2024 mocks dump

Question 1

what you need to talk about in an essay on Augustine’s teachings on human nature?

Answer 1

• human relationship pre and post fall
• original sin and its effects on the will and human societies
• God’s grace

Question 2

Augustine: overview of human relationship pre and post fall?

Answer 2

before the fall:
- in perfect harmony with God
- relationship of concordia as friends and sex without lust

after the fall
- they become filled with lust and ashamed to be naked
- harmony with god is lost
- concordia and caritas replaced with concupiscence

Question 3

Augustine: overview of the effects of original sin on the will and human societies??

Answer 3

• on the will: it wants to rebel illustrated sexually, man loses his ability to control his sexual desires, original sin is passed onto all generations through sexual intercourse and all humans are conceived as a result of lust
• on human societies: after the fall people required proper authority to stop their rebellious will such as slavery in the new testament, society must strive for earthly peace but it is never fully possible. our free will is naturally tainted by concupiscence so cannot choose the right action every time

Question 4

Augustine: overview of God’s grace?

Answer 4

• God has elected some people to go to heaven showing his grace to still allow us to heaven despite our wrongdoing
• humans do not deserve but it is given regardless

Question 5

wider scholars for Augustine?

Answer 5

• pelagius: we do not have original sin, are ally just created in the same state as Adam, it would be unjust to condemn humans to something they could not help
• scientists ofc like Dawkins (Augustine had an unhealthy obsession with sex) and evolution from Darwin
• Steven Pinker’s humanitarian principle
• human nature: Hobbes, Rousseau etc.

Question 6

death and the afterlife: overview of heaven?

Answer 6

traditional views:
- Aquinas and beatific vision and reach the summum bonum
- a place where people live for the rest of time in the presence of God depicted as a permanent and real place

other views:
- may not be a physical place but rather a state we are in as our sould join God
- could be a symbol of a person’s spiritual and moral life on earth, heaven is a representation of the sum of all positive moments in someone’s life

Question 7

wider scholars on the afterlife?

Answer 7

• New testament scholar NT Wright argues that heaven is not to be found in another world but a future state of this world
• Sartre’s play ‘No Exit’… hell is other people
• Hick did not think hell could be part of God’s loving plan so advocated for purgatory

Question 8

death and the afterlife: overview of hell?

Answer 8

hell is an actual place:
- seen through scripture of revelation
- without an actual place of punishment there is no need to set moral laws and to be jedged
- Roman Catholic church emphasises main feature of hell is separation from God

hell as a spiritual place
- hell is just separation from God, no need to go somewhere else

hell in symbolic terms
- a symbolic representation of the negative elements of someone’s life

Question 9

death and the afterlife: overview of purgatory?

Answer 9

• state of cleansing that takes place before you enter heaven
• Protestants say there is no Bible evidence but Catholics point to Maccabees that says we should pray for the dead and Matthew that says the Holy Spirit is not forgiven in this age or the age to come

Question 10

death and the afterlife: overview of election?

Answer 10

limited election:
- comes from Augustine, god’s grace is required for salvation due to original sin
- inspired Calvin’s double predestination (God in control of free choices we make so knows where we will end up)
- single pre-destination held by Catholics is that God chooses those who will go to heaven

unlimited election:
- heaven is available to all but not everyone will be saved
- comes from Barth who argued all people are elected through Jesus taking on the punishment of death

univeralism:
- it is necessary for everyone to go to heaven because of God’s love
- held by Hick

Question 11

bible quotes on death and the afterlife

Answer 11

• Maccabees and Matthew for purgartory
• parable of the sheep and the goats and the rich man and lazarus
• revelations and the fiery pits of hell
• Matthew ‘many are invited but few are chosen’

Question 12

knowledge of God’s existence: overview of natural knowledge of God’s existence?

Answer 12

• reason and experience can be used to gain knowledge of God
• Calvin’s sensus divinitas and semen religionis seen in our conscience, awareness of beauty and capability to reason
• the order of creation tells us about God (e.g. teleolical arguments)

Question 13

knowledge of God’s existence: bible quotes and wider scholars?

Answer 13

• Paul’s conversation with the Athenians about the unknown God

Question 14

knowledge of God’s existence: overview of revealed knowledge?

Answer 14

• knowledge of God comes through revelation, direct and scripture
• humans are sinful and our finite is limited to natural theology is not enough
• revelation seen through the church (practices e.g. eucharist) and the bible as well as sending Jesus to the world

Question 15

knowledge of God’s existence: has the fall completely removed all natural human knowledge of God?

