Christianity Technical Terminlogy

Question 1

Beginning of the Christian liturgical year, a period including the four Sundays immediately preceding Christmas

Answer 1

Advent

Question 2

Members of the Church of England. Their church government is Episcopal; the clergy is directed by bishops

Answer 2

Anglicans

Question 3

Writings describing the last days, or the end of time. This literature inspires the faithful to stand firm in spite of the severe hardships of their time.

Answer 3

Apocalyptic literature

Question 4

A person who was a disciple of Jesus sent out to proclaim the coming of the kingdom of God. Traditionally, Jesus chose twelve apostles

Answer 4

Apostle

Question 5

A brief statement of Christian doctrinal belief dating from about the third century but ascribed to the apostles or first-generation followers of Jesus, and often recited in unison by congregations.

Answer 5

Apostle’s Creed

Question 6

Christ’s restoration of humanity to a right relationship with God, variously interpreted as divine victory over demonic power, satisfaction of divine justice, or demonstration of moral example.

Answer 6

Atonement

Question 7

One of the sacraments of the Christian faith. Sprinkling or emersion in water, the ritual by which a person is initiated into membership in the Christian community. The Baptismal vow is a promise made by a child’s parents to educate the child in the ways of Christian life. The vow can also be taken by a person as a promise to renounce the world and to follow Christ.

Answer 7

Baptism

Question 8

The theology and ecclesiastical tradition of the followers of the reformer John Calvin, emphasising the sovereignty of God, the total depravity of human nature, divine election and rejection, the supreme authority of the Bible, the necessity of the church and the sacraments, and the necessity of glorifying God in every sphere of life.

Answer 8

Calvinism

Question 9

A scriptural canon is the list of books acknowledged as Scripture. Protestants regard the 66 books of the Bible as canonical. Catholics have the additional Deuterocanonical (or apocryphal) books.
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek.

Answer 9

Canon

Question 10

Conduct characterised by spiritual gifts, especially the gift of “speaking in tongues”, when abnormal speech is spontaneously uttered by Christians who claim to be “baptised with the Holy Spirit”.

Answer 10

Charismatic

Question 11

The Greek word meaning the anointed one. See also messiah.

Answer 11

Christ

Question 12

Movement for reunification or collaboration between previously separated branches of Christianity.

Answer 12

Ecumenism

Question 13

The ritual portrayal of Jesus’ sacrifice of himself, after he handed out bread and wine as symbols of his body and blood during his last Easter meal with this disciples. Catholics call this Eucharist and Protestants Holy Communion. It is one of the sacraments of the Christian faith.

Answer 13

Ecucharist

Question 14

The forced exclusion of a person from the church, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, for doctrinal error or moral misconduct.

Answer 14

Excommunicate

Question 15

The solemn holy day, two days before Easter, that commemorates the Passion or suffering and death of Jesus on the cross.

Answer 15

Good Friday

Question 16

Messages of good news. The four stories of the life of Christ found in the New Testament.

Answer 16

Gospels

Question 17

A belief held by an adherent that is contrary to the accepted teachings of the religious organisation

Answer 17

Heresy (abstract noun)

Question 18

A person who has been judged by the church to teach doctrine dangerously contrary to the teachings of the church.

Answer 18

Heretic

Question 19

The literary culture that flourished in Europe from the 14th to the 16th centuries, based on Greek and Roman learning.

Answer 19

Humanism

Question 20

A secularised and anthropocentric school of philosophy that tends to exalt human existence by focusing on cultural and practical matters rather than on scientific and speculative concerns; a belief that the values of humans are the highest in the universe. Humans are “on their own” in the universe. A Christian humanist, such as Erasmus, believed in God.

Answer 20

Humanism

Question 21

God in human form. Christians regard Christ as God in human form.

Answer 21

Incarnation

Question 22

The period preceding Easter, consisting of 40 days, not counting Sundays. It is the season for most serious Christian spiritual reflection.

Answer 22

Lent

Question 23

The prescribed form and order of the acts to be performed at a public religious ceremony, e.g. the rituals celebrating the Eucharist, and the sequence of votum, song, prayer, sermon, etc. constituting a church service.

Answer 23

Liturgy

Question 24

Members of a major Protestant denomination based on the teachings and practices of Martin Luther. Their beliefs are based on the Bible rather than on teachings of the church fathers, ecumenical councils, or the pope.

Answer 24

Lutherans

Question 25

A German monk, who strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God’s punishment for sin could be purchased with money (indulgences). He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. His refusal to retract all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the Emperor. He is regarded as the father of the Protestant Reformation.

Answer 25

Martin Luther

Question 26

The Eucharist ceremony of Roman Catholics, in which bread and wine are eaten as the body and blood of Christ. It was celebrated in Latin until 1965 and in local languages since then.

Answer 26

Mass

Question 27

The Hebrew word for Christ. Christians believe that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah.

Answer 27

Messiah

Question 28

An event judged to be brought about by divine intervention in the ordinary events of history.

Answer 28

Miracle

Question 29

An ancient doctrinal formulation or confession longer and more explicit that the Apostles’ Creed and still in use through regular recitation in the Catholic mass.

Answer 29

Nicene Creed

Question 30

The Greek Orthodox Church split from the Roman Catholic Church in 1054. The two biggest issues were the addition of the word filioque (and the Son) to the Western text of the Apostles’ Creed, and the growth of papal power.

Answer 30

Orthodox Churches

Question 31

The suffering and death of Jesus on the cross.

Answer 31

Passion

Question 32

A festival coming fifty days after Easter. The time when the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus’ followers in the early Christian church, and they experienced dramatically the presence of the Holy Spirit and the ability to preach and be understood in different languages.

Answer 32

Pentecost

Question 33

Modern Protestant groups emphasising outbursts of exotic, generally unintelligible, speech as a mark of the Holy Spirit’s presence and of the individual’s holiness or spiritual perfection.

Answer 33

Pentecostal Churches

Question 34

The water of baptism and the bread and wine of the Eucharist are acknowledged by all Christians as sacraments. A ritual symbolising divine presence and / or grace.

Answer 34

Sacraments

Question 35

A Greek version of the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament).

Answer 35

Septuagint

Question 36

The belief that a person-like God created a law-abiding universe, but sometimes he answers prayers and performs miracles.

Answer 36

Theism

Question 37

The discipline that describes and explains God and his relationship to the world. Theology is a formal, reasoned explanation of the beliefs of the faithful people of a religion.

Answer 37

Theology

Question 38

The Christian conception of God as having ‘three’ persons or manifestations: as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The doctrine emerged during the late third century and was adopted after vigorous debate in the fourth.

Answer 38

Trinity

Question 39

The principal Latin version of the Bible, prepared mainly by St. Jerome in the late 4th century, and (as revised in 1592) adopted as the official text for the Roman Catholic Church.

Answer 39

Vulgate

Question 39

The principal Latin version of the Bible, prepared mainly by St. Jerome in the late 4th century, and (as revised in 1592) adopted as the official text for the Roman Catholic Church.

Answer 39

Vulgate