Syllabus:

• the nature of religious belief

• the key features of one religious belief or teaching

Will come up in the exam in a source analysis or short answer response

Remember: nature and key features of religious belief mean the same and are used interchangeably, to test knowledge and understanding of content

Examples of religious beliefs across religions (covered religions are Roman Catholicism, Judaism and Islam)

Belief: Ultimate reality and divine beings

Differences

• founder of Roman Catholicism - Jesus

• founder of Judaism - sage Hillel

• founder of Islam - prophet Muhammad

Those who follow Roman Catholicism believe in one God in three persons (Holy Trinity)

The foundation and core of Islam is Allah, one and only God

Judaism has different perspectives of the one god

Similarities

• all religions have some form of scripture

• all religions flourished in their respective areas

Belief: Human nature and the Purpose of existence

Differences

• RC - made in the image and likeness of God. Humanity’s purpose is to live forever with God in the happiness of heaven

• J - purpose of existence links to a covenant made with God or the covenant made with Noah’s children. Human nature has infinite value

• I - love and serve God through loving and serving others

Similarities

• Roman Catholicism and Islam have similar meaning and purpose in life

Suffering and the problem of evil

Differences

• RC - humans suffer as a result of sin. The source of evil is humanity’s freedom to reject God

• J - suffering and evil throughout history. Jewish thinkers have expressed a tension between ‘theodicy’

• I - those who engage in kufr (ingratitude and selfish actions) turn themselves away from Allah. However, Islam recognises the potential for redemption, steering individuals back towards righteousness

Similarities

• the consequence of falling to evil and suffering are based on what humans have done

Afterlife and Salvation

Differences

• RC - believe that Christ makes salvation possible for all people. There is a choice to embrace or reject God’s grace, meaning humans will spend eternity in heaven or hell

• J - attitudes towards afterlife and salvation reflect a variety of perspectives on what happens to body and soul based on various biblical, rabbinic, medieval folklore and theological sources

• I - people are judged based on their intentions and deeds

Similarities

• each person is responsible for each other

• all believe in judgement day

The Key Features of Religious Beliefs

1. The humanity and divinity of Jesus

Origin

John 1:1 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God.

The above scripture passage means that, in the single person of Jesus, he has a human and divine nature (he is a human being as well as God)

Key Features

• Jesus showed he was human because he suffered (experienced pain), questioned, felt emotions (anger in the Temple)

• Jesus showed he was divine because he performed miracles, rose from the dead, forgave sins, taught by his own authority (not on behalf of some religious figure, such as Moses)

• It was necessary for God to become a human being (incarnation) in order to redeem people from their sins

• The Church has always defended this religious belief against various Christological heresies. For example, The Council of Nicaea (325 a.d.) formally taught that Jesus, as well as being human, is also truly God

How and/or why this religious belief finds expression

• Catholics recite the Apostolic Creed or Nicene Creed every Sunday

2. Jesus the Redeemer

Origin

Jesus is said to be the Redeemer due to the way he freed people from the slavery of sin.

Jesus offered to save the criminals who had clearly committed sin before prioritising himself. While many mocked Jesus, he still asked for God’s saving grace and forgave those around him. He didn’t deserve to die but chose to do so to cleanse people of their sin (summary of Luke 23:32-43)

Key Features

• Instead of escaping, Jesus overcome the fear of death with God’s assistance

• Jesus’s death wasn’t deserved, but was needed to save people from the slavery of sin

• Those who had committed wrongdoings confessed their sins and were ready to be punished justly

How and/or why this religious belief finds expression

• Christ the Redeemer was built, as a way of thanking Jesus

• Through the sacrament of Reconciliation and the Eucharist

• Celebrating feast days such as Easter Sunday

3. Through Jesus people discover and relate with God

Origin

Through Jesus, the Son of God, people can relate intimately with God.

