Theology Test 2 Study Guide
True or false, The doctrine of the Trinity works logically well with different forms of dualism in Christian theology.
False
Pair the sense of creation with the phases of the creative activity of God.
Creatio Originalis: Original creation in the beginning of the universe, bringing everything into being Creatio Continuo: Continuous creation in the present here and now with the ongoing, sustaining power of the Holy Spirit Creatio Nova: New creation at the redeemed end-time with the transformation of everything in communion with divine life
True or false, Ecological science supports the view that it is a dog-eat-dog world and that in the great battle of life only the rugged and the fierce win the day.
False
True or false, God is male.
False
True or false, God only loves the rich diversity of the tree of life because it set the stage for the human species.
False
True or false, In Christian theology, God can be compared to anything metaphorically.
False
True or false, Lynn White Jr.'s description of medieval interpretations of the creation stories of Genesis reflects what we know about these texts from historical criticism.
False
True or false, Metaphors for God that suggest that God is feminine, bodily, immanent, or passionate are unacceptable in Christian theology.
False
True or false, Metaphors typically are straightforward and do not require interpretation.
False
True or false, Piling on metaphors for God is a practice that should be avoided, according to the Bible.
False
True or false, The Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church teaches that feminine metaphors for God are unacceptable according to scripture and tradition.
False
True or false, The only acceptable metaphors for God in Christian theology are God the Father, God the King, God the Shepherd, and God the Judge.
False
True or false, The theory of evolution and the cosmic history of the universe indicate that life and the universe are unfolding according to a detailed design and plan toward increasing simplicity.
False
True or false, Variations of individuals within a species do not give them any advantage over other individuals in the search for nutrition and successful reproduction.
False
True or false, When Johnson refers to God as Being, she means that God is the Being.
False
True or false, When we say that God is father, we mean that God is male.
False
True or false It is inappropriate to transfer a scientific theory about a biological process that happens without conscious intent to the arena of human interaction where causes are intentional, willful, and complex.
True
True or false, According to Christian theology, the Holy Spirit is present in creation in an ongoing way--right here, right now.
True
True or false, Adequate theological metaphors for God, in conversation with evolutionary biology, ought to account for the intense creativity of creation and of God.
True
True or false, Although some of the precise details of On the Origin of Species have not held up over time, discoveries in paleontology, comparative anatomy, developmental biology, and genetics have provided new specificity to the core of Darwin's theory.
True
True or false, Darwin's argument is based on a deeply ecological vision of nature, involving a network of intricate interdependencies and mutual relations expressed in competition or profitable cooperation.
True
True or false, Ecological science indicates that all forms of life are interrelated with the environment and with other forms of life.
True
True or false, Ecosystems with greater diversity of species are more resilient as whole.
True
True or false, Evolutionary biology demonstrates that the tree of life unfolds according to established patterns, processes, and laws.
True
True or false, For most Christian theologians, reason can and should inform faith.
True
True or false, God alone is good, but God also gifts God's goodness to creation and so created goods are good inasmuch as they participate in God.
True
True or false, God is least wrongly understood as a relationship, as an eternal explosion of love.
True
True or false, God is love.
True
True or false, God is present to anything that exists and has being.
True
True or false, In Christian theology, some dominant metaphors for God can blunt our imaginations so it is difficult to imagine God with other acceptable metaphors.
True
True or false, In Christian theology, the measures of acceptable versus unacceptable metaphors for God are scripture and tradition.
True
True or false, In Western theology, the importance of the natural world, while never denied, received little sustained attention.
True
True or false, In the modern era, Christian awareness of environmental destruction has been gradual, with many Christians still not grasping what is going on with our ecologic crisis.
True
True or false, Insights from evolutionary biology suggest metaphors for the Creator as a being with power, energy, and dazzling imaginative creativity.
True
True or false, Many Christians have asked critical questions about Christianity, including Saints Thomas Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo.
True
True or false, Many theologians maintain that Christian faith is rational, and that the life of faith has a logic to it.
True
True or false, Multiple metaphors can help with interpretation by narrowing in on overlapping or intersecting meanings.
True
True or false, One effect of hierarchical dualism and patriarchal androcentrism on Christian theology has been a tendency to use only masculine metaphors for God.
True
True or false, Paintings depicting God as an old white man in the sky reflect the culture of their artists more than they reflect what God actually looks like.
True
True or false, Scientists now understand that evolution, with divergence and speciation, can take place over decades--not only over millenia or even millions of years.
