Untitled Flashcards Set

• Apocalyptic literature: a style of writing that evolved during Israel’s troubled history around the

time of Jesus. It focused on the end of history and the time of God’s purifying judgment. It

frequently employed frightening imagery of end-time wars between good and evil and natural

disasters

• Beatitudes: a form of pronouncement that presupposes that a good or happiness has already

been given or is about to be received. The Sermon on the Mount contains a list of beatitudes:

“blessed are the poor in spirit...”

• Eschatological: pertaining to the end of time, in the sense of its fullness. It is translated into an

ethics that insists that we can already live what God will reveal at the end because we have already

begun during the time of Jesus.

• Exegesis: the analysis of texts in their original context, taking into account the author’s historical,

cultural and linguistic time. This helps to understand the intention of the author

• Gospel: the unique literary genre of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that proclaims the life, death

and resurrection of Jesus from the original followers in the early Church communities. It also is

taken from the Old English term “godspel” meaning “Good News”

• Hermeneutics: a way of interpreting texts and events to help us understand what they mean for us in the 21st century

• Inspiration: Sacred Scripture is inspired by God. “What Christ entrusted to the apostles, they inturn handed on by their preaching and writing, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to all

generations, until Christ returns in glory.”

• Parousia: term used to refer to the second coming of Christ at the end of time

• Torah: The five books of Moses that contain the core teachings: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,

Numbers and Deuteronomy. They are the first five books of the Christian or “Old” Testament

Content and Key People to know

• The difference between exegesis and hermeneutics

• Apocalyptic literature; looking at Matthew’s gospel with exegesis (original context) and

hermeneutics (applying it to the 21st century); the kingdom of God as the “nearness” of God

• Beatitudes; eschatological ethics, the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, the understanding

of righteousness

• Understanding Jesus as the fulfillment of the Torah and his connection as the “New Moses”

• The Gospel as “Good News”; parousia; each of us as the “salt of the earth” and “the light of the world”

• Apostle: a title given in the gospels to the twelve chief disciples of Jesus, and later also to

St Paul

• Church: the assembly or communion of the baptized followers of Jesus. It is more than

just the physical building. It is the community of gatherers. We, the people of God, are

the Church

• Communion: the Body of Christ, both in its sacramental Eucharistic form of bread and

wine, and also in the assembly of the baptized followers of Jesus. Again, we are the Church

and we gather together in communion with one another.

• Conversion: a radical transformation of values, a turning around, that takes place at

the intellectual level as an awareness and openness to truth and true knowing, at

the moral level when I recognize myself as free and responsible, and at the religious level

where my preoccupation with myself is taken over with the love of God and love of others

• Gentile: a person who is not part of the Jewish faith, or not of Jewish ancestry

• Grace: God’s self-gift of love in us. It is our participation in the relationship of love that is

the Trinity (CCC # 1997). It is the active presence of God’s love in our lives

• Magisterium: the official teaching office of the Church: it is made up of the bishops in

union with the Pope, who is also the bishop of Rome. It is their role and responsibility to

teach the faith with authority and support the faithful as we maintain and honour the

values and traditions in our lives

• Mission: the task Jesus left his followers; to proclaim the Good News, that is, to proclaim

Jesus and all his teachings, to the world

• Rationalism: the philosophical view which holds that nothing can be accepted as true

unless it can be proven by reason alone

• Sacrament: “the sacraments are perceptible signs (words and actions) accessible to our

human nature. The Church has 7 sacraments, each effectively sharing God’s

graces in physical ways that humans can understand