIPEDIA. Hierofania. Disponível em:
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierofania.
Acesso em 07 de dez. 2017.
God reveals himself for love and kindness, making himself close to the
human being. It is by a divine intuition that human being makes the discovery
of this presence and, in this sense, the religions have contributed a lot. It
is in them that the human being manages to express his deepest yearnings, his
greatest secrets, desires, dreams, aspirations and needs, making the experience
of the God that is met as a presence that fulfils. It is from the meaning (or
meanings) of the word religion that we can understand the role of this
institution in the relationship between the God who reveals himself and the
human being who receives and responds to this revelation in the measure of his
creature capacity.[1] “The Christian writer Lattanzio derives the
concept religion from the word religare
(= restoration of the relationship between the human being and God); Durkheim
defines it as “a common system of beliefs and practices concerning sacred
things.”[2] Although they are two distinct positions, they
bring a common element regarding the purpose of religion as it was expressed in
the Second Vatican Council in the Declaration Nostra Aetate:
Author: Josuel dos Santos Boaventura PSDP - Fr
Ndega
Men expect from different religions a response to the hidden enigmas of
the human condition, which yesterday as today deeply disturb the human heart:
What is man? What is the meaning and purpose of life? (...) What is the path to
true happiness? What is death, judgment, and retribution after death? What,
then, is the ultimate and ineffable mystery that surrounds our existence, from
which we take our origin and to which we are going? (NA 1).
One of the great truths that the religions make us to reflect is that
the human being - by his origin, structure and destiny - is “capable of God”.
This means that by his very nature, the human being has the capacity to accept
divine revelation/closeness[3] and, even though he is finite, he is
considered “the being of transcendence” because his entire existence is
projected to a horizon far beyond which he can encompass.[4] That is why, of all the experiences that the
human being lives, none involves him so much with this mystery as the religious
experience does. But although we regard the religious experience as a “place” -
and a “theological place” - where the reality and the will of God are manifested,
does not mean the hidden mystery that is revealed therein becomes totally
transparent.[5]
From the beginning of the world, woman and man were born, supported, and
promoted by the unconditional love of the God of revelation. The religions,
indeed, seek to configure visibly this discovery by being “aware of the presence
of the divine in the world;”[6] this presence, which is neither passive nor static. On the contrary, it
involves the whole universe in a process of continuous renewal. “The religious
person interprets his search for God as provoked by a previous encounter with
him and in which God Himself took the initiative.”[7] In other words, the religious experience is stimulated
by God, who anticipates himself in the human heart, arousing in it the desire
for him. That is why the true religious person always proclaims that it is God
who speaks, loves, pleads, forgives, supports, and that the person just responds
in faith, prayer, praise and worship.[8] In this sense, religion has been a precious
mediator, because
(...) makes to resonate within the human being the voice of God that
animates him, calls him to life and communion, to a fullness that begins in the
history and that responds to the desire for eternity of every human being. It
transmits elements that enable people to do meaningful experiences. Answer to
them the deepest and most serious questions of life, such as the presence of
evil, of death, of iniquity, on the one hand, and the desire for happiness, for
eternity on the other.[9]
In the religion, God is experienced as ‘transcendence’ that comes out to
meet the human being, facilitating a totalizing experience. Therefore, every
religion is considered revealed.[10] The reason for this is that each one presents
itself as an ‘awareness of the presence of God’ in the individual, in the society
and in the world. A real and authentic religion will always provide experience
in a double sensation: of transcendence, before the mystery that is present in
it; and of immanence, while we see that this making itself present refers to
the concrete existence of the human being.[11] Therefore, Andrés Torres Queiruga states that
the human being never feels the creator of this experience, but his
recipient. The manifestations are diverse, however they always have something
in common: they are lived as a gift that is received, as a gift that is welcomed.
