Engaging the

Doctrine of Revelation

The Mediation of the Gospel through Church and Scripture

MATTHEW LEVERING

Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

Grand Rapids, Michigan

© 2014 by Matthew Levering

Published by Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakeracademic.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

ISBN 978-0-8010-4924-8

Scripture quotations are from the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1965, 1966 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

To Guy Mansini, OSB

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Church

2. Liturgy

3. Priesthood

4. Gospel

5. Tradition

6. Development

7. Inspiration

8. Philosophy

Conclusion

Bibliography

Subject Index

Name Index

Acknowledgments

This book is dedicated to Guy Mansini, in gratitude for all the help he has given me over the years and for the help he gave me on this book. Driven by love for Jesus Christ and blessed with extraordinary intellectual gifts, Guy shares his theological wisdom with generosity and humility. Monk, parish priest, teacher, and forester, Guy is above all a theological master.

In writing this book I have incurred many debts. Peter Bellini of United Theological Seminary gave me the basic idea for chapter 1 during a lunch that we shared. At a conference on “Reading God’s Word: Ratzinger’s Erasmus Lecture a Generation Later” at Ave Maria University I gave a portion of chapter 2; many thanks to Gregory Vall, Michael Dauphinais, and Fr. Matthew Lamb for the invitation to speak. An earlier version of chapter 3 was delivered as “Priesthood and Revelation: Addressing the Problem of Priestly Rivalry,” the 2013 Thomas Lecture at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology. Thanks to Denis Robinson, OSB, Keith Lemna, Guy Mansini, Kyle Rodden, and others for their hospitality and the fruitful discussion that helped to clarify my thoughts. Chapter 4 will appear in a Festschrift for John Webster, who has done me many kindnesses over the years. Part of this chapter was delivered as the Aquinas Lecture at Blackfriars, Oxford, in January 2013; thanks to Simon Gaine, OP, to his Dominican brethren, and to William Carroll for the invitation and hospitality.

Chapter 5 was prepared for the Tradition Conference in July 2013 at the University of Notre Dame Australia; many thanks to my Australian friends (new and old), including Bishop Anthony Fisher, OP, Hayden Ramsey, Paul Morrissey, Robert Tilley, Nigel Zimmermann, and Tracey Rowland. Bishop Fisher generously shared ...