HT101
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- #6 Describe the Christology of Nestorious
- Deity and Humanity, but no unity. (Christ was fully God and fully Deity, but those two natures were not unified. These two natures demonstrated God and Man, but not God-Man. Thus he taught the separation of the natures. Christ was God- bearer rather than God-man. Therefore, the incarnation was prosopon (form, appearance) of union, mechanical rather than organic in personhood. His view was accordingly an error against the diety of Christ.. ** He determined that the title (Theotokos God-bearer) should not be used unless it was balanced with anthropotokos (man-bearer) He felt the best title would be Christokos (Christ-Bearer) or Theodochos (God-receiving) with the inference that Mary was the mother of Christ's human nature only rather than the person.)
- #8b1 What was Augustine's view of Free will?
- Denied. (Man has an inability to respond to God.)
- #9e Gnostic View of Christ
- Gnostics propose two Christologies: Docetism and Adoptionism. (Docetism comes from the term "dokeo" which means to seem or to appear and teaches that Christ only "appeared" to have a physical body. Adoptionism teaches that a man named Jesus was naturally born. At his baptism, the Christ spirit descended upon him, and just prior to his crucifixion, the Christ spirit departed from the man Jesus.)
- #10b Infant Baptism according to Aquinas
- Presupposition of Grace (She is unable to do anything by herself in her infancy and unable to will anything for herself anything other than her instinctive desire for food. She is unable to will anything of herself and to change or transform herself) Complete Inability (you are no more capable of belief than an infant because you are both equally condemned and equally dead under original sin. If you think that your intellect is more nurtured than hers, then you have fooled yourself into thinking that there is a salvific capability that is different than that of an infant. You are the most to be pitied...God must intervene on your basis to the same degree that he must intervene on behalf of the infant.)
- Describe the Role of faith in modernit.
- Understanding leads to faith
- #8a1 What was Augustine's view of original sin?
- Affirmed (original sin), True fall where humanity is disfigured and depraved, man in morally bad
- #13c How did the Synod of Orange influence the orthodox doctrine of Sin and Grace?
- Pelagianism (Free-will; No original sin, no change after Tree; Grace is ability to choose) vs. Augustinianism (Original Sin, Fall, Grace is God reaching down and doing what we could not, ability to do good is by Grace), Orthodoxy at Orange (semi-Augustinian, Fall, Original sin, Grace is God reaching down and doing what we could not, our ability to choose Christ is by grace)
- #4 Explain Nicaea's View of the Relation of God the Father to the Son, making specific mention of pivotal language in the Creed.
- (Nicaea believed that) the Son was not created by the Father (but they were of the same essence - God. The Father works through the Son (being separate from God) who has been eternally begotten (Being of the same essence) of the Father.)(LANGUAGE: BEGOTTEN, For Nicaea this term is defined as "the Same Essence." So when the Scriptures say that The Son is Begotten of the Father, this is showing the unity with the Father, that the Son comes from the Same Essence as the father. PREPOSITIONS, In the Nicene Creed, we see the Father and Son being of the same essence being supported by pronouns such as from, with, and of. SON, This term is to be defined to highlight the "Separate-ness" of the Son from the Father in person. Though they are of the Same Essence (being one God) they are still separate in that the Son is not the Father. ὁμοούσιον, Translated it is means "of the same" essence. This is apposed to of "like" or "different" essence that.) (It must be noted, that in the last paragraph of the Nicene Creed, the Council put a affirmative Stamp against Arianism by directly referring to them they write, "But those who say: 'There was a time when he was not...they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church." ))
- #11a Describe the soteriological viewpoint against which Luther reacted
- The resurgence of Pelagianism and Nominalism that had trickled down into popular culture.
- Describe the Role of Rationality in premodernity.
- Institutional norms trump rationality
- #9c Gnostic View of Humanity
- Anthropological dualism. (There is a spiritual, immaterial part of each human that has its origin in the "pleroma" (i.e., the fulness). This inward "spirit" of each human is good because of its source in the pleroma. The material part of the human, the body, is evil and that of the created, physical universe made by the Demiurge. (Commentary: We will eternally have a body. The distinguishment between our gospel and the gospel of the gnostics is the bodily resurrection of the dead. Nothing is more anti-human than death and burial. The earth is swallowing up the pinnacle of God's creation. There is nothing more horrendous; therefore, this is the significance of resurrection - we are taken up out of the earth once again! John 5; 1 Cor. 15; Phi. 4; Dan. 12.)
- Describe the Role of Revelation in modernity.
- Reason determines what is revelation
- #8a2 What was Pelagius' view of original sin
- Denied (original sin), No difference between Adam before and after the fall, (Adam is) morally neutral
- Describe the Role of Tradition in premodernity.
- Strong tie equal to scripture
- Describe the four tenets of modernity.