And, precisely, as this gift refers to the discovery of the divine that
manifests itself, they are revelation.[12]
The elements that describe the divine manifestation, in the different religious
forms, obey determined contexts.[13] Objects, for example, which in some religions
are sacred, for others, mean nothing. “Plurality of religions demands plurality
of revelatory mediations, each legitimate in its own way, depending on the graciousness
of God’s gift and the originality of human response.”[14] In ancient religions, the hierophanies[15]happen in a well-narrated and rich way, through
rites, myths, animals, plants, the most different objects, places, people,
symbols, etc. A concrete example in this sense is the African Traditional
Religions. Thus, the revealing process takes place
(...) from the rite in which the divine primordial action is introduced,
to the myth, which converts the experience of the Sacred into a fabulous
expression; from prayer, where the Divine becomes a dialogical presence, to the
moral action, where it is simple presence that commands, protects or judges;
from the temple and the sacred places, where the presence is configured, to the
thousand modalities of hierophanies, in which appears the infinite richness of
his face, or even the taboo, in which the negative aspect of his power is
manifested.[16]
In this way, religions are human welcome and response to the real and
revealing divine presence.[17] Although God, in His manifestation, does not limit
himself to these aspects, cited above, He also uses them to communicate with the
people, revealing to them his designs of love. These designs are being
assimilated by the faithful of the various religions through the life-giving
means offered to them aiming a personal and community fulfilment. That is why Andés
Torres Queiruga considers that “all religions are true. Not because everything
in them (...) is, but in the real measure in which they welcome the presence.”[18] We know that together with praiseworthy deeds,
the religions often exhibit theoretical aberrations and practical perversions,
but above all,
(...) are complexities totalities of response to the divine, ‘with their
different forms of religious experience, their own myths and symbols, their
theological systems, their liturgies and their art, their ethics and
lifestyles, their scriptures and traditions- all elements that interact and
reinforce each other. And these different totalities constitute diverse human
responses, in the context of the different cultures or forms of human life, to
the same divine reality, infinite and transcendent.[19]
As we know, the revelation did not appear as a word made, an oracle of
divinity heard by a seer or as if it were a divine saying, according to the
traditional conception, “but as a living experience, as a ‘taking conscience’
from the suggestions and needs of what was around and supported in the
mysterious contact with the sacred.”[20]Also the author Francisco Consentino agrees
that revelation is not about communication of supernatural ideas or truths, but
about a “process involving the divine life that invites the human being to a
relationship with God in which to find his deepest identity.”[21]
The sense of revelation will be more intensely experienced if, behind
the natural element and the abundance of gifts received, the people can
discover the God who gives them and makes them to happen uninterruptedly. The religious
experience, with all its elements, not only helps the human being to “realize”
the presence of God, but also makes him live according to the provocation of
this revealing presence. In other words, the religious human being is gradually
“modelled” according to the type of religious experience he/she does: “how not
to admire the spiritual testimony and ascetic effort of the great Hindu rishi,
the Sufi Islam or devotion and reverence the only living God.”[22]It is Also admirable the testimony of so many
people who from the very beginning of the Christian life have been contributed
to the building of a more humane and fraternal society following the example of
their teacher Jesus Christ, in whom God reveals himself fully and totally.
Therefore, the revelation of God has no boundaries, that is, God is free
to reveal himself in other spaces, because his love is without borders.[23] It is his absolute freedom that leads him to
choose when, where, how and to whom to reveal himself. Each revealing
experience can be different from place to place, from generation to generation,
from religion to religion and even from person to person. When God reveals
Himself, He does not follow any fixed rubrics and cannot force us to follow any[24]. Even our own freedom has its roots in his
loving way of revealing himself, as the Council expresses very well in its Declaration
Dignitatis Humanae: “Religious
freedom has its foundation in the human dignity (...) What is more, this
doctrine of freedom has roots in divine revelation” (DH 9). It is God's will to
reveal himself in and through religions so that his billions of sons of
daughters may experience in their faith his constant aids. That is, no one can
claim to close in his limited conceptions the unlimited and creative way of God
revealing Himself.
Theological review: ThD Fr Luis Carlos Susin
English review: EdM Mary Kung'u
[1] According to Karl Rahner, “what the human
being perceives is always automatically linked with the category and structures
of his cognitive capacity” (RAHNER, K. apud SANNA, I. Op. cit., p. 107).
[2] PANGRAZZI, Arnaldo (Org). Op. cit., p. 5.
[3]“For Karl Rahner, if there is a revelation of
God in the mentioned sense, then the human creature has in its anthropological
structure the conditions to be open and oriented to such a revelation and to be
able to receive it”(CONSENTINO, F. Op.
cit., p. 19).
