Religion 240
Thirty Years War
Roman Emperor Ferdinand II wanted to stop religious activities, Protestant Rebellion occured because of this atrocities committed by mercenaries on both sides Reduced population by 25-40% Witch hunts Fought on German Soil
Friedrich Schleiermacher
developed historical and critical methods for studying theology Didn't think that religion should be in university Helped develop new university structure Have to study everything to make sense of religion Thought religion wasn't ksomething you know, it's more of a feeling More oriented towards the human being, associates religion with what we do and think (first person to do this)
Liberation Theology
emphasizes liberation from social, political, and economic oppression for ultimate slavation
Karl Barth
A Calvinist who believes in original sin Was worried about optimism surrounding WWI and WWII becase they believed that when we're confident, we do the worst things Nazi Germany Can't use philosophy to understand God and we can't break down religion into morals Christ is a combo of God and humans Resistant against National Socialism Dialectical Theology
According to Bernard Lonergan, why does authentic human development involve intellectual, moral, and religious "self-transcendence"?
Authenic human development involves these types of self-transcendence because they allow you to make yourself your own, while still choosing what we say and reflecting on others opinion. For instance, human development requires moral self-transcendence because it allows us to stay committed to values we believe in, not just following morals blindly, which in turn allows us to make the world around us better. Intellectual transcendence allows us to develop ourselves by asking questions all the time, thinking for ourselves, and formulate our own opinions and reasoned judgements. Religious transcendence allows this by allowing our hearts to be flooded by God's love, no matter which God you believe in.
Karl Barth writes, "The God of Schleiermacher cannot show mercy" ("Humanity of God," 51). How does Barth's own theological approach differ from that of Friedrich Schleiermacher?
Barth was involved in dialectical theology, meaning we can never understand God without his intervention. Schleiermacher believes in the feeling of absolute dependence upon God. Barth believes more in theology of above where we have to understand God first before we know who humans are, meaning we need to form a close connection with God and God needs to be involved in our life. Schleiermacher thinks that we have a consciousness that God is there and isn't nearly as active in our lives.
E. Schillebeeckx
Christian Philosopher Thinks some aspects of life are constants for everyone like space, time, religion, human corpureal, and he synthesises all of them together into anthroplogical constants
Vatican I
First Vatican council, Pope Pius IX Created for dealing with rising rationalism, liberalism, and materialism
Karl Rahner
Emphasized the Human Being as Questioner Believes God is an absolute mystery Supernatural Grace is God's offer of love Jesus is God's offer of love Anonymous Christianity
Hans Urs von Balthasar
Emphasizes the Beauty of Faith and the Gospel Focuses on drama of divine and human freedom Was Pope John Paul II's fav Founded conservative journal Communio Background in Literature Jesus is absolute singularity God isn't faceless, has form and beauty in Christ
Aufklärung
Enlightenment
Gustavo Gutiérrez
Father of Liberation Theology (emphasizing Christian duty to aid the poor) An ordained priest Slight Marxist overtones wanted to change existing social institutions to promote social justice
What distinctive perspective is offered by feminist theology, and what is the goal of this reflective perspective?
Feminist theology fights the idea of women being subordinate to men, and gives perspective of focusing on women within Christian traditions. The goal of this is to acknowledge the differences in the Church with gender, and actively fight them. Has been criticized to only be about white women, not POC's as well.
How does Immanuel Kant distinguish historical forms of religion, which claim some form of supernatural revelation, from a "purely rational faith"?
He distinguishes between the two of them by acknowledging that purely rational faith takes place in historical forms of religion. Rational faith is purely logical and is about distilling down morals from religion. The historical forms of religion are more supernatural like believing in a God. Kant acknowledges that historical religion is important because it provides symbols and rituals which we are naturally inclined to want, but thinks we should evolve to get rid of them and live with purely rational faith. We need to get away from the feeling based/piety based religion because it can obstruct rational knowledge.
According to Karl Rahner, why does there need to be an "anthropological change of direction" in theology?
He thought that medievel thoughts that were supernatural an were out of place, their appearance wasn't a bad thing but moving past it was for the best. Led a shift in modernity away from medieval. religion more about people, can't talk about God without talking about humans.
According to Susan Ross, how have conceptions of the "self" changed in the postmodern period? (see Ross, ch. 4)?
In a postmodern persepctive, we are no longer self-contained, individual, and autonomous being that was believed in the modern period. People cannot fit inside a box, we are fragmented and plural. We have more than one face, ie we show one side to our friends parents versus to our best friend. There is social and historical relativity for each individual, meaning our ideas are related to our social and historical contexts, so claims of universal truths are highly suspicious. Also not included in the original definition was "the otherness", or POC's and people of different SES. There is also the concept that language shapes us, versus us shaping language.