True
True or false, Species tend toward splitting because the pressure of selection will favor animals and plants that can seize on unexploited places and roles in an ecosystem, thereby enabling them to compete less directly with others.
True
True or false, The argument from design, or the theory of special creation, holds that the exquisite fit and functions of organisms give compelling evidence that they were fashioned by a supernatural intelligence and power.
True
True or false, The core of Darwin's "one long argument" in On the Origin of Species is that this origin is from one another.
True
True or false, The cosmic history of the universe and the theory of evolution together suggest the interdependence of everything that exists.
True
True or false, The sacramental principle implies that Christians not only should care for creation out of a sense of duty, but Christians should want to care for creation as God made it and God is known through it.
True
True or false, The tendency to use only masculine metaphors for God, especially depicting God as an old man in the sky, can be traced in Western Christian art from the late middle ages.
True
True or false, The theory of special creation also conflicts with the creation accounts in Genesis because this theory supposes not one divine act of creation at the beginning of time, but "tens of thousands of creative acts" throughout the course of time.
True
True or false, When Darwin was writing in the mid-19th century, little was known about the natural laws governing inheritance of traits from one generation to the next.
True
True or false, With the natural-supernatural distinction, attention to nature as a religious reality, as the location of God's ongoing gracious creativity, was lost in Western theology.
True
__________________ is a thought pattern tied to hierarchical dualism that alleges the superiority of man, identified with spirit and reason, over woman, identified with body and passions.
patriarchy
True or false, Because God is Trinity, when Johnson says "God is Being," she indicates that existence itself is communitarian and relational.
True
True or false, Because God's goodness could not be adequately represented by one creature, such as human beings, God produced many and diverse creatures, such as the broad range of biodiversity on Earth.
True
True or false, Catholic theology holds that faith and reason are mutually informative, pathways to discerning the truth.
True
True or false, Darwin proposed that all living beings originate through entirely natural processes.
True
Until the sixth edition of On the Origin of Species, Darwin used the phrase, "_____________________," rather than "evolution."
descent with modification
True or false, Darwin's theory was greeted with complete rejection by the religious establishment and unanimous support by the scientific community.
False
True or false, Because of the influence of Hellenistic dualism, patriarchal androcentrism, and Cartesian dualism, Christian theology has upheld religious reflection that values the earth as a living reality of God's presence and love.
False
True or false, Charles Darwin coined the phrase "survival of the fittest."
False
True or false, Christian art has always portrayed God as an old man in the sky.
False
True or false, Classical theology speaks of creation exclusively as the moment when God brought the universe into existence.
False
True or false, Darwin speculated about how life originally began on Earth.
False
True or false, Darwin was arguing first and foremost against religious belief, which he sought to destroy, not against the prevailing scientific paradigm of his time.
False
Generally, Christians hold which convictions about truth and reason?
All of these
Darwin begins his argument with an analogy to domestic breeding to indicate...
All of these.
Which are theological problems that Darwin's theory seemed to raise?
All of these.
True or false, Because of the established patterns, processes, and laws of evolutionary biology, the outcomes of evolution and the unfolding of the tree of life are entirely predictable.
False
_________________ views the outer, objective world of nature as fundamentally inert and passive, while man's rational mind is meant to probe and manipulate the natural world without compunction.
Cartesian dualism
Lynn White Jr. describes ______________________ as statements or propositions that Christians in the western world have come simply to assume to be self-evidently true.
Christian axioms
________________________ is the splitting of species into new varieties and species.
Divergence
_________________ is a strain of theology that focuses on the interrelationships of religion and nature, particularly in the light of environmental concerns.
Ecotheology
The _________________ movement advocated selective breeding of human beings, based upon conclusions from the ideologies of "Social Darwinism."
Eugenics
____________________ is the dying off of forms and variations of life that are less well-adapted to changing environments, leading to the vanishing of species from the tree of life.
Extinction
True or False, White evangelical Protestants, Catholics, and mainline Protestants are generally more concerned about climate change than the general public in the United States.
False
True or false, All metaphors are literal, not comparative.
False
True or false, All metaphors for God are descriptions of God, not interpretations.
False
Place the chain of events that leads to speciation (that is, the evolution of new species) in order.
