THEO Quiz #10, THEO Make Up Quiz, THEO Quiz #9, THEO Quiz #8, THEO Quiz #7

evangelical

having to do with the gospel or the Bible; sometimes used as a synonym for Protestant. In the fundamentalist-modernist controversy of the early twentieth century, it describes some of the more traditional forms of Protestant Christianity, especially those that stress the importance of personal conversion or being "born again."

anthropocentric

human-centered.

works of mercy

inspired in part by Jesus' anticipation of a day of judgement on which people and nations will be sorted into "sheep" and "goats" based on their treatment of the poor and needy. The Catholic Church has traditionally recognized two lists of seven. The "spiritual" works of mercy are to instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, admonish the sinners, bear patiently those who wrong us, forgive offenses, comfort the afflicted, and pray for the living and the dead. The "corporal" or bodily works of mercy are to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, visit the imprisoned or ransom the captive, and bury the dead.

Broederbond

"Afrikaner Brotherhood," the Calvinist, white supremacist secret society established in the 1920s to advance racist Afrikaner interests in government, especially to undermine self-determination for African tribes.

Nostra Aetate

"In our age" is Vatican II's Declaration on non-Christian Religions; it stresses that the church accepts everything in other religions that is good and holy; most importantly, it rejected the doctrine that the Jews have inherited guilt for the death of Jesus, thus taking a great first step toward rolling back Christian anti-semitism.

Gaudium et Spes

"Joy and Hope" is the "pastoral" constitution of Vatican II that sought to open up dialogue between the Catholic Church and the modern world by emphasizing what Catholics shared with all humans beings of goodwill and by calling Catholics to work in common for human development.

Populorum progression

"The Development of Peoples," encyclical of Pope Paul VI issued in 1967, it expresses concern for the disadvantaged and seeks to guide and inspire liberation theology.

Dei Verbum

"Word of God": Vatican II's dogmatic constitution on divine revelation, seeing written scripture and tradition as in continuity from a common source; recognized necessity of interpreting scripture in the literary categories in which it was written.

College of Cardinals

"cardinal" is an honorific office, not an ordained office such as a deacon, priest, or bishop. Originally the cardinals were local Roman clergy who assisted the pope in his work as bishop of Rome. In the Middle Ages, they gained exclusive responsibility for electing the pope and for advising him on matters pertaining to the governance of the Roman Catholic Church. Today they come from all over the world and represent, along with the college of bishops, the universality of the church.

justification

(1) generally, making straight that which is crooked or ragged; (2) in theology, being set in right relationship with God. Justification is closely related to the notion of sin as a severing of humanity's relationship with God.

Black Theology

(1) inspired by the manifold religious, spiritual, and cultural traditions originating from black communities of faith and by the history of resistance to anti-black racism. It is a form of theology that interprets the Bible and the Christian tradition in the light of black experience and the struggle for liberation. (2) a distinctly South African form of liberation theology grounded in principles of black empowerment; less Marxist in orientation that its Latin American counterparts and more biblically grounded than African-American versions of the same, it emphasized the need for black self-love.

Dom Helder Camara

(1909-1999) Catholic bishop of Recife, Brazil from 1964 to 1985. He was a charismatic advocated of liberation theology and social justice especially on behalf of developing nations in the "Third World" or Global South.

Oscar Romero

(1917-1980) archbishop of El Salvador, in Central America, from 1977 until his assignation by a right-wing paramilitary "death squad" associated with the U.S.-backed military government on May 24, 1980. Though once known for his conservative Catholic theology, his outspoken denunciation of repression and injustice turned him into a well-known prophet of liberation theology. He was beatified in May 2015.

Frank Chikane

(A.D. 1347-1380) a South African anti-apartheid activist and Pentecostal theologian from Soweto especially known for his leadership in issuing the Kairos Document, a Christian denunciation of apartheid.

Ignatius of Loyola

(A.D. 1491/95-1556) founder of the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits. A Spaniard, Ignatius was trained as a knight, but he took up a life dedicated to the church after reading devotional books, including a life of Christ and lives of the saints, during a long convalescence.

Teresa of Avila

(A.D. 1515-1582) a Spanish mystic and founder of the Discalced Carmelites. Her writings include the Life, an autobiographical account of her life, and the Interior Castle, a description of her method of prayer.

