Midterm Exam (Christian Theism through Islamic Theism) Flashcards
Historical Flow (1600-1800)
Christian Theism > Deism > Naturalism (secular humanism, also) > Nihilism
Responses to Nihilism (1880-present)
Existentialism > Eastern Pantheism (in the Western world) > New Age > Postmodernism
Christian Theism - Prime Reality
God: infinite, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, personal, triune, good
Christian Theism - External Reality
Created, open system, cause and effect
Christian Theism - Humans
Created in the image of God; capacity for intelligence, morality, creativity
Responsible to God, fallen and redeemable
Christian Theism - Death
Life/separation with/from God
(Heaven and Hell)
Christian Theism - Knowledge
God-given capacity for knowledge as an image-bearer
General revelation: God speaks through created order of univers
Special revelation: extranatural events (e.g. burning bush) and scripture
Christian Theism - Morality
God is source of moral world, Jesus is an example of goodness as the “second Adam”
Christian Theism - History
Fulfillment of God’s purposes for humanity
Christian Theism - Core Commitments
Seek first the kingdom of God (glorify and enjoy Him), reveal His character through ourselves
Deism - Prime Reality
God: infinite personal (warm) or impersonal (cold), first cause, clockmaker
Deism - External Reality
Closed system, cause and effect
Deism - Humans
Personal but part of the clockwork, not based on God’s image or character
Can make changes (though this does not make sense with closed system)
Deism - Death
Afterlife exists (warm), or does not exist (cold)
Deism - Knowledge
Enlightenment Era: Reason
We can understand God through nature and the sciences, but not through scripture
Deism - Morality
“Whatever is, is right” - Alexander Pope
Reason allows us to determine ethics
Deism - History
Linear, determined at creation, understood through Reason, generally advances toward a good society
Jewish history dismissed as legend (ex. The Jefferson Bible)
Deism - Core Commitments
Use human reason to promote human flourishing
Naturalism - Prime Reality
God does not exist; matter exists eternally
Naturalism - External Reality
Cause and effect in closed system, universe comprised solely of matter
Existentialism - Humans
Autonomous, complex machines
Personality is a combination of chemical and physical properties that we do not yet fully understand
Naturalism - Death
Extinction of human person (no afterlife)
Naturalism - Knowledge
We developed this skill through evolution; no special revelation, we use Reason
Naturalism - Morality
Individual and social construct, stems from human need and interest, based on human survival and the good of the many
Naturalism - History
Construct; it only has meaning if we give it meaning
We are part of evolution, but not its goal
Naturalism - Core Commitments
Individuals decide for themselves what they will value
Often Naturalists do community service
Naturalism - Secular Humanism (overview)
Places emphasis on the special-ness of humans, people are inherently good
Naturalism - Marxism (overview)
Meant to benefit working class and give them economic control
Division of labor leads to exploitation, leading to social classes
The revolt of the proletariat (working class) leads to abolishment of social classes and equality of assets
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism - Prime Reality
God: vaguely personal, benefactor, Creator, arranges things to make us happy
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism - External Reality
God’s orderly creation, open to human understanding through science
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism - Humans
Created by God to be happy and nice
People can choose their own beliefs
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism - Death
Good people go to heaven, and almost everyone is good (yay!)
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism - Knowledge
God made us to think, science helps us, scripture can be special revelation (but it is not authoritative)
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism - Morality
God wants us to be nice and get along with others (no requirement for righteousness)
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism - History
The focus is on the present (the past and future don’t matter that much)
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism - Core Commitments
To be happy
Nihilism (overview)
Negation of everything (knowledge, morality, beauty, reality)
Loss of meaning
You cannot trust even your own thinking
Existence is without meaning or purpose
Atheistic Existentialism - Prime Reality
No God, matter exists eternally,
Atheistic Existentialism - External Reality
Matter, Cosmos are in normal (not fallen) state
Objective world: material, cause and effect, without purpose
Subjective world: mind, consciousness, freedom, stability within oneself
Atheistic Existentialism - Humans
Complex machines, people determine who they are, value is found within oneself
Atheistic Existentialism - Morality
Uniquely human, the authentic person must revolt against the absurdity of the world and create their own value
“We can never choose evil. We always choose the good.” - Satre
There however is a recognizable center of subjectivity in the community
Atheistic Existentialism - Death
Extinction of personhood, considered the enemy, we must struggle against it
Atheistic Existentialism - Knowledge
Through reason
Atheistic Existentialism - Core Commitments
Commitment is to yourself (prone to solipsism)
Attempt to be a “saint without God” - Albert Camus, The Plague
Theistic Existentialism - Prime Reality
God is triune, personal, and Creator (“neo-orthodoxy”)
Theistic Existentialism - External Reality
Humanity experienced the Fall, cosmos are created, objective world clashes with subjective world
Theistic Existentialism - Humans and Knowledge
Our own self-reflection of our place in the absurdity of the world leads us to “love that which we cannot understand,” making us reliant on faith for knowledge
Theistic Existentialism - Death
Heaven and Hell
Theistic Existentialism - Morality
The personal is the valuable
Emphasizes disunity between the objective and subjective worlds
“I/It” (objective) and “I/Thou” (subjective) - Martin Buber
Theistic Existentialism - Knowledge
Knowledge is subjective and reliant on faith, the whole truth is paradoxical
Theistic Existentialism - Core Commitments
