Theology Midterm Concepts

7 dimensions of religion

7 Dimensions of Religions

1. Experiential/emotional

   1. Personal encounters with sacred feelings of awe, guilt, inner peace, or enlightenment

2. narrative/mythic

   1. Sacred stories and creation accounts that communicate deep spiritual truths

3. doctrinal/philosophical

   1. Systematic beliefs, creeds, and official teachings of the religion

      1. E.g. what happens after death? What is god? Ideas, concepts, worldview, the nature of reality. etc.

4. ethical/legal

   1. Moral codes, rules for human behavior, and commandments 

      1. E.g. right vs wrong, how to treat others

5. practical/ritual

   1. Form of worship, prayers, meditation, and ceremonies

6. social/institutional

   1. Communities (e.g. churches/synagogues), organizational structures, leaders, and social roles 

7. material/artistic

   1. Physical expressions of religion including sacred architecture, art, natural sites, and objects

Characteristics of a Jesuit Education

1. Cura Personalis (treatment of the whole person)

2. Magis (an aspiration to do more/be better)

3. Men and Women for others

4. Finding God in all things

5. Reflection and Discernment

6. Faith that does Justice

5 stages of Bible Formation

1. Life

   1. When the events in the bible happened in real life

2. Oral

   1. When stories, laws, and teachings of Jesus were passed down by word of mouth

3. Written

   1. When people began to write oral accounts down on scrolls to preserve the oral stories 

4. Edited

   1. When editors (redactors) collected and organized various written pieces into cohesive books

5. Published

   1. Canonization and distribution

      1. Community officially recognizes specific set of books as authoritative scripture and distributes them

3 reasons why we should study the Christian Tradition

• Personal relevance

  • For your own personal spiritual journey

• Societal relevance

  • Understanding Christianity will help you understand the world bc 29.3% of the world is Christian

    • Largest religion in the world

• Historical relevance

  • Christianity is a part of world history because at one point most people were christian

  • Will help you understand why the world is the way it is now (e.g. politics)

4 sources of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral

• 4 part framework used to guide theological reflection and morals

  • Scripture - Bible

  • Tradition - the Church

  • Reason - Critical thinking / logical reasoning

  • Experience - personal experience with God

4 Assumptions of the Ancient Interpreters

• The Bible is fundamentally cryptic 

• The Bible holds a relevant message for the people

• The Bible is inerrant – error free when it comes to religious truth

• The Bible is a divine gift where God speaks directly to us

Bible basics (tell me 4 things)

• 73 books in a Catholic Bible (46 in OT, 27 in NT)

• Includes 7 books protestants dont include (deuterocanonical books or apocrypha)

• Retraces salvation history (God’s plan to save us)

• Divided into two sections, each section having 4 main parts

  • The Old Testament

  • The New Testament 

3 methods of interpreting the bible

• Philology

  • Looks at the meaning behind words, using context and comparisons with similar words to provide clues about meaning 

• Culturally cued reading

  • Reads the text in its social context

• Historical inquiry

  • Uses archaeological evidence, data from other cultures, etc. to reconstruct an accurate view of the story considering the historical backdrop of it

History then vs. now

• Then

  • Wanted to convey theological convictions (beliefs about god)

  • Aim wasn’t to just get the facts straight

  • History was passed on orally for a significant amount of time

• Now

  • Want to get the facts exactly correct

  • Aim for historical accuracy

  • Try to keep theological convictions out of the account

4 part pattern in the Old testament

Sin → suffer → sorry → saved

Example of sin, suffer, sorry, saved:

• When Moses is on Mt. Sinai, people grow impatient and build Golden Calf to worship then later refuse to enter Promised Land and wish to return to Egypt

• God delivers consequences—plague strikes camp, and he sentences the Hebrews to wander the wilderness for 40 years until they pass away

• When wandering in the wilderness, they confess their wrongdoings to Moses and plead for deliverance

• Moses delivers the Hebrews

4 Main sections of the Old Testament

• Law (pentateuch)

  • 5 books: genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers, deuteronomy 

• History

  • Includes era of the judges, the united and divided kingdoms, the exile, and return 

• Wisdom/poetry

• Prophecy

  • 4 major prophets, 12 minor prophets

    • 17 books because extra book in major prophets

4 Main sections of the New Testament

• The Gospels 

• Church History (Acts of the Apostles)

• The Letters (Epistles)

• Prophecy/Apocalyptic (Book of Revelation)

Pattern of the Creation myths

• There is a formless world 

  • Land is formed from the formless world

  • The world parents get separated (e.g. sky father and earth mother)

  • God creates things

    • God as creator 

  • Beings emerge from the underworld

    • Order vs disorder theme begins

  • Water is an essential element to several stories

The curses in Eden

• First curse: serpent

  • Travel on its belly

    • Reduces cosmic animal associated with death/chaos/eternal life to weak animal

• Second curse: Eve/women

  • Difficult childbirth

    • Life expectancy for women lower than men bc fatality rate of childbirth was high

• Third curse: Adam/men

  • Hard work on the fields yielding little results

    • Israel depended on subsistence farming but lacked freshwater sources so farming was very hard