John of the Cross

(A.D. 1542-1591) a follower of Teresa of Avila, the cofounder of the Discalced Carmelites, a reform branch of the Carmelite order, and a Spanish mystic. His writings include the Ascent of Mount Carmel and the Dark Night of the Soul.

First Vatican Council

(A.D. 1869-1870) the first Catholic ecumenical council since the Council of Trent was convened to rally the Catholic world around Pope Pius IX, when the Papal States were threatened by the formation of the new Kingdom of Italy. The council declared that the pope has a universal primacy of jurisdiction (legal governing authority) and under certain conditions possessed the divine protection of infallibility in teaching on matters of faith and morals.

Hendrik Verwoerd

(A.D. 1901-1966) a South Africa politician who is infamously known as "the architect of apartheid"; he was prime minister from 1958 until his assassination in 1966.

Desmond Tutu

(A.D. 1931-) a South African cleric and Anglican theologian who served as General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches from 1978 until 1985, when he became the Bishop of Johannesburg and then Archbishop in 1986. He is known for his activism for human rights and against apartheid.

Steve Biko

(A.D. 1946-1977) a South African anti-apartheid activist who was at the forefront of the Black Consciousness Movement in the 1960s and the 1970s, and who was arrested and beaten to death by state security officers in prison in 1977.

Gustavo Gutierrez

(b. 1928) a Peruvian parish priest and theologian, he became a leading spokesperson for liberation theology in the early 1970s with the publication of A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics and Salvation.

Laudato Si'

Encyclical by Pope Francis promulgated in 2015 and addressed to all people, on the topic of care for creation and just, sustainable economic development.

First Amendment

Freedom of Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, and Petition

theocentric

God-centered.

Dignitatis Humanae

Of Human Dignity or Declaration on Religious Freedom, is the last of the documents of Vatican II; it recognized for the first time that freedom from religious coercion was a human and therefore also a civil right, thereby reversing much nineteenth-century papal teaching.

Lumen Gentium

Vatican II's dogmatic constitution on the Church, which recognized the Church as the People of God, in an effort to do justice to the integral role of the laity in the Church; also recognized the collegiality of the bishops.

glossolalia

a Greek term meaning "speaking in tongues," one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Vulgate

a Latin translation of the Bible, containing also the books of the Apocrypha, widely used in the West at least from the sixth century A.D. and declared by the Council of Trent to be the only authoritative translation of the Bible.

Cottesloe Consultation

a conference sponsored by the World Council of Churches in December 1960 in Cottesloe, a suburb of Johannesburg, providing the churches with an opportunity to respond to the Sharpeville Massacre; those assembled encouraged the churches to take a strong and active role in challenging the injustices of apartheid.

Black Power

a diverse set of ideas that emphasize black self-determination, black liberation, and black pride. Advocates often seek to push for more than legal civil rights for black people, criticizing Western social, political, and economic structures as fundamentally racist at their foundation.

Baptist church

a family of Christian churches that have their roots in the Puritan movement in England. They were also influenced by the Dutch Mennonites and millennialist movements who looked to the books of Daniel and Revelation, seeking "signs of the times" and a proper way of life for Christian believers. They hold conservative views on the authority and inspiration of the Bible, but otherwise they are committed to religious liberty and church independence.

pietism

a family of Protestant churches that were established out of a Bible-centered revivalism and a desire to fight against religious indifference by focusing on sharing the experience of God in their lives. It includes the Methodists, Scandinavian evangelical churches, and Moravian Christians.

Holiness movement

a family of Protestant churches who seek perfection in the world by developing a lifestyle of personal holiness and following a rigid code of behavior. It includes the Free Methodist Church, the Church of God, the Holiness Christian Church, and the Church of the Nazarene.

Pentecostalism

a family of Protestant churches whose members demonstrate their Christian faith through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, in particular, healing, wisdom to discern spirits, prophecy, and speaking in tongues (glossolalia). It includes the Assemblies of God, the Church of God, the Pentecostal Holiness Church, the Apostolic Faith Church, the Church of God in Christ, and the Full Gospel Fellowship.

ubuntu

a humanist philosophy rooted in the idea that "a person is a person through other people," and the idea that "I am because you are" that was popularized in South Africa under the leadership of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.

dispensationalism

a method of interpreting biblical prophecy; it divides the scriptural narrative of God's dealings with humanity into seven stages called dispensations. Each stage moved God's plan for humanity forward toward its completion. Especially important interpretive method in modern fundamentalism.

