The Antipathy Between Prophecy and Religion

Author: Lewis Benson

Format: 8.5" x 11" Downloadable PDF

Description: This essay lays the groundwork for many of Lewis Benson’s lectures. In his introduction to this work,  he states: 

"When prophecy becomes an object of study for the historian, sociologist, or philosopher it is usually seen as a particular manifestation of a universal phenomenon—religion. Thus the faiths with a prophetic character come to be regarded as a species of the genus “religion”  and it then becomes possible to speak of the “prophetic element in religion” and to contrast  “prophetic religion” with other types of “religion”. 

But prophecy does not understand itself in these terms. It does not regard itself as the species of a genus. It does not wait for the scientist of religion to classify it and tell it where it belongs in the family of religions. From a position within the prophetic ethos, religion does not appear as the overarching universal phenomenon of which prophecy is a  particular type. Instead, religion appears as something that stands over against faith in the word of the speaking God as a competitor with that faith. 

It is my aim to present the thesis that prophecy and religion are antipathetical and that  Christianity must be understood in the context of that antipathy."

Benson takes up the following subjects: 

1. The Old Covenant And Religion 
2. The New Covenant And Religion 
3. The Question of Typology 
4. The New Covenant And History