ABSTRACT
Since the sixteenth century a few, and since the nineteenth century many European theologians have found it impossible to believe the ecclesiastical dogma as expressed in the historic creeds and conciliar definitions. Talk of 'revelation' was eclipsed when modern rationalism destroyed pre-critical ideas, but returned to centre-stage in Barth's reaction against nineteenth-century liberal theologies. Christian talk of the revelation of God in Christ makes claims about the present. Christians claim to live in the presence of God who can be known and responded to in faith, hope and love. Talking less about a revelation in which one nevertheless believes is one way of avoiding the dangers of such talk. The paradoxical character of the revelation of God in Christ, this veiled unveiling, is properly preserved by all four canonical Gospels, but most interestingly by Mark and John. Claims to revelation are powerful and persuasive only when made by people for whom they are real now.