Fundamentalist movement

a movement that began in America as a militant reaction to Liberal Protestantism and to developments in modern science and the historical study of the Bible. The name comes from a series of pamphlets called "The Fundamentals' published in 1910-1915 by conservative Protestants, which stressed that there were certain fundamental Christian beliefs that could not be changed or watered down. The term has since been applied to anti-modernist movements in religions other than Christianity.

ultramontanism

a nineteenth-century tendency to exalt the authority of the papacy "beyond the mountains," referring to Rome's location south of the Alps.

breviary

a prayer book containing the Liturgy of the Hours, the official prayer of the church, regularly prayed by priests, monks, and religious sisters. It is composed of pslams and readings from the Bible and other religious literature.

Discalced Carmelites

a reform branch of the Carmelite order founded by Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. It became a separate order in A.D. 1593. The term discalced means "unshod," referring to the spiritual practice of going barefoot in order to fulfill Jesus' mandate to provide themselves with nothing for the journey, not even sandals for their feet (Matthew 10:9-10).

Capuchins

a reform branch of the Franciscan movement, this religious order was officially recognized in 1528 during the Catholic Reformation. They got their name from the unique four-pointed hood that they wore with their brown habit.

Neo-Scholasticism

a renewal of Catholic theology that took place between the First Vatican Council and the Second Vatican School. It involved an endorsement of Thomas Aquinas' philosophy and theology - and scholasticism that attended his writings - as the way in which Catholic theologians should engage the modern world.

seminary

a school of theology especially designed for the training of priests. The Council of Trent (A.D. 1545-1563) ordered that every Roman Catholic diocese establish a seminary for the training of its priest candidates. Many dioceses still retain their own today.

polyglot Bible

a single Bible in which the text was presented in several languages. They were especially popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries A.D.

transubstantiation

a teaching about how the bread and wine of the Eucharist become the body and blood of Jesus Christ: after consecration (blessing) by a validly ordained priest, the accidents (physical appearance) remain as bread and wine, but the substance (or essence) changes and becomes the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

Catholic Reformation

a term given to the efforts of those Roman Catholics who wanted to bring about the internal rebirth of Catholic sensibility - in theology, spirituality, religious piety, and morality - in the sixteenth century, during the time of the Protestant Reformation.

Counter-Reformation

a term given to the efforts of those who, during the Protestant Reformation, were loyal to the pope and supportive of the customary practices of the Roman Catholic Church in order to counter (go against) the teachings and practices of the Protestant reformers.

Civil Rights Movement

a term that encompasses the social movements that fought for black civil rights spanning from the early 1950s to the late 1960s, which called for an end to racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans and for protection of their rights under the Constitution and federal law.

inculturation

a term used to describe the process by which a religion "learns" to live and act within a culture different from the one in which it began, and which leads to reciprocal influence between religion and culture. In Christian theology and missionary strategy, this is sometimes spoken of as an imperative, in order for the Christian message to be accessible to people of every culture, and embodied in culturally authentic ways by the Christian communities made up by those who respond to that message.

reception

a theological concept for the process by which an ecumenical council is gradually understood and incorporated into the actual life of the church; reception may take quite a long time but is crucial for understanding a council's real impact and weight.

prophetic theology

a theological methodology of hope articulated in South Africa in opposition to the official theology of the state, and enunciated above all in the Kairos Document, which involves critical social analysis especially of unjust social structures and biblical interpretation rooted in the prophetic stance against injustice.

civil religion

a theory derived from the sociology of religion which holds that for societies to cohere, they produce a unifying symbol system that acts as a virtual religion. It has been applied to the United States despite its rejection of an official religion.

conciliarism

a theory of church authority advanced by certain theologians and bishops of the Roman Catholic Church intended to resolve the Great Schism of the papacy (A.D. 1378-1417). According to this theory, the bishops, when they were gathered together in an official council in time of crisis, had the right to make binding decisions independent of the pope.

denominationalism

according to this principle, the individual Christian churches, with their particular forms of worship and their unique organizational structures, are understood to be denominations of the one true church, which is Christianity, and not separate churches; in America it became the classic way Christianity adapted to the separation of church and state.

Society of Jesus

also known as the Jesuits, this religious order was founded by Ignatius of Loyola in A.D. 1540. Dedicated to the service of the pope, they played an important role in the Catholic Reformation both as missionaries and teachers. Today, they are the largest Catholic religious order, with a large and respected system of high schools, colleges, and universities.

