ChristCiv Midterm Study Guide

What is a telos

a goal or end

things people pursue

What is Aristotle's view of the human telos

any action has a goal

goals can be ranked

at some point a goal is only pursued for its own sake known as the end goal

What does Aristotle think goals have a connection to

nature (the kind of thing that something is)

What does Aristotle think the end goal is

happiness

because it is always chosen for itself and not for the sake of a further telos

What does Aquinas think the summum bonum or highest good is

Why?

God

He is the source from which all goodness comes

According to Aquinas, the summum bonnum cannot be...

Why?

created good

because it participates in goodness from God and dont exist on their own

How does Augustine say we can be happy

our will must be at rest

but we must want the right thing and have what we want

Why can creatures only find their rest in enjoying God

God is the one good thing that you can never lose

Define and explain modernity

An increasingly scientific and decreasingly religious view of reality that relies heavily on knowledge as truth

What are the main goals of modernity

to contribute to society in knowledge and productivity

domination of nature

Define and explain postmodernity

beyond modernism

rejection of a universal truth that explains each individuals narrative

What are the goals of post modernity

to satisfy yourself based on your own experience

What is Robert Sokolowski's account of the Christian distinction

-God's difference to us is greater than any difference between creatures

-God is so distinct from everything else that he could have been all that exists

How does sokolowski's view of Christian distinction apply to prayer and gratitude

GRATITUDE

-God's action of creation is pure grace and gift, He created for our good

- the mixed relation that God doesn't depend on us but we depend on Him

PRAYER

-God is more intimate to me than I am to my self

-this establishes not just the possibility of prayer but also the necessity of it

Explain Kathryn Tanner's creation ex nihilo as mixed metaphor

because the concept of creating out of nothing is too difficult for us to understand, we must use 2 metaphors

-metaphor of workmanship- God has the intentionality of a potter

-metaphor of emanation - God produces his own materials that are needed to create

Creation is a _____ ____ ___ _____

free act of God

Explain Augustine's account of the wedding ring and explain its meaning emphasis to refer vs prefer

-if a bride loves the ring more than she loves the bridegroom this would make her a bad person

-in the same way we should not love God's creation more than God himself

-this means that we should prefer God to His gifts and love things in a way that refers us to God

general vs special revelation

What three aspects of the Imago Dei does Plantiga list

-dominion and stewardship

-we live in loving communion

-we live in Christ through suffering and death

What is the tradtional answer of what makes us human

materialistic

morality

language

Explain the idea of sin and evil as privation

sin is the absence of goodness rather than existing on its own

so as something becomes more evil, it vecomes less like themselves

evil is parasitic

Explain Augustine's distinction between use and enjoyment

-two different ways to love

-enjoyment-the only way God should be loved, love something that you can cling to and be truly blessed

-use- everything else

assign the right love to the right thing

Explain Plantiga differentiation between common grace and saving grace

common grace is God giving non-saving grace to people, general blessings like sunlight and food

saving grace-Redmption and eternal salvation

What does Aquinas say are the two goals of the incarantion

-advancement in the good (active obedience of Christ)

-removal of the bad (passive, meaning God suffers for use)

Explain the three offices of Christ

1.prophet- Christ teaches us about God and humanity

2.Priest - both expiation and propitation, brings/is the offering that makes atonement for our sin

3. King- Rule, protection from enemies, gives laws

Explain expiation and propitiation

taking away guilt

dealing with the anger that guilt occassions

Explain Anselm's objective theory of atonment

-if you fail to honor God, Christ is the only one who can fix your relationship

-shows that sin is an objective disorder

-offers us confidence that our standing before God is reliant on Christ

Explain Abelard's subjective theory of atonement

-the atonment change you in yourself because God's love is revealed to you

- repentence is coerced byu God's love

Aulen's Christus Victor theory of atonement

-atonement is about Christ as victor over evil (the ressurection)

-salvation offers hope

-is true but doesn't emphasize that our biggest problem is how we relate to God

pre enlightenment epistemology

the object determines the approach to knwowing

post enlightenment epistemology

the appraoch to knowing determines the object

puts uncertainity in objects existence

Explain Aquinas's version of natural law

natural law is knowable to all via reasoning

natural law is discovered, not invented

because we know naturem we ought to know the goal and obligations of human nature

objective divine goal

divine law gives shape to the world and natural law follows

Explain Aquinas's account of the first principle of natural law

Good is to be done, evil is to be avoided

Because of this we are to follow the law but unjust civil laws are to be avoided

Explain Locke's version of natural law

-we do not know know natural law and so we cannot ground moral law in this

-instead moral law is about specific positive goods (pursuing truth, raising children) and natural law is about close goods like life, property, and the freedom to choose

subjective

Explain Locke's epistemology

-we do not have direct knowledge of substances

-this leads to an agnostic view of natural law

explain particularist vs methodist epistemologies

particularist-we know something and then refelct on how we came to know that thing and if it was a good way or not

methodist- establish a good process of obtaining knowledge first and then you can apply it to objects

