Theology and Theological Anthropology Lecture Notes

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering concepts of theological anthropology, views of freedom, human embodiment, sexual complementarity, and the common good from lecture notes.

Theological anthropology

The study of the human person in relation to God, examining human origins, nature, and eternal destiny through divine revelation.

Essence

The fundamental, non-changing structure of a thing, through which a person is able to communicate, think, and make choices.

Existence

The fact of being; the actualization of something.

Accident

A nonessential property or quality of a thing, such as skin color, eye color, height, hair color, or having hair.

Substantive understanding (structural)

A classical interpretation of God's image and likeness positing that there is an inherent quality embedded within human nature that makes us like God.

Relational understanding

A classical interpretation of God's image and likeness stating that humans bear the image of God in their relationality.

Functional understanding

A classical interpretation of God's image and likeness holding that humans are fundamentally God's representatives and stewards within the world.

Dependent being

The theological status of the human person whose existence at every moment is rooted in God (exemplified in Genesis 2:7).

Creation ex nihilo

The doctrine reflected in 2 Maccabees 7:28 that God did not make the heavens, the earth, or humankind out of existing things, establishing humankind as a contingent being.

Anthropocentrism

Derived from anthropos (human) and kentron (center); a belief in humans and their existence as the most important and central fact in the universe.

Cultivate (use)

To apply human know-how and labors to transform the earth and make it more fruitful, while respecting God's ownership, natural laws, and interconnected relations.

Care (responsibility)

The human responsibility to protect and preserve creation, safeguard and restore its harmony, and lead all of creation back to God.

The autonomous self

The Cartesian view ("I think, therefore I am") of the self as a world unto itself with a solid, private core that exists independently of anything else and interacts with the world via control and self-protection.

Disciple

Learner.

Freedom (Theological Understanding)

A God-given capacity pre-purposed by God that marks humans as distinct from God (not determined, but really free under God's sovereignty) to be in loving relationship with God.

Modern View of Human Freedom

Freedom understood as free choice; an underdetermined, natural ability to choose between options (including good and evil), where free will commands reason to execute the choice once made.

Intellect (Thomas Aquinas)

The cognitive faculty that is inclined to the truth and seeks the truth.

Will (Thomas Aquinas)

The volitional faculty that is inclined to the good and desires the good.

Res extensa

The physical body in modern dualism, regarded as an instrument.

Res cogitans

The immaterial soul or mind in modern dualism, viewed as the "real self."

Modern Materialism

The view of the human as an entirely physical organism with no non-physical substance, where the mind is brain activity and there is no survival beyond the body.

Nephesh

The Old Testament term for soul within a holistic view of the human person.

Bazar

The Old Testament term for flesh.

Reach

The Old Testament term for spirit.

Let

The Old Testament term for heart.

Sõma

The body in the New Testament (Pauline) view, which possesses theological significance and is destined for resurrection rather than mere soul immortality.

Sarx

The Pauline concept of flesh, representing life under the sway of sin leading to death.

Pneuma

The Pauline concept of spirit, representing life under the sway of grace and oriented to God and eternal life.

Apatheia

Freedom from the passions; the state required to overcome soul disturbances and achieve attunement to reality and its "deep rhythms."

Role

Particular functions, responsibilities, or expectations assigned to or assumed by a person.

Gender

The social and cultural meaning and expression of being male or female.

Sex

The biological distinction between male and female.

Sexual complementarity (Catholic teaching)

The ontological, physical, and spiritual design by which men and women are created equal in dignity yet different as masculine and feminine, oriented to complete one another in a mutual self-gift.

The Common Good

The sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, para 164).