This book seeks to both to explore ways in which revelation may be viewed (Doctrine, History, Inner Experience, Dialectical Presence and New awreness) and argues that while all five models capture something of the truth none is adequate in itself.

The second half of the book is dedicated to exploring how these models might be synthesised into a sort of 'metamodel', and how this relates to wider questions such as Christology and the relation with other religions.

The book is effectively a metodological step forward from Models of the Church, in that Dulles gives a lot more space to the synthetic questions. As such whereas one could argue that his use of models in Models of the Church was mainly heuristic, here it is more foundational.

Dulles went on to address theological methodology more directly in The Craft of Theology ( )