The Ripples of Divine Revelation

The Ripples of Divine Revelation: The penultimate Pastoral Constitution to originate from the Second Vatican Council in November 1965 was Dei Verbum (Word of God). And in this fundamental Catholic document, the Church discussed the nature of God's Word, as revealed to man in the form of Sacred Scripture. Karl Barth, who was a Protestant theologian of Swiss heritage, explicated much about the nature of divine revelation in his thirteen-part volume Church Dogmatics. For the most part, Barth claims that theology itself is NOT the Word of God, but rather Christ-in-the-world embodies the Word of God. To him, the Church was the eyewitness of Christ-in-the-world, or what Kierkegaard referred to as "The Instant." From the moment Christ set foot on the Earth, divine revelation began rippling outward in all directions, like when somebody throws a rock into a pond. In reference to Dei Verbum, the Catholic Church saw the existence of Christ in human form (and in history) as the glowing beacon to which all people ought to aspire. But this Christlike model depends on the fact that it was God with whom man was communicating. And like Barth said, "The goal of human life is not death, but resurrection." This statement blissfully encompassed all there ever was and all there is to be in this world.