Christianity theme 2 essay plans

Is God Male? A01

Language about God in Bible (and how leads to alternate interpretations)

Sallie McFague:

1. Metaphor

2. God as Mother

3. 3 personalist models

We should refer to God as mother A02

NO	YES
Father is divinely inspired	Biblical use of mother
Panentheism	Patriarchy
God has no gender	Allows greater understanding (develop upon context)
CONC: Metaphors such as God as mother are useful as long as maintain knowledge of God’s transendence

Can God Suffer? A02

Traditional Christian View

The ‘New Orthodoxy’

Jürgen Multmann

1. Elie Wiesel

2. Cry of Dereliction

3. Meaning for God

4. Meaning for modern Christians

Christians can never believe in a suffering God A02

NO	YES
Early view = impassible	Biblical evidence
	Crucifixion – divine must suffer 1.        Physical 2.        Spiritual (Moltmann problems but those are overcome)
	Omnibenevolent God would suffer
Anthropomorphises God and panentheism
CONC: God must suffer e.g. on cross but can’t assume he suffers the same way as us - empathetically Only God who can suffer with us is worthy of worship

The Trinity A01

Why necessary

Biblical foundation

Filioque Controversy

Immanent and Economic Trinity

Modern Developments (Schleiermacher and Barth)

Problems with Barth and Solutions

Nature of Christ in the Trinity A01

Need for Doctrine of Trinity - establish what it is

high Christology

Low Christology

Eternal and pre-existent/Relationship w/ Father

Role as son for salvation

Role as son for judgement

(include biblical foundation throughout)

Doctrine of Trinity isn’t compatible w/ monotheism

Isn’t compatible	Is Compatible
Lead to heresy - tritheism	The fact that the Doctrine exists shows it’s truth Tritheism = not full understanding of homoousios nature
Biblical evidence of oneness	Still biblically justified Revealed later in NT
Illogical	God = transcendent so inherently beyond comprehension
Doctrine of Trinity designed to helo us understand God’s monotheism so must be compatible Trinity is best way early Christians understood God Developed over time (councils) to ensure it’s theologically accurate and a faithful interpretation of biblical monotheism

the doctrine of the trinity is necessary to understand God

Yes	No
Only way to understand God’s monotheism	Complicated so could lead to heresy
It evidences how to understand Jesus	Don’t need it to spread Jesus’ message Can understand story of Jesus and salvation without full knowledge of Trinity (e.g. still a moral example)
Model for human relationships	Immanent vs economic Eastern church = we can only know the economic (therefore doctrine doesn’t really teach us much about God)
Disagreement over the doctrine (e.g. filioque controversy) shows that no one actually understands the doctrine so can’t be necessary Naïve to suggest we could ever understand Christian God