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‘‘Isn’t there here a prophet of Yahweh, that we may inquire of Yahweh
by him?’’1These are the words of a king in ancient Israel who in
frustration cried out for a prophetic word as he and his people found
themselves in threatening political circumstances. Prophecy continued
to be a means by which God guided and saved his people throughout
the Old Testament, so that their well-being was directly dependent
on his prophetic works that kept them on God’s track, which they
easily lost when the prophets were silent or silenced: ‘‘Where there is
no vision the people get out of hand.’’2
But what happened with the Incarnation, death, and resurrection
of Christ? Did God stop speaking to his people until the day
the Son of man will ‘‘come with the clouds of heaven?’’3 Or does
he continue to guide, build, and aid his church through the works of
his servants the prophets just as he did with the people of Israel?
1.1. Thesis and Purpose
Many Christians believe that prophecy died either with the last
Old Testament canonical prophet, with John the Baptist, with Jesus,
with the last apostle, with the closure of the canon, with the rise
of Montanism, or with Islam. The purpose of this work is to show
that this conviction is inadequate. It posits the argument that prophecy,
as known in ancient Israel, continued in Christianity as an
inherent and continuous feature and charism in the life of the church and
that prophets have a vital role to play in the new covenant. Although the claim
of prophetic revelations always required careful and difficult discernment, the
experience and preaching of many a prophetic personality had great and often
very positive impact on the life of the church. Despite the challenge of how
to discern between prophecy true and false, healthy and unhealthy, the prophetic
charism proved to be leading to purified, renewed, and revitalized faith.
Through historical evidence and theological discourse, the aim of this work is
then to shed light upon the preconditions, nature, and function of prophecy in
the Christian church.
The topic of Christian prophecy has proven to be of interest to readers
even outside academe. Furthermore, surprisingly little has been written on
Christian prophecy from a perspective of systematic theology. Therefore, this
book constitutes an edited version of my dissertation aimed at being accessible
and relevant to both professional and nonprofessional theologians; it
can function as a general introduction to the issue of Christian prophecy, yet
readers with particular interests may find resources in sections relevant for
their specific needs. The book is written from a primarily Catholic perspective
while seeking to be informed by and be a resource for other Christian traditions
as well.
Thomas Aquinas is one of many medieval theologians who held Christian
prophetic charisms in high esteem and heralded their continuation in the
church. Thomas Aquinas mainly saw the purpose of prophecy as addressing
the moral conduct of the faithful, and as such, prophecy will continue to have a
great role in the life of the church: ‘‘The ancient prophets were sent to establish
the faith and to amend morals. . . . Today the faith is already established, since
the promises have been fulfilled in Christ. But prophecy that aims at amendment
of morals has not ceased, nor will it ever cease.’’4
In another passage regarding Christian prophecy, Thomas Aquinas
writes:
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The prophets who foretold the coming of Christ could not continue
further than John, who with his finger pointed to Christ actually
present. Nevertheless as Jerome says on this passage, ‘‘This does not
mean that there were no more prophets after John. For we read in the
Acts of the apostles that Agabus and the four maidens, daughters
of Philip, prophesied.’’ John, too, wrote a prophetic book about the
end of the Church; and at all times there have not been lacking persons
having the spirit of prophecy, not indeed for the declaration
of any new doctrine of faith, but for the direction of human acts.5
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This assessment of St. Thomas Aquinas has been reiterated many times, as in
the radio address by Pope John XXIII at the centenary of Lourdes (February
13, 1959):
| The Roman pontiffs, guardians and interpreters of divine Revelation
. . . have a duty also to recommend to the attention of the faithful
(when after mature examination they judge them opportune for the
general good) the supernatural lights which God pleased to dispense
freely to certain privileged souls, not for the sake of proposing new
doctrines but to guide our conduct [non ad novam doctrinam fidei
depromendam, sed ad humanorum actuum directionem].6
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As Thomas Aquinas did, so do a number of contemporary theologians
endorse the continuation of Christian prophecy: prophets ‘‘form a major line
of continuity between Israel, Judaism, and the church, both historically and
theologically’’;7 ‘‘the history of the church is marked through and through by
the fact of prophecy’’;8 and the prophets ‘‘always possess a permanent and irreplaceable
significance for the church.’’9 As Migaku Sato writes about prophecy
in the ancient church: ‘‘Without this rebirth of prophecy, there would
have been no Jesus movement, no Gospels, and thus no Christianity.’’10 Ben
Witherington has summarized this well:
| [The prophets] stood as constant reminders that God was not finished
with God’s people just yet, nor had God left them without a living
witness. To a significant degree, both Judaism and Christianity can
be called communities of the word, and one form in which the word
often came to these communities was through prophets and prophetesses.