Explain Hume's epistomology (skeptical empiricist)

-skeptical empiricist (knowledge comes from sensory data but we cannot observe connections between events (cause and effect)

-metaphysical (outside of this world) things cannot be observed and so they can't be justified

-we cannot derive moral obligations from empirical data because it is skeptical****

Explain the epistomology of Descartes (methodological doubt)

"I think therefore I am"-mind is the only thing that exists

everything must be thrown away (good or bad) if there is any possibility of doubt

moves the subject to the center because the mind is cut off from the rest of the world

define and explain classical foundationalism

Descartes and Locke-our knowledge can be justified if they come a certain foundation- but we cant really know anything because there is no certain foundation

Lyotard desription of postmodernity as incredulity towards metanarratives

skepticism in overarching stories that historically legitimized knowledge and universal truths

Define and explain Satre’s existentialism

existence precedes and rules essence

we are free to make ourselves who we want to be

Explain the mimetic and poietic views of personhood

mimetic

-"imitate"

-assumes human nature as fixed and objective and so the goal of life is to pursue excellance and conform to the objective standards of society

-confidence in tradition

poietic

"making"

-human nature is self making and subjective

Kant's distinction between the noumenal and the phenomenological epistemology

noumenal-we cannot know objects as they are independent of your mind, we cannot access them because we only know categories

phenomenological- our subjective impressions of the external world, objects are perceived and then filtered by category, we don't know object, only category

explain Darwin’s version of natural selection

a natural process of variation which relies on inheritance, compeition,, and a growing population

Three main legacies of Darwin's natural selection

-the absence of a Creator - everything is explained by natural process, meaning God is irrelevant

-the loss of teleology-no goals, we are just a cog

-loss of humanity's special status-we are just a creature

What does Nietzsche mean by 'God is dead'?

Humanity is progressing beyond religion

We have not realized this yet

Explain Freud’s account of a human person

the self is made of 3 parts that are in conflict with eachother and we must learn how to deal with internal conflict

-id (primal, instinctual)

-superego (morality)

-ego (rational, conscious part of personailty)

Explain the double grace of justification and sanctification

Justification is God's acceptance of sinners

Sanctification-lifelong process of being more of who Christ has called us to be

List the three theories of atonements

objective anselm

subjective abelard

Christus victor

What is the goal of natural theology according to Evans

to move us toward anti-naturalism because naturalism is not problem free

naturalism defined as the commitment that the physical is all that there is

Explain Evan's idea of anit-naturalism

God is the reason for the universe and is not just a piece of evidence within the univers

naturalism is not the neutral defaults

Why is anti-naturalism compatible with the natural sciences

the natural scieces are not supposed to give you metaphysical answers

5 natural signs for God

cosmic wonder

purposive order

moral accountability

human dignity and worth

longing for transcendent joy

cosmic wonder

contemplate vastness, order and complexirt of the natural world causes us to feel an awe that points towards a transcendent source

purposive order

the objective structure and that all objects move toward a goal means they all have a purpose

moral accountability

we have a universal experience of moral OBLIGATION

human dignity and worth

human beings have inherent value and worth

longing for transcendent joy

humans have an innate desire for meaning and purpose

restlessness for something beyond this world

defeater beliefs

idea that one is already committed to that defeasts new evidence

prevents one from accepting God’s existence

Strengths and weaknesses of Dreher’s Benedict Option

we must find a new way to live out Christianity to avoid assimilation into our currennt culture

strengthes- community is necessary for the survival of chrisitanity and geography is a secret to dtrong community

weaknesses- can become cultish- too much control of members, ignoring generational importance

Explain Lewis’s Inner Ring

a group of people that change who is in and out

exclusive

the lust to be included can lead to other sin

instead of pursing a ring we should master our craft and then people will be drawn to is

Ancient understanding of “headship”

the body sacrifices for the good of the head and without the head the body coud not sacrifice

the head is placed higher and is superior to the rest of the body

Pauls approach to “headship” in Ephesians 5

the head (Christ) sacrificses for the good of the bdoy

Principled pluralism

1.Christian gospel causes people to act in love

the state is limited by the divince

2. religious tolerance- in order for faith to be authentic it must be freely adopted

driver is to love God and love your neigh

confessional state/neo christendom

-legal underwriting of Christian public privelege

-the core values for democracy must be derived from Christianity

-other religions are threadbare

List some of the challenges to family life and parenting in contemporary culture

-basic decisions are increasingly set by children

-culture of disrespect toward authority or elders

-isolation

-geography

-standard is to depart from norms as the basis of belonging

-technology

-decline of free play and independence

-rising polarixation