Sct Study Guide

Front 1

The five universes of theology

Back 1

1. Folk Theology
2. Lay Theology
3. Ministerial Theology
4. Professional Theology
5. Academic Theology

Front 2

Folk theology

Back 2

Unreflective believing based on blind faith in a tradition of some kind.

Characteristics:
-Intensely experiential.
-Pragmatic.
-Focused on feelings and results.
-Perpetuated by bumper stickers, cliches, and legends.
-Because it “feels right” or “sounds right.”
-Simplistic answers.

Front 3

Lay theology

Back 3

When ordinary Christians begin to question folk theology with its childish, simplistic clichés and legends. Arises when Christians dig deeply into the resources of their faith, putting mind and heart together in a serious attempt to examine and understand their faith.

Characteristics:
-Questions unfounded traditions.
-Asks what is the Biblical foundation or precedent.
-Reflects on meaning.
-Asks why do we believe this.

Front 4

Ministerial theology

Back 4

Reflective faith as practiced by trained ministers and teachers in Christian churches.

Characteristics:
-It rises above lay theology in the reflection it involves.
-Not only for ordained ministers, but for motivated lay leaders.
-Utilizes study materials normally available through more formal coursework (i.e. concordances, commentaries, biblical languages, etc.).
-Reflection that stands somewhere between the beginning-level of the maturing lay Christian and the more sophisticated and sustained reflections of the professional theologian.

Front 5

Professional theology

Back 5

The professional theologian is a person whose vocation involves studying the tools mentioned in the Bible and instructing lay people and pastors in their use.

Characteristics:
-Attempts to raise students above folk theology by cultivating in them a critical consciousness that questions unfounded assumptions and beliefs.
-Can sometimes appear to be skeptical or even hostile towards spirituality and devotion.
-Primarily focused on assisting lay theologians and ministers.
-Usually teach in seminaries and church-related colleges and universities.
-Write books and articles to aid lay and ministerial theologians in their journeys of reflection.

Front 6

Academic theology

Back 6

This is a highly speculative and virtually philosophical theology aimed primarily at other theologians.

Characteristics:
-Often disconnected from the church.
-Has little to do with concrete Christian living.
-Professional theologians may sometimes benefit from it or may be required to study it to some extent to obtain their degrees.
-The Church and individual Christians struggling in the real world gain little from it.
-Reflective, and sometimes to a fault – cutting off reflection for real acts of faith and service.
-At its worst it says, “I will believe only what I can understand.”

Front 7

Anselm

Back 7

- Famous for the “ontological proof” of God’s existence (“the being greater than which none can be conceived")
- His motto: Credo ut intelligam (“I believe in order that I may understand,” or “believing is seeing”)

Front 8

Philo of Alexandria

Back 8

- A contemporary of Jesus.
- One of the most influential Jewish biblical scholars and theologians.
- “He attempted to show the harmony between Moses’ teaching and the OT generally and Greek philosophy, especially that of Plato and his followers.”
- “Christians in and around Alexandria were deeply influenced by Philo’s method of interpreting the OT non-literally.”
- Pursuit of the “deeper meaning.”

Front 9

Clement of Rome

Back 9

-"First apostolic father"
-Bishop of Rome wrote letters to Corinthian church (probably the first preserved Christian writing outside of NT)
-Argued that the resurrection of the phoenix was a sign of hope and promise of the bodily resurrection. His wording of this argument makes clear that he took the myth of the phoenix literally and thought it a sign given by God pointing toward believers’ future resurrection
- Focused on the individual believers’ spirituality and thought life.
- Valued the integration of Christian faith with best learning of the day.
- Motto: “All truth is God’s truth wherever it may be found.”
- Brought theology and philosophy together.
- Saw philosophy as “a work of Divine Providence” … “as God’s way of preparing the Greeks for Christ.”

