Exam 1 Christian Thought

Resurrection of Jesus Christ in light of 1 Corinthians 15

- christ's resurrection ~ our resurrection - Jesus takes an embodied connection to us (a physical union) --> what we do in our earthly bodies matters because

Babel

- culminating humans trying to get to Heaven on their own capacity; God breaks them up

Story of the Bible

Creation --> Adam & Eve --> Fall --> Babel --> Abe --> Israel --> descendants of Abe --> Exodus: Moses --> Covenant 1 (priestly kingdom); Covenant 2 (holy nation); Covenant 3 (promised land).

Covenant 2:

Holy Nation -> Torah -> wrath 4 disobedience -> new spirit -> temple of Spirit

Ousia

Greek for "substance" or "being." Trinitarian thought suggests that the Son derives His ousia from the Father, and yet what the Son is so the Father is exactly. In their formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity, the Cappadocian fathers declared that God was one ousia but three hypostaseis.

Hypostasis

Greek noun first used by Eastern theologians in the early centuries of church history to refer to the three persons of the Trinity.

Infallibility

The characteristic of being incapable of failing to accomplish a predetermined purpose.

Immutability

The characteristic of not experiencing change or development.

Impassability

The characteristic, usually associated with God, of being unaffected by earthly, temporal circumstances, particularly the experience of suffering and its effects. Many contemporary theologians reject the idea of diving impassibility, suggesting that it reflects Greek philosophical, rather than biblical, concerns. However, the Bible clearly teaches that God cannot be swayed in any way to be unfaithful to what God has promised. Still, it is seemingly impossible to associate pure impassibility with God in light of the fact that Jesus Christ, as fullest manifestation of God, experienced suffering on the cross.

Hermeneutics

The discipline that studies the principles and theories of how texts ought to be interpreted, particularly sacred texts such as the scriptures. Also concerned with understanding the unique roles and relationships between the author, the text and the original or subsequent readers. the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation, especially of the Bible or literary texts.

Inerrancy

The idea that Scripture is completely free from error.

univocal

The idea that a word carries the same meaning when applied to God that it has when predicated of something in creation.

Incommunicable Attributes of God

Those attributes that God cannot "share" or "communicate" with his creation.

Sola Scriptura

"Scripture alone."

Deus Absconditus

"The hidden God". Refers to the fact that God remains transcendent and sovereign (hiding himself), even in revealing himself to us as hidden. Therefore, God is never fully known by humans in this life. Luther - this unknowable God is revealed in Christ; yet in the cross of Christ, God's true glory is hidden to human wisdom.

Deus Revelatus

"the revealed God," the paradox of a hidden God revealing himself. For Luther the unknowable God is revealed in Christ; yet in the cross of Christ, God's true glory is hidden to human wisdom.

How do we know about Jesus?

(CP-5) 1. Salvation - Christ - Messiah of Israel - LORD - the Son of God - Raised from the dead - living & active 2. Faith - comes by hearing the Word of God - "to do theology is to hear good news" (Jesus is the good news; 2 Tim 2:8)

What is God?

(Greek question)

Who is God?

(Jewish question)

Analogical language about God

*essential to avoiding idolatry* WHY?

Why Revelation is important for theology

- HOW WE KNOW GOD

Adam & Eve

- priests of creation - relationship with God - union with one another

Fallen

- we are both victims and perpetrators of the fall - pathway to idolatry - Romans 1 - For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

Approaching Scripture theologically

1) our inescapable theological lens 2) functional theology (pp.12-17) -- what we teach and believe mattes!! - the church's life reveals its theology - theological reasoning is inescapable (p.16) - goal: constantly reshape our theology (p.17)

Three Approaches to Scripture [Billings]

1. Building block (preach w/in system; what God has spoken into our reality) 2. Smorgasbord/Saga (we get what we want from God) 3. Journey - the path (pp.8-10)- "we seek to know and have fellowship with God in a deeper way...lose our grasping and control over the text" - marriage analogy (pp.26-27) - "a marriage relationship involves knowledge, but rather than being the kind of knowledge that involves mastery, it is knowledge that plays a role in continued growth and journey".

Three modes of revelation (How general and special relate)

1. continuity 2. discontinuity 3. unveiled continuity

Challenges to Theology

1. finitude 2.fallen

What we do in our earthly bodies matters because...

1. we will be raised in a body like his (psyche = the human soul, mind, or spirit.--> pneuma = the vital spirit, soul, or creative force of a person.

