Christian Traditions
Gnostic Christianity
knowledge • Had texts not included in the new testament o Interpret that the tasting of the apple as an initiation that enabled Adam and Eve to begin deciphering the difference between Good and evil as a means of growing closer to God
Love-in-Action
Sermon on the Mount as a radically transformative ethic of love and compassion • Jesus taught that love should be expressed as the highest commandment→ all actions should be conducted with love for others
Christ's double nature
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Christian Traditions
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Saints and Martyrs
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The Last Temptation of Christ
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Christ Narrative
: Also have an understanding of alternative interpretations (i.e. Muslim or Gnostic) • Virgin birth • Lost and found with the priest • Unknown period • 40 days in desert (overcame three temptations) • teaching and miracles • last supper- predicts betrayal, death, resurrections • identified after judas betrayal on Friday • jesus went before pilate • found no crime but agreed to crucifixion because it was the wish of the people • Peter denied him 3 times • The crucifixion • With 2 thieves • Jesus's tomb • Three days later the tomb was found empty • Rose from the dead and the stone was moved • Visited Mary and disciples
Trinity Doctrine
: God is three in one—father, son and Holy Spirit.
Orthodox Church
: Officially called the Eastern Orthodox Church • The second largest Christian denomination in the world with an estimated 300 million followers • Biblical texts include: Greek Septaguint and the New Testament
Judas
: know the interpretation of Judas from the film
Virgin Mary
Catholics believe she was born through divine intervention which is how she was able to conceive Jesus as a virgin; Angel Gabriel came and told her she would be with child. Not a saint, miraculous childbirth, mother of Jesus.
Last Judgement
God's judgment of all souls before heaven and hell; righteous will go to heaven
Crucifixion/Resurrection
Jesus was crucified and rose again three days later; he was the ultimate sacrifice that established the new covenant between man and God. • Jesus claimed that he spoke God's authority, and his teachings that a covenant or true relationship with God depends simply on faith that it is possible, along with a life expressing that faith • Refusal to submit to the high priest • Accepted his death and did not deny all that he had made known of God • His believers were shocked by his death, and did not recognize him when he first was resurrected • Believed that the Holy Spirit entered the church after Jesus' resurrection
Filioque
Latin for "and (from) the Son", is a phrase found in the form of Nicene Creed in use in the Latin Church. It is not present in the Greek text of the Nicene Creed as originally formulated at the First Council of Constantinople, which says only that the Holy Spirit proceeds "from the Father" • Catholic insertion of 'and the son' into the Nicene creed • Great Schism of 1054—eastern and western churches excommunicated each other • Included in the eastern church not the western church
Mystical Body of Christ
Paul's teaching regarding the way in which the followers of Christ are individual parts the make up the greater whole of the body of Christ • Each part must function together, and no part is more important than any other. • Church as the bride of Christ
Causes of Martyrdom
People who died for what they believed in/their faith. • Went against the generally practiced religion of the time • As part of one's civic duty, each adult was expected to sponsor a sacrifice in the Roman temple once per year. Many Christians refused to do this because it would force them to acknowledge the legitimacy of Pagan Gods. • Adults were expected to acknowledge Caesar as the Son of God and Savior. Many Christians would not submit to this either. • Christians ignored some Roman laws. For example, the state refused to recognize marriages between a free person and a slave; Christians allowed such marriages. • A small minority of Christians were so keen on hastening the end of the world and the arrival of the Kingdom of God that they set fires to encourage the second coming of Jesus. Some Roman authorities labeled the entire Christian movement as a bunch of arsonists. • Incorrect rumors spread that Christians engaged in orgies during their communal means and made human sacrifices of infants.
Nikos Kazantzakis
The Christ of The Last Temptation of Christ shares Katzantzakis' anguished metaphysical and existential concerns, seeking answers to haunting questions and often torn between his sense of duty and mission, on one side, and his own human needs to enjoy life, to love and to be loved, and to have a family.
Sermon on the Mount
a radically transformative ethic of love and compassion
Crusades
a series of religious expeditionary wars blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church, with the stated goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem. The Crusades were originally launched in response to a call from the leaders of the Byzantine Empire for help to fight the expansion into Anatolia of Muslim Seljuk Turks who had cut off access to Jerusalem. The crusaders comprised military units of Roman Catholics from all over Western Europe, and were not under unified command. The main series of Crusades, primarily against Muslims, occurred between 1095 and 1291.
15 Tenets of World View
o 1. The Christian World is Infinite o 2. The Infinite includes the finite o 3. The contents of the finite world are hierarchically ordered o 4. Causation is from the top down, form the Infinite down through the descending degrees of reality o 5. In descending to finitude, the singularity of the Infinite splays into multiplicity o 6. As virtues expand they begin to overlap; their distinctions fade and they begin to merge o 7. Absolute perfection reigns o 8. Everything that is outside us is also inside us o 9. We cannot know the infinite o 10. Revelation is multiple in both scope and degree o 11. Reports have to be interpreted—hence the science is exegesis o 12. Exegesis that stops with the literal meaning of a text cannot do that full text full justice o 13. There are two distinct and complementary ways of knowing, rational and intuitive o 14. Religions likewise have outsides and insides; they have outer , exoteric forms that house inner, esoteric ones o 15. Outside of Revelation's beam, we live in darkness
Church Militant/Triumphant/Suffering
terms that the church used to define itself • Church triumphant: church of god the father and Jesus all ascended into heaven • Church of suffering: Christians that experience a place of temporary suffering • Church militant: church on earth fighting for the salvation of humankind. Theological interpretation that is linked to Jihad.