Front 10

Gnostics

Back 10

Beliefs:
a. One transcendent God – spiritual but far removed from fallen, material universe. Physical universe created by an evil or demented lesser god.
b. Human beings are sparks of same spiritual substance as god, but we have been trapped in physical bodies
c. “Fall” that led to sin = “fall” into matter/materialism
d. Salvation = escape from bondage of materialism, travel back to home from which spirits have fallen
e. Salvation by self-knowledge
f. Rejected incarnate God
g. Heavenly redeemer left the body of Christ at baptism before crucifixion
h. Considered selves “Christians”

Front 11

Montanus

Back 11

- A pagan priest converted to Christianity; referred to himself as the "Mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit."
- Said the church was dead (2nd century) and called for a "new prophecy"
- Montanists, his followers, led to the first church split.
- Focused on the signs and wonders of the book of Acts
- Criticism of Montanus and his movement consequently emphasized the new prophecy’s unorthodox ecstatic expression and his neglect of the bishops’ divinely appointed rule

Front 12

Celsus

Back 12

-Greek philosopher and early opponent of Christianity
-Wrote "The True Doctrine: A Discourse Against the Christians"
- Blind faith vs. reason
- The “Goliath” of the Christian faith

Front 13

The seven different types of theology

Back 13

1. Soteriology: salvation
2. Theology: God
3. Anthropology: humankind and the created universe
4. Christology: Jesus and the salvation he brought
5. Pneumatology: the Holy Spirit and His work in us
6. Ecclesiology: the church
7. Eschatology: the consummation of God's plan for man

Front 14

The three different worldviews

Back 14

Eastern, secularist, and biblical

Front 15

Apologists

Back 15

- Men who attempted to defend Christianity in its infancy against misunderstanding and persecution; often integrated it with a Greek philosophical perspective in the process.
- “They launched CT beyond the bare, minimal reflections of the apostolic fathers onto a new plane of formal, rational thought about the implications of Christian belief about God, Christ, salvation, and other important beliefs. They also attempted to relate and communicate those ideas to the wider world of pagan culture."

Front 16

The apostolic fathers

Back 16

First Christian theologians were bishops and other ministers and leaders of Christian congregations in the Roman Empire. They have come to be known as the apostolic fathers because they were assumed to have been men who knew one or more of the apostles but who were not apostles themselves.

Front 17

Cultists

Back 17

Theology itself (as the search for orthodoxy) began with the challenges posed to Christian teachings by cultists who presented themselves within the church and to the pagan world as truer or higher Christians than the leading heirs of the apostles; so successful in creating chaos and confusion that the rise of formal theological reflection to answer them became necessary; CT was born in response to new cultist beliefs.

Front 18

Athanasius

Back 18

- He was African, as were many great thinkers of the early church
- Athanasius wrote a treatise on the deity of Jesus Christ titled "De Incarnatione" or "The Incarnation of the Word." The slim volume presented a strong case for the deity of Jesus Christ as equal with the Father’s own deity and thus helped establish the dogma of the Trinity against a growing tide of sympathy for a kind of Jehovah’s Witness-like belief in Christ as a great creature of God.
- Compiled the first authoritative list of sixty-six inspired books of the Christian Bible in his Easter letter circulated to Christian bishops in 367

Front 19

Origen of Alexandria

Back 19

• Third-century Christian philosopher and first early Church father
• Responded to Celsus’ “The True Doctrine: A Discourse Against the Christians” in his own book “Contra Celsum” (Against Celsus). The entire content of Celsus’ book has been preserved for posterity by Origen
• Mentored by Clement
• Loved speculation and far surpassed Clement in constructing a synthesis of Greek philosophy and Biblical wisdom
• A maverick who challenged church leaders
• One of the most important theologians, but never canonized as a saint and his memory is marred by suspicions of heresy
• Rumored to have taught soul-preexistence, universalism, and reincarnation – but almost certainly did not.
• Read in Gospels Jesus’ words about some men becoming “eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven” and castrated himself at an early age.
• So bright that at age 18 Clement asked him to lead the school at Alexandria.
• Took on Celsus in a devastating response called “On The True Doctrine”
•

Front 20

Irenaeus

Back 20

- He exposed heresies within the church.
- Tutored by Polycarp, John the Beloved’s disciple.
- Was Bishop in Lyons (France)
- Spent most of his time and energy fighting the growing influence of Gnosticism.
- Wrote book, “Against Heresies” – instrumental in decline of Gnosticism.
- The first Christian thinker to work out comprehensive theories of original sin and redemption.
- Highly valued church’s unity.
- Saw the Gnostics as schismatic and divisive.
- He emphasized every point of Jesus’ life as necessary for salvation.
- In order to expose Gnosticism, Irenaeus spent months and years studying a least 20 distinct Gnostic teachers and their schools.
- The entirety of redemption hangs on the reality of Christ’s flesh-and-blood birth, life, suffering, death, and resurrection as well as on his eternal power and deity.
- For Irenaeus, redemption was a process of restoring creation rather than one of escaping creation [as in Gnostic soteriology]
- Wrote a little handbook of Christian doct