Proper starting point of theologians

1...begin from the starting point of the resurrection (as a reality of our life -- that we will be raised too 2...realize that God is both the object and means of their knowledge --> gift of knowledge through Christ 3...acquire understanding as a result of grace 4...practice theology in community of the church 5...are transformed through the practice of theology

Rationalism

A belief or theory that opinions and actions should be based on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response

Tritheism

A distorted belief in three different Gods--Father, Son, and Spirit--rather than one God who is unified and yet diversely three persons.

Cappodocian Fathers

A fourth-century monastic family: Gregory of Nyssa, Basil the Great, and Gregory Nazianzus Wrote between the Council of Nicea and the Council of Constantinople (325-381). The Cappadocian fathers responded to the Arian heresy and formulated the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity that stated God is "three-persons [hypostaseis] in one essence [ousia].

Plenary Inspiration

A late Reformation view of biblical inspiration that holds that God is the ultimate author of the Bible in its entirety. It guarantees that all that the church has come to affirm a Scripture is both authoritative and helpful for christian belief and practice.

Subordinationism

A second- and third- century heresy that held that because the Son and the Spirit proceed from the Father, they are not equal to the Father and are thus not fully divine. Trinitarian heresy: the Son and the Holy Spirit are subordinate to the Father in nature and being.

Perichoresis

A term relating to the doctrine of the Trinity, often also referred to by the Latin term circumincessio. The basic notion is that all three persons of the Trinity mutually share in the life of the others, so that none is isolated or detached from the actions of the others. Mutual indwelling

General Revelation

A term used to declare that God reveals something about the divine nature through the created order. this self-revealing of God through creation is called general because it only gives "general" or "indirect" information about God, including the fact of God's existence and that God is powerful. This is in contrast to special revelation, which is more "specific" and "direct" and includes the appearance of the living Words (Jesus Christ himself) and the written Word of God (the Scriptures), revealing a holy, loving and just God who graciously provides forgiveness of sin. General revelation is likewise "general" in that it is available to all humankind, in contrast to the divine self-disclosure that God revealed to certain persons.

Aseity

Another name for the attribute of God's independence or self-existence. A term derived from the Latin a se, "from oneself". Aseity, as a divine attribute, refers to God's self-existence. In other words, God is not dependent upon anything else for existence but has eternally existed without any external or prior cause.

Heresy

Any teaching rejected by the Christian community as contrary to Scripture and hence to orthodox doctrine. Most of the doctrines that have been declared heretical have to do with either the nature of God or the person of Jesus Christ. The term heresy is generally reserved for any belief that claims to be Christian and scriptural but has been rejected by the church as sub-Christian or antiscriptural.

Communicable attributes

Aspects of God's character that he more fully shares or "communicates" with us

Patripassianism

Derived from the Greek words pater (father) and pascho (to suffer), the term refers to an early type of modalism that suggested that the one God became incarnate in the form of the Son was born of a virgin and suffered and died on the cross. This belief was declared heretical by the early church.

Creed

Derived from the latin credo (I believe), a creed is a summary statement of Christian faith and belief. The purpose of the earliest creeds was to present a short summary of Christian doctrine, which baptismal candidates affirmed at their baptism. Later, creeds become tools for instruction of new converts, for combating heresy and for use in corporate worship. Three of the most famous creeds established in the first five centuries of the church history are the Apostle's Creed, the Nicene Creed (or the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed), and the Athanasian Creed.

Method for theology

FAITH - responding to God's revelation in belief (Jesus reconciles the gap and routes all our theological claims)

Types of Revelation

General & Special

How do we speak about this God, then (as fallen and finite)?

God reveals himself to us as God ~ this is a apocalyptic enterprise that cannot be constrained to science and technology

Special Revelation

God's divine self-revelation evidenced specifically in salvation history and culminating in the incarnation as understood through Scripture.

Theopneustos

Greek for "God-breathed," or "God-inspired." Generally this word is used to describe the divine dimension of Scripture either as divinely inspired documents or as the product of divinely inspired authors.

Oikonomia

Greek for "economy" or "administration." In theology the term refers to salvation history or to God's providential plan and care of creation. More specifically, it has become synonymous with the main events in God's plan of salvation, particularly Christ's incarnation and the sending of the Spirit.

Homoousios/homoiousios

Homoousios: Greek for "of the same essence (substance or nature)." - Athanasius Orthodox Concerned with Jesus the Son's relationship to God the Father. Homoiousios: "of similar essence", was used by semi-Arians to argue that the Son was of similar but not identical substance as God the Father.

