Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An appearance of a god to a human; a divine manifestation.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A manifestation of God or of gods to man by actual appearance.
  • noun [capitalized] The festival of the Epiphany.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A manifestation of God to man by actual appearance, usually as an incarnation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A manifestation of a deity to a man.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a visible (but not necessarily material) manifestation of a deity to a human person

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin theophania, from Late Greek theophaneia : Greek theo-, theo- + Greek phainein, phan-, to show; see bhā- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin theophania, corresponding to theo- + -phany.

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Examples

  • This is what theologians call a theophany—a temporary vision of God given to his people for the purpose of encouragement.

    ONE GREAT TRUTH JONATHAN FALWELL 2008

  • When I first learned of that correlation in college, I at once associated the idea of theophany with that of vocation and that of baptism with both.

    Theophany and vocation Mike L 2008

  • In fact, the so-called theophany doesn't reveal anything that is not accessible to natural theology and a Wisdom perspective.

    Archive 2007-09-01 James F. McGrath 2007

  • As I said in a post about Job which appeared here a couple of years ago, I think that the genre of this book, as Wisdom literature, is crucial to interpreting the "theophany" presented at the end.

    Indescribable James F. McGrath 2009

  • The 'theophany' thus shows from nature that our claims to understand it all including the sufferings of any given human individual are arrogant and misguided.

    Archive 2007-09-01 James F. McGrath 2007

  • The message of the first part of the 'theophany' could be summarized as follows: "If you think you can organize a world better than I have, go ahead!"

    Archive 2007-09-01 James F. McGrath 2007

  • So why does the 'theophany' mention the things it does?

    Archive 2007-09-01 James F. McGrath 2007

  • His appearance on horse-back is a kind of theophany, cowboys doing him homage with a reverential gesture:

    Monstre Désacré Wills, Garry 1990

  • United together in anticipation of the gift promised by the Lord, the apostles and disciples experienced a theophany, or visitation by God.

    Pentecost Sunday: The Church made manifest 2009

  • United together in anticipation of the gift promised by the Lord, the apostles and disciples experienced a theophany, or visitation by God.

    Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog: 2009

Comments

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  • Some credit strange creatures from space

    Or think that a ghost haunts the place

    But don’t often see

    The theophany

    Made plain in a babe’s smiling face.

    January 6, 2019