Theology Vocab Quiz- 8/24/26

Actual Grace

This supernatural, free, and undeserved help from God that is given for specific circumstances to do good and avoid evil.

Beatitude

Happiness or blessedness, especially the eternal happiness of Heaven, which is the vision of God and a participation in the divine nature. This is the greatest human desire.

Christian Morality

Moral norms to be followed because a Christian is incorporated into Christ through Baptism.

Freedom

The power rooted in reason and the will, to act or not to act, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility.

Free Will

This gift from God includes the power of directing one's own actions without constraint. This makes possible the choice to love God.

Grace

The free and unmerited favor of God given first of all through the sacraments. Grace is a share in the divine life infused into the soul by the Holy Spirit to heal from sin and to sanctify.

Holiness

Spiritual perfection or purity because of likeness unto God who is perfectly Holy. The free dedication of a Christian to the will of God and the participation in the life of grace. Holiness is the perfection of charity. It is also referred to as sanctity, saintliness, and sacredness.

Infallibility

Immunity from error and any possibility of error.

Magisterium

The name given to the teaching authority of the Church, entrusted to the pope and the bishops in communion with him, who guide the members of the Church without error in matters of faith and morals through the interpretation of Sacred Scripture and Tradition.

Morality

The doctrine or system by which actions are judged to be good or evil. Morality looks to those human acts that impact the human person and affect his or her eternal destiny.

Moral Relativism

The view that there is no absolute or universal moral law or truth, resulting in a morality determined by cultural factors or personal preference.

Moral Theology

The subset of theology that makes use of reason to offer practical judgments, under the guidance of divine revelation, in order to direct human acts towards their supernatural end: God.

Natural Law

The participation of man in the plan of God in relation to human life and action, insofar as the mind can understand it. The objective order established by God that determines the requirements for people to thrive and reach fulfillment.

Original Sin

Adam and Eve's abuse of their human freedom in disobeying God's command. As a consequence they lost the grace of original holiness and justice and became subject to the law of death; sin became universally present in the world; and every person is born into this condition.

Positive Morality

A moral code that prescribes what ought to be done to imitate the life of Christ.

Reason

The intellectual power or faculty which is ordinarily employed by man in adapting thought or action to some end; the guiding principle of the human mind in the process of thinking.

Sacred Tradition

From the Latin for "handed down," this refers to a teaching, whether written or oral, entrusted by Christ to the Apostles and their successors, and which has been transmitted by teaching to each generation of Christians through Apostolic Succession.

Sanctifying Grace

The free and unmerited favor of God given through the sacraments. It heals and sanctifies human nature wounded by sin by giving man a share in the divine life infused into the soul by the Holy Spirit.

Universal Call to Holiness

God's call to each person by which he is incorporated into Christ through grace and becomes a member of the Mystical Body of Christ. As one of God's people, he partakes in the life of the Church.

Virtue

A habitual and firm disposition to do good.