Front 21

Polycarp

Back 21

- Very important to second-century Christians
- Bishop of the Christians in Smyrna on Asia Minor’s western coast near Ephesus.
- Arrested by Roman authorities and publicly executed about 155-156
- Tutored in the faith by [the Apostle] John and therefore was considered a living link with the disciples of Jesus and the apostles. In the absence of a Christian Bible men like Polycarp were considered the best and most authoritative sources of information about what the apostles taught and how they led the churches
- Polycarp’s aura of special authority fell upon his own disciples – men like Irenaeus who were trained in Christian faith by him
- Responsible for converting many from Gnosticism

Front 22

Ignatius of Antioch

Back 22

- “Christianity is greatest when it is hated by the world.”
- Said the Didache offered little in the way of theology
- Apostolic father wrote seven coherent and theological letters to Christian congregations while on his way to Rome to be killed (around 100 or 115)
- Ignatius was bishop of the Christians in Antioch – a very important city of the Roman Empire in Syria as well as an important city for Christians. It was there that they were first called Christian, and from there Paul launched his missionary journeys
- He affirmed most strongly the true deity and humanity of Jesus Christ as God appearing in human form
- Ignatius invented term for the Lord’s Supper: the Eucharist or Communion ceremony. For him, partaking of the Eucharistic meal constituted a major aspect of process of salvation. It was a sacrament. He meant to emphasize that by partaking of the bread and wine of the Lord’s meal, a person is gaining a participation in divine immortality that overcomes the curse of death brought
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Front 23

Bertrand Russell

Back 23

A modern day ‘Celsus;’ British philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) criticized Christianity from the standpoint of his own philosophy, which may best be described as a form of secular humanism. Like his second-century counterpart Celsus, Russell wrote a book – Why I Am Not a Christian (1957) – that attempted to expose Christianity as unsophisticated and superstitious

Front 24

The Didache

Back 24

- The teaching of the Twelve Apostles
- Was written to shore up Christian morality and to instruct Christians in how to treat prophets; instructions for daily Christian living, spirituality, and worship
- Admonishes Christian readers to be humble, accept everything that happens as good (“nothing transpires apart from God”), remember and honor the one who preaches God’s Word “as though he were the Lord,” and “keep strictly away from meat sacrificed to idols”
- Includes fairly detailed instructions on baptism and the Lord’s Supper

Front 25

The five parts of the Didache

Back 25

• Part One – “On Righteousness”
• Part Two – “Clean and Unclean Foods, Baptism, Fasting, Prayer and Communion (Eucharist)”
• Part Three – “How to treat apostles and prophets”
• Part Four – “Church Organization”
• Part Five – “Second Coming & End of Age”

Front 26

The Shepherd of Hermas

Back 26

- The book “almost” included in the NT
- Irenaeus of Lyons accepted it as scripture; so did Clement & Origen.
- Athanasius almost included it in his Easter letter in 367.
- “…series of visions and their explanations given by an angel...”
- Similar to “apocalyptic symbolism” of Revelation.
- Tone is moralistic (it “warns that a person will be forgiven only once after baptism,” strictly forbids divorce for any reason, and strongly suggests it is best for Christians to avoid sex altogether, whether married or not.

Front 27

The Nicene Creed

Back 27

- Formed in the 4th century as a result of the church transformation
- The Nicene Creed became the universal creed of Christendom
- Nicene Creed = “Son is God”

Front 28

The Apostles' Creed

Back 28

- Formed in the late 2nd/ early 3rd century as a result of the church transformation

Front 29

The three circles of belief

Back 29

- Creed (central circle)
- Doctrines (middle circle)
- Convictions (outer circle)

Front 30

Creed

Back 30

- The code of essential beliefs; leads to salvation.
- For example: the deity of Jesus (the God man), that Jesus is the only way to God, one God who reveals himself through three persons

Front 31

Doctrine

Back 31

- Important but not as essential as creeds. Not contingent upon salvation.
- For example: speaking in tongues, predestination, “once saved, always saved,” baptism, end times (eschatology, stewardship, tithing)