First: Living organisms produce variations, or mutations Second: Variations in organisms can be inherited Third: Some organisms increase an organisms ability to survive and reproduce Fourth: Given large numbers of offspring generated by a species, there is constant competition for resources needed to sustain life Fifth: Any variation that gives an organism an advantage in this struggle will enable it to eat and mate with more success and will likely be passed onto its offspring Six: Variations that give a relative advantage to organisms in survival and reproduction go onwards into the next generation, eventually spreading through a whole population Seven: Variations that do not give a relative advantage die out Eighth: Over eons of time, new species diverge from ancestral parents as a result of this process
______________________ was an Augustinian monk who figured out the standard patterns of heredity, which became the foundation of the science of genetics.
Gregor Mendel
_______________ is a thought pattern rooted in Hellenistic (that is, Greek) philosophy that divides reality into two separate spheres, spirit and matter, and ranks them as being of greater and lesser value.
Hierarchical Dualism
Identify ideas that fit with White's description of Christian axioms. (Mark all that apply.)
Humans have the right to dominate creation, exploiting it for our needs and desires. Human beings are the apex of creation. Adam was created as the high point of the creation narrative in Genesis, with Eve created as an afterthought. Human beings are the only creatures capable of transcendence because we were created in God's image. The rest of creation was made to serve humanity.
Darwin called "the preservation of favorable variations and the rejection of injurious variation" by this term: ____________________________.
Natural Selection
Darwin defined _______________________ as the "preservation of favorable variations and rejection of injurious variations." In other words, the traits of individuals with variations that enable them to thrive in the struggle for life and reproduction in their environment will be preserved in a population; the traits of individuals with variations that do not enable them to thrive will fade in a population.
Natural Selection
__________________ is a term from the Greek "all-in-God" that indicates that the world is indwelt by the presence of the Spirit while at the same time it is encompassed by a divine presence that is always and everywhere greater.
Panentheism
Thomas Aquinas used the notion of ____________________ to argue that the world and all of its individual parts exist because they take part in the divine gift of vitality. Due to this notion, "all beings apart from God are not their own being, but are beings by ____________________."
Participation
__________________ is a thought pattern tied to hierarchical dualism that alleges the superiority of man, identified with spirit and reason, over woman, identified with body and passions. The philosophical ranking of spirit over matter is translated into the social ranking of men over women, who are deemed naturally inferior.
Patriarchal Androcentrism
____________________ is an academic discipline that develops ideas about God through reason, often without particular recourse to scripture, sifting through various claims in order to advance an intellectually durable version of Christian faith.
Philosophical theology
Michael Himes defines the ______________________ as the conviction that any person, place, thing, or event, any sight, sound, taste, touch, or smell can cause us to notice the love of God that infuses our being and all the being of all creation.
Sacramental Principle
_____________________ is the idea in Christian theology that any person, place, thing, or event, any sight, sound, taste, touch, or smell can cause us to notice the love of God that infuses our being and all the being of all creation.
Sacramentality
______________________ is the preservation of favorable traits through selection of males by females, who choose the healthiest, most attractive partners.
Sexual Selection
_____________________ is the dual reality that individuals, species, and generations compete over limited resources for survival within the physical conditions of the environment, and they are mutually dependent upon each other for production of offspring.
Symbiosis
Which statements about Thomas Aquinas are true? (Mark all that apply.)
The University of St. Thomas is named after him. He was a Dominican priest. He wrote the Summa Theologiae, a masterwork of Christian theology. He wrote about God as an expansive presence of infinite, life-giving love in the world. He was a professor at the University of Paris. He lived in the 13th century.
__________________ is the modern synthesis of Darwin's theory of evolution with refinements from the science of genetics, especially regarding the inheritance of traits through DNA.
The theory of evolution
Select ideas that are true according to the doctrine of the Trinity. (Mark all that apply.)
The three divine persons are each wholly and totally God. There are three divine persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is only one God.
The doctrine of the ___________________ holds that there is one God, there are three divine persons, and each divine person is fully God.
Trinity
_______________________ is the reality that individuals within a species differ from each other.
Variation
Pair the aspects seen as opposites with dualism in Christian theology.
Women, men natural, supernatural matter, spirit flesh, soul other creatures, human beings object, subject emotion/passion, reason, rationality instinct, knowledge immanence, transcendence evilness/fallenness/darkness/weakness, Goodness/purity/light, strength
Beginning in the 13th century, Christian theology began to emphasize the __________________________, which holds that nature, including human nature, is completely devoid of grace, the gift of God leading to salvation.
natural-supernatural distinction
