Theology Final

The apostolic tradition

Known as the faith of the Church founded by the apostles

Authority

The issue that appears in any discussion of the relation of scripture to tradition, experience, and reason

Canon

Measure, rule, or standard

True or False: To think critically does not mean to deny or denigrate beliefs, but rather to be analytical in order to interpret, understand, justify, or revise as well as reject, ideas, including theological ideas.

True

Tradition

The accumulated wisdom of the church and its leaders, whereby the faith derived from the scriptures, contained in the creeds, and expressed in the liturgy is interpreted for contemporary leaders.

Faith seeking understanding

The English translation of the Latin phrase fides quarens intellectum

Task of Theology

Judge between Christian orthodoxy and heresy

The Bible

The name applied to the collection of books which constitute the Scripture or canon of the church from the greek word biblios meaning “the books”

Three fundamental resources that Christian theology appeals to

Tradition, reason, bible

One aspect of the New Testament

Consists of 27 books

Number of languages used to write the original autographs of the Bible

3

One criterion that theologies use when assessing theological statements

It is consistent with the tradition of the Church

Credo

Latin word for “I believe”

Creeds

Kind of public statement used for instruction, defense of faith, and personal confession of faith at the time of baptism

True or False: Philosophical systems limit theological development and disable dialogue between Christian thinkers and their cultural environment

False

According to Rahner, theology is “the conscious and methodological explanation and explication of the divine _________ received and grasped in faith”

Revelation

True or False: In the Christian tradition, revelation is humanity’s initiative to uncover the mystery of God through faith

False

John 1:14, 18 states “And the Word became _________ and lived among us, and we have seen his glory… No one has ever seen God, It is God the only Son who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.”

Flesh

Revelare, Apocalypsis, Self-disclosure

Opposite of occult, meaning “hidden”

Revelation

The process of disclosing something unknown or inadequately known

Romans 1:20-22, “The wrath of God is being ________ from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world Hod’s invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

Revealed

Divine revelation is the movement of God to us in which God takes the initiative to reveal Godself to us, either in a general way through _________ or in a specific way through the _________ of God in Jesus Christ.

Creation

Incarnation

Two ways God has revealed Godself in the world, also called general revelation

Nature

Human Conscience

Two ways God has revealed Godself in speccial and specific ways, known as special revelation

Miracles

Incarnation of Jesus

Scripture

Primary source of revelation, providing the authoritative interpretation of God’s saving actions

1 Peter 1:17-21, “…You were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was _________ in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”

Revealed

One way that general revelation is insufficient as a way for human beings to know God

Can lead to worship of false gods

Tyron Inbody argued, “God is a gracious mystery who comes to us beyond our grasp as a gift. It is the first assertion of the recurring claim that _____ is the primary word to say about God’s work for our salvation.”

Grace

The second vatican council, in Dei Verbum (1965), explained how scripture, tradition, and magisterium coordinate in a Catholic understanding of ______.

Revelation

Number of books in New Testament

27

Name and describe one view of inspiration

Secular - myth, morals

Agnosticism

Literally “not to know,” usually refers to skepticism about the existence of God based on the inability to know one way or the other. Also refers to the inability to know with clarity or certainty many other claims.

Biblical Thiesm

God is a supernatural being (spirit) without a body who is creator, present everywhere, able to do anything, knows everything, is perfectly good. The source of moral obligation, holy, loving, and worthy of human worship.

Atheism

Literally no theism. In the strictest sense, atheism is the denial that the kind of God described by theism exists. In the larger sense, it is the denial of the reality of any kind of divinity.

Deism

The deity created the world and since then has withdrawn from any active participation, allowing the world to run on its own power, principles, and structures without any divine intervention, determination, or direction since it was set in motion.

Panentheism

God is in the world, and the world is in God. There is an internal relationship between God and the world so that there is a mutuality between God and the word in the sense that God affects the world and the world affects God.

Positivism

A system of philosophical ad religious doctrines elaborated by August Comte. Positivism denies the validity of metaphysical speculations and maintains that the data of sense experience are the only objects and the supreme criterion of human knowledge.

Fideism

The epistemology which asserts that we do not know or believe the Christian faith on the basis of any evidence or proof or any other basis than sheer belief. “I believe what I believe.”