- 1.Rationalism (Chief way of knowing things is by reason. Careful and rationalistic thought I decide what authority I have in my life.)2. Individualism (The "I" think therefore"I" am...not community that does the thinking but the individual. Personal = Private 3.Presentism (We are doing theology everything better now than we have ever done.1. Is it practical?2.Is it relevant?3.Is it contemporary?)4.Dualism (mind/body All the physical does is house the mind.)(Temple is the laboratory...if you can educate a person to think more rationally then he can think better and be better. Save humanity through education)
- #7c What pivotal language in the Definition of Chalcedon was aimed against Nestorius?
- Nestorianisms error was that it believed that Christ's two natures were divided and that Christ was two persons. The phrases "one and only Son," "selfsame one," "θεοτοκος" or "God-bearer," "one and only Christ-Son, Lord, only begotten - in two natures," "without dividing," "without contrasting in area or function," and "distinct, not nullified by the union" all communicate that Christ had two natures united in one person.
- #3 Explain Arius' view of the relation of God the Father and the Son.
- (Arius believed that) the Son was created by God (and that before creation, there was a time that the Son, did not exist. Being created, the Son falls in line with Creation where as Orthodox Christianity states that the Son was with the creator, is the creator and was never created. Arius' view of the relationship between the Father and Son can be traced back to his miss defining of the terms "Begotten" and "Son." For Arius, when he reads that God the Father Begat the Son, he reads it as the Son being created instead of the term being defined "of the Same Essence". For Arius, this was all the more supported when he read passages in Scripture such as Proverbs 8:22 and 1 Cor 1:24 & 30.)
- #2b How did the Apologists of the 2nd century respond to the charges made against Christianity?
- As to the atheist charge, they had to explain why Christianity was theistic and not atheistic. Plato and the poets were monotheistic in their writings. As to the anti-social charge, the Christian community provided new relationships for those who were without genetic families (for various reasons), and they explained that they were a benefit to society by feeding the hungry, ministering to the poor, and helping wounded soldiers of the Empire. As to the cannibalistic and incestuous claims, the Romans were looking for ways to condemn or embarass the Christian community. The Apologists refuted these claims by explaining the true practice of the Eucharist and by explaining the reason behind the usage of familial language within the community.
- #11c What were the emphases of Luther's response?
- Repentance is the fruit of God's activity, not the result of your own initiative and act(-Repentance, as they formerly understood it, was stopping yourself and saying you will not go that way any longer, but to turn in a new direction...-Repentance had been translated "penance" which is something you perform or exercise But this changed: As Bishop Staupitz understood repentance was not a change brought about within you by you, but repentance for Staupitz and then Luther, was that it was the fruit of a divine action, an Augustinian response. ) It is a free gift of grace, not of merit or penance.
- #8c2 What was Pelagius view of Grace?
- Grace gives us the ability to choose (for ourselves. He prevented the fall from affecting free will. We were born neutral.)
- Describe the Role of Revelation in premodernity.
- Revelation leads to comprehension
- #9d Gnostic View of Salvation
- In order to be saved, an individual must "know" two things which the "Revealer" (Christ) has made known: (1) You, your origin and your end is spiritual not physical, and (2) The Demiurge is not the real god, but the spiritual, divine Father is the real god. Salvation for them was the release of the soul from the body so that the spiritual can be reunited with the spiritual. Salvation has nothing to do with what the Demiurge created (that is, the physical body is not redeemed at all). However, Christian salvation is not complete until the physical body of the believer is resurrected and glorified.
- Describe the Role of The past in premodernity.
- Trying to capture antiquity
- Describe the Role of Scripture in modernity.
- Reason determines authority
- #5 Describe the Christology of Apollinaris
- Deity and Unity, but no humanity.(He sought to undue separation of the natures of Christ. He taught that Christ had a truly human body and soul (assuming tripartite explanation of man), but had divine Logos instead of human spirit, which dominated the passive body and soul. Therefore, his view was an error against Christ's humanity, unwilling to confess that the humanity and deity of Jesus are compatible.)
- Describe the Role of Rationality in modernity.
- Chief way to know something is the use of rationality... everything is tested by reason
- #8c1 What was Augustne's view of grace
- Grace is the action of God reaching down to you and performing for you what you are unable to do for yourselves (necessary to go from death to life)
- #9a Gnostic View of God
- Theological dualism. (Gnostics believe in a "good god" known as the Father (viz., Bythus) who is divine, spiritual, immaterial and invisible. They also believe in a "bad god" named Demiurge who is the offspring of Sophia (an archon or aeon who thought that she could attain knowledge about the Father). Demiurge inherited all things evil, arrogant and prideful about Sophia. Demiurge created the earth and all things physical. The dualistic theology of the Gnostics leads to a concept that teaches the spiritual is good and the physical is evil.)
- #9b Gnostic View of the World
- Cosmological dualism. (The spiritual, immaterial world of the "Father" is good, and the physical, material world of the Demiurge is evil. It is also important to recognize that the theological dualism of Gnosticism necessarily leads to the cosmological dualism.)
- #10 Describe the Soteriology of Thomas Aquinas?