Front 32

Conviction

Back 32

- Personal convictions.
-For example: politics, giving, movies, music, alcohol, wardrobe
- When you begin to trade creed for conviction, you risk becoming extremely liberal

Front 33

Docetism

Back 33

- The son of God was only “pretending” to be human
- It is the belief that Jesus’ physical body was an illusion, as was his crucifixion; that is, Jesus only seemed to have a physical body and to physically die, but in reality he was incorporeal, a pure spirit, and hence could not physically die
- This belief treats the sentence "the Word was made Flesh" (John 1:14) as merely figurative
- Docetism has historically been regarded as heretical by most Christian theologians

Front 34

Arianism

Back 34

- The idea that only one member of the Trinity was fully God
- Arius and his colleagues (the Arians) affirmed a kind of Trinity made up of three “divine” beings (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), only one of whom is truly God.
- Arius marched in the streets with songs and slogans: “There was when the Son was not.”
- Popular among common man.
- Constantine ordered all Christian bishops to come to a meeting to settle this doctrinal dispute: this was The Council of Nicea (325).
- Arius was deposed and condemned as a heretic and sent into exile

Front 35

Sabellianism

Back 35

- Sabellian Heresy, also known as “modalism”; the belief that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are simply three “modes” of perception in the mind of the believer, rather than three distinct persons.

Front 36

Theotokos

Back 36

- The Greek title of Mary
- Literal English translations = God-bearer/ the one who gives birth to God
- The Council of Ephesus decreed in 431 that Mary is Theotokos because her son Jesus is one person who is both God and man, divine and human

Front 37

The Robber Synod

Back 37

- Was led by Dioscorus, the Pope of Alexandria, and his “gang of thugs”
- Eutyches’ formula of “two natures before the union; one nature after the union” was approved. It seemed Eutychianism had triumphed.
- The official “orthodox and catholic” doctrine was that Christ is “the one-natured God-man whose humanity was swallowed up in divinity.” In essence, the Son of God pretending to be human (or Docetism). The Nicene Creed was at stake.
- Council’s decisions hotly contested. Appeals go out to Pope Leo who called for another council without emperor’s support.
- Findings of Robber Synod overturned and Dioscorus was exiled.

Front 38

The significance of Athens and Jerusalem in early CT

Back 38

- Story of Christian Theology deeply influenced by philosophy – especially Greek (Hellenistic) Philosophy.
- Some were opposed to the idea. For instance, Tertullian was appalled that some of his contemporaries were using Platonism and Stoicism to explain Christian ideas to pagans.
- Tertullian asked, “What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?”
- THE APOLOGISTS “were Christian writers of the second century who attempted to defend Christianity against pagan opponents such as Celsus.”
- The Apologists defended their approach by pointing back to Paul’s encounter with Greek philosophers in Athens (“unknown God” – Acts 17).

Front 39

The significance of Antioch and Alexandria in early CT

Back 39

-Alexandria, Egypt, was the second largest city of the empire and was in many ways its cultural and intellectual center. It was a “melting pot of philosophies, religions and ethnic traditions – cosmopolitan”.
- Difference in hermeneutics between Antioch & Alexandria.
- Alexandrian heritage had been established by Philo, who sought to discover the “allegorical and spiritual meanings” of the Bible
- Antioch was noted for its more literal and historical hermeneutical method.

Christologies:
• Alexandrian: Word-flesh Christology, in which the Logos of God took on human flesh without entering into the full human existence.
• Antiochene: Word-man Christology , in which the humanity of Jesus was not passive but active and was a whole and complete human person.

Front 40

The significance of Constantinople

Back 40

- Built by Constantine
- Was considered a “new Rome”
- Is now Istanbul, Turkey
- The Council of Constantinople declared in 381 that true Christian orthodoxy includes belief that Jesus Christ was and is both truly God and truly human. For all practical purposes, the debate over the Trinity ended there.