They reminded them not merely that ‘‘in the beginning
was the word’’ but also that God would have the last word.11
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One of the theologians, to whom we shall return frequently because of his
constructive reflections on Christian prophecy, is Karl Rahner. Rahner highlights
the significance of revelations in the church and the need for a theology
that places them in their right context:
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If there were such phenomena at the establishment of the Old Testament
revelation and of the Christian revelation, then the possibility
of similar manifestations occurring in subsequent history cannot be
denied a priori. It is certain de fide that there have been genuine
revelations and prophecies in former times, especially under the
written law. The same is true under the law of grace. To deny that
there have been genuine revelations and prophecies since the time of
introduction 5
the primitive Church would not be heretical but would be at least
temerarious and impious.12
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During the course of this work I shall, however, do more than highlight
prophecy’s continuous Christian presence, for the debate on prophecy leads
to profound, often surprising, insights on the nature of Christianity and the
church as such. For instance, some have argued that Christianity is a perfect
state and that salvation simply occurs in the world when people accept its doctrine
as the truth. However, reality is more complex. As we shall see, a differentiated
approach, present throughout the history of Christian theology, sees
Christianity’s positioning in salvation history as an intermediary state between
the first and the second coming of Christ. Thus, in order fully to be itself, the
church is in constant need of the presence, guidance, and instruction of the
ever-living Word in the church who also speaks through his prophets. From
this perspective, the telos, or aim and ultimate goal of Christianity, may be just
as significant a light post on its course on the ocean of history as the arche´, or
starting point. Just as the Old Testament prophets pointed to the fulfillment of
God’s promises to Abraham and Moses, so the Christian prophets serve to keep
alive Christ’s promise of coming again to fulfill all things. In this way, Old
Testament and Christian prophecy share the similar fundamental structure of
building on and serving to realize a revealed normative salvation economy
while promising its fulfillment in a yet greater economy in the future.13
From a phenomenological point of view, Old Testament and Christian
prophecy share many traits. Both Old Testament and authentic Christian
prophetic messages are defined by implying the experience of direct divine
revelation and intervention and not just of rational reflection.14 The same God
speaks to both Old Testament and Christian prophets, although the Christian
prophet mainly experiences revelations of Christ. Both Old Testament and
Christian prophets are authorized and ordered to forward the revealed words
to the people of God for their edification. Thus, their fundamental traits are
similar, especially in the writings of Luke: ‘‘The functions accorded to early
Christian prophecy by Luke are wholly within the scope of prophecy as we
know it from the OT and other parallels in religious history.’’15
Nonetheless, the two phenomena have received very different treatment.
While Old Testament prophecy usually kept its proper name—prophecy—
Christian prophecy was, as we shall see, at least after the Montanist crisis
degraded to designations such as private revelations or epiphenomena of the
mystical life, or simply relegated to the broader category of Christian mysticism.
However, such terms do not give enough credit to Christ’s free choice of
addressing his people for designs of which only he knows the importance. If
6 christian prophecy
the phenomenon is identical in both contexts of the Old Testament and the
church, why do we grant them so different theological treatment?
It is possible to discern a number of reasons for this enigma. First, the
concern for the radical nature of the Christ-event and its normative testimony
in Sacred Scripture caused many to avoid using the term ‘‘prophecy’’ as a designation
for revelations occurring after the completion of Sacred Scripture.
The same concern led to the widespread teaching of an ‘‘end of Revelation
with the last apostle’’ that in turn led to further resistance to the presence of
prophecy in Christianity. We shall return to this vital concern later. Second, as
Karl Rahner noted, Christendom was from the beginning marked by a Platonic
preference for the wordless and imageless faith to the detriment of the
more prophetic and kerygmatic spirituality that he actually considers more
authentically Christian than the former.16 Third, Rahner believes the problem
arises from what he calls theological jealousy toward the charismatic authority
of prophets, an authority no theologian is able to compete with.17 Fourth,
prophecy has always been connected with the possibility of false prophecy. As
Tadeusz Czakanski points out, prophecy’s most difficult problem is ‘‘how to
recognize [the] true and unmask the false.’’18 While I personally believe that
this fourth point may have contributed most to the misappraisal of Christian
prophecy, a differentiated investigation shows that none of these reasons constitute
sufficient ground for the so different treatment between Old Testament
and New Testament prophecy.
With Rahner, we must therefore ask ourselves the question ‘‘whether
anything God reveals can be ‘unimportant.’ . . . If it be said that [Christian]
private revelations contain only such things as can be known independently
of them from public Revelation (e.g. the possibility and fruitfulness of a
new devotion), then the question arises why God reveals these things instead
of leaving it to the sagacity of theologians to deduce them.’’19 If Christian
prophecy is received and functions in much the same way as its Old Testament
counterpart, why treat it differently? Why not admit the importance of
Christian prophecy and enhance the exploration of its theological value, place,
and function in the church? This work is a modest contribution to this purpose
of a responsible theological appraisal of Christian prophecy.
