"medium high priority" book questions

What is the significance of Bernard of Clairvaux and Peter Abelard in Inbody's discussion of theology?

Bernard represents theology rooted in the church and monastery, while Abelard represents a more detached, university-oriented approach.

Why does Inbody reject the idea that the university provides a completely neutral context for theology?

Theology cannot be separated completely from the faith community and its commitments.

What are the descriptive and normative functions of tradition?

Descriptive tradition records historical beliefs and practices, while normative tradition provides a criterion by which beliefs can be evaluated.

What are the objective and subjective poles of revelation?

The objective pole is God's initiating action, while the subjective pole is humanity's response.

Does Inbody believe revelation means awareness of God did not exist before Israel and Jesus?

No; awareness of mystery or divinity existed outside Judaism and Christianity, while Christ provides decisive new understanding.

Why does Inbody distinguish revelation from the words of Scripture themselves?

Scripture is a historical product through which revelation is transmitted and interpreted.

What does Langdon Gilkey associate with human awareness of ultimacy?

Contingency, relativity, temporality, and autonomy.

What does Karl Rahner's transcendental analysis emphasize?

Human questioning, hoping, and loving reveal an openness toward absolute mystery.

How does Inbody use science as an example of elemental faith?

Scientific inquiry requires trust in the intelligibility and regularity of reality.

How does Inbody use ordinary social life as an example of elemental faith?

Social life requires basic trust in other people and in the world.

What does Philo contribute to Inbody's discussion of classical theism?

He helped develop the synthesis between biblical descriptions of God and classical philosophical attributes.

What distinction does William of Ockham make between potentia absoluta and potentia ordinata?

Potentia absoluta refers to God's absolute power, while potentia ordinata refers to God's chosen and ordered way of acting within creation.

What does Inbody mean by the economic Trinity?

God's activity and self-revelation in history.

What does Inbody mean by the immanent Trinity?

Who God eternally is in God's own divine life.

What does Inbody mean by saying the Trinity is not merely a mathematical puzzle?

The Trinity summarizes the church's experience of God as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.

What is the relationship between the Trinity and salvation according to Inbody?

Christ's full divinity matters because the Christian understanding of salvation depends upon who Christ truly is.

What does Inbody mean by “one essence, three persons”?

God is one divine essence or substance existing as three distinct persons.

What is ousia?

Essence or substance.

What is hypostasis?

Person or particular.

How does Inbody distinguish Tritheism from Modalism?

Tritheism treats the three persons as separate gods, while Modalism collapses their distinctions into different modes or appearances.

What does McIntosh mean by his author/playwright analogy for God?

God is like the author or playwright while creatures are like characters, emphasizing both God's transcendence and intimate presence.

What does McIntosh's author/playwright analogy NOT mean?

It does not mean that God mechanically determines every human action.

What does Griswold connect divine authority with?

The ability to impart life and bring something into being rather than merely exercising raw coercive power.

How does McIntosh describe the created world in relation to God?

The world is analogical, symbolic, and sacramental, pointing beyond itself toward God.

What does McIntosh mean by the eternal Word?

God's eternal self-understanding.

What does McIntosh associate with the eternal Spirit?

God's eternal delight and love.

How does McIntosh understand revelation?

Revelation is an encounter with the Word rather than merely the delivery of information or propositions.

How does McIntosh understand the relationship between general and special revelation?

Special revelation helps interpret God's meaning within the broader revelation present throughout creation.

What is natural religion according to McIntosh?

Humanity's tendency to construct conceptions of gods according to human power structures, interests, and distorted expectations.

What does God's revelation do to Israel's natural religion according to McIntosh?

It liberates and converts Israel away from distorted and idolatrous conceptions of God.

Why does McIntosh say God chooses Israel?

God's choice arises from love rather than Israel's political power, size, or superiority.

How does McIntosh characterize revelation as a process?

Revelation involves conversion, disruption, liberation, growth, and learning to perceive reality differently.

What is the primary antagonist of faith according to McIntosh?

Fear.

How does McIntosh characterize faith?

Faith is friendship and trust in God rather than merely intellectual agreement with propositions.

What are the “what,” “how,” and “why” dimensions of faith according to McIntosh?

What concerns what God teaches; how concerns how we hold something as true despite incomplete understanding; why concerns the deeper movement toward God's love and hope.

Why does McIntosh place faith before hope and love?

We cannot hope for or love what we have not first encountered or heard of.

What happens to faith when human beings fully share in God's knowing and loving?

Faith gives way to direct knowledge.

How does McIntosh understand God's oneness in the Trinity?

God's oneness is perfect and infinite unity of loving communion rather than merely mathematical singularity.

How does McIntosh characterize God's eternal Trinitarian life?

As an activity of self-sharing love.

What does Jesus' relationship with the Father reveal according to McIntosh?

It reflects something eternally true about God's own divine life.

What does Simone Weil's Trinitarian interpretation emphasize?

Infinite love between Father and Son and God's making “room” within divine life for creation.

What does the cross represent in Simone Weil's interpretation?

Infinite divine love reaching into creation.

What does Jan van Ruusbroec emphasize about human existence?

Human life flows forth from God's Trinitarian life and moves toward return to God.

Why is Gregory of Nazianzus significant in McIntosh's discussion?

He defended Trinitarian doctrine while emphasizing its paradoxical and ultimately incomprehensible character.

What does C. S. Lewis's “scent of a flower / echo of a tune” imagery illustrate?

Created experiences can awaken awareness of something beyond themselves.

What does George Herbert's “Love (III)” illustrate in McIntosh's discussion?

The conflict between fear and guilt and God's welcoming love.