Ch. 3 Abrahamic Monotheistic Religions and Period 3: 600-1500

Plato

disciple of Socrates, theory of Forms, rationalist, doctrine of reminisce

Aristotle

Greek philosopher, A pupil of Plato, focused on the observable world, inductive and deductive reasoning, empiricist, four causes

Religion

Religion is human transformation to a perceived ultimacy

Why Christians take issue with Young's definition of religion

the use of perceived, God has revealed himself to us, we didn't discovered God

Wolter's Worldview definition

a comprehensive framework of basic beliefs about things

Abrahamic Monotheistic Religions

Judaism, Christianity, Islam

Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

lived during the decline of the Western Roman Empire, Christian platonist, his writings helped shape Christian doctrine for centuries, key works: On Free Will, Confessions, On the Trinity, On the City of God, key thinker in reasoning/formulating the church's position on original sin, grace, faith, and trinity, "I believe in order that I might understand"

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

lived during the crusades, Christian Aristotelian, argued that the most basic religious truths could be proved by logical argument, key work: Summa Theologica, "Faith is an intellectual act whose object is truth", 5 proofs of God

Al-Ghazali (1058-1111)

key work: The Incoherence of the Philosophers, attacked the rationality of the Greeks, didn't agree with: 1. Universal is eternal 2. God knows about universals, not particulars 3. Denial of bodily resurrection, concluded that Islam pursues truth but within the confines of Islamic teaching

5 proofs of God

proof of motion, causality, contingency, perfection, design

Averroes (1126-1198)

Muslim Aristotelian, key work: Incoherence of the Incoherence, uneducated should take Quaran literally, educated have a religious obligation to use reasoning, philosophy and religion aren't compatible

Moses Maimonides (1135-1204)

Spanish-born Jewish Aristotelian, key work: guide to the perplexed, negative theology: God is not human, attributes implies God is like us, "God has no attributes"

Great Schism of 1054

The separation between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church; East: patriarchy under the Byzantine Empire, greek, priests could marry, "correct church" West: patriarchy under the pope, Latin, priests couldn't marry, "universal" church, both churches had doctrinal issues

The Crusades (1096-1291)

eight religious wars between Christendom and the Muslim Empire over control of Jerusalem

Christian Platonism

Augustine, we know about beauty, justice, and love bc they are God-given ideals (general revelation); truth exists (special revelation) and can give clarity to our rationality; we need faith which gives our reason clarity

Christian Aristotelianism

Aquinas, truth by faith is revealed truth (special revelation), truth arrived at by reason is philosophical truth

Islamic Aristotelianism

Averroes, we accept the Quran is true, but some parts are false, the text is a poetic truth that uses philosophical reasoning, and philosophy and religion aren't compatible

Jewish Aristotelianism

Maimonides, attributes are either accidental or essential, God has no attributes

"The Way of the Torah"

In God's image, missing the mark, disobedience, next year in Jerusalem, the way of the torah, it is good, the great "I AM"

"The way of Jesus Christ"

One in Christ, separation from God, original sin, the kingdom of God in Heaven and on earth, grace faith and sacraments, creation and the cosmic Christ, one God 3 persons

"The way of submission to Allah"

from a single soul, rejecting Allah's guidance, distractions, house of Islam, a life of submission, the signs of Allah, no God but Allah

top similarities of the Abrahamic monotheistic religions

belief in a transcendent, immanent God; eschatoglical metanarrative, human problem is disconnection from God

top differcens of the Abrahamic monotheistic religions

trinity; human problem, nature or nature; rational; created in the image of God

original sin

The fallen state of human nature into which all generations of people are born

Period III events

China: Song and Tang Dynasty

Middle East: Muslim Empire

Europe: Christendom "Middle Ages"

Latin America: Aztecs and Incas

Pastoral People: Mongols

Worldview vs. Religion

A worldview is based on human beliefs while a religion is based on beliefs of a higher power.

Worldviews don't focus on answering the problems, just cite it.

Abrahamic Monotheistic religions

sacred texts link them to Abraham who, called by God, renounced other gods and followed ONE God

Why the term Abrahamic Monotheistic Religion may not be helpful

bc of the metanarrative, Islam rather than Christianity would then be the revelation to Abraham/the next chapter to Judaism

Early Church

paintings of real people in real-time and space, simple, met in small groups, sang and had communion together, believed in truth not just the religiosity of it, generous community

Church in the Middle Ages

symbolic art, Gregorian chant impersonal, focused on honest work well done, Church provided for the poor and disadvantaged, hospitals, Europe is solidly Christian, bad gov't destroys communities, good gov't are Christian, had to be baptized to be Christian

contributions of the 5

Augustine: formulated the church's position on original sin, grace, faith, trinity, and the Church in world history; Aquinas: summa theologica -rational defense of Christianity and foundation of Catholic theology; Al-Ghazali: incoherence of philosophers 3 things; Averroes: "double truths" or truth that is relative to the inquiry; Maimonides: we need a proper view of God, we can't limit Him to our attributes

perennialism

all religions teach the same universal truths, same mountain different paths

pluralism

every mountain is equally true

inclusivism

while our mountains may feel or look different you are really climbing my mountain

exclusivism

while there are other mountains only 1 mountain is worth climbing, most consistent with the beliefs of Christianity

particularism

understand and respect each mountain's particulars, also consistent with Christianity

History of Judaism

God chooses Abraham and reveals Himself to the descendants of Abraham and oral Torah

History of Christianity

Jesus during the early days of Roman Empire, dies and is resurrected, his words and works=God, after destruction of temple Christianity takes on institutionalized forms of the Roman Empire

History of Islam

Abraham's fist son Ishmael ancestor to the people of the Arabia, Muhammad receives a word-for-word message from the Angel Gabriel, final revelation of Allah, Muhammad's words complied into Quran