How Should We Then Live Flashcards
What are presuppositions?
the basic way an individual looks at life
What are presuppositions based upon?
what one considers to be truth of what exists
Where are presuppositions caught?
family & surrounding society
Rome was great in many ways but where was it lacking?
it had no real answers to the basic problems humanity faces
What makes the difference in a people’s strength as they are exposed to the pressure of life?
worldview
Define syncretism.
mixing of religions
Name 2 reasons Christians were killed in Rome.
1) they worshipped Jesus ONLY
2) they had moral absolutes to judge the state
How were the ways of apathy shown in the Late Roman Empire
a lack of creativity in the arts
Why did Rome fall?
it had no sufficient inward base
What does Schaeffer mean by: “what they are in their thought world determines how they act”?
everything (values, actions, decisions) is based off of thought process
What was the result of the humanistic element in the thinking of man during the Middle Ages?
church (Pope) had more authority than the Bible
What characterized the thinking of the Renaissance? How did this thinking change the behavior of man?
humanism; man now thought he was the center
What 3 lines of history does Schaeffer trace?
religion, philosophy, science
What 2 lines of thought have had the most influence on us today?
humanistic elements of the Renaissance & the Bible based thinking of the Reformation
What ancient philosopher did Thomas Aquinas “re-enthrone”? What was the effect of this rebirth of Greek philosophy?
Aristotle; man at center of everything
What is the “nature vs. grace” problem?
people tend to focus on one or the other- usually nature
The Renaissance had both good and bad results. What were they?
good- value of man restored
bad- humanistic thinking
What is the dilemma of humanism? What is the natural conclusion of humanism?
no universal, no answers to the questions; pessimism- “As a man thinketh, so is he”
Why is it important to study the Renaissance and the Reformation together?
they dealt with the same basic problems but had opposite answers & results
What was the primary authority for the Reformers?
Bible
Why did the Reformers not have a “nature vs. grace” problem?
they thought Biblically and knew that both were important
When did Martin Luther nail the 95 theses on the Wittenburg door?
October 31, 1517
Where was the “high Renaissance”?
southern part of Europe
Where was the Reformation?
north part of Europe
What does Sola Scriptura mean?
Scripture only
What was the Reformation at its core?
the removing of humanistic elements that had entered the church
What 5 words does Schaeffer use to sum up the Enlightenment?
reason, nature, happiness, progress & liberty
What are other characteristics of Enlightenment thinking?
secular & human-based
What is the “religion” of the Enlightenment? Describe it.
deism, God created the world but has no contact with it- watchmaker theory
Should the rise of modern science be attributed to modernism? What is the foundation of modern science?
no; Bible
What is the “shift” Schaeffer discusses? In what disciplines did it take place?
modern science to modern modern science (open system to closed system); philosophy, science, theology
What is the significance of the Robert’s painting “Justice Lifts the Nations”?
Justice is not blindfolded, the sword is pointing to the Bible to show that it’s the standard that makes the scale of Justice equal, painting expressed sociological base
What was the fundamental difference between the English Revolution and the French Revolution?
England had the Reformation base and France did not
What are the dates & names associated with the rise of modern science?
Copernicus (1475-1543)
Vesalius (1514-1564)
What is the significance of Plato concerning the nature/grace problem?
if there are no absolutes, individual things have no meaning
What is rationalism?
rejects any knowledge apart from man; especially knowledge from God
Schaeffer discusses 4 men whose views were crucial in the development of modern man. Who were they?
Jean-Jacques Rosseau, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Hegel, Soren Kierkegaard
If reason was the hero of the Enlightenment , what was the hero of Romanticism?
emotion
Who is the most well-known existentialist? What did he believe?
Jean-Paul Sartre; in reason everything is absurd but man can authenticate himself with an act of will
What is angst?
defines modern man’s stance against the world- anxiety
What specific aspect of the “generation gap” does Schaeffer discuss?
the children began to discover that the parents had no base for their values