1.2 Limitation
One of the problems with the notion of Christian prophecy is that it has been
watered down. It has become, with Erich Fascher, a ‘‘frame concept without
concrete content.’’20
In secular life, the terms prophecy, prophet, or prophetic are used, for example,
for antiglobalization protesters and for visionary politicians who read
the signs of the times. In the Christian context, something similar has happened,
so that the prophetic category metaphorically is applied to various instances
in the church. In Lutheranism, prophecy has been viewed in light of the
Munus propheticum—the prophetic criticism of Gospel-faithless Christianity—
so that the prophet is the protestant, the religious rebel, or just the inspired
preacher of God’s word. Protestant Eugene Boring has characterized this tendency
well:
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Modern religious leaders who are suspicious of charismatic phenomena
but want to claim the biblical prophets as their heroes can
consider the essence of ‘‘prophetic’’ ministry to be championing the
cause of the oppressed in the name of social justice, as in Protestant
liberalism, or simply identify ‘‘prophecy’’ and ‘‘preaching with authority,’’
so that ‘‘every real preacher is a prophet,’’ as in some conservative
streams of Protestantism.21
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The term has been applied in a similar direction in Catholic liberation
theology, as a theology distinct from universitarian or academic theology.22 Apart from this application, Catholics have, however, mainly applied the prophetic
category to the Spirit’s operations in and through the Catholic Magisterium,
guaranteeing its infallibility charism or assuring that it mediates God’s
truth through time. Thus Rahner talks about the general assistance of the Holy
Spirit as a prophetic element,23 just as the anthology of texts on Vatican II Il
Concilio Vaticano II: Carisma e Profezia, edited by Tommaso Stenico and Francis
Arinze, investigates the prophetic novelty of Vatican II.24 The prophetic category
has been applied to the wider context of the church that carries out a
prophetic task for the world of forwarding God’s word and ministering his
salvation. This has been iterated by the Second Vatican Council,25 and is a view
accepted by most denominations, although Hans-Ruedi Weber is puzzled by
‘‘the strange lack of ecumenical reflection about the prophetic vocation of
the church.’’26 Similarly, the anthology Chiesa e Profezia, edited by Gianfranco
Calabrese, features numerous applications of the prophetic term to the Christian
context, without directly treating the prophets in the church such as Birgitta
of Vadstena (Bridget of Sweden) and many others who directly preached
the revealed words of Christ to the church of their times.27
In other situations, the term is used for individuals who acted under the
inspiration of the Spirit, consciously or unconsciously. Thus John Conley and
JosephW. Koterski entitle their book on John Paul II Prophecy and Diplomacy;28 and B. Ha¨ring calls Francis of Assisi the greatest Christian prophet ever,29
8 christian prophecy
although he never wrote down revealed messages as did the Old Testament or
Christian prophets.
As Eugene Boring has pointed out, even New Testament scholarly works
on prophecy are often watered down. Thus he criticizes David Hill’s New Testament
Prophecy for using the vague phrases ‘‘pastoral preaching’’ and ‘‘exhortatory
teaching’’ as his working definition of prophecy, which ‘‘allows him to
designate Paul’s sermon in Acts 13, all of Paul’s letters, and the Letter to the
Hebrews as ‘prophecy.’ ’’30 Walter Houston’s 1973 Oxford dissertation uses
‘‘creative manipulator of traditions’’ as his working definition for prophecy. This
description leads him to consider Matthew, Mark, and Luke to be prophets.31
We should not be surprised by the fluctuations in terminology, for many
phenomena come close to Christian prophecy, without deserving that designation
in its fullest sense. Thus, one concern in Marianne Schlosser’s excellent
dissertation on the medieval evaluation of prophecy was to investigate how the
Scholastic theologians viewed the relationship between prophecy and ‘‘quasiprophetic’’
charisms.32 However, while wider applications of the prophetic category
have important contextual validity, they remain applications of the term,
not full treatments of the original phenomenon itself. This book seeks to
investigate Christian prophecy in this immediate and original form. But what
exactly is that?
1.3 The Object of the Investigation
In order to be able to investigate prophecy both for its historical development
and evaluate it for its theological significance and function, we need to arrive
at a working description of Christian prophecy. Such a description can only
arise from an analysis of the phenomenon’s New Testament identity, since
Christian prophecy emerges directly from the function of prophecy in the early
church.
In spite of the pessimism of some, most exegetes do agree that it is possible
to arrive at a working description of prophecy as it emerges from the New
Testament, even though the phenomenon is quite complex.We will return to a
more detailed analysis of the essence of New Testament prophecy in section
3.3.1. Since the New Testament setting must be our normative framework, I
shall in that section briefly present the different attempts that have been made
in modern research to provide a definition of New Testament prophecy. With
this description, we are then equipped with the tools needed to move beyond
Scripture and search for the phenomenon in the history of the church, even
when it is not labeled prophetic.
We may anticipate the debate between the various exegetical opinions:
Christian prophecy requires privileged insight in the mysteries of God, and
‘‘Divine revelation is a sine qua non of prophecy.’’33 As Wayne Grudemputs it: ‘‘A
‘revelation’ from the Holy Spirit is necessary for prophecy to occur. If there is no
such revelation, there is no prophecy.’’34 But for mystical experience to become
prophecy another element is equally constitutive, namely divine commission,35 which urges the prophet to forward the revealed communication to the people of
God, ‘‘building them up and giving them encouragement and reassurance’’ in
order to ‘‘build up the community.’’36 In its essence, then, the New Testament
prophet, whether labeled as such or not, is a Christian who, through experienced revelations,
receives a message that he or she is directed to hand on to the church for its
edification as part of a firm design in God’s will to save, guide, and bless his people. It
is this phenomenon, in the framework of the above limitations, that this work
seeks to elaborate theologically. I will not treat the rediscovery of prophecy in
the charismatic movement in this book, since this particular form of prophecy
requires a treatment of its own that transcends the limitations of the present
study.
