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For the role playing game of this name, see Revelation (game)
In monotheistic religions, revelation is the process in which God makes himself, his will, and/or other information known to mankind.
The recipient of revelation is commonly referred to as a prophet, and sometimes is termed a messenger.
There are a number of ways that religious thinkers have traditionally approached this topic; many widely differing views have been proposed. Generally speaking, one can find all of the following viewpoints in varying segments of Judaism and in varying groups within Christianity.
Some people hold that God can communicate with man in a way that gives direct, propositional content: This is termed verbal revelation. Orthodox Judaism and traditional Christianity hold that the first five books of Moses were dictated by God in such a fashion.
The neo-Aristotelian philosophers of the medieval era held that revelation was the discovery of absolute truths about God, man, and man's place in God's universe, as discovered through logical philosophical inquiry. A prophet's connection to God was held to be the only way that a person could reach such a state of pure reason.
A subset of this category is natural revelation. Some believe that God reveals himself through His Creation, and that at least some truths about Him can be learned by studying Nature, physics, cosmology, etc. This view is evidenced by Biblical verses such as "The heavens declare the glory of God" .
One school of thought holds that revelation is non-verbal and non-literal, yet it may have propositional content. People were divinely inspired by God with a message, but not in a verbal-like fashion.
RabbiA Rabbi ( Classical Hebrew ''ribbi modern Ashkenazi and Israeli ''rabbi is a religious Jewish scholar who is an expert in Jewish law. The term means teacher or more literally my master (from rav which is equivalates to something between sir and Mr. in Eng Abraham Joshua HeschelRabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel ( January 11, 1907, Warsaw, Poland December 23, 1972) was perhaps the most significant Jewish theologian of the 20th century. Heschel was a descendant of preeminent rabbinic families of Europe, both on his father's (Moshe Mord has written that "To convey what the prophets experienced, the Bible could either use terms of descriptions or terms of indication. Any description of the act of revelation in empirical categories would have produced a caricature. That is why all the Bible does is to state that revelation happened; How it happened is something they could only convey in words that are evocative and suggestive." ["God in Search of Man"]Some believe that God is non-anthropomorphic, and thus believe the above listed forms of revelation are impossible. Hence they believe God's will is revealed through the interaction of man and God throughout history.
For instance, RabbiA Rabbi ( Classical Hebrew ''ribbi modern Ashkenazi and Israeli ''rabbi is a religious Jewish scholar who is an expert in Jewish law. The term means teacher or more literally my master (from rav which is equivalates to something between sir and Mr. in Eng Louis Jacobs proposes that by viewing how the Jewish peopleThe word Jew is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to either a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or a member of the Jewish culture or ethnicity. This article discusses the term as describing an ethnic group; for a have understood God's will throughout history, we see how God has actually influenced the development of Jewish lawHalakha in Hebrew or Halakhah Halacha Halachah is the collective corpus of Jewish law, custom and tradition regulating all aspects of behavior. The name Halakha derives from the Hebrew halach meaning "going" or the "[correct] way"; thus a literal translat; it is this process that we should recognize as revelation.