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On Divine Revelation: The Teaching of the Catholic Faith
In On Divine Revelation —one of Garrigou-Lagrange’s most significant works, here available in English for the very first time—he offers a classic treatment of this foundational topic. It is an organized and thorough defense of both the rationality and supernaturality of divine revelation. He presents a careful yet stimulating account of the scientific character of theology, the nature of revelation itself, mystery, dogma, the grace of faith, the powers of human reason, false interpretations thereof (rationalism, naturalism, agnosticism, and pantheism), the motives of credibility, and much more. Though written a century ago, On Divine Revelation will restore confidence in theology as a distinct and unified science and return focus to the fundamental questions of the doctrine of revelation. It also serves as a salutary corrective to contemporary theology’s anthropocentrism and concern with what is relative in revelation and religious experience by reorienting our theological attention to what is most certain, central, and sure in our knowledge of divine the Triune God who has revealed his inner life and salvific will. Readers will see the great splendor of the gift of divine radiant with credibility before the gaze of reason and drawing our supernatural assent to the mysteries through the gift of faith. As Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P. observes, “ On Divine Revelation . . . is a stunning work of inestimable value. No other subsequent work on this topic has come close to meeting it (much less surpassing it).”
- GenresTheology
1140 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 27, 2022
10 people are currently reading
58 people want to read
About the author
Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange
96 books148 followersRéginald Marie Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. (February 21, 1877, Auch, France – February 15, 1964, Rome) was a Catholic theologian and, among Thomists of the scholastic tradition, is generally thought to be the greatest Catholic Thomist of the 20th century. He taught at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, commonly known as the Angelicum, in Rome from 1909 to 1960.
Father Garrigou-Lagrange initially attracted attention when he wrote against the theological movement later called Modernism. He is also said to be the drafter or "ghostwriter" of Pope Pius XII's 1950 encyclical Humani Generis, subtitled "Concerning Some False Opinions Threatening to Undermine the Foundations of Catholic Doctrine."
He is best known for his spiritual theology. His magnum opus in the field is The Three Ages of the Interior Life, in which he propounded the thesis that infused contemplation and the resulting mystical life are in the normal way of holiness of Christian perfection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald...
Father Garrigou-Lagrange initially attracted attention when he wrote against the theological movement later called Modernism. He is also said to be the drafter or "ghostwriter" of Pope Pius XII's 1950 encyclical Humani Generis, subtitled "Concerning Some False Opinions Threatening to Undermine the Foundations of Catholic Doctrine."
He is best known for his spiritual theology. His magnum opus in the field is The Three Ages of the Interior Life, in which he propounded the thesis that infused contemplation and the resulting mystical life are in the normal way of holiness of Christian perfection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 23, 2023
Take a break from your favorite Youtube apologists and do yourself the favor of reading this.
October 11, 2025
A masterful account of a Thomistic view of Revelation, as it was understood in the Church in 1918 (first edition) and 1950 (this edition).
Originally written in Latin, this 2022 English translation is a close reading of the text, presenting not only a very readable English text, but also well documented and insightful comments from the translator about issues in the Latin text.
The book also presents an excellent summary, which sets it in its context. As the 75 years after the last Latin edition has seen some very significant changes in theological content and style, modern readers may well find the style and themes of the book awkward to the point of incomprehensible. Yet the introduction is extremely well-focused, to guide readers through the changes in theological style which explain the content of the book, and the reason why more modern books vary.
One of the core features of the Thomistic view is that it presents Revelation as Gods speech (locutio) to humanity. Many contemporary theologians seem to think that Vatican II ‘corrected’ or ‘broadened’ that view by stressing that Revelation also consists of divine actions, which contribute to alternative experiential models of Revelation. Even if there is more to Revelation than just ‘speech,’ the fact that there is any speech element to Revelation, at all, will mean that the kinds of considerations clarified in this book will have a potential ongoing relevance to theologians, in so far as they do deal with those specific speech aspects of Revelation.
One of the weaknesses of the book is its treatment of history. In chapter 1 the author dismisses the idea that the bible should be viewed as having a human author. That is a heretical (Modernist) view which undermines the divine authority of the text. But yet (as Pope Pius XII noted in 1943) there are human styles evident in the text, so surely there is a role (to some extent) for a hermeneutic which examines those human styles? The Author’s dismissal of the issues is a weakness running through the book.
Another weakness arises when the author appeals to miracles as evidence to justify the gospel. That argument only works if there is reliable evidence that miracles have actually occurred. And so the argument ends up appealing to Scripture as evidence of miracles which are “historically certain’ (Chp 3), or that they can be believed with a ‘moral certitude’ (Chp.14). But how can Scripture be the evidence for the miracles which are the evidence for Scripture? This seems to be a circular argument?
