Who Is God? Key Moments of Biblical Revelation

This monograph presents a biblical theology that traces the progressive revelation of God's identity through pivotal moments in Scripture, arguing that divine self-disclosure occurs primarily through historical events rather than abstract propositions. Bauckham examines how the biblical narrative constructs knowledge of God through concrete encounters and experiences that shape Israel's and the early church's understanding of the divine nature.

The work centers on analyzing key episodes where God reveals essential aspects of divine character: the exodus event establishing God as liberator and covenant-maker, the Sinai theophany communicating divine holiness and law, the exile demonstrating judgment and faithfulness, and supremely the incarnation revealing God's nature through Jesus Christ. Bauckham argues these moments function not merely as isolated incidents but as interconnected revelatory events that cumulatively disclose who God is in relation to creation and humanity.

Methodologically, the study employs narrative theology and canonical criticism, reading biblical texts as a unified witness to divine identity while respecting their historical particularity. Bauckham challenges approaches that abstract philosophical attributes from biblical narratives, contending instead that Scripture presents God's character through storied relationships and mighty acts. This narrative approach particularly emphasizes how divine names revealed at crucial junctures encode theological meaning about God's nature and purposes.

The monograph engages critically with natural theology traditions that claim knowledge of God through reason alone, arguing such approaches miss the fundamentally historical and relational character of biblical revelation. Against purely philosophical theism, Bauckham maintains that the God of Scripture can only be known through the particular history of Israel culminating in Jesus Christ. This position also implicitly challenges religious pluralism by insisting on the irreducible specificity of biblical revelation.

The work's significance lies in its sophisticated defense of revelation-based theological epistemology that takes seriously both the narrative form of Scripture and claims about divine self-disclosure in history. By focusing on how biblical texts present God's identity through key revelatory moments rather than timeless truths, Bauckham offers a distinctly theological contribution to debates about religious knowledge. His approach provides resources for understanding biblical faith's truth claims while maintaining the centrality of historical particularity in Christian theology. The monograph thus advances a robust theological account of how the biblical God becomes known through sovereign acts of self-revelation in human history.