God’s Revelation: The Foundation of
Faith
Feeling (Pagpapadama)
-Making someone feel what one
want to convey
-An important feature of our
(Filipino) communication patterns
-communicating the intuitively
affective-cognitive way
Intuitive because it is not rationaly
calculated
Affective-cognitive because feeling
(dama) intimately combines feeling
and thought in the action
Pagpapapdama means whatever is
communicated has an effect (may
dating at may talab)
God’s revelation (God’s
Pagpapadama)
-makes us experience
himself/herself
-make us feel love
-communicates and initiates his
kagandang loob
The concept of “kagandahang
loob”
“Loob”
-“the within”, the core of our
personhood as Filipinos and to our
most
-organizing center of human reality
and the wellspring of feeling
(damdamin), thought (isip) and
behavior (kilos)
Other cognates of loob
(Refer to ppt)
“Maganda”
-literally means beauty with a touch
of charm, it combines true goodness
and heartwarming allure
-an interweaving of what is ethically
and aesthetically positive
The most important manifrstation
of maganda
-when we are positively touched by
events
-the general experience of harmony
in life and when everybody seems
to be in order
Relationships that build up as when
we people relate with sincerity and
reliability
Grandeaur of nature as delightful
Spontaneously extend kindness
Join hand to accomplish a common
task deemed important
Kagandahang loob is winsome
goodness, “ang kabutihang
nakakabighani at nakakakit”
For Filipinos, kagandandahang-loob
is pure positivity that captivates and
wins people over
God’s Revelation
God’s kagandang loob (winsome
goodness)
Loob (within) Ganda (beauty)
= a goodness that wins one over and
positively transforms such person
The attributes of God’s
Revelation
Relational
-involves the deepest relationship
between God and people’s authentic
reality of the self (loob)
-cannot be demonstrated in
isolation from fellow human beings
-the invisible God out of abundance
of His love speaks to people as
friends and lives with Him
Life-giving
-God’s relationship with people is
directed towards their well being
-expressed happiness and total
well-being
-God is the souce of ginhawa (total
well-being)
-Jesus is the guarantee that God’s
promises will be fulfilled
-God supplies us with everything to
help us live a good life
-God is gracious
Unconditional and Universal
-comes from God’s personal
initiative and graciously free (bukal
sa kalooban)
-God took the first step to relate to
us without any conditions
-God’s pagpapadama is never
discriminatory
-God’s guidance and inspiration are
given all to all equally
Transcends Human Limitation
-God’s lavish benevolence that far
exceed human expectation
-excessive manifestations of
goodness and generosity which
goes beyond the limits of necessity,
duty or sufficiency or what is
considered usual or proper or just

Historical The BIBLE: the primary

Witness
-God’s pagpapadama occurred in to the experience of God’s
sequence of events that lead to its revelation
completion in Christ
Scripture
-Salvation is revealed in and
through ordinary day-to-day - The most fundamental testimony
experiences of people to God’s experience of
pagpapadama among Christians
-God’s kagandahang loob is made
visible and palpable in our everyday - Believers are able to understand
life what it means to fall and stay in love
with God.
Trinitarian
- Mirrors what the faith community
-Father: abundance of his love had experienced of God

-Jesus: the Mediator, the deepest - The collection if what had been
truth about God and salvation made articulated and written about the
clear to Him relationship between God and
people at different times and
-Spirit: assists, moves the heart and various places
turn it to God
Scripture
Apathy
Latun – scriptura: what has been
- Lack of feeling written

- Lack of emotion Greek – biblia: consists of many

books
- Lack of interest
The Books of the Bible
- Lack of concern
Old Testament
 - written on the tablets of stone -The Bible reflects to the combined
spirit of Judaism and Christianity
- refers to Tanak, the Jewish and is indicative of the kind of faith
Scripture tradition which Christians
subscribe
- Jesus was a Jew
-We belong to the community of
faith called Church, originated from
Jesus Christ who brings salvation
New Testament
from God
- Written on the hearts of
-We are part of a faith community
people
whose identity is derived from the
- Refers to the Christian legacy of the past.
scripture
The Development of the Bible
- Jesus was not a Christian
1. Experience of God in Jesus
Testament and the articulation in
language of such experience.
Bond
2. Selection from different
 Hebrew- Berit expressions