1.4. Private, Particular, Special, Dependent,
or Prophetic Revelations?
The primary vehicles of prophecy, that is, visions, apparitions, and locutions,
are often referred to as private revelations. This concept is, however, ambiguous
for various reasons. First, as Pierre Adne`s writes, private revelations almost
always contain an intelligible message, while visions and apparitions may
stand alone without accompanying messages. A distinction should hence be
made between visions, apparitions, and locutions on one hand and on the other
hand revelations as such, which always carry a message. Second, the term
private revelation not only fails to apply to the individual occurrences of visions,
apparitions, and locutions, it also does not address the communication
of prophetic messages, which are never ‘‘private.’’37 In fact, prophetic writings
such as those of Hildegard of Bingen and Birgitta of Vadstena cannot be said to
have been private. In fact, they always aimed at the edification of the church as
a whole. It may happen that a person has a message that is intended for the
person herself, and this would be the only legitimate application of the term.
But here we leave the scene of Christian prophecy that always aims at the
edification of the congregation. When dealing with Christian prophecy, the
term private revelation is therefore of little avail and has, in fact, been the object
of increasing critical scrutiny.
Pope Benedict XVI has argued how the term private revelations could be
understood in the best way; he has said that the designation ‘‘private’’ can be
compared to the term ‘‘private mass,’’ which is never private in essence:
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In theology, the concept of ‘‘private’’ does not mean regarding only
the person involved and no one else. Rather, it is an expression of the
degree of importance, as is the case, for example, with ‘‘private Mass.’’
That is to say that the ‘‘revelations’’ of Christian mystics and prophets
can never aspire to the same level as biblical Revelation; they can only
lead to it and they must measure themselves by it. But that does not
mean that these types of revelation are not important for the Church
in its entirety. Lourdes and Fatima are the proof that they are important.
In the final analysis, they are but an appeal to the biblical
Revelation and, for this very reason, they are important.38
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The widespread success of the term private revelations seems mainly due
to its employment by sixteenth-century Thomists such as Cardinal Cajetan,
Melchior Cano, and Domingo Ban˜ez. Their insistence on this terminology
could, as we shall see, be partly explained by the fear of the Lutheran Reformation
that, although not being built on prophetic revelations as in Montanism,
came across as a modern example of an independent movement breaking off
from the church and its leadership (see section 2.2).39
The Council of Trent (1545–1563), however, did not employ this terminology.
It referred to revelations in its discussion on justification and argued that
no one could be certain to be among the elect, unless this had been revealed
through a ‘‘special revelation.’’40 The phrase was hereafter used by other Thomistic
theologians, especially Andrea Vega, Francisco Suarez, and Juan de Lugo,
who inferred from the council’s teaching that the content of postapostolic
revelations could indeed be believed with divine faith.41
Another terminological possibility is the phrase particular revelations. As
Avery Dulles writes, the phrase was ‘‘used by some theologians in their presentations
at the Council of Trent.’’42 Rene´ Laurentin uses the term as a general
designation to cover both the particular revelations that are truly private (such as, for instance, the three secrets that Bernadette of Lourdes received and
whose content no one ever came to know)43 and the public particular revelations,
addressed to a greater number of people.44 The danger with such terminology
obviously is a confusion of the Deposit of Faith (see section 4.2) with particular
revelations, for the term ‘‘public’’ is used both with regard to the public Revelation
(Deposit of Faith) and to those particular revelations that are addressed to the
entire church. But this danger seems minor, since public Revelation always assumes
a singular case, whereas particular revelations assume a plural case.
Avery Dulles believes that the mentioned designations particular or special revelations, used at the Council of Trent, might be more apt, but duly notes that
the term private revelations has ‘‘wider currency.’’45 Augustinus Suh agrees with
Laurentin and Dulles, and writes: ‘‘Keeping in mind the nature and the functions
of posterior revelations for the life of the Church, the term‘special revelations’or
‘particular revelations’ might perhaps be more pertinent, because the formula
‘private revelation’ risks to reduce its reach and purpose to the dimension of a
single individual.’’46 Interestingly, however, these observances have little practical
importance, as Suh in spite of his criticism employs the term consistently
throughout his book, even in its title, Le rivelazioni privati nella vita della chiesa.
