The Mystery of Suffering, Death, and Christian Hope

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering philosophical perspectives, biblical theology, and Catholic teachings on suffering, death, justice, and self-sacrifice from Chapters 3 and 4.

Superstition

The non-Christian belief that bad luck has irrational causes, such as magic or specific actions like walking under a ladder, crossing paths with a black cat, stepping on a crack, breaking a mirror, or traveling on Friday the thirteenth.

Retributive justice

The type of justice in which good people are rewarded and evil people are punished.

Theodicy

The problem of trying to reconcile God's justice with the fact of unjust evil and suffering in the world; derived from the Greek words "theos" (God) and "dike" (justice).

Original sin

The sin of Adam and Eve resulting in the loss of original holiness and justice, which causes concupiscence—the inherited human tendency to be attracted to evil and choose sin over virtuous living.

Works of mercy

Charitable actions directed toward meeting both the physical (corporal) and spiritual needs of others.

Corporal works of mercy

Actions directed toward physical needs: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, and bury the dead.

Spiritual works of mercy

Actions directed toward spiritual needs: admonish the sinner, instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, comfort the sorrowful, bear wrongs patiently, forgive all injuries, and pray for the living and the dead.

Omniscient

The ability of God to know everything—past, present, and future—including the ability to read human hearts and know what individuals need before they ask.

Masochism

An unhealthy desire to inflict pain, humiliation, abuse, or suffering on oneself.

Sadism

An unhealthy desire to inflict pain, humiliation, abuse, or suffering on someone else.

Capital sins

Evil tendencies within humans that predispose them to sin: pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth.

Suffering Servant

An image described by Deutero-Isaiah of a figure who endures unmerited suffering and death on behalf of others, like a scapegoat taking on the punishment of sins he did not commit, fulfilled by Jesus.

Ars Moriendi

Latin phrase meaning "the art of dying," thought to be acquired through the practice of right living.

Immortality

Continued existence beyond death.

Socrates' view of death

The conviction that death is not to be feared because no evil can happen to a good person under God's goodness and justice, making dying with dignity preferable to committing evil.

Martin Heidegger's view of death

The philosophical belief that each person must die their own death alone, giving humans their unique individuality and requiring them to advance resolutely toward death while taking responsibility for life's meaning.

Jean-Paul Sartre's view of death

The atheistic perspective that death is absurd, prevents human completion and wholeness, and leads only to nonbeing, placing the sole responsibility on the individual to create meaning while alive.

Karl Jaspers' view of death

The philosophical perspective that defines death as the natural fulfillment of human life, occurring as part of a larger cosmic cycle of birth, growth, decline, and death.

Suicide

The intentional killing of oneself, regarded in Christian tradition as a grave evil that violates the fifth commandment, love of self, obligations to society, and God's sovereignty over life.

Altruistic death

A form of self-sacrifice in which an individual voluntarily gives up his or her life for a noble cause, a sense of patriotic duty, or a religious ideal.

Martyr

A word derived from the Greek term for "witness," denoting one who voluntarily dies for his or her faith or Christian principles.

Maximilian Kolbe

A Polish Franciscan priest and founder of Militia Immaculatae who offered an altruistic sacrifice by voluntarily starving and dying in Cell Block 11 at Auschwitz to save fellow prisoner Francis Gajowniczek.

Jean Donovan

A young American lay missionary from Connecticut who returned to assist the poor in El Salvador despite threats, ultimately being martyred in December 1980 alongside three religious sisters.

Sheol

In early Old Testament thought, the realm of the dead where departed spirits continued to exist in a state incapable of vital activity or the worship of God.

Resurrection

Jesus' Passover from death to life in and through the power of God, guaranteeing that believers who die in him will conquer death and share in eternal new life.