the most intense experience of god's presence occurs in the form of theophany. in what is probably fretheim's most controversial chapter (chapter 6), he describes the appearances of god in the old testament and the human reaction to them. to fretheim, the spoken word delivered by god is no more important than the appearance itself, the visible word, as he calls it. he suggests that modern theologians need to broaden their understanding of the word of god to include the visual aspects of revelation as well as the spoken/written word.