Dogma

In *protestant circles, *dogma is nearly synonymous to *doctrine, that is, a theological teaching. In Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox circles dogmas are the officially accepted teaching of the church and not simply the theories of individual theologians.

Equivocal

In semantics (the study of the meanings of words) the term is used to identify words that have more than one possible meaning. This is in contrast to *univocal words, which have only one possible meaning. In theology a term is said to be equivocal if it means something quite different when used of God than when referring to humans or something else in creation.

Adiaphora

Items of belief not essential to *salvation. In Lutheran thought the adiaphora were defined as practices of the church that were neither commanded nor forbidden in Scripture. In contemporary terms, adiaphora are those things not clearly addressed by Scripture that Christians may freely practice or believe with a clear conscience before God and that do not affect salvation.

Why do we start with Jesus?

Jesus is the preeminent revelation of God

vestigium Dei

Latin for "vestiges of God," the view that there are vestiges, or evidences, of the one God in the created order and that God has revealed the divine being analogously in creation.

vestigium trinitatis

Latin for "vestiges of Trinity," the drawing of analogies to the Trinity from the threefold related structure of certain created things. For example, Augustine saw a vestige of the Trinity in the human person, one's self-knowledge and self-love.

fides quaerens intellectum

Latin motto meaning "Faith seeking understanding" - originated with Anselm to show the relationship of religious faith to human reason. For him, matters of religion and theology are understood only by first believing them and then proceeding to gain an intellectual understanding of the things already believed. In other words, faith is both logically and chronologically prior to reason

Filioque

Latin term meaning "and from the Son" A latin term literally meaning "and the Son", filioque became significant because of its addition to the description of the Holy Spirit in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan *Creed (A.D. 381) by the Western churches in teh 6th centure. (Ignited great controversy and became the major factor in the subsequent split between the Eastern and Western churches in A.D. 1054).

Canon

Literal meaning "standard" or "rule", the term is most closely associated with the collection of books that the church has recognized as the Word of God (Scripture) and that functions as the rule or standard of faith and practice in the church. Although the various Christian traditions are not in full agreement as to which books should comprise the collection of Scripture, at the very least all agree that the 66 books of the Protestant Bible are canonical and therefore authoritative.

Spiration

Literally, "breathing," the term used to describe the way the Spirit proceeds from the Father (and the Son).

Agnosticism

Literally, "no knowledge" and taken from two Greek terms, a (no) and gnosis (knowledge). Refers to a system of belief in which personal opinion about religious statements (e.g., "God exists") is suspended because it is assumed that they can be neither proven nor disproven or because such statements are seen as irrelevant.

Orthodoxy

Literally, "right praise" or "right belief"; implies being characterized by consistency in belief and worship with the Christian faith (in the Catholic tradition, consistency with the church) as witnessed to in Scripture, the early Christian writers and the official teachings, creeds and liturgy of the church. Orthodoxy is sometimes used in a narrower sense to refer to the Eastern Orthodox tradition.

Epistemology

Philosophical inquiry into the nature, sources, limits, and methods of gaining knowledge. In Western philosophy, epistemology has generally followed two main alternatives: rationalism (knowledge that is gained through the mind's use of reason and logic) and empiricism* (knowledge is gained through the gathering of information through the use of the inner and external senses).

Covenant 1:

Priestly kingdom oversee and mediate God to the world --> Temple --> destroyed --> Messiah --> body of Christ

Economic Trinity

Refers to the manifestations of the three persons of the Trinity in relationship to the world, particularly in regard to the outworking of God's plan (economy) of salvation. Thus, refers to how God as a tripersonal being related to the world, which in turn provides the biblical context for understanding how the persons of the Trinity relate to each other. - difference b/w the immanent Trinity? (God in eternal relationship)

Christology

The Greek word translated in English as "Christ" is the equivalent of the Hebrew term Messiah and means "anointed one." Although not intrinsic to its meaning, the NT use of the term Christ tends to point to the deity of Jesus. Christology is the theological study devoted to answering two main questions: Who is Jesus? (the question of His identity) and What is the nature and significance of what Jesus accomplished in the incarnation? (the question of his work).

Analogy of Being

The argument that there is sufficient similarity between God and creation so that observation of the universe will yield a limited understanding of God's nature. More to humans than universe itself, in that humans b/c humans are made in the image of God. Some theologians reject this completely

Why is this GOOD news?

The story of the Bible all amounts to Jesus

Immanent Trinity

The term used to explore and, to an inadequate degree, explain the internal workings and relationships among the three persons of the Trinity. Statements about the immanent trinity seek to give language to the inexpressible mystery of what God is like apart from reference to God's dealings with creation. A focus on the inner life of God as a Trinity of three divine Persons without consideration of God's relationship to human beings or his creation work.

