Key Terms

Conscience

Human reason making moral decisions. The knowledge we have of what is right and wrong and the God-given compulsion within all human beings to do what is right and to avoid what is evil.

Evil

the absence of good and the impulse to seek our own desires at the expense of the good of others which often results in sufferening

Free-will

the decision making part of a person's mind is called the will. A will is free if a person is able to choose right from wrong without being controlled by other forces.

Goodness

the quality of being like God: seeking the well-being of others selflessly.

Incarnation

"Made flesh" The Christian belief that God became man in the person of Jesus, fully human and fully divine.

Natural Law

the moral laws of right and wrong which are universal and not dependent on human laws. The belief in natural law is the belief that the moral law is discoverable by every human being and is the same for all human beings in all places at all times.

Privation

the loss or absence of a quality or something that is normally present. Evil is a privation of good.

Suffering

pain or loss which harms human beings. Some suffering is caused by other human beings (often called moral evil); some is not (often called natural evil).

Moral evil

evil that is the result of human actions: bullying, heft, poverty, murder, war.

Natural evil

events that cause great suffering, but happen in the natural world and are not caused by human actions – e.g. earthquakes, tsunamis, disease, famine.

Epistemic Distance

a distance in knowledge or dimension

Incarnation

means ‘made flesh’. Jesus is fully human and fully divine.

Virtues

living a good life and following your conscience takes practice, and following these moral habits is called ‘virtues’, and enable us to become good people. Virtues challenge us to live less selfishly and think of others.

Statue

a large art object, often representing a person or an animal, that is made from a hard material, esp. stone or metal

Sculpture

the art of carving, modeling, welding, or otherwise producing figurative or abstract works of art in three dimensions, as in relief, intaglio, or in the round.

Symbolism

the use of any of certain special figures or marks of identification to signify a religious message or divine being, such as the cross for Christ and the Christian faith.

Venerate

to regard with reverential respect or with admiring deference: to honour (as an icon or a relic) with a ritual act of devotion

Popular piety

this means forms of prayer and worship inspired by culture rather than liturgy. E.g. the rosary.