 Which God entered to with 3. Recognition of the collection

Israel as canons

Provison The Bible as Canon

 Latin- Testamentum - Greek-kanon-measure

 Arrangement - The primary norm of our

understanding of the
Covenant Christian faith

 English- Testament - The fundamental reference

point in formulating doctrinal
 Agreement between God and statements in the Church
people
The authority of the Bible
Judaeo-Christian Tradition
 - Articulated Reading a classic as a
conversation
- Reflected about and modified
The Bible is a “classic” because
- Written down
- Of its supreme importance in
- Edited the understanding of faith

- Finally screened through - It is read, consulted and

careful selection referred again and again

Experiences of God were expressed - It is a literary masterpiece

in the following literary forms:
Purpose of the Bible
- Narratives
- Readiing
- Historical accounts
- Studying
- Legislation
- meditating
- Elaborate reflections
*nourishing one’s faith-life
- Songs communally and personally

- Poems What happens when we read the

Bible
- Proverbs
- we speak to the Bible
- Letters
- We listen to the Bible
The collection of books
eventually chosen by the - The Bible speaks to us
community of believers as
faithfully expressing and - The Bible listens to us
mirroring what it believed about
God and serve as the main The scriptural text is a both a
reference point for further window that allows the reader to
articulations of faith. see something of the world describe
in the text and a mirror, which the
Reading the Bible reader finds the issues and
concerns of their own situation
reflected.
The Sacred Scripture: Nature and
Purpose
Inspired word of God
-God guided human authors to
compose the written accounts of
God’s revelation to God’s people
-Divine inspiration- a special grace
given to the authors
-Inspiration- the directing influence
of the Holy Spirit under which the
sacred writers wrote all that God
wanted them to write
Authors of the Scripture- both
human beings and God
Inerrancy in the Scripture
-being a divinely inspired book, the
Scripture teaches firmly, faithfully
without error
-religious message contains the
truth which God wanted to
communicate and call everyone to
share through Jesus and the Holy
Spirit
-the inspired word of God is
provoking and animating which
moves people to faith
The Living Word of God
-Scriptures makes known God who
is not silent nor distant from people
but concerned with his creatures
-Scripture is living and powerful
-it is effective, sharper that any two-
edged sword, penetrating even
between soul and spirit., joints and
marrows and able to discern
reflections and thoughts of the
heart
Sacramental
-a tangible material reality
signifying and bringing about the
presence of spiritual reality
-the incarnation of the divine word
is expressed in human language
-the presence of God dwells in and
is proclaimed through the inspired
scriptural narratives which the
divine and human encounters call
for personal conversion and
transformation
The Book of the Church
-a record of God’s dealings with his
people, the Church and how they
responded to, remembered and
interpreted those experiences
-collection of inspired books,
written by persons from the people
of God, for the people of God and
about the God-experience of the
people of God
The Work of Art
The scriptural brings 3 attributes of
beauty:
1. Shines and illuminates the
truth about the divine
mystery
2. Has from and structure,
symmetry and integrity
indicative of the beautiful,
catching the mind with its
silent coherence
3. Can inspire, guide and
empower the readers to
goodness and truth
-Biblical language contains
profound literary from
communicating the truth about God
-Rich and full of poetic language,
figurative discourse, symbol and
myth
-the word of God has the power to
seize, captivate and enchant the
readers
-helps and encourages human being
to use and develop all human
faculties of reason, affectively and
imagination
Reading the Bible
-The Bible has supreme importance
in the understanding of faith
-Interpreting the Bible is primarily a
communal undertaking
-It is the community of believers
that gave birth to the Bible and it is
the community that recognizes the
authority
By knowing about the faith
experiences of others and how they
struggled to be faithful despite
difficulties, we are helped in making
up our mind
The text speaks to us as we listen to
the experiences of people and how
they have responded positively and
negatively
Literary form of genre (French)-
kind or type
Tells the readers something about
the intent of the writers
Includes the external (form) and
internal (attitude, purpose)
characteristics
If the reader misunderstands the
genre, he misunderstands the
meaning
Tools & Technology in
Understanding the Bible

Exegesis

- This is what the text

expresses effectively (biblical
scholar)

- Comes from a combination in

Greek ex (out of) AGO (to
lead) and SIS (process)

- The process of leading out the

meaning of the text

Eisegesis

- This is my understanding of
the text (bible sharer)

- Comes from a Greek

preposition EIS (into)

- Reading and understanding

the text in the way that the
reader wants to understand
it

On being mindful of the CONTEXT

- It is imperative to be
cognizant of the contextual
factors that affect on biblical
writings when reading and
reflecting them

- Biblical texts were written

and cultural and historical
contexts different from ours