Kairos Document

an 11,000 word, five-chapter theological statement issued in 1985 that was signed by more than 150 church leaders and theologians in South Africa criticizing the silence of the churches in the face of apartheid and challenging the churches to engage in the struggle against apartheid.

Jehovah's Witnesses

an American Christian church that has its origins in the International Bible Students Association founded by Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916). The church is intensely focused on eschatology and on the imminent return of Christ in the end time.

revivalism

an American Christian movement sometimes described as born-again Christianity, which is based on the experience of a personal conversion to Jesus Christ as one's Lord and savior.

Modernism

an early twentieth-century reform movement in the Roman Catholic church that challenged the Neo-Scholastic approach to theology on a broad range of theological issues from the use of historical-critical methods in the study of scripture and church history, emphasizing the corporate and sacramental nature of the church to the role of the laity in church governance.

Sharpeville Massacre

an incident in which more than 5,000 people gathered at a police station in Sharpeville, Transvaal, on March 21, 1960, for protesting pass laws; police opened fire on the crowd. Official records indicate that 69 South Africans were shot and killed by the police though some place the death count much higher.

Methodism

an independent Protestant church founded by John Wesley, which began as a reform movement within the Church of England. It differed from the Church of England in its greater emphasis on personal spirituality, Bible study, evangelistic preaching, and lively services.

Baroque

an ornate style of art and architecture that was especially popular in Roman Catholic churches and among Roman Catholic artists during the Catholic Reformation. It's style was designed to dramatically illustrate the truths of Catholic orthodoxy but also to involve the viewer in the experience of faith by appealing to their emotions and overwhelming them with a sense of awe.

Womanist Theology

arguably the most important theological development that has emerged in the wake of the earliest advocates of Black Theology. Drawing on the past and present of black women's intellectual thought and activism, it seeks to combine a theological analysis, it seeks to combine a theological analysis race, gender, and class that account for the particularities of the lived experiences of black women.

Catholic Worker Movement

begun in 1933 by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin as a radical newspaper called The Catholic Worker, it soon created "houses of hospitality" to serve the poor directly. The movement practices voluntary poverty, nonviolence, and "the works of mercy," in some 228 houses of hospitality in the U.S.A and around the world.

ecofeminism

combination of the words ecology and feminism. It is a theological approach that examines the interconnection between the domination of women and the domination of nature, and proposes strategies and world-views to address these problems.

Council of Trent

declared by Roman Catholics to be an ecumenical council, this church council met over a period of 18 years (1545-1563) to address doctrinal and practical issues of reform, both within the Catholic Church and in response to the Protestant Reformation.

Peace churches

descended from the Anabaptists ("re-baptizers") of the Radical Reformation, these churches practice believer's Baptism and live a simple way of life intended to set them apart from the larger secular society. They include the Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, and Church of the Brethren.

Spiritual Exercises

developed by Ignatius of Loyola, this month-long spiritual examination allows the individual to participate in the drama of sin and salvation, leading to a turning over of everything, especially the will, to obedience to one's religious superior, to the teachings of the church and its traditions, for the spread of the faith.

environmental racism

discrimination that systematically excludes marginalized races from decisions about the environment, while exposing them to greater environmental hazards and risks.

ecotheology

ecological theology, or theology that addresses ecological questions and problems.

dominion

literally means "rule"; most often a reference to God's command in Genesis 1:28, giving humanity special responsibility to care for creation, safeguard it from abuse, and use it wisely for the good of all creatures.

aggiornamento

meaning "a bringing up to date." This term describes the spirit of the Second Vatican Council as it attempted to reinterpret the church's doctrine and reform its practice in a way that was suitable for the present.

ressourcement

meaning "going back to the origin," a French term that was used to describe a common desire of several theological renewal movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to rejuvenate theology by recovering older sources in scripture and tradition.

Eucharist

meaning "to give thanks," the Christian ritual reenactment of Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples. According to Catholic doctrine, when the bread and wine is consecrated, it becomes the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

Boers

the Afrikaans word for "farmer," the term designates Afrikaans-speaking descendants of the Dutch settlers if South Africa. Contemporary usage of the term is complicated. Some Afrikaans-speaking citizens of the new democracy of South Africa prefer to be called this, while some consider it to be a pejorative term.