Inquisition
the fight against heretics under the support of the Roman Catholic Church • 700 year church-sponsored process grounded in an inquiry into heresy
Imitatio Christi
to imitate Christ; following Christ's example.
Kingdom of Heaven, 3 interpretations
• As an Internal Relationship with God: o "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! For behold, the kingdom of God is within you. (Luke 17:20-21) " o Realized through faith, prayer and other transformative practices o Institution of Monasticism • As 'Spread Across the Earth' o "The kingdom of heaven is within you and outside you, spread across the land..." (Gospel of Thomas) o Notion of transformative power of Christ as transforming the world here and now. o Realized through missionary work and other modes of social service. • As a 'City of God' o Articulated in Augustine's City of God. o Notion of eternal paradise as final dwelling place of the 'saved' o God's promise to His people.
Foucault and Episteme
• Episteme: any given society's vision of truth • Foucault was a French philosopher o "The Archeology of knowledge": explored the ideals of methodology as a result with Foucault's interaction with the French Circle of Epistemology o Considered the "statement" which is the rules the render a phrase meaningful. • We create truth; knowledge=power
Examples of 'Alternative Christianity'
• Examples of 'Alternative Christianity • Mormonism: Beliefs: spirits sent to earth to perfect themselves; God, like Christ has glorified body. o Practice: Baptism for living and dead, use of water instead of wine, etc. • Christian Science o Founder: Mary Eddy Baker (19th Century) o 'Myth" M. Baker's transformation through Christ as healer o Scripture: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. o Teaching: illness caused by misrecognition of divine within each individual. Illness due to illusion. • Unity Church o Origins: 19th century "New Thought" movement in England. o Teaching: seeks Wisdom in every religious tradition and denies doctrine of 'original sin'. o Practice: song, prayer, reflection, and meditation. • Unification Church o Founder: Rev. Sun Myung Moon o Teachings: blend Christianity and Confucianism. o STOP evil by creating heaven on earth.
The Church and heresy
• Heresy: means a choice • Christians that have chosen not to stand within one of the three major groups—outside of the traditional Church • Orthodox/heterodox tension
Symbolism of the Church
• Material dimension of the church is important • Gothic Cathedral—it's a cross to enter into the church is to enter into the cross/the body of Jesus • Symbol of church as heaven on earth—architectural structure is a religious symbol.
orthodox and heterodox
• Orthodox: Traditional teaching; a group of self-governing churches who trace their history back to the apostles and to the earliest missionary journeys in the Mediterranean world • Heterodox: Other teaching
Martin Luther and Reformation
• Posted his complaints about the church on the door • Iconic figure in the Protestant reformation • He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment could be obtained through money. • Developed an ideal in which tension is acceptable as a means of establishing new institutions
4 Meta-Groups of Christianity
• Protestant, Orthodox, heterodox and Catholic
Victor Turner and 'anti-structure'
• Religions always embody a tension between institutional solidification (structure) and personal spirituality (anti-structure). • People who lead anti-structural movements are called 'liminal' and create 'liminal communities'. • Once those communities establish themselves, they reincorporate 'structure', embodied as hierarchy and a solidification of practices and ideas. • Individual spirituality and freedom inevitability get restricted due to institutions
Da Vinci's Last Supper
• The Davinci code: Dan Brown wrote this fictitious work based on his scholarly work of reading a number of Christian sources regarding the story of the life of Jesus • Jesus was not just an ascetic—an internal alchemist, but also an external alchemist • Through his partner he has a child • Suggested that Mary Magdalene was this partner, that Jesus had a relationship with her • Symbol of the chalice, downward facing symbol o Sacred chalice that Christ passed around at the last supper o Another symbol scholars posit is that it is a symbol for the womb of Mary Magdalene, where his blood was preserved • Controversial interpretation of Mary Magdalene and Peter→ Peter holding a knife towards Mary suggesting the controversy between the orthodox churches
Sacraments
• The sacrament of Eucharist is the reenactment of Christ's promise to remain with his followers forever • Fountain of the sacramental life of the church is the pierced side of Jesus, from which flow the twin streams of blood and water, symbols of the washing waters of baptism and of the Eucharist and of the Eucharist • Receiving of the rights through the church is critical for salvation→ the purpose/defining factor of the institution is its ability to provide these sacraments • Protestant • In baptism, forgiveness of sins • In Eucharist, communion is established between God and man
The Gnostic Gospels
• a collection of about fifty-two texts supposedly based upon the ancient wisdom teachings of several prophets and spiritual leaders including Jesus, written from the 2nd to the 4th century AD -though the sayings of the Gospel of Thomas, compiled circa 140, may include some traditions even older than the gospels of the New Testament, possibly as early as the second half of the first century • Not included in the standard biblical canon of any major Christian denomination. • Non-inclusion of these texts is a reminder of the heterodox-orthodox tension o More emphasis on spiritual practices that make you more like Jesus instead of on belief/faith o Incredibly diverse and no real consistency= likely why they were not included (versus the texts included in the new testament have an observed message and fluid teachings)
Nicene and Apostles Creeds
• the creed or profession of faith that is most widely used in Christian liturgy o "We believe in the Holy Spirit" o I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen o an early statement of Christian belief o Churches of Western tradition, including the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and Western Orthodoxy. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists.