The issues of circularity are addressed, to some extent, in Chapter 14, where the problem is presented in terms of the gospels providing evidence of the divinely appointed status of the Church, which uses its divinely conferred status to enable Christians to identify which gospels are authentic and thus believe them. On the surface that sounds like a circular argument. But the author argues at length that it isn’t circular because things can depend on each other causally, as long as they depend on each other in different respects. And in anycase, the Church is just a ‘condition’ for believing in the authority of Scripture, like a teacher of Aquinas, would be just a condition for accepting what is really Aquinas’ (authoritative) view of a matter.
But that argument doesn’t seem to quite address the point at issue. If a teacher explains Aquinas’ views, the teacher still has to have credibility as a teacher, which is independent of Aquinas’ own credibility, otherwise why would students accept that the teacher is accurately presenting Aquinas’ views. Yet in the argument presented by the author, we seem to have Scripture and Church, depending on each other’s credibility. Something seemed to be missing from the argument at this point?
Overall, although there are problems in the author’s presentation of issues, in so far as they relate to history, the rest of the book is an excellent summary of Scholastic (Thomist) theories of Revelation, with some detailed exposition and criticism of a range of Scholastic commentators. This is a text which will be of interest to any readers interested in the Philosophical issues surrounding theories of Revelation. However, it is a ‘demanding’ text, which readers will need to be willing to give considerable time and attention to, in order to get the most from it.
Originally written in Latin, this 2022 English translation is a close reading of the text, presenting not only a very readable English text, but also well documented and insightful comments from the translator about issues in the Latin text.
The book also presents an excellent summary, which sets it in its context. As the 75 years after the last Latin edition has seen some very significant changes in theological content and style, modern readers may well find the style and themes of the book awkward to the point of incomprehensible. Yet the introduction is extremely well-focused, to guide readers through the changes in theological style which explain the content of the book, and the reason why more modern books vary.
One of the core features of the Thomistic view is that it presents Revelation as Gods speech (locutio) to humanity. Many contemporary theologians seem to think that Vatican II ‘corrected’ or ‘broadened’ that view by stressing that Revelation also consists of divine actions, which contribute to alternative experiential models of Revelation. Even if there is more to Revelation than just ‘speech,’ the fact that there is any speech element to Revelation, at all, will mean that the kinds of considerations clarified in this book will have a potential ongoing relevance to theologians, in so far as they do deal with those specific speech aspects of Revelation.
One of the weaknesses of the book is its treatment of history. In chapter 1 the author dismisses the idea that the bible should be viewed as having a human author. That is a heretical (Modernist) view which undermines the divine authority of the text. But yet (as Pope Pius XII noted in 1943) there are human styles evident in the text, so surely there is a role (to some extent) for a hermeneutic which examines those human styles? The Author’s dismissal of the issues is a weakness running through the book.
Another weakness arises when the author appeals to miracles as evidence to justify the gospel. That argument only works if there is reliable evidence that miracles have actually occurred. And so the argument ends up appealing to Scripture as evidence of miracles which are “historically certain’ (Chp 3), or that they can be believed with a ‘moral certitude’ (Chp.14). But how can Scripture be the evidence for the miracles which are the evidence for Scripture? This seems to be a circular argument?
The issues of circularity are addressed, to some extent, in Chapter 14, where the problem is presented in terms of the gospels providing evidence of the divinely appointed status of the Church, which uses its divinely conferred status to enable Christians to identify which gospels are authentic and thus believe them. On the surface that sounds like a circular argument. But the author argues at length that it isn’t circular because things can depend on each other causally, as long as they depend on each other in different respects. And in anycase, the Church is just a ‘condition’ for believing in the authority of Scripture, like a teacher of Aquinas, would be just a condition for accepting what is really Aquinas’ (authoritative) view of a matter.
But that argument doesn’t seem to quite address the point at issue. If a teacher explains Aquinas’ views, the teacher still has to have credibility as a teacher, which is independent of Aquinas’ own credibility, otherwise why would students accept that the teacher is accurately presenting Aquinas’ views. Yet in the argument presented by the author, we seem to have Scripture and Church, depending on each other’s credibility. Something seemed to be missing from the argument at this point?
Overall, although there are problems in the author’s presentation of issues, in so far as they relate to history, the rest of the book is an excellent summary of Scholastic (Thomist) theories of Revelation, with some detailed exposition and criticism of a range of Scholastic commentators. This is a text which will be of interest to any readers interested in the Philosophical issues surrounding theories of Revelation. However, it is a ‘demanding’ text, which readers will need to be willing to give considerable time and attention to, in order to get the most from it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews