A Handbook of Fundamental Theology, Volume II: Revealed Religion
Fr. John Brunsmann, S.V.D. · 1929
Paid links: as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Most apologetics books summarize the objections to Christianity. This one quotes them. Hume on miracles, Renan and Rousseau on witnesses, Reimarus on the stolen body, Harnack on the Gospels, Delitzsch on Babel and the Bible: each critic is given his own words, often at paragraph length, and then answered.
More
This is the second volume of Fr. John Brunsmann’s Handbook of Fundamental Theology, adapted into English by Arthur Preuss, and its subject is revealed religion, that is, the whole historical case for Christianity. The first part asks what a revelation from God would be, whether we need one, and how miracles and prophecies let us recognize it. The second argues that it came. The Gospels are the best attested writings of antiquity; Christ claimed to be the Son of God and was neither deluded nor lying, the charge of mental unsoundness taken up point by point; His tomb was found empty and He was seen on twelve occasions by people who had refused to believe the first reports; and the spread of Christianity in three centuries and the fortitude of the martyrs have no natural explanation.
A closing section weighs the supposed parallels from the history of religions, among them the Babylonian creation and Flood tablets, the Code of Hammurapi, the legend of Buddha and the Mithraic meal, each set beside the biblical account. Notes, reading lists keyed to each section and a subject index let you go straight to your question.
The first page of Notion and Possibility of Supernatural Revelation
Chapter I
Notion and Possibility of Supernatural Revelation
§ I. Notion of Supernatural Revelation
1. Origin of the Concept
Since it is our task in this volume to set forth the foundations of Catholic belief, and since, according to Catholic teaching, supernatural revelation constitutes a necessary condition of faith, we must first study the true concept of supernatural revelation in the light of dogma before endeavoring to justify it by the aid of reason.
The teaching of the Church concerning the nature of revelation is contained mainly in the decrees of the Vatican Council. In developing it we shall follow approved theologians.
2. The Supernatural Order
a) The notion of the supernatural is inseparably connected with that of the natural. Only after the limits of the latter are known, is it possible to say just where the supernatural begins.
What do we call natural? Natural is whatever belongs to the nature of an object, no matter whether that object is material or spiritual. To the nature of an object belongs first of all its essence, its quidditas, as the Schoolmen were wont to say, i. e., that by which it is what it is and as it is. In the essence are rooted the different faculties, dispositions, and powers. These, when developed and applied, result in operation. All this, so far as it springs from the innermost being and essence of a thing, is natural, just as the essence itself is natural.
Related Books
Check your inbox
Confirm from the email we sent.
Edition and sources
Edition
- Editor
- Arthur Preuss
- Source edition
- A Handbook of Fundamental Theology, Volume II: Revealed Religion, St. Louis and London, B. Herder Book Co., 1929
- This edition
- Manualist Press, September 2026
- Paperback
- 372 pages, 6 × 9 inches, ISBN 9798173437099
- Hardcover
- 372 pages, 6 × 9 inches, ISBN 9798173439116
- Kindle (Volumes I–II)
- ASIN B0HJHFGCRW
- Plate
- Ludolph Büsinck, Moses with the Tables of the Law. Art Institute of Chicago.
Volume II of A Handbook of Fundamental Theology, freely adapted and edited by Arthur Preuss from Fr. Brunsmann's Lehrbuch der Apologetik and originally published by B. Herder Book Co., St. Louis, 1929.
The Kindle edition contains Volumes I and II together in one file; the paperback and hardcover editions are issued per volume.
Thank you.
Report a mistake
Manualist Press is a small family press. If these pages help you pray, you can support the work.