Pantheism

The universe is God and, conversely, that there is no god apart from the substance, forces, and laws manifested in the universe. God and nature are merely two names for one reality.

Scientism

The view that science and the scientific method are the best or only way to render truth about the world and reality.

Classical Theism

The western synthesis between the biblical God and the God of greek philosophy, in which the ultimate reality is identified with the absolute, the changeless, the immutable.

Assensus

Believing that a teaching of the scripture of the church is true

Fidelitas

Faithfulness to Christ and his way of life; to commit oneself in allegiance as a faithful witness; to obey Jesus; to be loyal in life and death to the God whom we meet in Jesus.

Fiducia

Confidence in God’s grace, mercy, and acceptance if felt and expressed

Theophany

An appearance of God, an intense manifestation of the presence of God that is accompanied by an extraordinary visual display

4 dynamic realities posited by Gerald May

God searches for human beings

Human beings search for God

Human beings resist God

Presence of evil in the world

Faith and Reason

Two things like “two wings on which the human sporit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has place in the human heart a desire to know the truth - in a word, to know himself - so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to know the fullness of truth about themselves”

Telios

Purpose

Fiduciary responsibility

To care for another’s assets

First promise given to Moses

I am your shield and your reward

What kind of relationship is based on the promise “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your Gpd”

Covenant

God

The central agent in the Bible’s story, a long, complex, ambiguous, yet hopeful story that begins with creation and ends with a new heaven and a new earth.

Shema

The Jewish prayer that is the centerpiece of the daily morning and evening prayer services and is considered by some to be the most essential prayer in Judaism. It can be found in Deuteronomy, which begins with the words “hear,” “listen up,” or “pay attention.”

Theology of the Cross (theologia crucis)

Term coined by German theologian Martin Luther to refer to the belief that the cross is the only source of spiritual knowledge concerning who i God and how God saves. This theology is contrasted with the theology of glory (theologia gloriae) which places greater emphasis on human abilities and human reason.

Moltmann argues that one who cannot suffer cannot _____

Love

Four analogies used in the Bible to describe what God is like

Shepard

Mother

Physician

Father

What did Walter Brueggeman mean by his statement that “we live our lives before the wild, dangerous, unfettered, and free character of the living God”

God cannot be fully understood by us in his actions. There is an aspect of unpredictability in God as he has freedom to act.

Support-context approach

Approach to suffering that believes od will not let us face our suffering alone and will be with us, providing is with sufficient strength to handle whatever happens.

I-Thou relationship

Kind of relationship that is a relationship between two subjects, according to Buber.

Theodicy

Theological construct that attempts to vindicate God in response to the problem of evil that appears inconsistent with the existence of an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God

What did Brueggeman mean when he said “the Scriptures describe God in the language of testimony rather than theology or ontology

It is more welcoming/personal and given directly from God through others. Theology and ontology are more methodical views while testimony allows you to see for yourself and know God that way.

What did Robert Jenson mean when he stated, “God is whoever raised Jesus from the seas, having before raised Israel from Egypt”

God is a God that acts and has a direct role in the bible and history. He is also the same God of the Old and New Testaments, and one that is raising dead to life.

4 views of the relationship between science and religion with their definitions

Conflict - Science and religion make rival objective statements about the history of nature

Independence - Science and religion ask different questions using different language in separate domains

Dialogue - Science and religion can explore similarities between their respective presuppositions, methods, and concepts

Integration - Novel scientific theories should influence the reformulation of the theology of nature

True or False: Experimental scientific findings, such as the discovery of background radiation, weaken the Christian theological perspective of creatio ex nihilo

False

Dualism

The central issue relating to the doctrine of creation that had to be debated during the patristic period of Christian theology

The idea that there are separate entities such as good and evil or matter and spirit

How Dualism differs from a Christian understanding of creation

Christian understanding believes creation is inherently good. There is one God that created everything together, not with the idea to be separate (everything in creation is related)

Why do the structures of the natural world resonate with human reason

Rationality

Gnosticism

A movement in the early church, especially in the second and third centuries, that emphasized the need for true knowledge for salvation and claimed that Jesus was a revealer of special knowledge (gnosis), either an esoteric knowledge of another real world which leads to the salvation of those who know it, or the true self knowledge that God is within us or we are part of God.

