REVELATION AND THEOLOGY Belief in the communication of truth to man from a divine source is common in religions. This kind of communication usu ally concerns the future, and may be subject to a process of in terpretation. Hence the practices of divination, the reading of omens and auspices, and star-lore. But the communication may be in and to the individual, for instance through visions and dreams.
(I) Revelation.
More especially is revelation thought to come through inspira tion or "possession" by a divine power. The words spoken by the individual thus "possessed" are identified with the utterances of the god. The Greek Apollo was the god of prophecy, and the words spoken by his inspired priestess at Delphi were deemed to be the authentic voice of the god himself. The religious value of revelation depends on the character of the deity who is believed to reveal; and it is the consciousness of ethical values leading to an ethical idea of deity which purifies the content of revelation. Revelation in the large and comprehensive sense is linked with monotheistic religion. So Zarathustra proclaimed the message communicated to him by Ahura Mazda, and Mohammed in his visions had the truth revealed to him by Allah. The divine word came to the prophets of Israel, and the preface to their message was, "Thus saith the Lord." What they spoke Jahveh had caused them to know. At this level revelation centres in an experience or illumination within. But these inspired utterances were after wards written down and collected : in the form of sacred books they came to be regarded as objective statements of divine truth. Hence the claims made for the Avesta, the Veda, the Koran, and the Old and New Testaments. Books which were accepted as statements of revealed truth naturally became authoritative, and as expressing authoritatively the content of a religion they fur nished a basis for theology. (See REVELATION.)
(2) Theology.
Theology grows out of the beliefs contained in an historic re ligion : it is an endeavour to state what is involved in a definite religious type of experience in general propositions or doctrines. The earliest anticipation of this is the myth framed to explain the meaning of something done in the cult. Theology is not detached like speculation, it is a natural and necessary outgrowth from the life of religion itself. It is the product of a mature religion, and commonly has its basis in the sacred books which record its re ligious experience. We find theological developments in Judaism and Buddhism, but in a more complete form in Islam and in Christianity. The Islamic and the Christian theologies claim to interpret the authoritative revelation contained in their sacred scriptures. In both instances the growth of theology was stimu lated by the presence of beliefs judged to be heretical. The Mutazalite movement, with its doctrines of faith and free-will and its criticism of tradition, impelled the orthodox party in Islam to define the true doctrine of Allah and his attributes. In a like way the Gnostic heresies provoked the growth of a Christian theology which sought to expound the doctrines involved in Christian faith and practice. The Islamic conception of religion, however, is too much interwoven with what is external and political to furnish a favourable field for theological development. Christianity, on the other hand, has developed a body of religious experience of a wealth and amplitude capable of sustaining an impressive body of doctrine.
The function of theology is primarily to interpret. As con trasted with speculation it leans on authoritative revelation, and stands in organic relation to a specific historic religion. (See