Catholic Creed & Culture: Potential Terms for Unit 1 Test

Adoptionist Heresy

Belief that Jesus was an ordinary human being whom God "adopted" as Son (at his baptism or resurrection) rather than the eternal Son of God. Significance: denies Jesus' eternal divinity; rejected by the Church as contrary to the Incarnation.

Apostolic Succession

The unbroken line of authority passed from the apostles to today's bishops through the laying on of hands. Significance: guarantees the Church's teaching and sacraments remain faithful to Christ and the apostles.

Arian Heresy

The Son is a created being, not fully God and not co-eternal with the Father. Significance: led to the Nicene Creed and the term homoousios.

Catechesis

The process of teaching and forming people in the faith, especially children and those preparing for the sacraments. Significance: helps believers know, celebrate, live, and pray the faith.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

The official summary of Catholic doctrine Significance: a sure norm for teaching the faith and a reference for catechists.

Collect Prayers

The short opening prayer of the Mass that "collects" the intentions of the people Significance: sets the theme of the liturgy and gathers the community in prayer.

Communion of Saints

The spiritual union of all the faithful in Christ: the Church on earth, souls being purified in purgatory, and the saints in heaven.

Significance: we pray for one another and ask the saints for intercession; the Church is one family across time.

Deposit of Faith

The body of revealed truth handed down from Christ and the apostles, contained in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. Significance: the Magisterium guards and interprets it; the Church's understanding can develop but the deposit itself does not change.

Divine Revelation

God's free self-communication to humanity, fully and finally revealed in Jesus Christ. Significance: it is the source of Christian faith, handed on through Scripture and Tradition.

Docetist Heresy

The belief that Jesus only appeared to have a human body and to suffer, because matter was seen as evil. Significance: denies the real Incarnation, suffering, and death of Christ; rejected by the Church.

Efficacious

Producing the effect that is intended. Significance: sacraments are efficacious signs; they truly cause the grace they signify by Christ's power, not by the holiness of the minister.

Examen

An Ignatian prayer of reviewing one's day to notice God's presence, give thanks, and see where one fell short or was invited to grow. Significance: builds awareness of God in everyday life and daily conversion.

Heresy

The denial or doubt of a truth that must be believed with divine and Catholic faith. Significance: the Church's creeds and councils clarified doctrine in response to heresies.

Homoousious

Greek for "of the same substance/being"; the word used in the Nicene Creed to say the Son is one in being with the Father. Significance: affirms Jesus' full divinity and refutes heseries

Hypostatic Union

The union of Jesus' divine and human natures in one divine Person, fully God and fully man, without confusion or division. Significance: defined at the Council of Chalcedon (451); essential to understanding the Incarnation and salvation.

Immanence

God's nearness; God is present and active within creation and human lives. Significance: balances transcendence and explains how we can know and encounter God personally and through the sacraments.

Incarnation

The belief that the eternal Son of God took on human flesh in Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary. Significance: reveals God to us, makes salvation possible, and grounds the sacramental view of the world.

Lectio Divina

"Divine reading"; a way of praying with Scripture through reading (lectio), meditation (meditatio), prayer (oratio), and contemplation (contemplatio). Significance: helps people listen to God's Word and respond personally.

Magisterium

The Church's teaching authority, exercised by the pope and the bishops in communion with him. Significance: authentically interprets Scripture and Tradition and protects the Deposit of Faith from error.

Marks of the Church

The four identifying characteristics from the Nicene Creed: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. Significance: show the Church's true identity and mission as founded by Christ.

Models of the Church

Different images or lenses for understanding the Church (Avery Dulles): Institution, Mystical Communion, Sacrament, Herald, Servant. Significance: no single model captures the whole Church; each highlights a different aspect.

Orthodoxy

"Right belief"; teaching and faith that agree with what the Church has handed down. Significance: the standard against which heresy is identified; keeps the faith unified.

Paschal Mystery

Christ's saving work: his passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. Significance: the center of Christian faith; celebrated in every sacrament, especially the Eucharist; it conquers sin and death.

Provident Creator

God freely created everything out of nothing and continues to care for and guide creation. Significance: creation is good and ordered, and we can trust God's loving plan.

Sacrament

An efficacious sign of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is given to us. Significance: there are seven (Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, Matrimony); they are how Christ acts in the Church today.

Sacramentality

The Catholic principle that created, material things can reveal and communicate God's presence. Significance: shapes how Catholics see the world, the liturgy, and the seven sacraments.

Sacred Tradition

The living transmission of the Gospel from the apostles through the Church's teaching, worship, and life. Significance: together with Sacred Scripture it forms one Deposit of Faith and helps interpret the Bible.

Sensus Fidei

"Sense of the faith"; the instinct for truth that the whole People of God share through the Holy Spirit. Significance: the faithful as a whole cannot err in belief, and it informs how doctrine develops.

Sign

A perceptible reality that points to something beyond itself. Significance: sacraments are signs that also make present what they point to; basis for understanding how God uses visible things.

Theotokos

Greek for "God-bearer" (Mother of God); the title for Mary affirmed at the Council of Ephesus (431). Significance: protects the truth that Jesus is one divine Person, God and man from conception.

Transcendence

God is beyond and above creation, wholly other and not limited by time or space. Significance: reminds us of God's greatness and mystery; balanced with God's immanence.

Visio Divinia

"Divine seeing" (usually spelled Visio Divina); prayerful contemplation of a sacred image or artwork. Significance: allows God to speak through beauty and imagery, similar to Lectio Divina.