Definitions + Understandings of God + Humanity

Question 1

What is the difference between Definitions and Understandings?

Answer 1

• Definitions is how people have attempted to define God. What is God? Ideas is more concerned with ‘who’ - God’s form and character

Question 2

McGrath on the development of Trinitarian doctrine

Answer 2

• Trinitarian belief was not a sudden occurence, but an ‘outcome of the process of sustained critical reflection’

Question 3

Matthew 28:19 on the Trinity

Answer 3

• “In the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit -

Question 4

Corinthians 13:14

Answer 4

• “The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit…’

Question 5

Why were Christians forced to assert their beliefs about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit?

Answer 5

• Spread of Jewish monism
• Greek ideas of God still around (matter was evil_
• Christianity spreading, need to assert values

Question 6

What different interpretations emerged of the relationship between God, Jesus and the Holy spirit in the 1st-4th centuries? - Tertullian

Answer 6

• “one in essence - not one in Person.”

- 3 terms, 1 substance

Question 7

What different interpretations emerged of the relationship between God, Jesus and the Holy spirit in the 1st-4th centuries? - Origien

Answer 7

• 3 hypostases (centres of activity) in one ousia (being)

Question 8

What different interpretations emerged of the relationship between God, Jesus and the Holy spirit in the 1st-4th centuries? - Adoptionism vs Docetism + their resolution in 2C?

Answer 8

• Adoptionism: Jesus was adopted by God at Baptism and/or resurrection
  VS
• Doectism: matter is evil, so Jesus is entirely divine as he could not be man

—> Both rejected in second century.

Question 9

Development of the Trinity: Council of Nicea

Answer 9

• The first ecumenical council which convened in 325 CE
• Contributed to the creation of the Nicene creed in 381 CE, very important as it ratifies and affirms trinitarian doctrine
• Settled the Arian controversy, Athanasius prevailed (see separate card)
• Jesus “eternally begotten of the father/homoousious
• Holy Spirit recognised as divine (proceeds from the father and son)
• Identified heresies to be avoided (Tritheism, Modalism, Subordinationism) - see seperate cards

Question 10

Tritheism

Answer 10

• Depicting the different aspects of the Trinity as seperate entities, too different
• • > Rejected at Council of Nicea 325 CE

Question 11

Modalism

Answer 11

• Blurring the lines between the different elements of the Trinity too much, so as not to acknowledge the three aspects as being too different
• • > Rejected at Council of Nicea 325 CE

Question 12

Subordinationism

Answer 12

• Recognising the Father as superior to the two other aspects of the Trinity
• • > Rejected at Council of Nicea 325 CE

Question 13

Arian controversy at the Council of Nicea

Answer 13

ARIUS
- Arius sought to challenge pagan critics who saw Xns as worshipping three seperate Gods
- Father was superior, Jesus and Holy Spirit subordinate and of similar inner substance Homoiousious
- Closer to Greek thought in thinking that God could not be immanent
ATHANASIUS
- Saw Arius as problematic: If JC not equal to father then he cannot offer us salvation. Human form shows that God accepts us
- Athanasius argues only a God-man can reconcile us with God and atone us. JC removes sin by standing in for us. If he wasn’t man, he could not do this
- JC is God-man and so can survive death. He atones for us, but JC prevails and we can do the same
–> Jesus must be FULLY God: Homoousios (same essence)

Question 14

Scriptural evidence for Athanasius

Answer 14

• JC speaks on own authority (I tell you)
• JC can divinely heal
• JC is resurrected

Question 15

Council of Constantinople and the Nicene Creed

Answer 15

• Fully trinitarian by this point in the wake of the Council of Nicea 325 CE
• Reaffirmed that Jesus homoousios with Father (no ‘I’) and eternally begotten
• Jesus always part of God, but becomes human (made flesh) in incarnation
• Holy spirit is said to be fully God as it is active in
  (i) Creation
  (ii) Salvation
  (iii) Worship

Question 16

Modern ideas about the significance of the Trinity

Answer 16

• Rahner (1967) argued that the doctrine of the trinity is irrelevant to most Xns
  BUT
• Smith argued in ‘Christian Thought’ that “In recent years…the centrality of the doctrine to Christian conceptions of God is increasingly recognised”

Question 17

God the Father

Answer 17

• God is identified as father in the Trinity (“we believe in one god, the father almighty, creator of heaven and earth…

CREATOR AND SUSTAINER
“creator of heaven and earth” - Nicene creed
“One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” -Ephesians 4:6
KING
“O King of the nations!” - Revelations 15:3
LIGHT
“God is light” - John 1:46
LOVING
“you are mine” - Isiah 43

SHEPHERD
- “The Lord is my shepherd…He guides me in paths of righteousness” - psalm 23

IN POPULAR CULTURE: see ‘The Shack’

McGrath stresses significance of analogy: Prayer is like an interaction between a father and a child, reconciliation between sinner and God like interaction with parents, parents are loving and the authority (like God)

However, issues raised with male language for God (see sep card)

Question 18

What is the significance of Aquinas’s stress on God as analogus to a human father

Answer 18

• God is analogus to a human father because God is not a human father but is in some ways like a human father
• This is useful as it ties God in to our world, but does not limit God to an anthropomorphic understanding

