Theology vocab flashcards #3

Vocabulary flashcards defining theological terms and scriptural senses of interpretation from the lecture notes.

Allegorical Sense

The typical sense; the spiritual interpretation of Scripture that shows how people and events in history suggest future people and events, such as Abraham sacrificing Isaac signifying the Sacrifice of Christ.

Anagogical Sense

A kind of spiritual sense; the spiritual interpretation of Scripture that shows how events in Scripture point to what will be in heaven.

Analogy

A way of understanding, on which reasoning is based, by drawing a comparison or likeness and dissimilarity between two things or relationships.

Apostolic Succession

The method by which the episcopacy has been derived from the Apostles to the present day: successive consecration by the laying on of hands, receiving their commission in a linear sequence from the Apostles.

Church Fathers (Fathers of the Church)

Great Christian writers who taught and clarified the teachings of the Church from the first to eighth centuries, universally recognized for their holiness, orthodoxy, and Church approval.

Ecumenical Council

From the Greek for "the whole [inhabited] world"; a formal meeting of bishops (sometimes with other ecclesiastics) from around the world to define doctrine, regulate the Christian life, or apply discipline in the Church, the first of which was held in Nicæa AD 325.

Infallibility

The dogma that the Pope cannot err when speaking ex cathedra (formally exercising his office as chief shepherd and teacher) and defining a doctrine concerning faith and morals to be held by the whole Church, as well as the gift of the Holy Spirit enabling the Pope and bishops in union with him to definitively proclaim a doctrine of faith or morals.

Literalistic Sense

A method of scriptural interpretation without regard to the particular literary forms being used, failing to recognize symbolic language or analogy in favor of taking every word, phrase, and sentence as literally true.

Literal Sense

The interpretation of Scripture based on the meanings of words in their literary and historical context, divided into the proper literal sense (words understood in their ordinary meaning) and the improper literal, or metaphorical, sense (words understood figuratively and symbolically).

Parable

One of the improper literal senses; a story based on a familiar life experience that teaches a moral or spiritual lesson.

Sacred Tradition

From the Latin traditio ("handing down"), the Word of God that was received from Christ through the Apostles and handed down without alteration by the Church, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual Sense

The interpretation of Scripture that sees not only the literal meaning of the text but also the people, things, and events they describe as signs; subdivided into the allegorical sense, the moral sense, or the anagogical sense.

Type

A person, event, or thing described in the Old Testament that signifies a future reality, called an antitype.