The Role of Revelation in the World’s Religions

The human reception of divine messages, known as revelation, has often played a central role in world religions. This study explores how spirituality and the personal experience of the divine has been expressed and preserved in various religious traditions. The phenomenon of revelation is explored and interpreted through examples from across the religious spectrum, and six different types of revelation are posited: visions and voices, divination, spirit journey, spirit mediation, mystical union, and divine incarnation.

Beverly Moon, former historian of religions at the Methodist Graduate School of Theology in Taipei, Taiwan, now lives in Austin, Texas. She has served as an editor for encyclopedias of religion and archetypal symbolism, as well as a collection of essays about goddesses associated with political power.

Beverly Moon
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 233
Bibliographic Info: glossary, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4948-4
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5986-5
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      ix

Preface      1

PART ONE. A PHENOMENOLOGY OF REVELATION

1. Finding Common Ground: The Experience of Revelation      7

2. Expressing Revelation: Sacred Art, Sacred Place, and Sacred Time      26

3. Seeking Revelation: Worship and Spiritual Discipline      43

4. Ways of Receiving Revelation      67

PART TWO. A TYPOLOGY OF REVELATION

5. Visions and Voices      83

6. Divination      102

7. Spirit Travel      120

8. Spirit Mediation      137

9. Mystical Union      155

10. Divine Incarnation      174

Glossary      193

Notes      195

Select Bibliography      209

Index      213