Abstract
What God has revealed, how God has/is revealing himself, and how we are to respond will always be matters for debate in the Church. Mezei claims further that this debate is ‘the most important problem of philosophy of religion, and also philosophy in a more general sense’ (p. 338). Radical Revelation attempts ‘to offer a comprehensive philosophical understanding’ of revelation (p. xi). It is a formidable achievement of scholarship, and a model for a systematic theology of revelation, even if we might not find all the intricacies of his argument convincing or easy to follow.
A preliminary chapter considers the presuppositions behind competing theories of revelation. Mezei proceeds to discuss the merits of various models, building on the work of Avery Dulles, and rightly notes that ‘neither these nor any other model is able to describe the infinite richness of divine revelation’ (p. 102). The consideration of liturgy from a Roman Catholic perspective is a helpful worked example of Mezei’s thesis, but this section could have been usefully expanded to explore how other liturgical traditions and forms display the nature of revelation. His discussion of transubstantiation (p. 105) is unusual as it is not subjected to the level of intellectual scrutiny that is otherwise a hallmark of his approach. Given the importance of debates around this concept in the history of the Church, more space could have been given to the role of this particular theory of the presence of Christ as a means for conveying divine revelation. Two foci of his account of revelation are its ‘radical’ nature, referring always to revelation’s ultimate source in direct self-revelation of the divine (p. 153), and its personhood: ‘this personhood profoundly permeates the entire tradition of Christianity’ (p. 194). Put more simply, God reveals Godself.
The great strength of Radical Revelation is its breadth of enquiry. Mezei draws on numerous philosophical and theological traditions. He deftly bridges arbitrary academic divides, such as those between analytical and continental forms of philosophy, while consistently making use of a wide range of artistic, musical, architectural and literary works as sources with which to illustrate his account of revelation. This is reflected in his conclusion that ‘revelation is, in a sense, everything’ (p. 338).
This book is not light reading. Mezei admits that, ‘given the subject matter of the book, the text is rather complex’ (p. xxvi). It is true that the subject is not an easy one, and Mezei’s suggestions for ‘the optimal method of reading’ (p. xxvi) are helpful. However, sentences could sometimes have been simplified with no loss of insight, and with much to be gained in clarity. Theologians following Karl Barth famously reduce the source and content of revelation to two words: Jesus Christ. Mezei’s impressive monograph uses rather more to remind us of the complexity of discerning where and in what ways that Word reveals himself to us today.