The Ten Commandments

• You shall have no other gods before Me

• You shall make no idols

• You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain

• Keep the Sabbath day holy

• Honor your father and your mother

• You shall not murder

• You shall not commit adultery

• You shall not steal

• You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor

• You shall not covet 

Common Denominators of the Prophets

• Main message of all prophets:

  • Turn from sin and idolatry

    • When you don’t, and you won’t, you will be destroyed

      • A “remnant” will be saved

        • From this “remnant” will come a person to save the righteous

          • This person will come from the family tree of David

Rules of Temple Sacrifice

• Sacrifice must be done by priests

  • Priesthood was hereditary

    • Priests came from the family line of Jacob’s son Levi, so Levite priests

• Sacrifice must be offered at the right time

  • Sabbath

  • Passover

• Sacrifice must be the correct offering

  • Specific animals

  • First born, unblemished 

• Sacrifice must be done at the right place

  • The Temple

Criteria for selecting New Testament Canon

• apostolic origin (had to have apostle’s name attached to it)

• content of the book had to contain proto-othrodox doctrine (Othrodox christianity beliefs)

• wide distribution — accepted by / accessed by a lot of Christian communities

Jesus’ childhood

Grew up in Nazareth (northern part of Palestine), son of a carpenter

Jesus’ baptism

Baptized by cousin John the Baptist

Calling of Apostles

When Jesus picked and called 12 men to leave their jobs to follow him as his students/witnesses/leadership team

Feeding of the 5000

When Jesus used a few loaves of bread and small fish to feed a crowd of 5000

Transfiguration

Went up to the mountains with Peter, James, and John and started glowing white (transfigured)

Palm Sunday

When Jesus made it to Jerusalem and there’s a huge crowd of people waving palm branches at him

The Last Supper

• Debated, but thought to have been celebrating Passover

• Tells the apostles he knows he will be betrayed and that one of them will deny knowing him

The Arrest and Trial of Jesus

Jesus was arrested and taken to the Sanhedrin (supreme legislative and judicial court of the ancient Jewish people) and Pontius Pilate (Roman judge) found him guilty of treason, sentencing him to death

The Via Dolorosa

The path Jesus walked to his crucifixion

The Crucifixion of Jesus

When they hung Jesus on the cross (common way of executing someone at the time) for 3 hours before he died on a Friday

The burial of Jesus

Jesus was buried in a cave with a rock rolled over the front and guards stationed there too, but 3 days after they went back inside the body was no longer there

The resurrection of Jesus

Jesus appeared to lots of people 40 days after his death (multiple accounts, hundreds of people)

Theories of who Theophilus was

• Real person

• Code name used for real person during the persecutions

• General address to “God lovers”

Themes in Mark’s gospel

• The Christian community is under attack

• Discipleship - forget yourself, carry your cross

• God’s providence will triumph

• Immediate Parousia

• The Apostles misunderstood Jesus and His mission

• Messianic secret (Jesus asking people to keep secret)

Themes in Matthew’s gospel

• Jesus = fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies

  • refers to the Old Testament 60 times

• Jesus is a morality teacher

• Jesus warns about hell more than he speaks about heaven

• Delayed Parousia

• Criticism of other jews

Themes in Luke’s gospel

• Salvation is offered for all people

• Gentiles are a necessary part of God’s plan

• Need to give special care to the poor (gentiles were wealthy)

• The Holy Spirit plays a prominent role

• Women are worthy of God’s plan

  • AKA Gospel of Women

• Christians should have attitude of joy, thanksgiving, and compassion

• The lost will be found

• Spending time with outcasts

Themes in John’s gospel

• Jesus is the divine son of God and people receive eternal life by believing in him

Differences in John’s gospel

• no birth story or record of virginal birth

• no record of Jesus baptism

• No info about Jesus being tempted in the desert

• No exorcisms

• No parables

• Jesus never interprets mosaic (Moses’) law

• No parousia mention

• No institution of the Eucharist (bread and wine)

Main themes in Paul’s letters

• Theology of the Church

  • “We are many parts, but we are all one body”

• Theology of the Cross

  • “The cross is a sign of victory and not defeat”

• Eschatology and mysticism

  • Eschatology = study of end times / the end of the world 

  • “The end times have already started”

• Salvation History

  • History of God saving God’s people – e.g. exodus 

  • The story of Jesus is our true salvation story

• Theology of Justification (salvation) by faith alone

  • “Our faith alone saves us”

    • “It doesn’t have to do with empty works”

Symbols in the book of Revelation

• 7

  • Represents perfection, the perfect number bc 7 days of creation

• 6

  • Represents imperfection because it’s not quite 7 (perfection) 

• 666

  • The devil but may have been referring to Nero instead of Satan

• Angels 

  • Messengers of God

• Trumpets 

  • Represents God’s voice

• Dragon

  • Another symbol of satan/the devil 

• Pregnant woman in the desert

  • Crazy looking dragon is trying to scoop up pregnant woman and devour her child 

    • The devil trying to get mary when she was pregnant with Jesus 

    • Dragon is the devil, pregnant woman is Israel about to give birth to Jesus the messiah  

• Male child 

  • Jesus 

Theories for purpose of the Book of Revelation

• A description of things happening then

  • 666 = nero, events of christian persecution

• A prediction of things that will happen at the end of the world 

• A description of the epic battle between good and evil 

  • Good wins