You Tube Theology

In this talk, which is part of The Documents of Vatican II lecture series at St. Procopius Abbey, Dr. Matthew Levering addresses the question of whether God's revelation to the human race, given to us through Scripture and Tradition, has a propositional aspect? In the background to his presentation is a distinction that is drawn between communications that are personal and those that are propositional. The personal is often contrasted with the propositional as experiential vs. intellectual, as experience vs. articulation, as personal encounter vs. abstract idea, as heart vs. mind, as love vs. truth, etc. Drawing upon the first eleven paragraphs of Dei Verbum, Levering argues that God's revelation has both aspects, the personal and the propositional. Levering notes appreciatively that Dei Verbum recovered the personal aspect of divine revelation. The document, whose composition was worked on by theologians such as Joseph Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI), presented God's revelation to the human race as a dynamic encounter with the living Lord. But while, argues Levering, Dei Verbum's presents revelation as primarily personal, it neither excludes nor denies the propositional aspect. Personal communications, after all, require expressions with propositional content; otherwise, faith would be devoid of content. Indeed, Dei Verbum is a valuable guide to understanding how the personal and the propositional relate in the revelation of divine mysteries.