RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Reuter Revelation
conjunctio; De reformatione ecclesim; and a commentary on Obadiah. (J. Schneider.) Bibliography: The original source ia an oration by Simon Stenius issued in 1613. Dependent upon this are: P. Freher, Theatrum virorum clarorum, 2 vols., Nuremberg, 1688; M. Adam, Vitas clarorum virorum, pp. 390 sqq., Frankfort, 1706; C. G. Jocher, Gelehrten-Lexikon, 10 vols., Bremen, 1750-87; J. Schwab, Quatuor seculorum rectorum in academia, Heidelberg, 1786; ADB, xxxviii. 328-329.
REUTERDAHL, rei'ter-dal, HENRIK: Swedish archbishop; b. at MalmS (20 m. s.e. of Copenhagen) Sept. 10, 1795; d. at Upsala June 29, 1870. After completing his education at the University of Lund, he became, in 1817, docent at the theological seminary at the same city, associate adjunct in the theological faculty in 1824, and prefect of the seminary in 1826. Several years later he was made first adjunct of theology, was appointed chief librarian of the university in 1838, full professor of theology in 1844. With all his duties Reuterdahl found time for literary pursuits. Together with J. H. Thomander, Bergquist, and others, he founded the " Theological Quarterly " in 1827, and in 1838 published the first volume of his Svenska kyrkans historia (3 vols., Lund, 1838-63), a work in which the ecclesiastical material is obscured by details of secular politics, though its author's careful investigation of original sources renders it important for future investigators. In 1844 Reuterdahl was elected deputy to the diet for the theological seminary, and was repeatedly reelected, even after being appointed provost of the cathedral at Lund in 1845. He was minister of religion, 1852-55, and in this capacity sought forcibly to prevent any defections from the Swedish church through sectarian movements, thus arousing considerable opposition. In 1855 Reuterdahl was chosen bishop of Lund, and in the following year was appointed archbishop by the king, as well as prochancellor of the University of Upsala. During his administration sweeping reforms were carried out by Charles XV. in 1865, whereby the clergy ceased to form an estate in the diet. Reuterdahl, reluctantly acquiescing, held the first general synod under the new order of affairs in Sept., 1868. In the winter of 1869 severe illness put an end to his public career.
(A. MlCHELSENf.)
REVEL, ALBERT: Waldensian; b. at Torre Pellice (21 m. s.w. of Turin), Italy, Jan. 2, 1837; d. at Florence Nov. — , 1888. He was educated at the Waldensian college of his native place, at the theological school at Florence, and in the New College (Free Church), Edinburgh; was ordained in 1861; became professor of Latin and Greek literature in the Waldensian college at Torre Pellice, 1861, and professor of Biblical literature and exegesis to the Waldensian Church, Florence, 1870. He was the author of L'Epistola di S. Jacobo (Florence, 1868); L'Epistola di S. Clemente Romano a Corinti (1869); Antichita bibliche (1872); Teoria del culto (1875); Le origini del Papato (1875); Cento lezioni sulla vita di Gesu (1875); Storia letteraria dell' antico Testamento (Poggibonsi, 1879); Manuale -par lo studio delta lingua ebraica (Florence, 1879) ; 7 Salmi; verzione e commento sopra i Salmi i.-xl. (1880); II Nuovo Testamento, tradotto sul testo originate (1881);
Le sette chiese dell' Asia Minor e (1886) ; Enciclopedia delle scienze teologiche (1886) ; Letteratura ebraica (2 vols., Milan, 1888) ; and / sette suggelli (Apoc. IV.- VII.; Florence, 1890).
REVELATION.
Origin and Meaning (§1).
Biblical History (§ 2).
Dogmatic History (§3).
Modern Method (§ 4).
Subjectivism (§ 5).
Depreciation of the Historical and Personal (§ 6) •
Theory Based on the Bible and Positivism (§ 7).
The Doctrine of the Word of God (§8).
Philosophic Adjustment of this View (§ 9).
Revelation is the act of God in disclosing or communicating truth to the human soul. The concept here becomes a subject of theological discussion as a scientific technical expression. Doubtless it comes from the Greek Bible (apokalyptein, i. Origin phaneroun, deloun, gnorizein), where and the variety of representation indicates Meaning, that, as later in the language of prayer and hymn, no fixedness of idea had yet been reached. The idea embodied in the later technical term was distinctly that of an act of God, direct or indirect. Ecclesiastical Latin first provided definite form by laying down the term revelare, with manifestare for narrower usage. With the Christian era philosophy ceased to employ itself exclusively with the concept of God; so religious phenomena, and consequently also the idea of revelation, were taken under consideration, especially after the advent of the genus-concept of religio, which is not found in the Bible. With increasing measure religio and revelare become twin-thoughts; the idea of revelation became estranged from its original historical ground and both were subjected to comparative generalization and lifted to the rare atmosphere of abstraction. r The utmost content comprehended in these conceptions may be denoted as that which constitutes the ground of religion. The variety of meanings is not improbably due to subservience to expediency in theological system-building. Fundamental to all views is a making or becoming manifest, whether the object enter within the horizon for the first time (either existing previously or coming into existence simultaneously), or the removing of an impediment to its realization (either without or within the recipient). By this the conveyance of the description, originally received by sensible appreciation, to the spiritual realization is for the most part effected, if this also mediates through sense. The process of revelation presupposes consciousness for its object, and through taking possession of intuition for the sphere of religion, there fall to revelation, as its content, the actual or possible subjects of a religious character. Thought on these points originated in connection with the historical monotheism of the Bible. God is represented as opening intercourse with men by various means. Theophany or the ap- 2. Biblical pearance of angels alternates or corn- History, bines with speech. Miraculous events assume the value of signs. Decisive experiences of the people or of divinely appointed persons are conceived as specially designed dispensations of God. Prophecy comes to the front,
Revelation