The book presents a novel defense of the beneficial epistemic effect that extra logical features can have on the assessment of religious arguments.

In this lively introduction, J. Nelson Kraybill shows how the book of Revelation was understood by its original readers and what it means for Christians today. Kraybill places Revelation in its first-century context, opening a window into the political, economic, and social realities of the early church. His fresh interpretation highlights Revelation's liturgical structure and directs readers' attentions to twenty-first-century issues of empire, worship, and allegiance, showing how John's apocalypse is relevant to the spiritual life of believers today. The book includes maps, timelines, photos, a glossary, discussion questions, and stories of modern Christians who live out John's vision of a New Jerusalem.

This book begins with a general consideration of religious experience and moves to a defense of the Christian revelation as the normative one for all other divine disclosures. This means that increasingly the book moves towards a defense of theistic thought as contrasted with other religious systems. This emphasis on the approach to the understanding of God typical of the Judaeo-Christian and Islamic traditions has meant a preoccupation with issues particularly significant for this way of thinking- the nature of man, the understanding of the creative process, the problem of human survival beyond death, and the mystery of evil. I have, however, brought in the views of other religious systems and offered a critique of their relationship to the theistic position. Wherever thought has moved to the specific content of the Christian disclosure in Jesus Christ, I have stopped short. Philosophy of religion, and theistic philosophy in particular, are only prolegomena to the task of the Christian theologian.

This document's purpose is to spell out the Church's understanding of the nature of revelation--the process whereby God communicates with human beings. It touches upon questions about Scripture, tradition, and the teaching authority of the Church. The major concern of the document is to proclaim a Catholic understanding of the Bible as the "word of God." Key elements include: Trinitarian structure, roles of apostles and bishops, and biblical reading in a historical context.