Question 19

Feminist critique of male language for God

Answer 19

The Argument:
- Trinity meant to reaffirm community, not hierarchy, dominance of Father/Son language fails to achieve this
- Used exclusively: Only used, to the neglect of female/animal imagery which denies the presence of female language in scripture. Excluded language –> excluded people –> doctrine becomes irrelevant
- Used literally: at least subconsciously, we come to believe that God really is male. Gap between symbol and reality becomes closed
- Used patriarchally: Images used cluster together to form one image of one dominant, male God.
———>
The Impact:
- Mary Daly: “If god is male, then male is god”. Women think lower of themselves and men are tempted to think higher of themselves. PSYCHOLOGICAL
- Influences social structures to accord with male dominance - SOCIOLOGICAL
- Has theological implications, as it narrows our understanding of God - THEOLOGICAL
———>
The Counterargument:
- Bible uses metaphors, not images. God not to be literally understood as male
- Male language is foundational in the Bible. It is scripture and should not be ‘amended’
- Jesus was male, chosen by God (fundamentalist argument)
- Women priest/bishops in CofE, radical change not needed
- Some female language anyway: Spirit feminine, “mother eagle” - Deutronomy 32:11, “mother” - Isiah 49:15
———>
Aims:
- Women have full visibility and equality of access (Slee)
- Egalitarian language OR neutral language
- Recognise that male dominance is socially, not eternally, constructed

Question 20

God the Son

Answer 20

BIRTH AND HUMANITY
-the Word became flesh and dwelt among us - John 1

SALVATION
-‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me - John 14:6

“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”[1]- John

MIRACLES AND PARABLES
Jesus calms the storm: He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

SUFFERING AND CRUCIFIXION
- through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. - Colossians

RESURRECTION
- Corinthians 15:20-22 Paul states: But Christ really has been raised from the dead. He is the first of all those who will rise.

IN POPULAR CULTURE: The shack

Question 21

God as the Holy Spirit

Answer 21

ABSTRACT:
Wind: The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” -John
Word: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and exhorting one another with all wisdom - Colossians

PERSONAL?
4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. - Ephriphians

COMFORTER
you know him, because he resides with you and will be in you

PENTECOST:
Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. - Acts

POPULAR CULTURE: The Shack

TODAY: Pentecostalism, a renewal movement, has its followers ‘baptised’ with the Holy Spirit so that they may be ‘born again’ into a new, spiritual life.

Question 22

Revealed theology

Answer 22

CONCEPT:

• God can be understood to reveal himself
• May come through scripture (Old/New Testament) OR supernaturally through visions and revelations
• Takes strength from the idea that God has already been revealed through Jesus Christ in the New Testament

CRITICISMS:

• We cannot verify propositional revelation (cf Verificationsists, religious language)
• Scripture can be read liberally to reconcile it with science/rationality. Is the meaning of revelation therefore lost on us?
• Different revelations by different religions: all claim propositional yet different ‘truths’ revealed. How can we know which is correct?
• Propositional revelations are received and limited by our human sensory perception

COUNTER ARGUMENTS (^)

• Revealed theology is a direct experience, and that is the best form of verification
• Word of the Bible is infallible: Kant suggests analytic statement true by definition. E.g. “God is perfect” —> “The Bible is word of God” = Word of God is perfect

Question 23

Natural theology

Answer 23

CONCEPT:
- Favoured by Philosophy, Catholic tradition maintain that what is deduced by natural philosophy will never contradict scripture
- Led to deism: God known only through philosophy, Bible unnecessary
CRITICISM:
Karl Bath suggests it leads to philosophy being more important than revelation directly from God, thus undermining the religion as a whole
RESPONSE:
David Hume (1711-76) argued that natural theology was mere speculation and that if Christian truth was to be believed at all, it must be believed on blind faith.

Question 24

Social Trinitarianism

Answer 24

• Associated with Daniel Migliore
• Rejects idea of God as monad (supreme being)
• perichoresis: mutual indwelling, community
• Supported by Moltmann’s argument for a Trinitarian cross and a ‘suffering’ God. In ‘How deep the father’s love for us’ it says that the “The Father turns His face away”, but this is rejected as Jesus was fully divine and God suffered as Jesus did

Question 25

Liberation Theology

Answer 25

• Began in South America in 1960s/1970s in communities divided by abject poverty and wealth
• Church identified more with ‘haves’ (rich) than ‘have-nots’ (poor)
• Reappraisal of God’s role at Vatican II in 1965. Rejected ‘European’ model of God, promoted by the privileged few, for a God seen through Jesus’ preference for the poor in the Bible
• Influenced by Maxist theology advocating the revolution of the oppressed Proletariat
• God on the side of the flawed
• Similar to Social Trinitarianism in the sense that God is seen as a suffering God
• ORIGINALLY hostile to Catholic church: “The Bible’s view of History with Marxist dialetics…. [a] singular heresy” - Cardinal Ratzinger
  BUT now some rapprochement: Gustavo Gutiérrez, founder, invited as key guest speaker at Vatican event earlier this year (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/11/vatican-new-chapter-liberation-theology-founder-gustavo-gutierrez)

Question 26

Deuteronomy on the oneness of God

Answer 26

The Old Testament Deuteronomy 6:4​‘Hear,

O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one’