Systematic Theology 1

Wellum

Pluralism

God disappears and resurfaces in comparative religions - “God has many names” Key figures - Ghandi and John Hick

postmodernism

attempt to deconstruct reason and show that it is not universal or objective

intratextual

text sets agenda and gives the categories of thought

First four ecumenical councils

nicaea, constantinople, ephesus, chalcedon

Filioque clause (589)

States the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son

incomprehensibility of God

 the theological term that seeks to capture the biblical presentation of the triune God in all of his uniqueness, transcendence, and majestic glory

Freidrich Schleiermacher

wrote this definition of theology - Theology as analysis of the religious consciousness, the feeling of absolute dependence

Immanuel Kant

Claims of suprasensible reality that is not directly
experienced or verified by natural science is not knowledge of anything. theological concepts are empty without experience to give them content - precepts and concepts are both necessary in order to have knowledge

common grace

is every favor of whatever kind or degree,
falling short of salvation, which this undeserving and sin-cursed world enjoys at the hand of God

secularization

mindset focused on the here and now. results in marginalization of religion/God, a disappearance of God, religion is a private affair

pantheism

God is identified with creation. God is everything; he is not

transcendent or personal. not only depersonalizes God, it also destroys the perfection of his moral character.

panentheism

process theology. view of God characterizes the postmodern worldvie

Open Theism

Seeks to chart a middle road between traditional or classical theism and process theology. two emphases: divine relationality-love; human freedom (reduced view of sovereignty and omniscience)

clark pinnock, david and randall basinger, John sanders, Greg Boyd

proponents for open theism

compatibalistic freedom

actions are determined by sufficient conditions or causes, but as long as the conditions and causes do not coerce the agent, the agent is free (proponents: Jonathan edwards, john calvin, calvinism)

libertarian freedom

an action is free if there is nothing which decisively inclines the will in either direction

process theism/panetheism

God is in the process of growth along with evolution, consistently changing and unsure of future - God IS limited in knowledge

open theism

viewed God as a loving parent and fellow-sufferer who chooses to relate to his creatures by coming to know events as they take place in history - God CHOSE to be limited in knowledge

Traditional christian theism

theistic view that God is unlimited in knowledge

divine love

libertarian view of human freedom - free if God has not caused anything, incompatibale with determinism

Biblical arguments: better explains the diversity of biblical teaching—the sovereignty and majesty texts, along with the texts that speak of God’s vulnerability, suffering, and change of mind in response to humans

Arguments for open theism

predictive prophecy - open theism

“predictions based on foresight drawn from existing trends and tendencies,” which do not require God to have foreknowledge of future contingents.

repentance texts - open theism

fail to understand why texts are interpreted analogically, creating a inconsistent hermeneutic

anthropomorphism

figure of speech which
applies to God certain human forms, e.g., eyes, mouth, hands

anthropopathism

speech that human feelings, passions, mental activities are applied to God

argument against anthromorphism

is analogical

God ‘repents’ but he does so as
the Creator and not the creature. He does not repent in exactly the
same way we do.

keep together the truths that God does not change but also that he interacts with his creation. Although God is immutable, eternal and immeasurable in himself, he created us to relate to him, yet his nature, character, plan, and promises are immutable.

literal vs analogical speech

language is used in an ordinary and normal sense tied to convention unless some contextual clue suggests otherwise

uniquivocal

not open to interpretation, unambiguous

equivocal

open to interpretation

analogical

Because Scripture is God-given, the very language that God employs to describe himself is accurate, true, and reliable, yet not exhaustive, univocal, or equivocal, but _______. What is needed to know God rightly is to let all of Scripture speak for itself in its own categories across the canon

theistic proofs

demonstrate the existence of God and thus the rationality
of belief in the existence of God, at least at the probable or plausible level. In other words, _____ attempt to substantiate the theist’s belief in God, give a good reason for it, show that it is credible, and show that it is true

role of theistic proofs in apologetics

2 step process: 1) one argues for the plausibility of God’s existence (=bare monotheism); (2) one argues on the basis of historical evidences for the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, the historical reliability of Scripture, and thus the truthfulness of the Christian worldview

ludwig feuerbach

reduced theological liberalism to anthropology

God is simply a projection of human ideals

freidrich nietzsche

forefunner for death of God

a) universe has no meaning, b) no moral norms, c) knowledge is “will to power”

sigmund freud

God is an irrational illusion that needs to be banished from society to liberate sexuality