Rahner opts for yet a different distinction. He distinguishes between mystical
visions (Laurentin’s private particular revelations) and prophetic visions
(Laurentin’s public particular revelations). Rahner’s differentiation is taken
from the religious sciences (Religionswissenschaft), and according to his own
words it is a problematic concept even there.47 Rahner’s careful self-criticism
is reinforced by Volken, who considers it not to apply to reality.48
Gerald O’Collins proposes a distinction between what he calls ‘‘foundational’’
and ‘‘dependent’’ aspects of revelation and salvation, designating ‘‘the
divine self-communication ‘now’ and its absolute climax ‘then’ in Christ.’’49 This
distinction could be fruitfully applied to the different aspects of Revelation
that are central to the issue of Christian prophecy: ‘‘Foundational’’ Revelation
would hence be the establishment of the economy of salvation and its normative
testimony in Sacred Scripture. ‘‘Dependent’’ revelation (or revelations) would
designate postapostolic particular forms of divine self-disclosure to actualize
Revelation in history. The term would make good sense in regard to prophecy,
since the authenticity of postapostolic prophetic revelations are always evaluated
on the Deposit of Faith (see section 9.2), hence the ‘‘dependence’’ thereof. Second,
they can be said to be ‘‘dependent’’ from the foundational Revelation ontologically,
as authentic prophetic revelations can but be a postapostolic manifestation
of the one Word, incarnate in Christ, but ever alive in the church.
Having reviewed all the different proposals, and keeping in mind that the
function of postapostolic revelations is identical to that of Old and New Testament
prophecy, at least in its function, I would argue for using the simple but
clear term for postapostolic revelations addressed to a greater number of people,
namely, prophetic revelations. It is this term that is primarily used in this
book. This term marks the difference between the postapostolic revelations
and the revelatio publica. It indicates not only that such revelations are the direct
result of divine intervention, but that they actually fulfill the function in the
church of communicating an intelligible message to the congregation and that
it has a prophetic purpose.
1.5. Motivation
As it shall be clear during the course of this work, prophecy never ceased in
the Christian church but has continued to play a vital role, especially in the
Catholic tradition. It is hard to consider the Catholic church without the prophetic
tradition that has accompanied its entire history. Prophetic visions and
divine instructions accompanied the founding of the vast majority of its religious
orders. The same accounts for most pilgrimage sites, which usually became
what they did after apparitions of Christ, of the Blessed Virgin, or of an
angel to a privileged soul.50 Much Catholic hagiography has eminent prophetic
traits, so that individuals such as Gertrude the Great of Helfta ({1302), Birgitta
of Vadstena ({1373), Catherine of Siena ({1380), Joan of Arc ({1431), Julian of
Norwich ({c.1416), and Margaret Mary Alacoque ({1690) all come across as
classic Christian prophets.
The manifestation of prophetic charisms in the church has not decreased;
on the contrary theologians such as Rene´ Laurentin speak of an ‘‘increase’’ of
prophetic manifestations in our time.51 Since the big Marian revelations of the
last century, beginning with La Salette, Lourdes, and Rue du Bac in France,
and Fatima in Portugal, Marian apparitions, mostly to children, have become
ever more frequent.52 The Catholic authorities have, only recently, recognized
Banneux and Beauraing in Belgium. In the 1960s the Virgin Mary was said
to have appeared to four girls in Garabandal, Spain. In Medjugorje, Bosnia-
Herzegovina, she has since the summer of 1981 reportedly been appearing to
six children. All six claim to continue to receive apparitions. Three experience
them daily, whereas the other three only experience an annual apparition.
Thirty million believers are said to have visited Medjugorje.53
The messages of the Greek Orthodox mystic Vassula Ryde´n are another
interesting example of apparent contemporary Christian prophecy. Mrs. Ryde´n
is reported to have received messages from Jesus and Mary since 1986. These
writings have garnered enormous attention and debate, so much so that the
Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) in 1995 saw itself obliged to issue
a ‘‘Notification’’ to Catholic faithful not to consider the authority of her words
above that of Sacred Scripture. The initial caution was followed by deepened
study of her messages and a written dialogue with her, leading the CDF’s
prefect at the time, Joseph Ratzinger, to conclude that she had provided ‘‘useful
clarifications’’ of the issues formerly raised against her.54 As a result of this
interest, her messages, first published in 1991 with the title True Life in God,
were translated and published only ten years later in forty different languages.
Respected theologians have written over twenty books about her. Since her
introduction 13
first public meeting in 1991, believers have invited her to give over seven hundred
public lectures in over fifty-eight nations.55 Modern experiences such as
these show that prophecy continues as a vigorous element of contemporary
church life.
Modern forms of communication, and the Internet in particular, serve
to enhance the way religions communicate and evangelize.56 Sociologists of
religion discern between religion online and online religion, referring to the way
religions express themselves versus religious activity occurring online.57 On
the one hand, the Internet offers great opportunities for religious expression
and communication (religion online). John Paul II was one of many religious
leaders who pointed to the internet’s great opportunities:
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The Church approaches this new medium with realism and confidence.
