Theology Quiz 1 study guide
Quiz 1 Study Guide
Terminology you need to know for the quiz
ancilla theologia — A Latin phrase, meaning “the handmaid of theology,” which is
used to refer to the practice of using philosophical or cultural ideas as a helpmate or dialogue partner for Christian theology (McGrath, p. 215).
Apostles' Creed — One of the earliest creeds of the church, and based on an ancient Western baptismal confession, its present form is dated from the eighth or ninth century. It continues to be the creed which almost all Christians in the West know and teach.
Apostolic tradition — The faith of the church founded by the witness of apostles, in the sense that the faith is derived either directly from the eyewitness testimony of the earliest apostles or from the witness of the earliest church as it is recorded in the canon.
authority — The basis or criterion by which judgment of belief about the truth and tightness of practice is made. The relation of Scripture to tradition, experience, and reason appears in any discussion of authority in theology.
Bible, the — Meaning “the books,” the name applied to the collection of books which constitute the Scripture or canon of the church. Debates about the nature of the authority of Scripture in the church and in theology center around discussions of the meaning of the Bible as the word of God, and whether or how it is inspired, infallible, inerrant, primary, or sufficient for belief and practice.
canon — A Greek word that means measure, rule or standard. In the New Testament and early church it came to refer to the rule or order of apostolic instruction (Gal 6:16) or Christian tradition (1 Clem 7:2). Christians began to regard some letters of Paul as “scripture” even in the NT period (2 Peter 3:15-16), but differing lists and sometimes vigorous debates continued well into the fourth century and beyond.
Catholic — An adjective which is used both to refer to the universality of the church in space and time, and also to a particular church body (sometimes known as the Roman Catholic church) which lays emphasis upon this point (McGrath, 217).
council — a formal meeting of bishops and representatives of local churches convened for the purpose of regulating doctrine or discipline (Rausch, p. 206).
creed — Creeds are both public statements of faith used to teach/defend the faith and a personal confession of faith at the time of baptism. The most important are those generally known as the “Apostles’ Creed” and the “Nicene Creed” (McGrath, p. 217).
critical thinking — A way of thinking and speaking which analyzes language, including images, symbols, sentences, and comprehensive views, with an effort to understand the meaning and truth of the language. To think critically does not mean to deny or to denigrate beliefs but rather to be analytical in order to interpret, understand, justify, or revise as well as reject ideas.
doctrine — An official teaching of the Church (Rausch, p. 207)
dogma — In Greek law a dogma was a decree of public authority. In the accepted Christian meaning dogman signifies a religious truth or doctrine founded on divine revelation and authoritatively promulgated by the Church. Dogmas are irreformable; that is to say, they cannot be reversed (Rausch, p. 207).
Enlightenment, the — A term used since the nineteenth century to refer to the emphasis upon human reason and autonomy, characteristic of much of western European and North American thought during the eighteenth century (McGrath, p, 218).
ideology — the ideas which create the basis from which one thinks about and approaches issues; often the term is used to indicate that these ideas are rigidly held and imposed (Inbody, p. 348).z
inerrancy — a term applied by fundamentalists to Scripture, which claims that the Bible does not and cannot lead us to any errors of any kind of knowledge, including scientific and historical facts. The Bible is free of any of the errors which result from finite and historical limitations of perception, language, or knowledge (Inbody, p. 349).
infallibility — a term applied by Christians to Scripture to indicate that it is a completely trustworthy guide to the life of faith and will not fail to accomplish its purpose. Roman Catholics also apply the term to papal pronouncements made ex cathedra (from the chair); according to this understanding of papal infallibility, adopted at Vatican Council I, when the pope speaks officially on certain matters, his teachings will not err (Inbody, p. 349).
inspiration — to be "in-breathed" by the Spirit of God. Also an adjective applied to Scripture to indicate that God or the Holy Spirit has motivated, guided, protected, or, some believe, dictated the words of the Bible (Inbody, p. 349).
mystic — one who experiences the divine reality by direct apprehension through an immediate intuition that results in spiritual ecstasy. Some mystics speak of direct union with the godhead or absorption into the godhead, while others speak of communion with God either through direct, unmediated experience of God or through Christ (Inbody, p. 353).
New Testament — denotes both the 27 books that comprise the New Testament
canon (list of sacred books) and the period of time stretching from Jesus’ ministry (27-30 CE) to about the year 100. “Testament” is a Latin word meaning “covenant” (see Old Testament). The books that comprise the New Testament were written between c. 40’s-50’s CE (earliest letters of Paul) and 70’s-90’s CE (gospels and later books).
Nicene Creed — Christian creed adopted by the Council of Nicea in 325 and revised in Constantinople in 381, it formulates the orthodox Trinitarian doctrine of the church. (Inbody, p. 354).
Old Testament — a Christian expression for the Tanach, the Hebrew scriptures of
the Jews; Christians add a few extra books (e.g. Wisdom of Solomon, 1 & 2 Maccabees), taken from the Septuagint, the Greek translation (of around 250 BCE) of the Hebrew Bible. “Testament” is from a Latin word meaning “covenant,” but God’s covenant with the Jews is not “old” in the sense of obsolete, as the Second Vatican Council made clear. Some, therefore, prefer to speak of the “First Testament.”
orthodoxy — A term used in a number of senses, of which the following are most important: orthodoxy in the sense of “right belief,” as opposed to heresy; Orthodoxy in the sense of the forms of Christianity which are dominant in Russian and Greece; orthodoxy in the sense of a movement within Protestantism, especially in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, which had emphasis on need for doctrinal definition (McGrath, p. 220).