Matthew 4:1-11 talks about how Jesus was able to resist the devil in the event of being tested

Key Features

• Turning away from sin and developing a connection with God is key in being able to relate with Him

• Jesus was able to show his strength and power by being able to resist the devil

• Jesus lived by the Commandments so that he could live a perfect and pure life

How and/or why this religious belief finds expression

• resisting temptations

• striving to live as God wants

• praying

• refraining from sin

Revelation

Revelation is the word to describe how God communicates personally with people.

Example: God chose Abraham and made a covenant with him and his descendants. By the covenant God formed his people and revealed is law to them through Moses. Through the prophets, he prepared them to accept the salvation destined for all humanity. (CCC 72)

Since people are created in God’s image, the more insights they gain into God, the better they understand their nature. The more they reflect the characteristics and qualities of God in their daily living, the more authentically human they become (which calls for more appreciation)

Example: Then God said; ‘Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.’ God created him; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:26)

God’s self-revelation begins with creation

Today, people can recognise the existence of God when they reflect on the created universe. As St Paul, in his letter to the Romans (1:20) noted, Since the creation of the world… God’s eternal power and divinity have become visible and recognised through the things he has made.

God is revealed to Abraham and his descendants

Revelation can also be efined as the process by which God has led every generation to know Him. The principal purpose for revelation is to enable people to share in God’s life.

Jesus Christ is the fullness of God’s self-revelation

The fullness of God’s revelation is Jesus Christ. Before Jesus, God had made the people of Israel aware that he would send one, whom they came to refer to as the Messiah. Jesus became known as the Messiah (restorer), the Christ. As well as proclaiming and restoring the kingdom, Jesus also revelaed that the Father would send the Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen his followers (John 14:1-31)

The Holy Trinity

The Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life which has three main characteristics.

Key Feature One: One God but three distinct Persons: God, the Father, God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit of the same nature/substance and equal in power

• Dogma of the trinity was defined in to stages: at the council of Nicaea (325 AD) and the First Council of Constantinople

  • Council of Nicaea addressed the heresy of Arianism, which claimed that the Son was a supernatural being but not God and did not have the same substance as God, the Father

  • First Council of Constantinople addressed the heresy of Macedonianism which denied the Holy Spirit’s divinity and wrote the part of the Creed that deals with the Spirit

• This mystery [of the Holy Trinity] was revealed by Jesus Christ and is the source of all the other mysteries (CCC 45)

• Father, Son and Holy Spirit are distinct persons as revealed in scripture.

  • “… I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever - the Spirit of truth” John 14:16-17

• Three persons are distinct and are identical in attributes and equal in power, love, mercy, justice, holiness, knowledge and all other qualitie

• Each person is fully God - not divided in three parts (one god, not three)

Key feature Two: Jesus revealed God, the Father and God, the Holy Spirit

• Christians are baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, not in their names (relates to there only being one God)

• Jesus announced the sending of ‘another Paraclete’ (Advocate), the Holy Spirit before his Passover (John 14:26)

• Sending of the person of the Spirit after Jesus’s glorification reveals in its fullness the Holy Trinity’s mystery

• Eternal origin of the Spirit is not unconnected with the Son’s origin

• Incarnation of God’s Son reveals that God is the eternal Father and that the Son is consubstantial with the Father (Father and Son is the same god)

• Divine persons are inseparable in what they do. But within the single divine operation shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity, especially missions of the Son’s Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit

• John 15:26: “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.”

• Matthew 11:27 - “No one knows the son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Key Feature Three: The Holy Trinity is a community of love

• Jesus makes the astounding claim that the triune God’s ultimate purpose is to include us in this eternal trinitarian dance of love (Zee, 2016)

• The triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is the original and eternal community of love out of which we were created, and this One Holy Trinity is our true and eternal home

• Holy trinity is a true community of perfect love

• Nature of true love is not binding or limiting, but expansive

• The Holy Trinity created us to be with Him. We have been given the sacrament of Baptism so that we can be a part of His family

• The creation of the universe is an overflow of love from that original divine community as it expands in love and delight to include beloved creatures