Focus: human nature and relationship to cosmos (not relationship to God as much)
Theistic Existentialism - History
Not a record of events, but a model/myth to be made present and passionately lived
Jesus’ death and resurrection became a symbol of “new life” of human sacrifice and serving others
Eastern Pantheistic Monism - Prime Reality
“Atman is Brahman”: the soul of each person is the soul of the cosmos (from Hindu Upanishads)
Anything that does not appear to be God is an illusion (maya)
Oneness gives us reality, not separation or uniqueness
Oneness surpasses space and time, good and evil, and illusion and reality
Monism definition
One impersonal element is reality
Eastern Pantheistic Monism - External Reality
Material world is “maya” (an illusion)
Eastern Pantheistic Monism - Humans
A spark of the divine, capable of being reunited with ultimate reality
Eastern Pantheistic Monism - Death
End of personality, but Atman (the soul) is indestructible and it is the only valuable component of a person
Reincarnation based on the way one has lived their previous life
Eastern Pantheistic Monism - Knowledge
Knowledge is part of external reality (maya), but being part of ultimate reality does not impart knowledge either
Eastern Pantheistic Monism - Morality
No distinction between good and evil
Eastern Pantheistic Monism - History
Time is maya, history is cyclical, the goal is to transcend history
Eastern Pantheistic Monism - Core Commitments
Elimination of desire is necessary to achieve oneness
Buddhism has the eightfold path:
1. Right view
2. Right intention
3. Right speech
4. Right action
5. Right livelihood
6. Right effort
7. Right mindfulness
8. Right consciousness
Differences between Hinduism and Buddhism
Monism:
- Hinduism: Prime Reality is Brahman “the One”
- Buddhism: Prime Reality is the Void, unnamable and unknowable
Humans:
- Hinduism: humans have a soul (Atman)
- Buddhism: humans do not have a soul; we are aggregates of previous persons
Religious Practices:
- Hinduism: meditation, mantras; the goal is to ascend to godhood
- Buddhism: mantras, emptying of mind; the goal is to reach a state of the realization of nonbeing
New Age - Prime Reality
The self (we can become gods)
We are on the verge of a radical change in human nature
New Age - External Reality
The visible universe and the invisible universe (accessible through altered states of consciousness)
Visible universe is not an illusion, but can be reordered by the self
Doors of perception: drugs, meditation, trance, biofeedback, acupuncture, ritualized dance, types of music, etc.
New Age - Humans
“All and everything that we can imagine exists” - John Lilly
We have untapped power
New Age - Death
Physical death is not the end of the self; fear of death is removed from cosmic consciousness
Death lets the self reunite with…whatever it is, the cosmic consciousness
Some past-life recall
New Age - Knowledge
Cosmic consciousness allows for understanding of reality, though many New Age scholars also cite authority of religious texts
New Age - Morality
Evil is an illusion, there is no distinction between good and evil
New Age - History
Cosmic history ends with deification of humanity
Great vision and hope
Personal experience is the most important aspect of history (your own life history)
New Age - Core Commitments
Realize your unity with the cosmos and your identity as a creator, enhance yourself
New Age - Three Methods of Practice
- Occult - access to spiritual world through special objects or practices
- Psychedelic - reality is self-generated, beings are projections of the conscious self
- Conceptual Relativism - no model for reality is any “truer” than another, disjunction between objective reality and perceived reality, language shapes our understanding of concepts like time, “there is no direct awareness of reality at all” - Robert Masters
Postmodernism - Prime Reality
God is dead, incredulity toward metanarratives
Postmodernism - External Reality
Death of truth, we have useful tools like language that hold society together
Postmodernism - Humans
There is no substantial self, language makes us who we are
Stories give communities their cohesive character, language is power
Postmodernism - Death
Personal extinction is most probably, though no one really knows
Postmodernism - Knowledge
Truth about reality is hidden, all we can do is tell stories
The only truth is pragmatic truth (does it get you what you want?)
Postmodernism - Morality
Metanarratives are oppressive
Morality is a linguistic construct, social good is determined by society
Radical ethical relativism (e.g. Foucault’s defense of rape as a form of “self-expression” and “freedom”)
Postmodernism - History
Denial of fixity of past, historians create their own truth
Postmodernism - Core Commitments
New literary frontiers and theories are always in discussions
“An endless stream of shifting ‘whatevers’” - Sire
Islamic Theism - Prime Reality
Allah - monotheistic, infinite, personal, transcendent, good
Islamic Theism - External Reality
Allah created the universe ex nihilo, but the world is a closed system (no Fall), everything that happens is the will of Allah (doctrine known as Qadr), Allah created jinn and angels as well
Islamic Theism - Humans
Pinnacle of Allah’s creation, responsibility to live up to Allah’s standards, placed above jinn and angels
Islamic Theism - Death
Paradise/Hell
Burial based on purity, lying on right side facing Mecca
“no Muslim, even the best among them, imagines that he is guaranteed Paradise” - Suzanne Haneef
Islamic Theism - Knowledge
Through reason and sense (given to us by Allah), we can understand Allah’s revelation
Human knowledge cannot always know Allah’s sovereign decrees
Allah keeps some people from understanding “We have thrown veils over their hearts” (6:25)
Islamic Theism - Morality
Right/wrong based on Qu’ran, amplified by hadith (words and actions of Muhammad) and interpreted by shari’a (law)
Shari’a Law has Five Pillars:
1. Recite confession (there is no god but Allah)
2. Pray 5 times a day
3. Fast during month of Ramadan
4. Give annual contribution to the poor
5. Make at least one pilgrimage to Mecca
Islamic Theism - History
Demonstrates sovereignty of Allah, demonstrates peoples’ submission to Allah
Mandate to set up Islamic governments
Islamic Theism - Core Commitments
Keep up multiple demands for righteousness, submission to Allah in all areas of life (Islam means Submission)
