Eschatology Flashcards
What is the doctrine on death?
- In popular culture (spectacle or taboo: Benedict).
- Catholic: Focus on Resurrection.
a. Separation of Body and Soul, more like interruption of union.
b. End of earthly life.
c. Consequence of Sin.
d. transformed by Jesus (positive now).
e. God calls man to himself.
f. Ratzinger: Rooted in the God of the living, based on goodness of creation. Eternal life is the perfection of communion
What are the biblical references to Resurrection?
a. Ecclesiastes/Job skeptical about it
b. Psalm 16: God will show the path to life
c. Dan. 12: Those who sleep in the dust will awake
d. Wisdom3, 1-9. The seemed dead to foolish
e. 2 Macc. 7, I die but I have the God given hope of eternal life
f. Mk. 12, 18-27-MT 22, 23-33 Wife of dead brothers, Jesus answers The God of Abraham and Jacob (meaning He’s the God of the living)
g. Jn 6:54 Whoever eats my flesh…. will have eternal life
h. jn. 11,25: I am the resurrection
i. Rom. 8, 11: If God’s spirit dwells in you , you’ll be given life in Christ
j. 1 Cor 15: Resurection is foundation of fatith (if not, meaningless faith, feeble existence)
What is the doctrine on Heaven? (4 ideas)
- Heaven = The blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into Christ
- Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live forever with the risen and glorified Christ. The blessed see God as He is (beatific vision)
- Heaven is contemplation of God in his heavenly glory
- Heaven is the ultimate fulfillment of all human longing
- We become partakers of the divine Nature
a. Will only be complete when all members are together
b. Completion of human existence
c. Christo-centric: Christ as man/God made possible for man to be with God
d. Ecclesiologically: coexisting with the body of Christ (No isolation)
What are the two characteristics of Last Things?
a. Particular Judgement: after death, of our actions and response to God’s gift.
b. Final Judgement: Parousia, of those still alive. It’s the culmination of the salvific act
What is the doctrine on Purgatory?
The state or process of purification after death for the soul of those who die in friendship with God and yet are not fully prepared to enjoy beatific vision.
Council of Florence on Purgatory
Reaffirmation of Doctrine of Purgatory and the Importance of Praying for the Dead (Mass, Prayers, Alms, etc.)
Trent on Purgatory
Decree on Purgatory (1563) - Reaffirms the Teaching of Purgatory in Response to Reformers
* “…there is a purgatory, and the souls detained there are helped by acts of intercession of the faithful and especially by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar.”
Doctrine on hell
Eternal separation from God and others.
- Refers to eternal damnation.
- It is the human person who freely chooses to reject the love of God and thus separate oneself from God and from others
- It is radical self-isolation from God and other creatures that results in the ultimate form of self-idolatry.
- A sinner is someone who in total freedom and self knowledge a rejection of God
- CDF - “Letter about Certain Questions on Eschatology” (1979)
- The Church believes in the resurrection of the dead.
- The Church understands this resurrection as referring to the whole person.
- The Church affirms that a spiritual element survives and subsists after death, whereby the person (self) continues though deprived for the present of a body.
- The Church excludes every way of thinking or speaking that would render meaningless or unintelligible her prayers, her funeral rites and the religious acts offered for the dead.
- In accordance with the Scriptures, the Church looks for “the glorious manifestation of our Lord, Jesus Christ.”
- In teaching her doctrine about man’s destiny after death, the Church excludes any explanation that would deprive the Assumption of the Virgin Mary of its unique meaning.
- In fidelity to the New Testament, the Church believes in the happiness of the just, eternal punishment for the sinner, and in the possibility of a purification for the elect before they see God.
