Sources Of Wisdom & Authority Flashcards
Catholic views on the Bible and Church
Catholics believe that the Bible and Church are equally important and essential authorities. Thus, we need the Bible but also the Church to interpret it. Heteronomyis the view that moral authority comes from the combination ofChurch, Bible, tradition, and reason.Heter meaning other.
The apostolic succession and tradition
The apostolic succession is the basis on which the Catholic Church claims to be an authoritative source of Christian moral principles. The people who first spread Christianity, such as Jesus’ disciples and others like St Paul, are known as the apostles. Catholics argue that Christ began the apostolic tradition where he commanded his disciples to “make disciples of all nations” – thereby creating a social institution with a mission. He also said to them ‘whoever hears you, hears me. Whoever rejects you, rejects me’. This is giving the disciples a lot of power and authority. Jesus also told his disciple Peter to watch over his people. When Jesus said these words, before they came to be written in the Bible, there was no Bible yet in existence. The teachings the disciples would give in the service of their mission must therefore have been what they had learned from Christ’s words, his way of life and the holy spirit. The Catechism of the Catholic church interprets this as Christ telling them to preach “what they had learned” from Jesus. Jesus thus gave the Church the authority to create its own teachings.
The priesthood of all believers
The priesthood of all believers is the doctrine developed by Luther that all people have the status of priest. The aim of this is to counteract the Catholic view, that priests have a special spiritual status which sets them apart from laypeople and gives them an important role in their salvation, acting as a mediator between the people and God. This again lessens the role, value and authority of the Church.
1 Timothy 2:5 says that Jesus is the only mediator between God and humanity.
Protestant views on the Bible and Church
Protestant reformation, one main leader St Luther. Sola Scriptura is a form of theonomy involving Christians who think the bible alone is the source of Christian moral principles, not the Church. This is typically a protestant view since Luther thought the Catholic Church was corrupt and had deviated from God’s revelation in the Bible for their own political earthly agenda. It follows that a return to the Bible was the method for placing God at the centre of religion and ethics again. The role of the Church for protestant reformers was merely to preach the Bible. The Church may interpret the Bible, but they should be considered subject to correction by the Bible. This is radically different to the catholic view of the equal validity of sacred tradition to sacred scripture.
What is the basis of Catholic belief that the Church could possibly have equal authority over the bible?
Jesus formed a version of the Christian religion before the Bible was written even, and in his saying make disciples of all nations he started a line of apostles to spread God’s message, starting from St. Paul to St Francis today.
What is Gods breath in Hebrew
Ru-ach
The bible is Godbreathed but what does this mean? 3 interpretations
Dictation theory is the traditional view is conservative and objective: that the Holy Spirit directly moved biblical writers to write the words of the Bible. There are clear examples of this in the Bible, such as God speaking either directly through or to a prophet like Moses, or inspiring people via the Holy Spirit. Irenaeus claimed that the scriptures are “perfect” because they were “spoken by the Word of God [Christ] and his Spirit”. Augustine claimed there are no contradictions or falsehoods affirmed in the Bible, and that believing otherwise would have “disastrous consequences” because that would cast doubt on the entire thing.
Inspiration- view held by Catholics and most other Christians. The Bible is written by humans, who were inspired by God but still had human bias. God’s words still innerrant, and infallible but the bible itself not “ intended as a historical or scientific document “ - Dei Verbum
Invention- Liberal Christains believe the bible is completely invented and contains human error, and is more about the uplifting effect of the bibles message.
Neo-orthodox views of bible creation
Such as Karl Barth, views of inspiration claim that although the Bible is not the exact word of God, it is a miraculous document through which the word of God can be heard.
Richard Dawkins quote on how we have evolved away from religion
” We had Alchemy, now we have Chemistry. We had religion, and now we have philosophy.”
Jesus’ Authority AS God’s
” I and the father are one “ (Jn 10:30)
Jesus as God as the holy spirit in the trinity. He is God incarnate.
Jesus authority as only human
A minority opinion on Jeusus, but certain denominations believe this of Jesus because of his contradictions to the Old Testament and because of his overt pacifism in his Sermon on the mount. Also Liberal Christians may deny any idea of divine inspirations in the bible and claim Jesus was made fully human , so falliable, to better connect with humankind.
Unitarianism
A denomination that is DEIST and believes God created the world then left it. So Jesus is a spiritual leader but not a divine authority.
Example of Jesus’ falliability? Proof of his authority as only human.
He told his disciples to be pacifists but in a fit of anger, he overturned the merchants tables in the temple.
Shows Jesus has emotions he cannot control, just like humans he is falliable. So his authority must be human also.