Like other communications media, [the Internet] is a means,
not an end in itself. The Internet can offer magnificent opportunities
for evangelization if used with competence and a clear awareness
of its strengths and weaknesses. . . . Finally, in these troubled times,
let me ask: how can we ensure that this wondrous instrument
first conceived in the context of military operations can now serve
the cause of peace?58
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On the other hand, Internet-based religious communication seems to constitute
a new form of religiosity (online religion). More than most other forms
of religious life, online religion has a highly individualistic character—the religious
navigator may remain hidden and private without participating in communitarian
worship, which has been of the highest importance to Abrahamic
traditions.
The Internet’s impact on Christian prophecy is no less significant. As the
anthropologist Paolo Apolito shows, the Internet is a major resource for interest
in prophetic charisms, so much so that one can speak of a new form of postmodern
spirituality combining charismatic and traditionalist religious trends
with modern communication and media opportunities.59
Inasmuch as prophecy itself continues to grow, and reports of prophetic
messages proliferate through the mass media, the need for serious theological
reflection increases as well. Since true prophecy always has been and will be
accompanied by its false counterpart, the need for criteria to ‘‘test the spirits’’ is
evident. It seems a norm that for every occurrence of prophecy the church
deems positive there usually follow multiple related or associated false prophetic
occurrences. This multiplies the need for careful discernment exponentially.
Such discernment is presented by New Testament authors as a gift of
the Spirit. In the words of David Aune, ‘‘there is a connection between the gift
14 christian prophecy
of prophecy and the gift of ‘distinguishing between spirits.’ ’’60 But even if God
provides his grace to facilitate discernment, prophetic messages have primarily
been judged in the light of doctrinal investigation of their conformity with
Sacred Scripture.
The purpose of this study is not to provide an overview of false prophetic
manifestations and their effect on the life of the church, which has been documented
elsewhere—although the damaging results of these cannot be underestimated. 61 Rather, my purpose is to evaluate the nature and function
of the authentic charism of Christian prophecy. Nevertheless, the criteria for
discernment are of the highest importance as a response to the pastoral need
for identifying true Christian prophecy. For only with these criteria is the
church today able to apply Paul’s exhortation to the Thessalonians: ‘‘Do not
stifle the Spirit or despise the gift of prophecy with contempt; test everything
and hold on to what is good.’’62 The discernment that Paul speaks about is
twofold. Christians are called to be on guard against false prophets and at the
same time to make sure they do not judge and ultimately kill the true prophets.
63 It is a serious matter, for on the one side, false prophecy can, as history
has shown, create true confusion in the church. On the other side, it must
be remembered that rash judgment of the obviously true prophetic gifts ultimately
is a judgment and rejection of the Holy Spirit. The Didache, one of the
oldest nonbiblical manuscripts speaking of prophecy in the ancient church,
even equates the rejection of obviously true prophecy with blasphemy against
the Holy Spirit, because ‘‘to put those who speak in the Spirit to the test means
testing the Spirit working within them.’’64
Along the lines of Max Weber’s differentiation between institutional and
charismatic authority,65 it is possible to discern today a tendency to differentiate
popular and academic approaches to the life of faith. ‘‘Popular spirituality’’
is easily moved and inspired by charismatic phenomena, both true and false,
whereas theologians seem less attracted to such occurrences in the church.
The dichotomy between popular, often less theologically grounded, charismatic
spirituality and academic, often more rational theology easily becomes
polarized to the point that the popular circle of believers are a priori suspicious
of the ‘‘narrow-minded’’ attitude of theologians, while theologians are contemptuous
of the unreflecting faithful because of their attraction to what Rino
Fisichella labels ‘‘less demanding forms of faith.’’66
The apparent dichotomy between ‘‘lay’’ and ‘‘religious’’ spiritualities67 is
regrettable, for the different ‘‘spiritualities,’’ popular and academic, are in reciprocal
need and should enrich rather than antagonize each other. Even true
divine charisms need theology to appear in their full significance, while good
catechesis could prevent many false charismatic developments. Conversely,
introduction 15
theology is in need of the prophetic, for, as Joseph Ratzinger says, ‘‘the true and
proper way from which great theology may again flow is not generated by the
rational side of theological work but by a charismatic and prophetic thrust. And
it is in this sense, I believe, that prophecy and theology go hand in glove.’’68
Fr. Antonio Gentili has summarized the interdependency between the charismatic
and the institutional well:
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The institutional and the charismatic mediations are altogether
compresent integrating and enriching each other. Without the support
and the ratification of the institution, the charismatic mediations
would dissolve in tyranny and . . . disorder as we learn from the
first pages of Christian history (see 1 Cor v 12 and 14). Likewise,
without the support of the Charisms, the institutional mediations
encroach in routinary gestation and formal repetitiveness of rites,
doctrines and precepts.69
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Gentili argues that the laity are greatly enriched by charisms in the church.
