Revelation Occurs via Signs is a constructive theological project aimed at achieving a synthesis in an area of theology beset with fracture. Theology of revelation emerged as a distinct area of theological inquiry in response to the Enlightenment, and it has consequently been framed in the Enlightenment's terms, namely, the subjective-objective dichotomy. Further dichotomies have multiplied in the field (e.g., data versus experience, revelation as propositional versus personal, as informational versus formational), and an adequate synthesis has yet to emerge. This book's proposed solution is an analysis of divine revelation that proceeds not from the subjective-objective dichotomy but rather from the nature of signs as triadic relations. Drawing primarily on figures in the Augustinian semiotic tradition, including Thomas Aquinas, John of St. Thomas, Charles Sanders Peirce, John Deely, and Umberto Eco, the work undertakes a careful examination of why and how divine revelation--from revelation itself as culminating in Christ to the mediation of revelation in history through Scripture and tradition--occurs via signs. Moreover, because a semiotic analysis is befitting of the mystery of divine revelation, further theological fruits concerning grace and the theological imagination, the invisible missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit, the transformation of socio-cultural contexts through personal holiness, and other theological matters issue from this approach
This study's proposal develops through dialogue with a range of theologians from throughout the tradition, engages with both medieval and modern semiotics, and is, broadly speaking, Thomistic. It is a project at once new and old.
