Religion 12 - Intro: Catholic View of Creation, the Person, & Society

How do you reference Catholic documents?

reference by paragraph numbers; title is Latin of first two words, abbreviated to initials

How should Catholic view the world?

with a sacramental worldview - have to see wonder and beauty (the way back from the confusion of the world)

What was the world that Regis Martin grew up in dominated by? What world did his wife grow up in?

• Martin: dominated by Catholic Church - people would plan their day around church/liturgical seasons

• wife: postconciliar world (after Vatican II council); some religious orders turned away, and mindset of needing to get more crept in (Hannah says education leads us away to “better life”)

How do we start changing the world?

by opening heart to Jesus

What are the two metaphors?

1. Spyglass - used to see things far away and bring them into closer view; look through first lens of Genesis, creation, and the fall; 2nd lens is Christ and the Paschal Mystery (looking to path to Heaven)

2. Pilgrimage - journey; 4 qualities = fixed destination, works with landscape/environment, takes a long time but you have to keep moving, pilgrim changes on journey

What was there before God created the world?

only darkness and water, spirit (ruah) hovers over waters

inspire

to breathe into

“logos” and how it relates to Creation

Greek for Word; God speaks, so all three persons were present at Creation

ex nihilo

out of nothing (God created the world out of nothing)

What does God create on Days 1-3?

form/containers - they’re incomplete and must be filled next

1. time - day and night

2. space - sea and sky

3. life - land and vegetation

What are the days of Creation like, and what do they show us?

like ages, and show us there’s an order to Creation

What does God create on days 4-6?

rulers of the voids

4. rulers of time - sun, moon, and stars

5. rulers of space - fish and birds

6. rulers of life - man and animals

What happened on Day 7, and what did it represent?

the Sabbath rest - sign of covenant with Creation

What are the 8 truths of Genesis?

1. Nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God the Creator

2. Each creature possesses its own particular goodness and perfection

3. God wills the interdependence of creatures

4. The beauty of the universe

5. Hierarchy of creatures

6. Man is the summit

7. There is a solidarity among all creatures

8. The sabbath - the end of the work of the six days

Explain 1. Nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God the Creator.

our life is a gift

Explain 2. Each creature possesses its own particular goodness and perfection.

CCC 339. Each of the various creatures, willed in its own being, reflects in its own way a ray of God’s infinite wisdom and goodness. Man must therefore respect the particular goodness of every creature, to avoid any disordered use of things which would be in contempt of the Creator and would bring disastrous consequences for human beings and their environment.

• particular goodness is important!

• anything not of the order God created is disordered, and result is two-fold: 1. contempt of Creator and 2. disastrous consequences for humans and environment

particular goodness

each of the various creatures, willed in its own being, reflects in its own way a ray of God’s infinite wisdom and goodness

Explain 3. God wills the interdependence of creatures.

CCC 340. Creatures exist only in dependence on each other, to complete each other, in the service of each other.

Explain 4. The beauty of the universe

CCC 341.

• man progressively discovers laws of nature - order and harmony of created world results from diversity of beings and from relationships which exist among them

  • laws of nature = “admiration of scholars” (CCC 341)

• there are things that are objectively true, good, and beautiful

Explain 5. Hierarchy of creatures

6 days of creation move from less perfect to more perfect

• hiera = Greek for sacred/holy

• arkhein = Greek for to lead, rule

Explain 6. Man is the summit

• in God’s words, humans are very good

• imago dei - in the image of God

Explain 7. There is a solidarity among all creatures

everything affects everything else; we need each another

Explain 8. The sabbath - the end of the work of the six days

there’s rest in the order of Creation, so there should be in my life too

What are the basic principles of the social order?

1. God is the origin of all creation

2. Mankind has dominion over the world and everything in it

3. Man and Woman were created in a state of harmony

4. The family is the basic structure of human society

5. God created us in community, not solitude

6. Human nature is orderd

Explain social order principle 2. Mankind has dominion over the world and everything in it

• dominion implies stewardship - use creation responsibly; show by:

  1. Adam names animals - shows exercising authority over it

  2. Adam was put in the garden to tell and keep it - active participants in Creation (ex. helping tree come to natural end of growing peaches)

     • they knew what to do with weeds, etc.

Explain social order principle 3. Man and Woman were created in a state of marriage

• Eve comes from Adam’s rib - on his side and close to heart so equals

  • complementarity

  • marriage is foundation of all society

  • “the love of husband and wife is the force that welds society together” - St. John C

What is the foundation of all society?

marriage

Explain social order principle 6. Human nature is ordered

our nature is body and soul; faculties of soul (prelapsarian/before fall, they were perfectly balanced to create mastery of self):

• will - ability to choose

• intellect - reason; knowing good/bad

• appetite - desire/hunger

What is the human person’s identity?

child of God

vocation

from Latin vox (voice) or vocare (to call or summon)

What kind of act of God is the creation of man and woman?

free and gratuitous

original holiness

grace of God that allowed Adam and Eve to share in God’s own divine life

original justice

inner harmony of the person, harmony between man & woman, and harmony between first couple and all of creation

What does love always seek to do?

seeks to go outside itself; to be given

What is the best example of what the Trinity is like?

marriage (b/c 2 becomes one, and love that emerges from them = child)

Statement about the moments that matter most

The moments that matter most echo into eternity.

