Religion 15 Final

Exam is November 2nd

Self-Understanding

Awareness and understanding of one's own actions and reactions.

Self Esteem

Awareness of one's own worth.

Individualism

The isolation of the self in Western culture.

Rene Descartes

French philosopher who searched for a new way of knowing based on his own authority.

Cogito Ergo Sum

The Latin phrase meaning "I think, therefore I am" coined by Rene Descartes.

Love of Self

The concept that loving oneself is interconnected with loving others.

Atheism

The denial of God's existence.

Agnosticism

The belief of not knowing if God exists or being indifferent towards it.

Friedrich Nietzsche

A German philosopher who believed that we as humans killed God. (rejected Christianity and criticized its impact on individuals)

Samaritans

Israelites who did not worship in the temple in Jerusalem and had conflicts with the Jews.

St Therese of Lisieux (little way)

A saint known as the "Little Flower" who joined a convent and became famous for her book on spirituality and God.

Seven Tendencies of Individualism

The belief in freedom, rights, equality, reason as a binding force, isolation from everything, mastery over the earth, and godlessness.

5 Points Concerning “Who do you say that I am?”

1. Jesus wants me to call God Abba/Father

2. My relationship with Abba/Father is my freedom

3. The earth is good and is a gift of God

4. Other people are as important – perhaps even more important – than myself

5. Before Abba/Father, all are equal

Jesus and the woman at the well

A story where Jesus engages in conversation with a Samaritan woman, offering her a metaphorical water that would quench her thirst forever.

Golden Rule

"Do to others as you would have them do to you" (Luke 6.31)

The Other

"your neighbour" (are a stranger you can never get to know fully)

The Christian self-understanding

The self of a believer who is not afraid to celebrate being in relationship with God.

Reciprocity

The expectation that if I do something for someone else, this person will at some point do something in return for me. (Rooted in un-selfishness & self-interest)

Sexuality

the force and energy to be creative in response to life. (spiritually and bodily)

Intimacy

the close bond that exists between human beings

Body

shares the honour and dignity of being in the image of God

Marriage

God unites them in such a way that, by forming 'one flesh,' (eros and agape meet)

Grace

God's kind, merciful and absolutely generous love for us

Charity

wishing others well even when they do not do anything in return

Volunteering

doing things for others without expecting anything in return (fill in the cracks of society)

Institution

stable social forms (food, housing, health, education and the economy)

Expressions of Culture

Each culture expresses their needs differently (meanings, beliefs, values and practices)

Multicultural Societies

Having not just one set of beliefs and values, but many

Emmanuel Levinas

says that when we are face to face with another person, the other's face is like a visual version of God's commandment, "You shall not murder."

Friendships in the Kingdom of God

It has to be based on love, and when you are willing to sacrifice for that friend. Friendship is a gift for others.

Five kinds of love (hetaria,eros,storge,phileo,agape)

Companionship (heteria), Sexual love (eros), Family love (storge), Friendship (phileo), Charity (agape)

Sexuality and the relationship to sexual intercourse (4)

Our desire for the other, Sexual intercourse, Intimacy - the language of sexuality, Sexuality - it will make saints out of us yet!

Understanding Peter's love for Jesus

Peter admired Jesus and loved him and He was everything to him.

The Code of the New Covenant

Jesus created a new covenant during the sermon on the mount. It was his code, the ten commandments summed up. (The golden rule)

Reasons for decline in community participation (4)

Time and money, Urban sprawl, Television & the internet, Generational change

Traits of covenants applied to institutions (4)

Institutions help us to become a free people, Institutions need rules and a commitment, Institutions are powerful and require prophetic leaders, Institutions need participation and celebration.

Covenant

Agreements between rulers and people (God and Holy People)

New Covenant

Through Jesus, God’s original covenant with Israel became even more intimate and personal (God personally enters our Human culture)

The law (Torah)

The heart of the Old Testament (Instructions about God’s covenant)

Incarnation

means that God became human and dwelt personally – in the flesh – among us

Prophets

Holy people in Israel who were spokespersons for God (messengers)

Church

the community that was founded when God sent the Holy Spirit to Jesus’ disciples at Pentecost

Chosen People

The people who were chosen to live the revelation of God to their ancestors for the world to see & hear (“summoned” by God to “light the Nations”)

Kingdom of God as a Gift

God’s relationship with creation is characterized by generosity (We experience this Gift through Jesus)

Revelation

God communicates Himself to humankind in stages (creation, covenants, and prophets)

Grace

word Catholics use to describe God’s generous love

Kingdom of God

symbol used by Jesus to speak about God and God’s actions among us

Moses

A Prophet who was born to a Hebrew slave and was going to be killed, so he was put into a basket along the Nile River until he was found by the Egyptian Pharaoh's wife. He was then put on a mission from God to free the Hebrew slaves from the Egyptians

Metaphor

figure of speech used in poetic language (help us to see things from a fresh perspective)

God as a Father (Abba)

The official name for God (used to praise him)

Mary Magdalene

first person to see the “risen” Jesus (Called him “Rabbouni” (teacher))

Parable

A story that contains a lesson to be learned

How Christ is still present in our culture (five)

1. Some Christians say that Jesus is against culture

2. Some Christians think that Jesus is perfectly at ease in culture

3. Others feel that because Jesus is the incarnate God, he was both in and above culture

4. Others say that Jesus and culture will always be at loggerheads

5. Finally, Jesus is also seen as one who transforms culture (The correct perspective)

Historical data about Jesus

1. Jesus acts through people

2. Jesus acts through people who freely choose to be in communion with him

3. Jesus acts through the Word of Scripture

4. Jesus acts in the liturgy

5. Jesus acts in the witness of people

The Ten Commandments

1. I am the LORD your God: you shall not have strange gods before me.

2. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.

3. Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.

4. Honour your father and your mother.

5. You shall not kill.

6. You shall not commit adultery.

7. You shall not steal.

8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

9. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife.

10. You shall not covet your neighbour’s goods.

The Israelites covenant

1. The Israelites became a people of the covenant

2. The Israelites received a code of the covenant

3. The Israelites had prophets as part of their leadership

4. The Israelites celebrated the actions and events of the LORD

Characteristics of Covenants

1. like a treaty or an alliance

2. has conditions

3. sealed with a ceremony

4. celebrated with both parties present

Characteristics of Parables

1. is a Story

2. is a Comparison

3. Contain a crisis

4. Have an ending

5. is a story about God’s kingdom, that is to say, God’s way of acting among us

Tradition

Our ways of doing things we inherited from our parents or ancestors.

Religious symbols

A thing that is meant to represent another thing that is considered "holy" or "sacred".

Institution

Ways of doing things that are linked together to form a "system".

Religious rituals

Have the power to open up new ways of living and communicating with a power and energy that is higher or deeper than our own.

Identity

Who you are, what you're associated with, and what you like.

Liturgy

The Church's official act of worship.

Culture

A set of meanings, beliefs, values, and rules for living shared by groups and societies as the source of their identity.

Transcendence

God is beyond, or transcends, our usual physical experience.

Sign

Objects or gestures that express one specific message or meaning.

Secularize

To make worldly, separate from religious connection or influence.

Symbol

A thing that is meant to represent another thing (means "thrown together").

Religion

A system of symbols and rituals. (We form powerful beliefs, values, meanings, and practices around these symbols and rituals about who we are in relationship to God.)

Ritual

The things we do every day, we tend to do in the same way.

Habit

Over time, rituals become habits.

Privatization of religion

How people no longer seem to care about the church's institution and tend to not be religious.

Attributes of culture

1. Humans create culture.

2. Culture consists of ways of doing things.

3. Culture is public.

4. Culture arises from tradition.

5. Culture is made up of rule-governed actions.

6. Culture becomes established in institutions.

7. Culture gives us our identity.

The Church's symbolic actions

1. Birth.

2. Death & Life Experience.

3. Passage to maturity initiation into the community.

4. Growth in maturity.

5. Failure to grow spiritually (Sin).

6. Getting Married.

7. Service of Leadership.

8. Sickness.

9. Death.

Traits of powerful rituals

1. A ritual passes on a tradition

2. A ritual needs our bodies

3. A ritual is accompanied by words

4. A ritual forms a community

Components of Culture

1. Culture has to do with human actions

2. Culture is a set of meanings, beliefs, values and practices of a society

3. Culture identifies me as belonging to a particular group

Anthropology

The science that studies the origin, development, and customs of human beings.

Yahwist

The author who wrote an account of how the LORD God had created the first human beings.

Vocation

To show forth the image of God and be transformed into His image.

Sin

The breach of the relationship that God established with creation.

Freedom

The power to act deliberately on our own responsibility.

Encyclical

Official pastoral letters written by the Pope for the entire people of God.

Creation

How each of us is made exclusively in God's image and likeness.

Original sin

The sin that we inherit and begins with us in life (Adam and Eve).

Trinity

Father, Son, Holy Spirit - all three are God, but separate from each other.

Community

Working and being united together through God and His grace.

Human

akin to homo, a man, and humus, soil

Catechism of the Catholic Church

the official compendium of Catholic teaching

Jean Vanier

son of a former Governor General of Canada who made his home with adults with intellectual disabilities

L'arche

means “The Ark” (was also the name of Jean Vanier’s communities)

Dignity of human being

rooted in our creation in the image and likeness of God

Secular

relating to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred

Goodness

the result of being “connected” with God

Disorder

The world not being under the protection and structure of God

Book of Genesis

a story of every man and woman

Traits found in the Bible about being human

→ 1. Humans are a creation of God

→ 2. Humans are a mixture of earth and divine breath

→ 3. Humans are good

→ 4. Humans are male and female

Jean Vanier’s principles of humanity

→ #1 All humans are sacred

→ #2 Our world and our individual lives are in the process of evolving

→ #3 Maturity comes through working with others, through dialogue, and through a sense of belonging and a searching together.

→ #4 Human beings need to be encouraged to make choices, and to become responsible for their own lives and for the lives of others.

→ #5 In order to make such choices, we need to reflect and to seek truth and meaning

The story of creation in the Book of Genesis

The fall of man, how Adam and Eve were both tricked by an evil serpent into eating fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil against God’s wishes, they were put into eternal struggle on Earth and developed embarrassment with each other and are now destined to die

The Yahwist

The author who wrote an account of how the LORD God had created the first human beings.