Key People Across the Course Flashcards
Topics: Augustine’s teaching on human nature, Death & the afterlife
Augustine
Augustine’s teaching on human naure:
* in the pre-lapsarian state, A&E lived in complete harmony with all other creatures, lived without sin, human will was perfect, A&E lived in complete harmony with God
* in the pre-lapsarian state A&E were friends who had sex without lust
* pride is the root of sin and was the fundamental sin that led to the fall
* disobedience is a result of pride
* the divided will= while cupidatas and caritas had worked in harmony before the fall, after the fall cupiditas had been corrupted. So cupiditas works against caritas
* caritas= generous love
* cupiditas= selfish love
* concupiscence= the uncontrollable desire for physical pleasures and material things
* original sin is passed on through sexual intercourse
* we all have original sin because were were seminally present in the loins of Adam at the moment of the fall
* free wll comes from God but has been weakened due to the fall
* God predestines some people (the elect) to achieve salvation
* akrasia= the weakness of will. the now weakened will is unable to control bosily desires and natural desires for food and sex
* “this grace, which perfects strength in weakness, brings everyone who is predestined and called by God to supreme perfection and glory”- Augustine
Death & the afterlife:
* limited election= God selects a few to achieve salvation
Topics: Augustine’s teaching on human nature
Pelaguis
Augustine’s teaching on human nature:
- argued that humans did not have genuine free will which meant that he rejected the idea that we are born with an inclination to sin
- it would be unjust of God to condemn us for something that we could not help
- did not believe that original sin caued universal guilt which only God cold remove
- he argued that Augustine’s doctine of original sin made it simple for individuals to commit sim themselves with immunity
Topics: Augustine’s teaching on human nature
Pinker
Augustine’s teaching on human nature:
* our moral senses come from evolution not God
* religion in general, but especially Christianity, has been responsible for violence, suffering and debasement of humanity
Topics: Augustine’s teaching on human nature
Foucault
Augustine’s teaching on human nature:
* believed that human nature is taught in the same way manners and ediquette is taught
* human nature is developed through socialisation
Topics: Eschatology, Christian Moral Action, Knowledge of God’
Barth
Death & the afterlife:
* criticised limited election- believed that it is not possible for human beings to say what God “must” do, because God cannot be obligated to do anything
* argued for unlimited election because he says that all people are elected through Jesus taking on the punishment of death
Christian Moral Action:
* we do not know God but God reveals himself to us
Knowledge of God’s Existence:
- human nature was completely corrupted by the fall and there is no authoritative source of knowledge of God apart from God’s revelation
- rejects all of natural theology and believed there is no point of contact between God and humans
- the fall corrupted humans on all level, including the spiritual level so it is not possible to have a spiritual relationship with God
Topics: Death & the afterlife
Dante
Death & the afterlife:
* heaven is a paradise beyond description
* the soul yearns for ultimate good and harmony with God’s love
* Dantes inferno- stages of hell- argues that hell is a physical place
* geocentric cosmology= a concept of the universe with earth at the center and the planets and stars arranged in concentric rings around it
Topics: Death & the afterlife, Knowledge of God’s Existence
Calvin
Death & the afterlife:
* double predestination= God chooses both who will enter heaven and who will enter hell
Knowledge of God’s Existence:
* faith is firm and certain knowledge of Christ’s love for us and the willingness to believe on an emotional and spiritual level that can be found in Christ
- divine accomodation= if we are to relate to God then he must accomodate himself to us
- Calivin’s Theatre- the world is the theatre of God’s action. God is known through his actions, through the things that he does, though examples of special revelation as God acts in the world
- sensus divinitatis= sense of divinity
- semen religionis= seed of religion
Topics: Death & the afterlife, Knowledge of God’s Existence
Aquinas
Death & the afterlife:
* single predestination= God only chooses those who enter heaven
Knowledge of God’s Existence:
- faith has two parts:
1. unformed faith= faith which comes from seeing the rasionale behind religious beliefs, such as life after death, but is unable to accept them as true
2. formed faith= faith which openly accepts the conclusions of the intellect
Topic: Death & the afterlife, The person of Jesus
Hick
Death & the afterlife:
* universalism= all people are eventually saved as hell is not eternal
**
The person of Jesus:***
* christianity without the incarnation just becomes one of the many religions that each perceive God in a different way
- claimed that Jesus was not the son of God in a unique sense but was only a human ‘guru’ and moral ‘role model’
Topics: Death & the afterlife
Jean-Paul Sartre
Death & the afterlife:
* hell is symbolic
Topics: Death & the afterlife, Christian Moral Principles
Tillich
Death & the afterlife:
* heaven and hell are spiritual states
Christian Moral Principles:
* felt that love needs careful explanation because it is not just love, but love with a backbone of justice as well as the love of compassion and forgiveness
Topics: Person of Jesus
Aslan
Person of Jesus:
- presented Jesus as part of a revolutionary movement, who deliberately staged events to fulfil prophecies of political Messiah
Topics: Person of Jesus
Rahner
Person of Jesus:
* analogy of an onion- Jesus’ divinity is like and onion
Topcs: Christian Moral Principles
Hauerwas
Christian Moral Principles:
* christian ethics must take place in a Christian community
Topics: Christian Moral Principles
Fletcher
Christian Moral Principles:
* sola scripture is too ridged for making the correct moral and ethical decisions
* simple rules bring positive outcomes, maintain justice and put the needs of others first
* Jesus seemed to apply the principle of love when teahing others how to live a good life
Topics: Christian Moral Principles
Bishop John Robinson
Christian Moral Principles:
* the principle of love isn’t sufficient to live a good life because he claims that “it will decend into moral chaos”
Topics: Christian Moral Action
Bonhoeffer
** Christian Moral Action:**
* said that politics and political parties were human interventions, so for Christianity to stay authenic and away from political ends it must be free from the state
* described Jesus as “a man for others”
* duty to God is more important that duty to the state (civil disobedience)
* in the moment of action, it is possible for Christians to know God’s will
* religionless christianity= Christianity will only function properly if it moves away from the trappings of the past
* grace was given freely to all by God
* cheap grace= grace when it is soely understood as a free gift from God with no obligation on the Christian
* costly grace= grace when it is understood as requiring a difficult response from the believer
* christians must sacrafice their own desires for material things through discipline and being prepared to suffer
- set up Fikenwalde for forming pastors for the confessing church
Topics: Knowledge of God’s Existence
Dawkins
Knowledge of God’s Existence:
* “faith is a great cop-out, the great excuse to evage the need to think and evaluate experience”
Topics: Knowledge of God’s Existence
Cicero
Knowledge of God’s Existence:
* since so many people believe in God or gods, then they must exist
Topics: Knowledge of God’s Existence
Brunner
Knowledge of God’s Existence:
* knowledge of God comes throug reason- God continues to be active in maintaining creation, sheilding it from the effects of sin- shown through the order of the universe
* image of God in human beings was mostly destroyed by the fall- the material and emotional aspects of God were lost but the formal, or spiritual image remains
- the true knowlege of God is found by those who have faith in Christ’s revelation
- conscience and guilt make human beings aware of God’s laws