Front 41

Tertullian

Back 41

- An apologist appalled that some of his contemporaries were using Platonism and Stoicism to explain Christian ideas to pagans.
- “What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?”
- More highly developed and sophisticated in his theological approaches and contributions.
- Produced massive literary collections.
- Seen as the “teacher of the church,” along with Origen.
- Leading Christian thinker of western North Africa
- He was horrified by Clement’s approach to CT and spent much of his energy combating it.
- A lawyer by occupation; devoted those skills to defending the orthodox Christian faith.
- Never ordained to priesthood.
- Controversy: His defection to the Montanist “New Prophecy” church in Carthage due to main church’s moral and theological decline. (No proof, but well-attested tradition).
- Centered on Biblical record; distrusted anything else.
- Prototype of a conservative, even fundamentalist Christian thinker.
- Pessimistic of human mind.
- Wrote "Against Marcion" and "Agai

Front 42

The significance of Carthage

Back 42

- An entirely different approach to Christian thought and life that was much more pragmatic than speculative developed in the city of Carthage.
- Carthage had a rich tradition of law and civic virtue and commerce

Front 43

Emperor Constantine

Back 43

- Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, which officially declared imperial toleration of Christianity. Gradually began to favor Christianity over other religions.
- Stormy relationship with bishops.
- Considered himself “bishop of all bishops” and the “13th apostle.”
- Though a pagan and refused baptism until almost on his deathbed.
- Obsessed with unifying the church.
- Wanted Christianity to be the “glue” to re-unify the Empire.
- Had to stamp out schism, heresy, and dissent on all fronts.
- Several important events for Christianity and Theology under Constantine: 1. Being Christian became popular and prudent; 2. He built a “new Rome” – Constantinople; 3. The Arian Controversy broke out; 4. Church held its first ecumenical council to settle doctrinal and ecclesiastical conflicts (Council of Nicea in 325, which he oversaw).

Front 44

Theology

Back 44

“Theology is any reflection on the ultimate questions of life that point toward God."

Front 45

Martin Luther

Back 45

- A German priest and professor of theology who initiated the Protestant Reformation
- He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment of sin could be purchased with money (indulgence)
- Ninety-Five Theses in 1517

Front 46

John Wycliffe

Back 46

The first person to translate the Bible into English and the “Morning Star of the Reformation.”

Front 47

John Huss

Back 47

John Huss was a religious thinker and reformer. He initiated a religious movement based on the ideas of John Wycliffe.

Front 48

William Tyndale

Back 48

- A friend of Martin Luther who printed the first English Bible
- The largest buyers of these Bibles were the Kings men so that they could burn them
- When he was burned at the stake he prayed, “Oh, Lord open the eyes of the King of England”
- Fifteen years later the King allowed and funded printing of the Bible

Front 49

Dioscorus

Back 49

- He was a pope/ patriarch of Alexandria
- Became a heretic
- Was denied a place among the council fathers of the Council of Chalcedon
- Excommunicated by Pope Leo
- He insisted on "the one nature" of Christ to assert Christ's oneness, as a tool to defend the Church's faith against Nestorianism. Thus Christ is at once God and man.

Front 50

Cyprian of Carthage

Back 50

- Bishop of Carthage and important early Christian writer
- Standardized the role of the bishop within the Great Church and made it absolutely central to the ecclesiology of catholic and orthodox Christianity
- Focus moved from “where the Spirit is” to where the bishop is (changed from divine power to human leadership); the church is a community of bishops
- Said that “without the Church as mother, one cannot have God as father” and that “outside of the Church there is no salvation”
- His life and work answer the question: “How did the Catholic church become Catholic?”
- His ideas about the office of bishop greatly contributed to making Christianity both East and West a highly structured spiritual hierarchy.
- He essentially equated the church itself with the community of bishops.
- For him, anyone who attempted to live, worship, or teach as a Christian apart from the sanction of a duly ordained bishop in apostolic succession was inventing his or her own new schism and had left the Ch

Front 51

Augustine of Hippo

Back 51

- Was the true father of the Western approach to theology
- Even though he is counted as a saint of the church and a great teacher of Christians by the Eastern churches, he is also considered one who led the church astray in several crucial ways.
- Augustine was: the end of one era as well as the beginning of another, the last of the ancient Christian writers, the forerunner of medieval theology, the forerunner of sixteenth century Protestant theology
- Augustinianism = “an emphasis on the absolute supremacy of God and the accompanying absolute hopelessness and dependency of the human soul on the grace of God.”
- Introduced the idea of monergism: the idea and belief that human agency is entirely passive and God’s agency is all-determining in both universal history and individual salvation.
- Augustine’s ideas of providence and salvation in which God is the sole active agent and energy, and humans – both collectively and individually – are tools and instruments of God’s grace or wrath.