REVELATION

T O K N O W T H E D I F F E R E N C E B E T W E E N S P E C I A L A N D G E N E R A L R E V E L AT I O N
A N D T O I N V E S T I G AT E O N E E X A M P L E O F S P E C I A L R E V E L AT I O N
WHAT DOES THE WORD REVELATION
MEAN?
Example sentences:
Susan Boyle was a revelation on Britain’s Got Talent.
His diary did not include any secret revelations.
We have had some very interesting revelations during the course
of the debate.
Watching his son play with building blocks, the engineer
received a sudden revelation of how to solve his construction
challenge.
He came to the revelation that his girlfriend was not right for
him.

In pairs, come up with a definition for the word

 KEY TERMS

• Revelation – God showing himself to believers

• Special Revelation – God making himself known through direct
personal experience or an unusual specific event e.g.. visions.
• General Revelation – God making himself known through
ordinary, common human experiences, for example, nature,
Scripture.
• Visions – seeing something especially in a dream or trance, that
shows something about the nature of God or the afterlife.
• Enlightenment – gaining of true knowledge about God or self
usually through meditation or self discipline.

• Ext – do you know any examples of any of these?

WHAT IS THE VALUE OF REVELATION?

• Provide theists with proof of God’s existence

• Help start a religion
• Enable believers to have a relationship with the divine
• Help people to know what God wants
 PRESENTATIONS – IN GROUPS OF 3
• Choose one of the people below • In your presentation you should
who have experienced special include the following:
revelation
1. Describe this person’s religious
• Joan of Arc experience (e.g. voices, visions etc.)
• St Paul 2. What religious tradition do they come
• Muhammad from?
• The Virgin Mary 3. How might a sceptic interpret the
• Bernadette Soubirous experience?
• Teresa of Avila 4. A personal assessment of whether the
• The apostle Peter experience could be counted as
• The prophet Isaiah evidence for the existence of God, or
• The Buddha not.
• Guru Nanak You need to produce an A4 handout for the
class. You have this lesson and the one after
half-term to work on this.
 FINALLY:

• What, if anything, do all these experiences of special

revelation have in common?
• Can you identify any notable difference between the
experiences? Why might this be the case?
• What part has religious upbringing played in these
experiences.? Does it make them more/less convincing?
• What do you think is the most/least convincing example of
special revelation? Why?
You will need to refer to the handouts for each case