revelation — literally, an uncovering or unveiling. The disclosure of something previously unknown, or at least inadequately known. Refers to the movement of God to us in which God takes the initiative to reveal Godself to us, either in a general way through creation or in a specific way through the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ, "the Word made flesh" (John 1:18). Scripture, as inspired by God (2 Tim 3:16), is a primary source of revelation, providing the authoritative interpretation of God's saving actions. The Second Vatican Council, in the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum, 1965), explained how scripture, tradition and magisterium (teaching authority of the Pope and Bishops) coordinate in a Catholic understanding of revelation. (Inbody, p. 362)
revelation, general — God's self-disclosure in the creation. According to the concept of general revelation, there is a knowledge of God that all human beings, to one degree or another, do (or can) have on the basis of their experience and knowledge of the natural world; it is knowledge about God apart from any special and specific revelation given by God in addition to this general knowledge through the revelation in Christ (Inbody, p. 362).
revelation, special — divine revelation through a particular medium or person. In Christian theology, Jesus Christ is the special revelation of God (Inbody, p. 363).
social location — The context(s) of the believer and thinker. In particular, the term refers to the perspective or biases stemming from a person's race, gender, and class. In the larger sense it refers to all of the limits on thought created by the finite location of every thinker (Inbody, p. 364).
Tradition — the accumulated wisdom of the church and its leaders, whereby the faith derived from the scriptures, contained in the creeds, and expressed in the liturgy is interpreted for contemporary believers (Cory & Hollerich, p. 505).
Word of God/word of God — Jesus Christ is the Word (Logos) of God incarnate. The Bible is the Word of God in the sense that it is the witness to, the proclamation of, and the record about Jesus as the incarnate Word of God. Some Christians hold that the Bible is the Word of God in the sense that the words of the Bible are the words of God either dictated by or controlled by God so that everything the Bible teaches is inerrant or infallible (Inbody, p. 368).
Topics you need to know for the quiz
Definitions and descriptions of theology:
“faith seeking understanding” (St. Anselm)
“the conscious and methodological explanation and explication of the divine revelation received and grasped in faith” (Rahner)
the process of examination and reflection that leads to the construction and reconstruction of doctrines (Olson)
a form of play…reimagine our world as Christians (Inbody)
Christian beliefs are not a collection of individual, unrelated ideas. They are interconnected, like a web held together by the coherent vision of reality that lies at the heart of the Christian faith. Theology involves understanding the relationship between doctrines, not simply the doctrines themselves (McGrath, p. xv).
Tasks of theology include the following (lecture slide):
Follow the findings of its “scientific” investigations
Safeguard the faith entrusted to the Church
Judge between Christian orthodoxy and heresy
Reject, affirm, or reinterpret a symbol or a doctrine
Discern between core beliefs and secondary beliefs
Understand, interpret, and articulate the church’s faith experience in language and symbol
Criteria for assessing theological statements:
Is it consistent with the biblical tradition?
Is it supported by tradition of the Church?
Is it consistent with the faith of Christians?
Is it consistent with scientific knowledge?
Does it speak to the concerns of contemporary people? (Rausch, 12)
Prerequisites for “doing” theology:
Capacity for awe
Humility
Careful observations
Critical thinking
Capacity to be surprised
Imagination
Playfulness
Q: What sources did early church theologians reference when they confronted controversies and heretical teachings?
A: The Hebrew prophets; the “Rule of Faith”, and the writings of the apostles.
Q: What is the “Rule of Faith”?
A: It is a set of beliefs held by the early church prior to completion of the New Testament canon and the formulation of creeds. Beliefs include: the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ (against the Gnostics); equality of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (against Arians who denied the full deity of the Son and Holy Spirit); resurrection; return of Christ; unity of Christ’s body; and the church.
Q: What are the main sources and norms used by theologians in the modern era?
A: The Bible, tradition, reason, and experience.
Q: What is the purpose of tradition?
A: Tradition is the guarantor of faithfulness to the original apostolic teaching, a safeguard against the innovations and misrepresentations of heretics, e.g. gnostics.
What are the words of the Apostle’s Creed?
I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
Amen.
How does theology use reason?
Logic—especially the rule of noncontradiction that forbids equal affirmation of opposite propositions the search for coherence and intelligibility is essential for Christian faith
reason does not necessarily or usually include any highly developed, complex philosophy, although philosophy has always been theology’s conversation partner (Olson)
Q: How is revelation related to reason?
human reason is subservient to divine revelation
Unaided reason can not explain or master the world
Reason is insufficient for salvation
Q: What is a challenge for theologians who use philosophy to support their views?
A: To make use of the obvious intellectual merits of philosophical systems, e.g. Platonism and Aristotelianism, in constructing a Christian worldview, without
compromising the integrity of Christianity itself.
Q: What was the philosophical school in Tarsus, St. Paul’s hometown?
A: Stoicism
Q: What are two ways that philosophy helps theologians do theology?
1. It allows for a richer exploration of ideas and problems which have parallels in other disciplines, e.g. Aquinas’ use of Aristotle’s “unmoved mover” to defend existence of God
2. it helps Christian theology dialogue with another worldview, e.g. Paul draws on Stoic teachings to communicate the Christian message to Athenian culture
Fill-in-the-blank
1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the _________ at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his_________, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.
Q: Name three principles of canonicity.
apostolic origin, recognition by the churches, and apostolic content.
Q: What is the genre of the Bible as a whole?
A: preaching/proclamation
Q: List three genres found in biblical literature.
1. ______________Narative______________
2. _________________Poetry___________
3. _________prose discoruse___________________
Q: What is a predicament for theologians?
Theologians increasingly applied same scientific methods to Biblical studies that they apply to other history and literature
As a result, the historical reliability of the Bible as the supernatural storehouse of revealed knowledge came under question