Exam 1

Terms

Lex Orandi

laws of prayer

Lex Credendi

laws of belief

Lex Vivendi

laws of life

Theology

speaks about an organized set of Christian teachings

Theos

= God

Logos

= word/reason

Primary Theology

Doctrine

important themes in scripture/Christian faith

Dogma

Christian teachings at the highest level of authority/trustworthiness

God, the Earth, and …

neighbor

Orthodoxy

right Christian belief

Heresy

beliefs that are rejected by the church contrary to scripture

Ecumenism

teachings of the whole church which spreads through several centuries and around the globe

Apostles’ Creed

Nicene Creed

Council of Nicea

\-the statement of faith in the year of 325 AD that Christians believe in and allows us to understand scripture

\
\-confession of faith in divinity/unity of the Trinity (e.g., Father, Son, Holy Spirit)

General Revelation

creation/natural law witness to God

Special Revelation

have no role in theology (e.g., Bible)

Ongoing Continuity (b/t General and Special)

= the natural law (moral framework)

\
general revelation: at work even after sin

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special revelation: builds upon general revelation, exists side by side

Unveiled Continuity (b/t General and Special)

= includes both general and special revelation but needs God’s grace to unveil

Biblical Inerrancy

= without error, referring to the Bible (e.g., scripture)

Biblical Infallibility

= will not fail, referring to the Bible (e.g., scripture)

Biblical Canon

= what Christians will refer to/believe in

\
instigates the question, “how do we know about God?'“

Sola Scriptura

= the Bible comes first

\
\-sacred scripture/tradtion

Wesleyan Quadrilateral

\-a resource for theology

\-named after John Wesley

Persona

= person “what distinguishes”

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\-refers to the Trinity

Substantia

= a constitutive material of a thing

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\-what unifies the Triune God (i.e., substance)

Oiknomia

Greek for economy

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\-operations within a household

\-”how does God work in the world when he is Triune?”

Economic Trinity

\-referring to Terullians’ arguement

Shema

Jewish roots

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\-believes that there’s only one God, which is the risen Christ becoming God

Monotheism

means Jewish roots

\
\-believes only in one god

Polytheism

believes in more than one god

Great Commission

Adoptionism

a form of subordination

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\-Jesus was adopted/promoted to a divine person b/c of his good life

Subordinationism

Modalism (Sabellianism)

1 God in 3 working modes/masks (i.e., God, Jesus, Holy Spirit)

\
main issue:

\-God is never fully revealed

Arianism

Jesus = God’s 1st and greatest creation

\
\-believes that Jesus is NOT eternal and uncreated

\-Jesus does NOT share the same (homo) substance (ouisa) but is homoiousia w/ the Father

Homoouisa

means “like God, the Father”

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\-same substance w/ the Father

Homoiousia

means “not like God, the Father”

\
\-not the same substance w/ the Father but similar

Perichoresis

means “mutual indwelling”

\
\-points to the relational nature of God

Creation Ex Nihilo

means “from nothing”

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\-God created from nothing

\-Nothing has status alongside God, a godlike status

Gnosticism

(a heresy) includes hierarchical dualism between material and spiritual

\
\-believes that we carry parts of the Spirit within us, and that we are somehow spiritually connected to God

\-believes that physical (i.e., material) is evil or flawed

\-Spiritual needs to be liberated from the physical

Hierarchical Dualism

means that two things/concepts are not viewed as different but equally valuable, clear difference in value

Holism

the “goodness” of what God has made

Providence

means “govern”

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\-God governs and sustains what God has created

Stewardship

Theodicy

making sense of evil in the world while also believing in a good God

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\-problematic to understand

Deism

something that Christians do not believe in

\
\-a world that God created from nothing can’t be the world of deism, where God is distant and uninvolved

Pantheism

means that the world is divine

Panentheism

means that God is so involved w/ the world that he can’t exist w/o it