Latter-Day Saints

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, more commonly called that Mormon church; founded by Joseph Smith in 1830 in New York, on the basis of a written revelation called the Book of Mormon, and claiming to be the restoration in America of the true church of Jesus Christ.

restorative justice

often defined in opposition to retributive forms of justice, an approach to criminal justice that attempts to rehabilitate perpetrators by reaching a restitution or reconciliatory agreement that is agreeable to both victims and offenders as a means of restoring broken relationships between persons and within communities.

hermeneutics of suspicion

process of interpretation that recognizes the influence of the oppressive cultures in which a text was written and interpreted.

praxis

reflective action; in other words, to simultaneously reflect upon one's course of action while consciously acting upon one's reflections. The concept is prominent among liberation theologians, who use it to summarize their methodology and argue that Christian faith should never remain abstract, but must express itself in ethical action in solidarity with the poor and oppressed.

Christian base communities (or ecclesial base communities)

small groups of poor and disenfranchised people and /or their advocates, who meet together to study the Bible, discuss issues of common concern, and strategize about how to remedy or respond to social injustices. These groups are often associated with liberation theology.

Pan Africanist Congress

the "Africanist" political party that broke off from the ANC (African National Congress) in 1959 and was founded by Robert Sobukwe, among others, that advocated for an African government established for Africans by Africans.

papal infallibility

the Roman Catholic dogma defined at the First Vatican Council in 1870 that holds the pope is protected from error when he teaches on matters of faith and morals, and says that he is doing so.

WARC Declaration

the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) met in Ottawa, Canada, in 1982, adopting a declaration that proclaimed apartheid in South Africa to be a theological heresy.

theo-ideology

the combination of appeals to divine revelation and natural law theory to justify an ideology or racial discrimination.

Sacrosanctum Concilium

the first of Vatican II's four constitutions, dealing with the reform of the Catholic liturgy; it sought to restore the Eucharist liturgy to the center of the church's common life.

intrinsic value

the goodness and worth of a person or thing in and of itself, even it is is not important or useful to human beings.

Afrikaner

the group identity of Afrikaans-speaking persons in South Africa who are descended from Dutch and Huguenot settlers.

restorationism

the idea that the way to reform and renew Christianity was to "restore" the church to the original structures, beliefs, and practices that prevailed during the time of Jesus and the apostles. The Radical Reformers of the sixteenth century held this belief. In early nineteenth-century America, the Second Great Awakening (religious revival) inspired new restorationist churches that called themselves simply "the Christian Church" and also the "Disciples of Christ."

intersectionality

the interaction of multiple systems of oppression or discrimination based on gender, race, class, sexual orientation, etc.

lynching

the name for the history of public torture and execution of black people at the hands of white people in the United States, in the decades following the emancipation of slaves. Between 1877 and 1950, nearly 4,000 African-American men and women were victims of this across the North and the South of the United States.

Anthropocene

the name geologists apply to the current era of Earth's history, acknowledging that human beings are the dominant natural force influencing global climate and the environment.

structural evil, structural sin

the notion that sin and evil become embedded into institutions, cultures, and norms in a way that has unjust and dehumanizing consequences independent of the weakness or willful intention of individuals.

Anthropogenic climate change

the overall rapid change in Earth's temperature, precipitation, and wind patterns caused by human activity.

African National Congress

the political party founded in 1912 to give voting rights to black and mixed-race Africans; after the establishments of apartheid, it was the party that sought to end legalized racial segregation. It was the party of Nelson Mandela, and was banned from 1940-1990. At the national level, it has been the ruling party of post-apartheid South Africa.

preferential option for the poor

the principle that church and society should always prioritize the needs of the poor and vulnerable in their actions, programs, and policies. Advocated by liberation theologians, the principle became prominent when Catholic bishops endorsed it in Medellin, Colombia in 1968, and has since found a prominent place in Catholic social teaching worldwide.

myth of Anglo-Saxon superiority

the racist myth propagated by Anglo-Saxons on the basis of theology, philosophy, and science primarily serving to justify their inherent superiority over all people in the world and their enslavement of African people.

apartheid

the system of legalized racial segregation (affecting housing, health care, education, criminal justice, political engagement, and economic access) instituted by South African law from 1948-1994.

instrumental value

the worth of a thing due to its usefulness to human beings.

Feminist theologies

theologies that analyze the oppression of women and are committed to working toward the equality and inclusion of women in church and society.