Vatican II has enhanced the awareness of God being free to diffuse his gifts
among his people and that the experiences of the laity are important to the life
of the church. While it is true that believers at times do follow easy and often
false forms of faith, it is also true that history has shown the benefits of
charisms in the life of the faithful. God’s life is mediated through the church
by the ordered means of the Sacraments and the teaching office of the Magisterium,
as well as through the noninstitutional, free mediation of the Spirit of
God to the lay faithful. Although they serve in different ways to actualize
Revelation in the life of the church, both forms of mediation are vital to the
well-being of God’s people.70
This is why Vittorio Messori finds it a tremendous shame that theological
and institutional powers in the church often appear to be prejudiced against
prophetic gifts among God’s people. Vatican II called the faithful to scrutinize
and interpret the ‘‘signs of the times’’ in light of the Gospel, yet Messori observes
that these very signs ‘‘are, on the contrary, removed, even ridiculed, often
by the very ones who have been invaded by that Biblical term (‘signs of the
times’) and have made a banner of it for a ‘mature’ Christianity, as they call
it.’’71 Messori argues that the theological opposition to God’s charisms in the
church is such that it is even dangerous for a writer to elaborate these issues,
as they constitute too much of a minefield.72 Yet he is convinced that this
danger should be met with courage, as theologians cannot ignore the true and
actual context of the people of God in the twenty-first century. Messori reminds
us that the spirituality of the laity has its justification and proper place
in the church and that revelations are one form in which God builds his
16 christian prophecy
church. Agreeing with Fr. Antonio Gentili, Messori even has the ‘‘courage to
ask whether it might not be the ‘obscurantists’ who were right; and if it might
not be in the presumed ‘obscurantism’ of the disquieting signs that we would
receive from the Mystery the greater light.’’73
Theological elaboration of the prophetic is in this perspective no marginal
occupation, but the illumination of a vital function and form in the life of the
church that not only thrusts the faithful toward more engaged forms of faith
but even catalyzes theological progress. With regard to the actualization of Revelation
and the development of dogma, the Second Vatican Council, in the
Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, stressed the collaboration of the
pastors of the church and the faithful with their particular experiences of faith:
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This tradition which comes from the Apostles develops in the Church
with the help of the Holy Spirit. For there is a growth in the understanding
of the realities and the words which have been handed
down. This happens through the contemplation and study made by
believers, who treasure these things in their hearts (see Luke, 2:19, 51)
through a penetrating understanding of the spiritual realities which they
experience, and through the preaching of those who have received
through episcopal succession the sure gift of truth. For as the centuries
succeed one another, the Church constantly moves forward
toward the fullness of divine truth until the words of God reach their
complete fulfillment in her.74
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Much has been written on the role of the Magisterium in the handing on,
actualization, and unfolding of Revelation, as well as on the role of the faithful.
However, surprisingly little has been written on the penetrating understanding
of spiritual realities that the Christian prophets experience and that form the basis
for their evangelization.
As we shall see, few theological issues have received such scarce attention
as the problem of Christian prophecy, so that Rino Fisichella compares the
theological elaboration of Christian prophecy to ‘‘wreckage after shipwreck’’
(see chapter 2 here). Therefore, both pastoral and academic interests motivate
the debate on prophecy. We shall return to this need for theological elaboration
of the prophetic in chapter 2; nevertheless, it seems appropriate here to
summarize with Karl Rahner the motivation for a theological elaboration on
Christian prophecy:
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We should be quite precise about the nature of these private revelations
posterior to Christ, and which have value for the Church and not
just for the recipient; because these revelations should be perfectly
introduction 17
inserted into this final phase of the economy of salvation. We have
seen that it is not sufficient to say: private revelations are not addressed
to the Church or humanity taken as a whole, and their
content is not positively guaranteed by the Church’s Magisterium. To
content oneself with affirming that the content of these revelations
has only an accessory and quasi-insufficient relationship with the
Christian public Revelation, would raise the question: Can anything
that God reveals be insignificant?
Again, to say that private revelations never contain anything but
truths which one could know through the common Revelation—for
example, the possibility and utility of a new devotion—this is to pose
yet another question: why then does God reveal it, and not rather
leave to the intelligence of theologians the concern of making explicit
this new aspect of Revelation?75
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Another dichotomy between different approaches to prophetic gifts can
be discerned between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. This divide
is not between professional theology and lay spirituality, but rather between
different spiritual and theological approaches to faith. Christianity is growing
in the developing countries, whereas it is stagnant at best in the industrialized
West. As is often said, Christianity is moving from North to South. One of the
hallmarks of this growing Christianity, ‘‘the future of Christianity,’’ is that it is
charismatic.
Already, Karl Rahner has said that the ‘‘religious man of tomorrow will be
a mystic, someone who has experienced God, or else he will no longer be.’’76
Philip Jenkins argues similarly in his book The Next Christendom that the
future of Christianity lies in the developing world, with a form of Christianity
that gives space for experiental and charismatic sides of faith:77
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Worldwide, Christianity is actually moving toward supernaturalism
and neo-orthodoxy, and in many ways toward the ancient world view
expressed in the New Testament: a vision of Jesus as the embodiment
of divine power, who overcomes the evil forces that inflict
calamity and sickness upon the human race. In the global South
(the areas that we often think of primarily as the Third World) huge
and growing Christian populations—currently 480 million in Latin
America, 360 million in Africa, and 313 million in Asia, compared
with 260 million in North America—now make up what the Catholic
scholar Walbert Buhlmann has called the Third Church, a form of
Christianity as distinct as Protestantism or Orthodoxy, and one that is
likely to become dominant in the faith. There is increasing tension
18 christian prophecy
between what one might call a liberal Northern Reformation and the
surging Southern religious revolution.78
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In this development toward a form of Christianity that the South considers
closer to Christianity as the Bible portrays it, we see growing wariness toward
what has been termed ‘‘Western theological imperialism.’’ The South criticizes
this theological imperialism for its distance to the biblical accounts, especially
with regard to prophetic charisms and spiritual dynamism in general. For instance,
Jenkins quotes a contemporary follower of the African claimed prophet
Johane Masowe:
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A literal interpretation of the Bible can be tremendously appealing.