[4] Cf. Ibid., p. 20. Continuing
his reflection, this author expresses himself on the following page: “If the
human being is open and oriented to the revelation of God and this last one
means among other things a fulfilment and full realization of the human being,
then, even implicitly, we affirm that God is a human need while the human being
needs God” (Ibid., p. 21).
[5] Cf. PANIKER, T. Op. cit., p.
2.
[6] TORRES QUEIRUGA, A. A revelação
de Deus na realização humana, p. 21.
[7] MARTIN VELASCO, J. apud TORRES QUEIRUGA, A. A revelação de Deus na realização humana, p. 22.
[8] Cf. TORRES QUEIRUGA, A. Repensar
a revelação, p. 214.
[9] LIBÂNIO, J. B. Teologia da Revelação a partir da Modernidade, p. 268.
[10] Cf. TORRES QUEIRUGA, A. Repensar
a revelação, p. 173. The
concept of revelation that we seek to consider here is largely developed by the
Theology of Religious Pluralism. It is a current paradigm of reflection that
invites the theology to break with the traditional schemes, considering the
positivity of other religions. This is a task that requires the theologian’s
openness and courage. The author Faustino Teixeira sees this reality with great
optimism when considering that we are “living an unprecedented situation, a
situation that arouses a new sensitivity, leading us to recognize the presence
of God and His grace in the various religious traditions.” (TEIXEIRA, F. Op. cit., p.2). In this same line, we
also quote an excerpt from the writings of the author José María Vigil, which
says that “starting from the foundation of a new concept of ‘revelation’ more
realistic, less dictated and more human, the TRP discovers the God’s presence
acting in all peoples, a God who, if He is, He is of all, and of no one
exclusively. Religions are not all equals - of course - they are not all the
same, but they respond, by their own and particular paths, to a basic human
need of searching for the dimension of existential depth.” (VIGIL, J. M. Op. cit., p. 86).
[11] “Each religion has its own history and its own status, but what unites
them and is at the centre of their attention is the concern for the salvation
of the human being and his encounter with the transcendent, God and the Divine.”
(PANGRAZZI, A. (Org). Op. cit., p. 5).
[12] TORRES QUEIRUGA, A. A
revelação de Deus na realização humana, p. 21.
[13]Taking as reference the Indian context, the
author Thomas Paniker expresses like that: “In our context of religious
pluralism we realize that what is normative in every revelatory experience is a
genuine experience of the transcendence and the encounter of a God who meets
our transcendental quest with a loving self-gift.” (PANIKER, T. Op. cit., p. 7)
[14]Ibid., p. 7.
[15]According to Wikipedia, the word Hierophany
comes from the Greek hieros (ἱερός)
which means sacred, and “faneia” (φαίνειν) means manifestation; therefore, can
be defined as the act of manifestation of the sacred. Who first used this term
was Mircea Eliade in his book Traitéd' histoire
des religions (1949). This revealing phenomenon is very much in tune with
the context of the people involved, as the theologian João Batista Libânio (in
memory) expresses very well: “The historical and cultural moment of a people is
decisive for their hierophanies. Thus
the nomadic people, who lived longer from hunting, were obsessed by the figure
of the beast. Either they sacralised some animal, usually ferocious, or invoked
a ‘Lord of the animals’ (...) Other people already sedentarized, involved with
agriculture, surround the nature of sacred mysteries with rites of fecundity or
fertilities with deifications of natural phenomena or of stars” (LIBÂNIO, J. B.
Deus e os homens..., p. 142s).
[16] Id. Repensar a revelação, p.25s.
[17] Cf. TORRES QUEIRUGA, A. Repensar o pluralismo: da inculturação à
inreligionação., p. 112.
[18] Ibid., p. 112
[19] Id. O diálogo das religiões, p.
16.
[20]
Id. Repensar a
revelação, p. 71.
[21] CONSENTINO, F. Op. cit., p. 19.
[22]
SPINELLA, G. Op. cit., p.
3.
[23] “In truth I am realizing that God does not
discriminate people, but accepts who fears and practices the justice of any
people to whom he/she belongs” (Act, 10, 34-35).
[24] Cf. PANIKER, T. Op. cit., p.7.
