Divine Revelation and the Limits of Historical Criticism by William J. Abraham (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 299 the ears of at least this theologian perk up. To say that "in the incarnation God created for himself a body (underlining mine) of expression through which he can reveal himself" (p. 361) sounds dangerously Apollinarian. One hopes that the humanity of Christ consists of more than a body. And to say that "the love of Christ is the love of God made visible ; the acts of Christ are the acts of God in human form; the words of Christ are the human words of God" (pp. 361-62) again sounds dangerously Apollinarian, as if the humanity of Christ were merely a passive puppet or instrument of the divine. My final evaluation of the work is that as a descriptive account of Western man and his problems it is successful. As an apologetic or response to these problems, I believe it fails. Washington Theological Union Washington, D.C. DONALD BUGGERT, 0. CARM. Divine Revelation and the Limits of Historical Criticism. By WILLIAM J. ABRAHAM. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982. Pp. 222. It has become commonplace for theologians to contend that certain traditional doctrinal claims must be radically modified or given up altogether in the face of modern developments in science and history. This is said not only of doctrinally marginal miracle stories, but also of affirmations whieh have been undeniably central to the tradition in the past, e.g., the claims that Jesus Christ was the incarnate son of God and that he rose from the dead. The whole vision of history as the scene of direct divine action has purportedly been swept away by the modern disciplines of inquiry which demystify our world and eliminate appeal to the supernatural . In Divine Revelation and the~ Limits of Historical Criticism, William Abraham makes this common wisdom the target of his critical scrutiny. His approach, as he says, is philosophical in the sense that it involves careful attention to connections of concepts and to the structure and cogency of arguments. His concerns, however, are clearly theological; he wants to defend the possibility of continuing to make certain classical Christian claims (e.g., about incarnation and resurrection) while fully affirming the intellectual authority and explanatory power of modern modes of critical inquiry. The discussion in this book takes place against the background of his first volume, The Divine Inspiration of Holy Scripture (Oxford, 1981). In this earlier work Abraham argued (contra "fundamentalist evangelicalism") that the doctrines of revelation and in- 300 BOOK REVIEWS spiration must be separated and that the latter can be given a form which is fully compatible with critical historical examination of the context and content of Scripture. The present volume focuses upon the concept of revelation and its connection to self-declaring divine actions in the. world. Abraham's project is twofold. First, he argues that Christian theology, in its claims about revelation, has a great deal at stake in continuing to speak of divine intervention in our world, albeit in a way that is chastened by critical historical scrutiny. Second, he argues that the common wisdom about the demise of the idea of divine intervention is more common than wise; crucial links are missing in even the best arguments on its behalf. In the first half of this enterprise, Abraham's task is essentially one of clarifying concepts and displaying connections of ideas. " Revelation," he points out, is a polymorphous concept; the act of revelation can be accomplished in a wide variety of different particular ways. We must be careful, therefore, not to identify any particular means by which God reveals himself with revelation per se. One generation focuses on divine creation as the bearer of revelation; another in reaction focuses on divine speaking to prophets and apostles; another focuses on Jesus Christ as the bearer of revelation; another highlights the supreme significance of the inner illumination of the Holy Spirit; yet another argues that revelation comes only at the end of history. . . . In the classical Christian tradition all have a place. What unites each element to the other is a narrative of God's action that stretches from the creation to the end (p. 13). Abraham's initial concern is to make clear the...