Bernard Lonergan
Influences Vatican II Doesn't believe that humans are a rational and spiritual animal alone and there is more that goes into it, thinks that all human nature is the same if you use that definition self-transcendence: making yourself your own via religious moral and intellectual traits
According to G. Gutiérrez, how does liberation theology complement and challenge traditional forms of Catholic thought and practice?
It complements Catholic thought by supporting the idea that men is detined to be in communion with God, and that sin is a refusal to love one another. It says that God's love extends to all people and we should also do that. It challenges Catholic thought by saying there is a preferential option for the poor and favors those who used to live in poverty. It also asks Christians and Catholics to serve people who lived impoverished lives and to dedicate their lives to social justice.
According to R.R. Ruether, in what ways has theology in the past tended to depict femininity or femaleness as less fully in the image of God?
It has been believed that women were the "lower" part of human nature, which is also seen as the source of sin. Therefore, women are often linked to sin. Women are also often seen as an "inferior mix", making them subordinate to men. According to some theologins, women can only be without sin when they have a man in their lives, but when they're single, they're sinful and unfaithful to God.
Vulgate
Official Latin Version of the Bible form the 16th Century
Gaudium et spes
Pastoral Constitution about human nature and the world plus religion Documents speak to everyone (men and women, POCs, during Civil Rights Movement About Common Good
According to Susan Ross, how have Christian understandings of human personhood changed in the modern period (see Ross, ch. 3)?
Personhood changed int eh modern period with the abolitionsist movement and the sufferage movement becoming mainstream, and seeing how the Church reacted to it. It was truly a transitional period, where women were still deemed as incapable of recieving the sacrament of ordination and don't really hold power in the Church. For slavery, the Church had been against slavery for a while, however the slave traders were still considered "good Christians". Personhood changed by bringing more controversial subjects to the surface, but nothing was really done to fix it yet.
Lumen Gentium
Priesthood changes issued from the Vatican Clergy and the "lay people" are now connected and similar Priests are now not above everyone else, they're more on the same level as common people
Sapere Aude
Roughly means "dare to think for yourself" or "dare to know/be wise"
Rosemary Radford Ruether
Says view of women being an "inferior mix" has been normalized Men had problematic views of gender Feminist Theology member
Dignitatis Humanae
Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Religious Freedom
No Salvation Outside the Poor
What is this? he states that there is no salvation outside the poor; says that people in poverty can teach us about human dignity and their ability to have faith even in suffering. When did this come up in class? Comes up in our discussion about Jon Sobrino
Feeling of Absolute Dependence
What is this? it's a sense of God, we are aware of ourselves a s free but also dependent on something greater. This comes from things that you can't choose (where you're born) When did it come up in class? Schleiermacher
Theology "from below"
What is this? the feeling of consciousness, rather than the recognition of Christ (theology from above). You have a spiritual conscious first, rather than recognizing Christ then developing a spiritual conscience. When did it come up in class? Barth
Immanuel Kant
Skeptic, believes religion can help us be moral, but we can just take the morals out of it Doesn't give us real knowledge about the work and what relys beyond it Big fan of David Hume
Preferential Option for the Poor
What is this? trend of preference being given to the well-being of the poor and powerless of society in the teachings of God, you must keep compassion and solidarity with the poor, love for everyone When did it come up in class? Pedro Arrupe, Society of Jesus/Jesuits, Gutierez
Feminist Theology
Viewing religion from a feminist perspective For increasing role of women among the clergy Reinterpreting Male-dominated imagery about God Studying images and roles of women in religion's sacred texts
Syllabus of Errors
What is this? A document issued by Pope Pius IX about what the Church believed were heresies in the philosophical and political realm, Church was on guard against modernity When did it come up in class? Learning about Protestants, Kant and Darwin
Nostra Aetate
What is this? Declaration about Church and other religions, accepting Judeism and Muslims because theu're all under the same God, and there are different legitimate paths to God (not just Christianity) When did it come up in class? Vatican II
Dialectical Theology
What is this? God is unknowable to human being outside of His grace and direct revelation, basically you can't know God through human reasoning, focus more on God's transcendence vs attempting to explain God in human terms When did it come up in class? Karl Barth
Moral vs physical evil
What is this? Moral evil is the result of any morally negative event caused by the intentional actions of a person (murder) Physical evil is like hurricaines, things that cannot be planned or caused by humans Ex. Global Warming is a moral evil, but the floods caused by global warming aren't. When did it come up in class? Human capacity for Sin (Ross)
Common Good
What is this? The sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillement When did it come up in class? Gaudium et Spes
Anonymous Christianity
What is this? The idea that people who have never heard the Gospel might be saved through Christ because they still lived morally When did it come up in class? Created by Karl Rahner
Extra ecclesiam nulla salus est
means "outside of the Church, there is no salvation"