Adoptionism

The theory that asserts that God adopted Jesus of Nazareth as his Son. In other words, Jesus was born human but became God's Son at a particular point in his life. This theory fails to reflect scriptural texts that point to Jesus' eternal relationship with the Father.

Modalism/Sabellianism

The trinitarian heresy that does not view Father, Son, and Spirit as three particular "persons in relation," but merely as three modes or manifestations of the one divine person of God. Thus God comes in salvation history as Father to create and give the law, as Son to redeem and as Spirit to impart grace. Masks

Fideism

The view that matters of religious and theological truth must be accepted by faith apart from the exercise of reason. In its extreme, fideism suggests that the use of reason is misleading. Less extreme fideists suggest that reason is not so much misleading as it is simply unable to lead to truths about the nature of God and salvation. A philosophy that accepts religious beliefs without grasping their intellectual content, without seeing the reasons that make them believable, without seeing their connection with other realities, and without acknowledging the right to intellectual life to which faith is entitled, but without the need for faith.

Finitude

We want to be orthodox, not heretical - creator-creature distinction(a basic Reformed belief that God exists on one plane, and we on another. He has one understanding of himself and his creation and we have another, analogous, understanding.) - infinite qualitative distinction (very different attributes of finite and temporal men and the infinite and eternal qualities of a supreme being)

Rule of Faith

a series of statements that tested a new believer's understanding of essential Christian doctrines, known today as the Apostle's Creed - guide for our own functional theology the church's presuppositions (p.19)

Paradox

an apparent contradiction. a paradox may come in the form of a seemingly self-contradictory statement, but held together by faith. ex: fully divine, yet fully human.

Arianism

an early heretical teaching about the identity of Jesus Christ. Arianism was founded primarily on the teachings of Arius (335/7). The central characteristic of Arian thought was that because God is one, Jesus could not have also been truly God. In order to deal with the scriptural testimony to the exalter status of Christ, Arius and his followers proposed that Jesus was the highest created being of God. So although Christ was fully human, he was not fully God. Arius's taching was condemned as heretical at the Nicea council.

Descendants of Abe

biologically related; later descendant of Abe come through faith (adoption; Gentiles grafted in -- us!)

Israel

completion in Christ --> church

equivocal language

consists of statements that have more than one commonly accepted definition

Fall

groaning creation... Noah & the flood...

Exodus (Moses)

leads to a King --> Prophets --> Promises --> fulfillment

4 senses of scripture

literal, allegorical, moral, analogical

Vatican council

literally, an enclave within the city of Rome, the Vatican forms the residence of the Pope. Figuratively, a reference to the pope or to papal, magisterial authority. Its present common usage also refers to the Second Vatican Council, which sought to bring all aspects of Roman Catholic faith and life into harmony with contemporary concerns or the modern age.

Faith seeking understanding

our foundation for theology - God comes to us (crosses squiggly line) through Jesus - Colossians 1:21: 21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Covenant 3:

promised land -> kingdom -> exile -> restoration & new covenant (Isaiah 53 foreshadows Jesus! So cool!) --> all nations

Galatians 3-4 + Billings

talk about Scripture and the role it plays in the story of God's economy (eternal history/plan) of salvation. - Gentiles getting into Israel Jewish traditions through Jesus - the Messiah of Israel

transdescence

the attribute of God that refers to being wholly and distinctly separate from creation (although always actively involved in and with it as well). The declaration that God is "above" the world and comes to creation from "beyond". During the medieval era, God's transdescence was especially emphasized.

Ontology

the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being. Focuses on being and essence

Immanence

the idea that God is present in, close to and involved with creation. Unlike pantheism (which teaches that God and the earth are one or that God is the "soul", animating principle, of the world), Christian theology teaches that God is constantly involved with creation without actually becoming exhausted by creation or ceasing to be divine in any way.

Metaphysics

the philosophical exploration into the ultimate nature of reality lying beyond the merely physical. - ontological concerns; with questions about what constitutes something as "real" or having "being"

FAITH

thinking/reasoning about something we cannot see - incomprehensible, yet seeking understanding

Functional Theology

to help bridge the gap between what you know about God, and how you act towards him and your neighbor; we are prone to speak "true" statements (to us) in a false way (to God) "welcome to theology; we can't do it" - Dr. J

Theology

word/reason/speech about God

Univocal language

words that mean the same thing when used in different contexts