Karl marx

God is a projection of man

religion is a means of perpetuating an unjust social system

alfred whitehead and charles hartshorne

reality as a series of events with two poles: mental pole and physical pole

God is in the natural process of evolution, denying creature-creature distinction

a priori (ontological argument)

the existence of God is deduced from the conception of God

independent of experience - reason and logic

a posteriori (cosmological and teleological argument)

deduced from experience and empirical evidence

creator-creature distinction

God is eternal and not dependent on humanity

transcendence

God is above creation, not dependent, self-exisiting, absolute

immanence

God is near and present on earth, he is a covenant God, involved in human affairs

patripassianism

argued that the father suffered on the cross, since the father is not distinct from the son

homoousios

affirms the father is the same substance as the son

homoiousios

affirms son is like the father, but with physical (substance) or personal distinction

eternal relations of origin

From eternity, the divine persons have subsisted in the one, identical divine nature yet due to their mutual personal relations—the Father begetting the Son (paternity); the Son being begotten of the Father (eternal generation); and the Spirit
proceeding from the Father and the Son (eternal spiration)—God’s life in himself is full, perfect and lacking nothing.

modes of subsistence

the distinct way one God exists as three distinct persons

ad intra

term that refers to God alone and God in himself

microevolution

small change within one species

macroevolution

general theory of evolution that universe evolved over 14 billion years

irreducible complexity

cells could not have evolved from the simple to the complex since all the parts are required for the system to function from the start.

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God’s external works

classification of Gods attributes

defines a difference in God’s moral and nature attributes

problem is that both constitute God’s nature

communicable and incommunicable - some for God alone and some shared with creation

reformed way of classifying God’s attributes

perichoresis

the trinity occupies the same time and are eternal

person

is the who or the subject that subsists in a nature, thus making an ontological distinction between “person” and “nature

a subject who does things and to whom things happen, the subject or the subsistence of a nature that lives and acts in and through a nature.

economic trinity

God who has come to save the world

immanent trinity

God is able to save the world because he is independent of the world

traducianism

idea that human soul is transferred from parents to children

preexistence of the soul

idea that soul exists in a realm before being incarnated into the body

creationism

idea that God creates a soul for each individual at conception

via causalitatis

reasoning about God from effect to cause

via negationis

reasoning about God by way of negation

divine decree

it refers to the eternal plan of the covenant Lord whereby, before the creation of the world, he determined to bring about everything that happens - before the world began

reprobration

God’s plan that some will suffer eternal lostness

infra view

view insists that the decree of election and reprobation is “after” or “below” God’s decree to create and allow the fall, thus following the Bible’s redemptive-historical order of creation, fall, and redemption

supra

view subsumes all of God’s decrees under predestination to demonstrate God’s virtues and glory in all of his external acts. It answers the question of why God allowed the fall by insisting that God has done so to display all of his glorious perfections in both salvation and judgment.

remote agency

category refers to God’s causal agency through secondary means as more removed, such as in the case of allowing sin to occur

proximate agency

refers to God’s closer agency through secondary agents, such as the inspiration of Scripture/work of sanctification

timeless knowledge

God knows all things outside of the future because God is outside of time - we have appearance of a future but God does not

simple foreknowledge

“knowledge at any given time of what will in fact happen in the actual world at any given time

middle knowledge

God possesses not only the knowledge of what will in fact happen in the actual world (i.e., simple foreknowledge), but also what could in fact happen in all worlds and “what would in fact happen in every possible situation, including what every possible free creature would do in every situation in which that creature could find itself

dualism

the view that there are two distinct, co-eternal substances, or self-
existent principles from which all else are derived. This view denies creatio ex nihilo. Instead it affirms that God, the good spirit, or the evil spirit is more of an ‘organizer’ or ‘artisan’ fashioning something out of pre-existing matte

two types: good and evil; God and matter

four elements of gnosticism

a) God of OT is different than God of NT

b) OT God is concerned with matter, NT God is concerned with spiritual matters

c) creation was created evil

d) creation was mediated by lower beings (e.g. angels)

greek dualism

man is composed of two distinct
substances – matter/body or mind/soul (spark of divinity). However, they also
argued that matter (body) was inferior (morally evil) to the mind or soul

cartesian dualism

Mind or soul is made up of consciousness and cognition
(immaterial). The body is made up of extension/boundary (material).
Humans, then, must be some kind of union of mind/soul and body.