- Presupposition of Grace (God must do for you what you are unable to do for yourself, but for Aquinas, it doesn't take place at one time, but over time.) Eschatological Reality (you are saved, redeemed, justified in any total meaningful sense only at the end of the process, not at the beginning, All of this is a process guaranteed and operated on the basis of grace)
- #7a What is specifically recognized about Christology at Chalcedon?
- The one and only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ eternally exists as one person who has eternally possessed a fully divine nature and who at His incarnation through the θεοτοκος came to possess a fully human nature so that the two natures became forever united in one person.
- #13b How did the Council of Chalcedon influence orthodox doctrine of Christology?
- The Chalcedonian Creed was a response to Eutychianism (There was a union of the Divine and human, but sometime after the union, the two natures merge and fuse into a unique nature, leaving one nature that is neither Divine or human.), Apolonarianism (Believed that Christ took on the flesh, but not humanness, which he believed was incompatible with God because it is sinful. The Divine nature has become en-fleshed, not en-humaned. He still agreed with Nicaea in respect to the full Deity of Christ and the unity between his deity and flesh.), and Nestorianism (Believed that Jesus was fully God and fully human, but there was no unity between the two. They do not believe that there is a person where these two natures are combined into one person. There is, in fact, two persons. So Jesus acts, sometimes as Divine and sometimes as Human. Jesus doesn't act as the God-Man) heresies. They came to the conclusion that Christ is fully God and fully man, of the same essence but a different person.
- Describe the Role of Reason in premodernity.
- Belief leads to reason
- #8b2 What was Pelagius' view of Free will
- (Man had a) self-determining will
- #7b What pivotal language in the Definition of Chalcedon was aimed against Apollinaris?
- Apollinaris' error was that he did not believe that Christ was fully human (both materially and immaterially). The phrases "perfect in deity and in humanness," "actually God and actually man," "with a rational soul and body," "same essence as we ourselves as far as his humanness is concerned," "like us in all respects, sin only excepted," and "θεοτοκος" or "God-bearer" in regard to Mary the virgin all communicate that Christ was fully human.
- Describe the Role of the past in modernity.
- Skeptical about the past.
- Describe the role of faith in premodernity.
- Faith leads to understanding
- #1a Describe the early Christian (Apostolic Fathers) understanding and practice of Baptism.
- (First, the early church understood and practiced baptism as the) rite of admission into the Christian community (For the early community, the material and immaterial are united at the baptismal event.). (Second, baptism, for the apostolic fathers, was) inseparable from repentance and the remission of sins through Christ (It was "impossible" for them to separate the water that cleanses outwardly from the spiritual water that cleansed inwardly. They wanted to unite the physical and the spiritual.) Third, the Didache gave specific instructions in regard to the practice of Baptism (The people had been instructed to believe in the Triune God and were to be baptized in the name of the Triune God. It also gives specific instruction concerning the type of water (i.e. cold living water, pouring three times on the head if no body of water was around) that was to be used, permissable methods of baptism, and communal fasting.)
- Describe the Role of Scripture in premodernity.
- Scripture has authority
- Describe the Role of tradition in modernity.
- Don't need it. Irrelevant
- #11b Who would you associate as Luther's opponents in this?
- Beale, Holcott, and William of Hockam ("do what is in you!")
- #2a What charges were normally made against Christians in the 2nd century?
- Atheists, anti-social, cannibalistic, and incestuous in their relationships (Commentary: Christians were not polytheists; therefore, their "new" monotheism was labeled atheistic by the Romans. The Jews avoided such a label b/c of their antiquity. The entire society was driven by religion: in its culture, games, sacrifices, temple visits, feasts, etc. Christianity refrained from all these social activities; hence, they were labeled as anti-social towards the Roman society. Christians held secret meetings and they had secret meals. They claimed to eat the flesh of a person and drink the blood of this flesh. The person whose flesh they ate and whose blood they drank was born as a baby from a Virgin lady. This was viewed as very cannibalistic language more so as the Gospel of John makes it even more cannibalistic where he mentions "unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you can never be part of me." This practice was charged as ethically reprehensible and cannibalistic. They were being charged as being incestuous in their relationships because of their nearness and familial language within the community.)
- Describe the Role of Reason in modernity.
- reason is the pinnacle which all other thought derives from
- #1b Describe the early Christian (Apostolic Fathers) understanding and practice of the Eucharist.
- First, the early church understood and practiced the Eucharist in keeping with the meaning of the term ευχαριστια meaning thanksgiving or thanks. This thanksgiving was focused on a past event (Christ's death) not an ongoing reality (Christ dying continuously in the Eucharist). Second, the Didache gives many instructions and specifically instructs that a person must be baptized in order to participate. Third, the early church made the Eucharist the central feature of their worship gatherings.
- #13a How did the Council of Nicaea influence Orthodox Doctrine of Trinitarianism?
- Christ is in one nature and essence with God the Father, but a separate person. (• This was in response to Arianism which said that Christ was created and in "different" essence with the Father. He was not eternally God.)