Answer 15

Brunner:
- we can know god through natural theology e.g. sensus divinitas
- humans are aware of their own sinfulness
- natural theology can help us be aware there is a God but doesn’t tell us everything

NEIN
Barth:
- human nature was completely corrupted by the fall so only revelation can be used
- God is so radically other we cannot use reason to know him, like pouring niagara falls into a milk jug
- human language describes human things so cannot describe God

Question 16

person of jesus christ: overview of jesus as the son of God?

Answer 16

• Jesus called God ‘abba’ and talked directly to him like in the garden of gethsemane
• Jesus’ miracles suggest he had God’s power in a special way (Mark walking on water and John healing a blind man)
• the resurrection

Question 17

person of jesus christ: overview of jesus as a teacher of wisdom

Answer 17

• sermon on the mount and the beatitudes
• repeating and renewal of the old law (eye for an eye - turn the other cheek), not following the strict laws of the sabbath but keeping them in perspective
• treatment of others (women with long period, adulterous women, Zaccharius the tax collector)

Question 18

person of jesus christ: overview of jesus as a liberator

Answer 18

• treatment of others (tax collector, adulterous women, defiance of romans, women who bled for 12 years
• challenge to political authority through turning over tables in temples and claiming to be the son of God, Roman government crucified him as a traitor

Question 19

wider scholars on the person of Jesus Christ

Answer 19

• Hick argued he was not the son of God, this is the only thing that separates christianity from other religions therefore should just be a teacher of wisdom, links to universalism
• James Cone saw Jesus as a liberator for black Americans as he identifies with the oppressed and marginialised
• Bonhoeffer also saw Jesus as a fighter for social justice and asked christians to act in the same way against authority
• marcus borg emphasised the transformative and wisdom oriented aspect of Jesus’ message

Question 20

christian moral principles: overview of the bible as the only source of ethics (theonomous ethics)

overview and then issues it presents

Answer 20

• propositional revelation: God reveals himself in truth statements. the bible can be seen as an example of this i.e. it is a set of truth statements
• Timothy: “all scripture is God breather and is useful for teaching”
• others see the bible as written by individuals intepreted from the word of God, not literal

issues this presents:
- the bible contains contradictions (eye for an eye and turn the other cheek)
- some modern situations are not covered in the bible and therefore requires the use of reason which is not true theonomous ethics

Question 21

christian moral principles: overview of using the bible, the church and reason (heteronomous ethics)

Answer 21

the church:
- the role of tradition such as the eucharist to connect with God spiritually
- humans are weak and sinful and cannot rely on themselves to make moral decisions
- the church interprets the bible (connection between Aquinas’ divine law and human law)

reason:
- this is basically just natural law
- also conscience and the ability to reason that sets us apart
- for protestants reason just points back to the bible which holds ultimate authority

Question 22

wider scholars for christian moral principles?

Answer 22

• John Henry Newman argued that conscience has more authority than the Pope
• More who rejected Henry VIII’s religious requests as they conflicted with his conscience

Question 23

christian moral principles: overview of love as the only ethical principle?

Answer 23

• Tillich saw love as a central precept and rejected non-autonomous approaches to ethics
• Fletcher and situation ethics that stops christians from falling into an over-reliance on laws
• JAT Robinson, Jesus’ sermon on the mount was a set of illustrations on how to put love into practice

Question 24

christian moral action: overview of Bonhoeffer and duty to God and the state?

Answer 24

• Bonohoeffer living under Nazis where many christians embraced their teachings
• didn’t argue that christians must always ignore the rules of the state, only in extreme circumstances is doing nothin unacceptable
• the state will never be able to reflect God’s wishes full as it is run by fallen human beings
• emphasised the role of action, the gospels show proper christian response is action not belief as seen in the actions of Jesus

Question 25

christian moral action: overview of the church as a community and source of spiritual discipline

Answer 25

• the church needed to understand the world is religionless and work within that context
• religionless = moving away from religious superstitions and towards rationalism and going beyond ‘rusty swords’, ethics needs to be reinterpreted and move forwards

role in the confessing church:
- met together in 1934 to produce the barmen declaration that said Jesus is the only true leader and christians must not follow any teaching that does not come from the revelation of Jesus

Question 26

christian moral action: overview of the cost of discipleship

Answer 26

grace
- grace is not easy to obtain or is freely given, this is cheap grace
- grace should be obtained by the church by engaging with the suffering of Jesus, this is costly grace

sacrifice and suffering:
- it is through suffering that christians can fully understand God’s revelation and obtain grace
- doesn’t have to be as extreme asa Jesus’, just different to the world around them, true spritiual discipline is sacrifice in itself

solidarity:
- the church must be for others seen in his decision to return to Germany from America
- christians should speak out and question injustice when they see it

Question 27

three strengths and weaknesses of Bonhoeffer?