One problem with the Darwinian evolution’s explanation of why there is something and not nothing

There is no purpose, everything adapts/mutates/changes on its own. No reason behind creation, only that it exists.

One problem with creationism’s explanation of why there is something and not nothing

Everything was created as is and there was no changing or guidance in nature since then — touches on deism.

Metaphysical

Literally means “beyond the physical,” is a type of philosophy which attempts to analyze what is real; it asks about the basic character, principles, and structure of reality as such apart from any particular examples.

Genesis 1:26-27 states, “So God created humankind in his own image, in the image of ______ he created them; male and female he created them.”

God

Radical dependence on God

Aspect of creation supported by Christian theology in general

Sensus Divinitatis

Sense of divinity. Resonating with something greater than yourself in nature.

Jesus is human and divine

The conclusion to the argument that underlies all christian thinking on the incarnation, the idea that Jesus acts as God and for God in every important context

Kenosis

Theological term that comes from the greek word meaning “emptying.” It refers to the concept in Christian theology in which Jesus in the incarnation “emptied” himself of certain divine attributes or privileges to experience humanity fully. This idea is most clearly articulated in Philippians 2:6-8, which describes how Jesus, though in the form of God, did not cling to/grasp/exploit his divine status but “emptied himself” and took on the nature of a servant, becoming human and obedient even to the point of death.

The Beatitudes

Title of Jesus’ message that begins with the opening statement, “Blessed are the poor in sporot, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”

The idea of the ___________________ is the climax of the Chrisitan reflection upon the mystery of Christ — the recognition that Jesus reveals God; that he represents God; that he speaks and acts as God and for God.

Incarnation of Jesus

Colossians 1:15-16 proclaims, “The Son is the __________ of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.”

Image

Messiah

The promised deliverer who, according to Hebrew and Jewish thought, would come and establish the kingdom of God. Christians see Jesus as the fulfillment of this promise.

Ressurrection

The term that describes God’s raising of Jesus from the dead, as well as the future raising of all people before the final judgement.

Event/process that entails the idea that God transformed Jesus into a new mode of being or existence following his death, a mode of being indicative of the life of the world to come; this entailed a spiritual body and not merely the release of his soul to heaven

Christos

Greek word for Messiah meaning “anointed one”

Why the apostle John wrote his account of the life and teachings of Jesus

So that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. (Christological agenda)

Atonement

The theological term for the redeeming, reconciling, and liberating work of God in Christ. Various theories attempt to explain how Christ accomplishes reconciliation through his death and resurrection.

Christus Victor

The atonement theory that interprets Jesus’ death on the cross as Christ’s victory over the powers of sin, death, and the devil

True or False: The Christian theological tradition teaches that salvation can be achieved through human effort or power apart from divine grace

False

Ephesians 2:8-10, “For it is by ________ you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Grace

Redemption

Means to secure the release or recovery of persons or things by the payment of a price. It is a covenantal legal term closely associated with ransom, atonement, substitution, and deliverance, thus salvation. Christ’s death secures freedom from slavery to the law or to death.

Salvation

The process by which humans are saved from the guilt and power of sin and saved for freedom and life lived in the kingdom of God.

Justification

The aspect of salvation concerning God’s gracious judicial verdict in advance of the day of judgement, pronouncing guilty sinners, who turn in self-despairing trust to Jesus, forgiven, acquitted of all charges, and declared morally upright in God’s sight.

Romans 5:1-2, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have ______ with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Peace

Sin

The condition or acts in which or through which human beings are alienated, separated, or estranged from God

Incarnation

Christ transformed human nature

Reconciliation

Christ broke down the barriers between humanity and God

Resurrection

Christ defeated the power of death

Crucifixion

Christ defeated sin

Martin Luther

The 16th century German reformer who criticized the medieval Catholic Church for many of its beliefs and practices and ultimately broke with it. He returned to the Bible as the Word of God as the grounds, content, and norm for Christian belief and practice, and especially emphasized justification by grace through faith as the meaning of salvation and the essence of the gospel

St. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:13, “but now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off hae been brought near by the ______ of Christ.”

Blood

The human story can be seen as a drama consisting of what three acts

Humans are made in God’s image from dust of the Earth

Humans are alienated from God, nature, each other, and ourselves

Humans are redeemed by Christ

Ukuthula

The name of the Zulu song that proclaims “the blood of Jesus brings peace”