Christian anthropology

subset of theology that studies the nature of the race of man as it relates to God and revelation

• God revealed Himself to us, and that’s why we worship Him

What foundations of Christian anthropology does Genesis provide us with?

1. inalienable dignity of human person (can’t take it away, can’t assign it) - shown by God’s design of creation

2. our constitutive social nature - shown by original man & woman relationship, the union of whom “constitutes the first form of communion between persons”

3. human activity’s meaning in world - linked to laws of nature, humanity will live there and care for it in accordance with God’s will

“This vision [in GN] of the human person, of society and of history is…”

“rooted in God and is ever more clearly seen when his plan of salvation becomes a reality”

• seen now, when all of society does it

Who is the central figure in the painting “The Creation of the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars,” what is he doing and wearing, and who is around him?

• God is flying (central figure)

• in act of Creation; looking at Sun with hand in shape of “Blessing of Aaron”

• wearing red sash - indicates divinity

• cherubim are around him

What and when is the setting of the painting “The Creation of the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars”?

Garden of Eden before God made Adam and Eve (ppl and animals are depicted in rainbow/arc b/c God already has us in mind/in his intellect)

What else is depicted in the painting “The Creation of the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars” and why?

a balance - symbol of justice

Who wrote “No One Knows His Name,” and what is it about?

• St. Francis of Assisi

• about a poor man (but could also be about Jesus or St. Francis)

• God knows him even though no one else does, is building relationship with him (constructing temple)

• this is why Scripture talks about poor, suffering, etc.

Who wrote “God Would Kneel Down,” and what is it about?

• by St. Francis of Assisi

• God wants to share in our feelings - lingers (observing, interested) before weeping faces and laughing eyes

• enters into experience when we worship

Gerard Manley Hopkins

• Jesuit priest and romantic poet (would burn poems b/c didn’t like them, friend saved some)

• developed “sprung rhythm” (jumpy)

• thought world characterized by inscape

• selve and instress

inscape

distinctive design that constituted an individual identity; everything has distinct individual identity, which isn’t static but is alive/moving/dynamic

• each being = “selve”

According to Hopkins, what being is the most highly selve? What does that mean?

humans - most individually distinctive being in universe, recognizes inscape of every other individual

• b/c we’re “very good” and set at pinnacle of all creation

What does it mean to “selve”?

to enact your inscape/identity

instress

apprehension (experience) of object in an intense thrust of energy toward it that enables one to realize its specific distinctiveness

What does the instress of inscape lead us to?

Jesus

Who wrote “God’s Grandeur,” and what is it about?

Gerard Manley Hopkins; about God’s greatness and how nature is never spent, yet some don’t recognize the Cross/God

• Holy Ghost always “broods” over world

What does it mean that “The world is charged with the grandeur of God”? (God’s Grandeur)

filled with power, alive, ready for use b/c of God’s greatness

What images are used in “God’s Grandeur,” and what do they show?

• foil catching light and olives crushed for oil

• images for breaking (Ruah)

• sacrifice required

What does “Why do men then now not reck his rod?” mean? (“God’s Grandeur”)

Why don’t some recognize God’s royal rod - the Cross?

What is Hopkins being critical of in “God’s Grandeur”?

the industrial revolution - toil, trade, etc.

What does it mean that “And for all this, nature is never spent”? (“God’s Grandeur”)

nature always wins

Who wrote “As Kingfishers Catch Fire,” and what is it about?

Gerard Manley Hopkins, about selves and Christ being in everyone/everything

What images are enacting inscape in “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”?

kingfishers, dragonflies, stones (dropping stone into well), guitar/violin, cathedral bells (are usually named with Saint names)

What does it mean that “Each mortal thing does one thing and the same”? (“As Kingfishers Catch Fire”)

everything enacts inscape

What does it mean that “the just man justices / Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces”? (“As Kingfishers Catch Fire”)

the righteous man walks with God and lives in wonder/gratitude

Who wrote “Doubters,” and what is it about?

Timothy Williams; about people doubting the miracle of the Body and Blood while believing in scientific “miracles” and eating bread and getting drunk

What does hocus-pocus come from? (“Doubters”)

“Hoc est” = Latin for “this is,” so hocus pocus was originally a phrase for making fun of the Eucharist/words of consecration

What does “What Nature works upon slowly / her Author quickens for the lowly / to speed the salvation of these humble / though it cause the proud to stumble” mean? (“Doubters”)

God uses nature - grace builds upon nature