Class 7: Overview of Christianity Flashcards
What is the scripture in Christianity?
The Holy Bible, which contains the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) and the New Testament
What is the context that Christianity came from?
- Monotheism in Judaism
- Greco-Roman context
What is the cosmology of Christianity?
Monotheistic
What are the Notions of the Self in Christianity?
Personal, eternal
Special relationship with God
Who are the central figures in Christianity?
- Jesus: the founder of Christianity, he is the son of God, grew up Jewish, at 30 he started preaching that he was the Messiah, he was then crucified, but bodily resurrected 3 days later and ascended to heaven with God.
- Mary: Jesus’s mother, was impregnated by God to carry his son
- John the Baptist: Jesus’s cousin, baptizes people, baptized Jesus when he asked and was witness to God claiming Jesus as his son.
What is the Holy Trinity?
The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit
- All essentially God, even though they cannot be each other, God is represented to people as all three
What are the views of the afterlife in Christianity?
Heaven is seen as paradise to reunite with God and is your ultimate goal. Hell is seen as you are a sinner and are condemned to suffer for life
- Dualistic View
What is Purgatory?
Intermediate place where you can go to await your final judgement to see if you will go to Heaven or Hell. You can atone for your sins here to make sure you will make it to Heaven.
What are Parables? (Examples of Stories).
God’s teachings, allegorical stories that people relate to differently based on your experiences. Jesus taught the parables, making God’s message accessible to everyone.
- Widowed Wife Parable: when we go to Heaven, we become like the angels
What are the notions of resurrection in Christianity?
Belief in bodily resurrection or just spiritual resurrection.
- Huge split in the community
What are the Gospels?
The four gospels are sections in the New Testament of the Bible
- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
What is immaculate conception?
The story of Mary and Jesus
- everyone is born with original sin
- when God impregnated Mary with Jesus, even though she was human, that cleansed her of her original sin
