Revelation : from metaphor to analogy /

Revelation : from metaphor to analogy /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Swinburne, Richard.
Edition:	2nd ed.
Imprint:	Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007.
Description:	vii, 373 p. ; 23 cm.
Language:	English
Subject:	Revelation -- Christianity. Metaphor -- Religious aspects -- Christianity. Analogy (Religion) Analogy (Religion) Metaphor -- Religious aspects -- Christianity. Revelation -- Christianity.
Format:	E-Resource Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/6624908

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780199212460 (alk. paper) 0199212465
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:	'The great religions often claim that their books or creeds contain truths revealed by God. How could we know that they do? In the second edition of Revelation, renowned philosopher of religion Richard Swinburne addresses this central question. But since the books of great religions often contain much poetry and parable, Swinburne begins by investigating how eternal truth can be conveyed in unfamiliar genres, by analogy and metaphor, within false presuppositions about science and history. In the final part of the book, Swinburne then applies the results of Parts I and II to assessing the evidence that the teaching of the Christian Church constitutes a revelation from God. In the course of his philosophical exploration, Swinburne considers how the church which Jesus founded is to be identified today and presents a sustained discussion of which passages in the Bible should be understood literally and which should be understood metaphorically. This is a fuller and entirely rewritten second edition of Revelation, the most notable new feature of which is a long chapter examining whether traditional Christian claims about personal morality (divorce, homosexuality, abortion, etc.) can be regarded as revealed truths. A formal appendix shows how the structure of evidence supporting the Christian revelation can be articulated in terms of the probability calculus (and shows that Plantinga's well-known argument from 'dwindling probabilities' against probabilistic arguments of this kind is not cogent)." -- Book cover.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
I. Meaning
1. Terminology
2. Presupposition
3. Analogy and Metaphor
4. Genre
II. Evidence of a Revelation
5. The Need for Revelation
6. The Four Tests for a Revelation
III. The Christian Revelation
7. The Original Revelation
8. The Church
9. Theological Definitions
10. The Bible
11. Moral Teaching
12. Conclusion
Appendix. Formalizing the Argument
Additional Notes
Concordance
Index