DCT Scholars

Question 1

The Person of Jesus Key Scholars

Answer 1

Dawkins- Jesus was a great moral teacher, but nothing more
John Hick- Jesus as an incarnate should be understood as a myth.
Robert Webb- Jesus was a social bandit (Robin Hood) sought to fight for the oppressed and in doing so challenged political authority.
Wittgenstein- argued that Jesus was not an abstract idea but the living word- he was the embodiment of external moral and inner life

Question 2

Christian Moral Principles Key Scholars

Answer 2

-Neil Messer- accepts Bible as God’s word
-Rosemary Reuther- Bible as patriarchal, but has redeeming features.
-Paul Tillich- influenced fletcher- focuses on love as an important theme in scripture.
-Pope Benedict- Bible has authority. Bible needs to be read appropriately- SE reading is too relativistic.
Richard Hays- Need to view Bible within historical context. Need to have an awareness that everyone reads scripture with their own bias.

Question 3

Christian Moral Action Key Scholars

Answer 3

• Karl Barth- God should be centre focus, state can take on this authority
• Bonhoeffer- cheap grace vs costly grace, solidarity
• John Henry Newman- obey your conscience.
• St Paul- bring about the kingdom of God and you will be rewarded
• Gutierrez- action can be more important than doctrine- rebellion against the state is justified in cases if inequality.

Question 4

Death and the Afterlife Scholars

HELL

Answer 4

-Paul Tillich: believed that hell would contradict the nature of God, hell is more of our life here on earth.
-Jean Paul Satre: Describes hell as a state of being which is affected by the lies, deceits, false relationships of others.
Hans urs von balthasar- I believe in hell but i also believe in the mercy of God and therefore i hope that hell is empty.
Jonathan Edwards on Hell: He believes in hell and that God hates sinners ‘more than you hate poision’

Question 5

Death and the Afterlife Scholars

HEAVEN

Answer 5

-Bultmann- symbolic interpretation of heaven. Heaven is best understood in a mythological sense.
-Tom Wright-‘ in a word heaven is important but not the end of the world… So, heaven is stage one’
-The Church- The church teaches that heaven is ‘a state of supreme, definitive happiness’
Dante- Paradiso- ‘to go beyond the human cannot be put into words.

Question 6

Death and the Afterlife Scholars

Purgatory

Answer 6

-St Ambrose on Purgatory- Foretaste of heaven and hell. He considers purgatory to be a place where souls wait for judgement and have a foretaste of what is in store for them.
-Origen- probationary school. He argues it is a place where the soul is given the opportunity to perfect itself.
-Gregory of Nysa- Redemption of the whole of creation, argeed with Origen. Emphasised the purifying process of purgatory so that all people can be cleansed.
Dante- Purgatory is for the souls who believe in Christi and have repented before death. They have the opportunity to purge themselves of all wrongful desires and actions.
Catechism-after death those who have sinned, go through a process of purification to achieve the necessary holiness to enter heaven