Answer 27

strengths
1. call to reject cheap grace is valuable in today’s society where people live superficial and materialistic lives
2. solidarity is attractive as people have become more isolated
3. lots of people living under oppressive governments

weaknesses:
1. civil disobedience lower the christian to the level of a terrorist
2. Bonhoeffer was working in extreme situations and that doesn’t really apply to anyone today
3. christians should never begin with the assumption that they should disobey

Question 28

wider scholars for christian moral action?

Answer 28

• Brunner worked alongside Bonhoeffer in the confessing church but did not share Bonhoeffer’s stance on the explicit use of force in political resistance
• Barth had similar issues: he did not fully endorse Bonhoeffer’s involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler
• Hauerwas, American theologian, emphasises importance of nonviolence in Christian ethics even in extreme situations

Question 29

religious pluralism: overview of exclusivism

Answer 29

only christianity fully offers the means of salvation
- “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me”
- Calvin argued due to the fall humans are sinful and no one deserves to be saved, this is restricted access exclusivism
- some believe that Jesus’ salvation restored the whole of humanity and God wishes to save everyone, this is universal access exclusivism
- Catholics teach there is no salvation outside of the church

Question 30

religious pluralism: overview of inclusivism

Answer 30

• although christianity is the one true faith and normative way to salvation anonymous christians can be saved
• Rahner argued that other religions can help people to salvation but only until a person encounters the christian message at which point they can choose to accept or reject it
• Rahner references Paul making the speech to the Athenians worshipping the unknown God

Question 31

religious pluralism: overview of pluralism

Answer 31

• analogy of the blind men and the elephant, everyone is right but have just approached it in a different way
• argued primarily by Hick
• people believe bcs of religious experience which is interpreted through individual faith traditions therefore different people are experiencing the same reality in different ways
• cultural differences provide the different lenses through which we experience the divine
• christianity is christocentric (focused on christ) but hick said the central point should be focused on God instead things like the resurrection can be reinterpreted as mythical

Question 32

religious pluralism wider scholars?

Answer 32

• Hick was influenced by Kant who distinguished between the noumena (what something actually is) and the phenomena (how we individually experience it). the noumena of the divine is experienced through different phenomena (religions)
• raimon panikkar and christophony: Christ made plain to human consciousness but not limited to the christ of christianity (obviously then not called Christ), Christ is just a name for God making himself known to people
• Karen Armstrong emphasised the commonality of mystical experience across religions and advocated for a pluralistic approach

Question 33

religious pluralism: overview of interfaith dialogue

Answer 33

• multi-faith societies are more common than ever e.g. Southall in London largest percentage Sikh then Islam due to high levels of contemporary migration
• David Ford: ‘future of christian theology’ identified the holocaust and 9/11 as two things causing interfaith dialogue
• Muslim open letter in 2007 ‘a common word between us and you’ that called for peace and harmony amongst Muslims and Christians worldwide (supported by Rowan Williams, not supported by the Barnabas Fund who said it made Christianity seem like the wrong ones)
• ‘redemptoris missio’ 1990 papal encyclical spoke of importance of spreading the word of the gospel without detracting from other religions
• church of England ‘sharing the gospel of salvation’ 2010 restated the importance of evangelising

Question 34

religious pluralism: overview of the scriptural reasoning movement

Answer 34

• began amongst Jewish scholars in the US, typically done between abrahamic religions
• not about seeking agreement but to ‘disagree better’

positives:
- allows one to gain a deeper understanding of their own scriptural texts
- creates a strong bond and mutual understanding between interfaith communities
- promotes peace and tolerance

drawbacks:
- may highlight further disagreement that worsens the situation
- people may still attempt to use it as missionary work and if they don’t they are arguably going against their own scripture
- exclusivist christians would be against it as you cannot convert

Question 35

wider scholars for interfaith dialogue?

Answer 35

karen armstrong: emphasised the commonality of the golden rule amongst religion and aims to use interfaith dialogue to dispel ignorance