To quote a modern-day follower of the African prophet Johane
Masowe . . . ‘‘When we were in these synagogues [the European
churches] we used to read about the works of Jesus Christ . . . cripples
were made to walk and the dead were brought to life . . . evil spirits
driven out. . . . That was what was being done in Jerusalem. We Africans,
however, who were being instructed by white people, never
did anything like that. . . .We were taught to read the Bible, but we
ourselves never did what the people in the Bible used to do.’’79
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The problem is that the gap between northern and southern religiosity and
related theology is deepening: ‘‘Across the denominational spectrum, Catholics
and Protestants alike preach messages that, to a Westerner, appear simplistically
charismatic, visionary, and apocalyptic. In this thought world, prophecy is
an everyday reality, while faith healing, exorcism, and dreamvisions are all
fundamental parts of religious sensibility.’’80
Christianity in the developing Southern Hemisphere is neither atheological
nor antitheological; rather it breeds theology of a different kind with
particular characteristics, and among these are constructive reflections on charismatic
gifts.81 Werner Kahl argues that people, including theologians, relate
to miracles and charismatic gifts on the basis not primarily of theological reasoning
but rather their sociocultural mindset. Similarly, people in biblical
times valued alleged charismatic experiences on the basis of their cultural and
religious identity. According to Kahl, Christians in the developing world are
closer to the New Testament mindset and so relate more easily to the miracle
stories of the Bible than Christians in the First World. Kahl believes that
Western culture has become distanced from the mindset in which miracles,
including prophetic gifts, make sense and can be received fruitfully in the
Christian community.82 Hence, without giving up critical thinking, he calls for
Western theology to be wary of ‘‘ideological imperialism.’’ African American
introduction 19
authors83 and the Latin American liberation theologians have voiced similar
criticism, often highlighting problems connected with Western theological
imperialism, and especially with critical biblical exegesis.84 These authors argue
that the danger with such imperialism is that it deepens the divide and
makes First World critical research seem unappealing, even dangerous, to Third
World theologians, not because of the research methodology itself, but rather
because of the naturalistic ideologies that threaten the inherent objectivity of
Western theology. The Catholic Church has repeatedly been warning against
such inherent dangers of objective biblical research, just as it has pointed out
the dangers of its opposite extreme: biblical fundamentalism.85 An important
underlying motivation for this book, then, is the desire to bridge ‘‘Northern’’
and ‘‘Southern’’ traditions by investigating the theological foundations for
charisms in the church that exist in classical Christian theology and that will be
of the highest importance in ‘‘the next Christendom.’’
1.6 Outline
In chapter 2, we shall deal with the theological elaboration of prophecy, examining
possible reasons that the theme has for so long been shrouded in the
dark and why, apparently, most theological branches have started bringing
it to the fore only now.
If history could prove that there is no such phenomenon as prophecy in
the church, then there would be no real issue to investigate theologically. The
only way the prophetic category could make any sense would be by applying it
analogously to elements in the church with which it would seem to fit. Chapter
3, therefore, investigates the historical development of prophecy and shows
that it did not cease but only continued to remodel itself according to the needs
of the church as it continued to evolve through time. Having examined the
existence of specific Christian prophecy, in chapter 4 we shall investigate different
models of Revelation and what image of prophecy they produce. We will
then be ready to deal in chapter 5 with the much-debated notion of the ‘‘end of
Revelation with the last apostle’’ that often has been used to proclaim the
necessary end of prophecy. We will then proceed to see how modern theologians
consider the concept more a theological artifice fitted for specific apologetic
purposes rather than reflecting the reality of salvation history. With
theological and historical research, we shall in chapter 6 see how prophecy can
be seen to play a continuous role in Christianity of mediating God’s salvation,
attained in Christ, to every new generation of the church. This accounts especially
for the fruits of prophecy in the inner life of the church, which we will
20 christian prophecy
examine in chapter 7. The results of prophecy’s interaction with tradition and
the development of doctrine are summarized in chapter 8, wherein we shall examine
a useful typology of different forms of belief and how Christian prophecy
fits within that system. Having thus identified the place and function of
prophecy in the church, we will be ready in chapter 9 to identify the criteria
needed for discerning true from false prophecy in the church. These criteria
are vital to Christian prophecy if it is to continue to have a role in the church.
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