Skip to content
Wellsprings
christian-scripture-revelationfeatured in 10 works

General and Special Revelation

God speaks in two registers: creation's silent witness and the saving word in Christ

Christian thought distinguishes two ways God makes himself known. General revelation is God's self-disclosure through creation and conscience, available to all people, which Paul addresses in the opening chapters of Romans. Special revelation is his saving self-disclosure in Christ and Scripture, given to bring salvation. Theologians from Augustine onward developed this distinction, holding that the natural witness points toward God while the knowledge needed for redemption comes through Christ.

How it traveled

  1. Romans
    Corinth · 67
    explains
  2. Galatians
    Ephesus · 67
    explains
  3. Acts
    Rome · 84
    explains
  4. Hortatory Address to the Greeks
    Rome · 165
    explains
  5. Treatise on Sacred Doctrine (Q[1])
    Paris · 1274
    explains
  6. Treatise on The One God (QQ[2-26])
    Paris · 1274
    explains
  7. Book First. of the Knowledge of God the Creator
    Geneva · 1564
    explains
  8. Man's Natural Blindness in Religion
    Northampton, Massachusetts · 1758
    explains
  9. Fifteen Sermons. On Various Subjects
    Northampton, Massachusetts · 1758
    explains
  10. Five Sermons. On Different Occasions
    Northampton, Massachusetts · 1758
    explains

Key passages(0)

No passages match your filters.

Modern teachers who discuss this idea

Modern and living teachers whose books take up General and Special Revelation. These works are still in copyright, so we can’t show the text here — each links out to the book.