Christian Humanism Comp

Summa Theologiae

Written by Thomas Aquinas, summarized Christian teachings and showed how they were logical

philosophy

A system of beliefs and values, love of wisdom

Divine Revelation

God making himself known to us

Truth

When a Persons thinking aligns with reality, based on objective reality

Magisterium

The official teaching authority of the church

Theology

Study of God and things pertaining to the Divine

objective

Factual, related to reality or physical objects, unbiased

subjective

based on or influenced by personal feelings or opinions

Form

What makes a thing to be the kind of thing it is, the essence

Matter

What makes the thing individual instead of general, what its made up of

Potency

Has the potential to exist

Actuality

Something is real and truly exists

Substance

that which is able to exist in and for itself and not in another

Accident

that which is able to exist only in another; it requires a substance in which to inhere

Substantial form

that which makes a thing exist on its own, as a substance

Accidental form

that which makes a substance exist in a particular manner

Prime matter

The matter which substantial form actualizes, pure potential

Secondary matter

Any physical substance whose prime matter has been actualized by a substantial form

First act

Occurs during moment of conception: Soul

Second act

Any other activity a thing might do once it exists

Ensoulment

the beginning point of the body-soul union

Body-soul union

Intimate connection between immaterial self and body

Death

end of life, soul does not die

Immortal vs Mortal

One means that it cannot die, like the human soul. The other means that it can be subject to death, like the human body, or the souls of animals or plants

Sensitive Soul

According to Aristotle, the soul possessed by animals. It includes the functions provided by the vegetative soul and provides the ability to interact with the environment and to retain the information gained from that interaction.

Vegetative Soul

The soul possessed by plants. It allows only growth, the intake of nutrition, and reproduction.

Rational soul

According to Aristotle, the soul possessed only by humans. It incorporates the functions of the vegetative and sensitive souls and allows thinking about events in the empirical world, intellect and free will

Sense Knowledge

Knowledge of the material world acquired through sense experience

Common sense

Ability to integrate all of reality at once, puts together everything the senses bring in

Percept

Completed sense image formed by common sense

Phantasm

the completed sense image which is produced by the imagination

reminisce

Ability to recall past events

Estimative Sense

Animals only, gives animals ability to know whether something is helpful or harmful

Cogitative sense

Mankind has the ability to reason and discern

; not instinctual but rather done through a process of trial and error.

Sense appetites

an active tendency within a being towards an object that the senses present to it. The two sense appetites are called the Concupiscible and the Irascible appetites

Physchomatic

Having to do with the body soul union

concupisible appetite

Responds to the good or evil being sensed when there is no difficulty involved

irascible appetite

The desire for a good that is difficult to obtain, or to avoid an evil that is difficult to avoid

Love

Fundamental of all emotions, causes to tend toward something

Desire

Easy sensed good, if the person does not have the object he loves he loves to this (Concupiscible)

Pleasure

Experienced in material things, connected to physical world

Joy

Connected to non material things, can last forever

Evil

The absence of good

Hate

The souls first reaction when the good we love is absent.

Pain

If we cannot get out of the way of evil we experience this, physical evil

Sorrow

If we cannot get out of the way of evil we experience this, intellectual/spiritual evil, animals cannot experience

Hope

Difficult sensed good, kicks in when the good is not present but attainable

Despair

Difficult sensed good, kicks in when the difficult sensed good is not present and impossible to attain

Courage

Kicks in when difficult sensed evil is absent and avoidable

Fear

Kicks in when difficult sensed evil is absent but unavoidable

Anger

Kicks in when difficult sensed evil is present and surmountable

Privation

Lack of a good which should be present

Locomotion

the ability to move from place to place

Intellect

Gives us more knowledge than the senses can give us, can see deeper than the senses, tries to figure out what a thing can do

Will

A free and active tendency with a being towards or away from an object that the intellect presents to it

Active intellect

Aspect of the intellect always activated, power to abstract the essence of a thing from the completed sense image

Passive intellect

Aspect of the human intellect which waits to be activated by the abstracted nature of the sensed object

Proper object

End goal of a power of a soul

Essence

What a thing is; nature of a thing

Truth

The conformity of the mind with reality

Phantasm to concept

Intellect begins where the sense knowledge leaves off, intellect abstracts essence from phantasm, passive intellect understands the essence and produces a concept

Freedom of will

Until the will finds this fullness of goodness it is free to pick and choose the limited goods that the senses present to the intellect

Subsistent

Ability to exist on its own as a substance (rational soul)

Spiritual soul

Same as being called the rational soul, immaterial, which as both an activity and an existence which is free of form and matter

Immortal

living forever (soul)

Eternal

a term that describes existing without a beginning and forever (God)

Grades of being

Higher/lower forms of life, being in act is better than being in potency, less material (more in act)

Grades of being from least to most

Prime matter - non living physical thing - plants - animals - person - angels - God

Person

A being who is essentially relational

God as three divine persons

Not three roles but rather realities that are in a dialogue with each other (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)

personalistic norm

The principle that recognizes that the only proper and adequate attitude toward human persons is love. Never use a human person as a means to an end

Natural law

Man's ability to understand how he ought to act based on his own understanding of his human nature

Sexual urge

the basic impulse toward a person of the opposite sex for the purpose of sexual fulfillment

complementary

Relationship between a man and a woman (that which completes)

Marital act

The mutual and total giving of oneself to another and receiving the other fully

Love as good will

Free of self interest, unconditional love purest form of love, main concern is the well-being of the other person

Emotional love

person experiencing a sense impression of a person of the opposite sex will emotionally respond to a value in the other person

Chastity

the state or practice of refraining from extramarital, or especially from all, sexual intercourse

Lust

Intense and uncontrolled desire for sexual pleasure

procreative and unitive

The two purposes/aspects of marriage. The first refers to openness to conceiving a child, and the second refers to the complete union that is to result from the marital act

Marriage

The first institution (initiates the Trinity)

Monogamy

marriage to a single person

polygamy

having more than one spouse at a time

Adultery

When a person engages in the sexual act with another, and at least one of them is married to someone else

polyandrous

Woman has multiple husbands at the same time

Fornication

Sexual act between two persons who are not married

Contraception

Intentionally preventing pregnancy from occurring

Natural Family Planning

Any of several Church-approved methods by which a couple may regulate conception by studying the signs of the woman's cycle of fertility.

divorce

The legal dissolution of a marriage.

Annulment

A judgement by the Catholic Church that an apparent marriage was never a true marriage

Pornography

A visual representation of sexuality which distorts a persons understanding of the nature of sex

same-sex attraction

Neither the unitive nor the procreative purposes of the sexual act are possible, do not have what it takes to marry since can't carry out these purposes

End

The intended result of an action

Intention

What the person hopes his act will accomplish

Means

An action or thing that is used to achieve something

First principle

a self evident truth that serves as a starting point for our reasoning. Do good and avoid evil

Ethics

the principles of right and wrong that guide an individual in making decisions

Happiness

Man's complete flourishing where there is nothing more he desires

Human Nature

The fundamental disposition of humans that determines their behavior (goods of the body and soul)

Good

something that people desire through an act