Systematic Theology Test 2

What are the 5 names for God we have learned?

1. Tetragrammaton (YHWH)

2. Yahweh

3. Jehovah

4. ”I am who I am”

5. Lord

2 ways of discovering the attributes of God

1. Via aminentiae - Saying what God is

2. Via negative - Saying what God is NOT

2 types of divine attributes

1. Incommunicable - We cannot share (immortal, perfection)

2. Communicable - One that we can share (Relational, Love)

What is Transcendence?

Degree which God surpasses our finite human abilities to conceive and describe

What is Immanence?

God being near, present, everywhere, ubiquitous, omnipresent

What is Immutability?

Describes the constancy of God and God’s character

What is Analogical language?

Language that was “symbolic in nature” (God as powerful/Merciful)

What is apophatic language?

Emphasizes that human conceptions of God are incapable of conceptualizing God.

What is Omnipotence?

All powerful

What is Omnipresence?

Everywhere present

What is Omniscience?

To knows all things

What are the four attributes of divinity to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

1. Divine names

2. Divine attributes

3. Divine works

4. Worship

What is Heresy?

Beliefs that were thought to address parts of biblical teaching but not all of it

Who was Arius and what did he think?

Christian thinker from 256-336

Thought that Jesus was not equal to God

What is subordination?

Jesus is less than God

What is Homousios?

Being of one essence or the same substance

What is Adoptionism/dynamic Monarchianism?

Jesus was a person who had the power of God and represented God in amazing ways, but had no essentail union with God

What is Modalist Monarchianism?

Only one God, but God has various apperances to make it seem as if he where multiple divine persons

What is Tritheism?

Affirming that all three persons of the Godhead (trinity) are separate

What is Unitarianism?

Advocates belief in God as one person alone, reflecting the ongoing conern for the ancient monotheistic understanding of God.

What is Ontological?

God’s existance is proved by reason because the Christian idea of God must be true

What are the four arguments for Cosmological?

1. Motion - everything in motion must have a first “mover”

2. Causality - Everything is subject to cause, must be a first cause

3. Contingency - Everything dependent on something else fo its existence

4. Degrees of being - there is a hierarchy of being in the world, God is highest perfection

What is Teleological?

The design for the universe did not happen by chance

What are the Volitional Arguments for God?

A person must take a leap of faith because the claims of Christianity can seem absurd

What is Monism?

All things in the universe are derived from and are equal to one ultimate source

What is Dualism

There are two equal yet distinct realities in the universe (one good and one all evil)

What is providence?

The word Christians use to describe how God sustains, governs, and develops all aspects of creation in accordance with God’s will.

What is the Phychological model of the Trinity?

The unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is like the unity of the mind, heart, and volition of a person. Memory (Father) reason (Son) love (Holy Spirit)

What is the Social Model of the Trinity?

We should think of the unity of the Trinity more like the unity of mind, heart, and will of three people (Counselor, comforter, advocate, helper)

What is Ousia?

Substance. All people of the Trinity are all equally God

What is Hypostases or Personae?

Each person of the Trinity is its own person

What are the four characteristics of a god in the ancient world?

1. holy/spirit

2. Personified

3. Powerful

4. Worshipped

What are the eight issues of gender language for God?

1. God: Person, Not Force

2. The Imago Dei

3. Earth-mother goddess & Panentheism

4. Earth-mother goddess & Women’s Rights

5. Gender Preference re: God

6. Jesus, God, & Women

7. God’s Perfection & “Healing images”

8. God’s Fatherhood & the End of Patriarchy

What does Simplicity mean?

God has no parts, he is just God. Attributes of God are not at war with each other

What is Aseity? (Foghorn Leghorn. I say, I say, I say)

God does not depend on anything else to exist

What is Polytheism?

Many Gods; God’s/Spirits over different parts of nature or human nature

What is Monotheism? (mono=one)

One God

What is Deism?

Distant God (clock maker)

What is Pantheism?

The world is God

What is Panetheism?

All in God; dualism (A good side and a bad side) God is the soul, the world is the body

What is the Orthodox formula for the Trinity?

1. God is three persons who share 1 essence/being/substance

2. “person" is not an individual of people when referring to God

3. Essential equality

4. Eternal differentiation

5. Differentiation in Functions/roles (Father plans, Son becomes incarnate, Holy Spirit fills us)