Theology Basics Flashcards
Three main types of theology
Irenic
Polemic
Apologetic
Irenic theology
Irenic Theology: Theology that is done peaceably, accurately representing all views, even when you oppose them.
Irenic comes from a Greek word for peace and means “of a peaceable spirit.” An irenic approach to expounding Christian beliefs is one that attempts always to understand opposing viewpoints before disagreeing, and when it is necessary to disagree does so respectfully and in love.
Polemic theology
Theology that is done in a warlike manner. Prophetically speaking against those with whom there is disagreement
Apologetic theology
Apologetic Theology: Theology that is done to defend the faith against those who oppose
outside the church.
Does God require blind faith?
Faith defined as a blind leap into the dark, is not FAITH.
God does not define faith as a blind leap in the dark. Blind faith is irresponsible and is borderline sin.
FAITH is taking steps in the direction of evidence
Scriptural Evidence that God does not require blind faith, but rather expects us to ‘think’
Isaia 45: 18 - 22:
Asks the Israelites to Look at the evidence, which is:
1. There is an order to Creation (Nature, the Cosmos, is not Random, it is well ordered and structured)
2 The fulfillment of prophesied events
Isaia: 46:5-10
Asks the Israelites to remember, evaluate and look at their own experiences, they’ve had with God delivering them from the enemy, Guiding them, and fulfilling prophesy. (These were things the Israelites have experienced themselves, personally) and to compare their lived experience with the blind faith of those who worship wooden idols, which cannot move from their place to help them, even when people cry out to these idols
Noetic effects of sin
The way sin has distorted our minds
Deuteronomy 18:18 - 22
18 I will raise up a prophet like you for them from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to them whatever I command.
19 I will personally hold responsible anyone who then pays no attention to the words that prophet speaks in my name.
20 “But if any prophet presumes to speak anything in my name that I have not authorized him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.
21 Now if you say to yourselves, ‘How can we tell that a message is not from the Lord?’—
22 whenever a prophet speaks in my name and the prediction is not fulfilled, then I have not spoken it; the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear him.”
1 Corinthians 12:3
Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
Isaia 61:1
The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted , to proclaim liberty to the captives , and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound ;
Isaia 45: 18 - 22
18 For this is what the Lord says, the one who created the sky— he is the true God, the one who formed the earth and made it; he established it, he did not create it without order, he formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord, I have no peer.
19 I have not spoken in secret, in some hidden place. I did not tell Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain!’ I am the Lord, the one who speaks honestly, who makes reliable announcements.
20 Gather together and come!
Approach together, you refugees from the nations.
Those who carry wooden idols know nothing,
those who pray to a god that cannot deliver.
21 Tell me! Present the evidence! Let them consult with one another. Who predicted this in the past? Who announced it beforehand? Was it not I, the Lord? I have no peer, there is no God but me, a God who vindicates and delivers; there is none but me.
22 Turn to me so you can be delivered,
all you who live in the earth’s remote regions!
For I am God, and I have no peer.
Isaia 45: 18 - 22
18 For this is what the Lord says, the one who created the sky— he is the true God, the one who formed the earth and made it; he established it, he did not create it without order, he formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord, I have no peer.
19 I have not spoken in secret, in some hidden place. I did not tell Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain!’ I am the Lord, the one who speaks honestly, who makes reliable announcements.
20 Gather together and come!
Approach together, you refugees from the nations.
Those who carry wooden idols know nothing,
those who pray to a god that cannot deliver.
21 Tell me! Present the evidence! Let them consult with one another. Who predicted this in the past? Who announced it beforehand? Was it not I, the Lord? I have no peer, there is no God but me, a God who vindicates and delivers; there is none but me.
22 Turn to me so you can be delivered,
all you who live in the earth’s remote regions!
For I am God, and I have no peer.
Isaia: 46:5-10
5 To whom can you compare and liken me?
Tell me whom you think I resemble, so we can be compared!
6 Those who empty out gold from a purse
and weigh out silver on the scale
hire a metalsmith, who makes it into a god.
They then bow down and worship it.
7 They put it on their shoulder and carry it;
they put it in its place and it just stands there;
it does not move from its place.
Even when someone cries out to it, it does not reply;
it does not deliver him from his distress.
8 Remember this, so you can be brave.
Think about it, you rebels!
9 Remember what I accomplished in antiquity.
Truly I am God, I have no peer;
I am God, and there is none like me,
10 who announces the end from the beginning
and reveals beforehand what has not yet occurred;
who says, ‘My plan will be realized,
I will accomplish what I desire;’
Does Irenics mean we disregard the truth, for the sake of peacable relations?
An irenic approach to doctrine seeks common ground and values unity within diversity and diversity within unity. An irenic approach does not imply relativism or disregard for truth, but it does seek to live by the motto “in essentials unity, in nonessentials liberty, in all things charity.”
Characteristics of a “folk religion”
- lack of reflection on the intellectual implications of revelatory experiences and failure to integrate these experiences with other spheres of life.
- Folk religions often flourish in a compartmentalized, largely privatized sphere of life such as small cell groups of people with similar experiences who network with each other so long as they find support.
- Feelings tend to take precedence over intellect,
- clichés and slogans (often put to music) take the place of coherent and developed doctrinal affirmations.
- Folk religions generally resist critical reflection and formal confession of belief in favor of subjective experiences and pragmatic methods of problem solving in the spiritual realms of existence.
An example of such a folk religion in North America is the so-called New Age movement that arose around 1970 as a new manifestation of some very ancient beliefs and practices.
What is a mediating theology?
A mediating theology is one that attempts to bridge unnecessary and unfortunate gulfs between perspectives and interpretations within a single religion
Such an approach values unity as well as truth and assumes that at times it is necessary for equally committed Christians to agree to disagree about secondary matters and come together on common ground.
What is a Belief?
Belief is simply the assent of the mind to a proposition or set of propositions.
What is a Proposition?
A proposition is a truth claim. Not all propositions are straightforward, directly factual claims to truth. Some are metaphorical and aim at saying something about reality indirectly by making a comparison or evoking a response.
What is a Doctrine?
Doctrine is a highly developed and relatively complex religious belief.
A doctrine develops out of beliefs and is a belief or set of beliefs examined, reflected upon and affirmed as true in a formal way by an organized community of believers.
It is the product of Theology
examples:
The doctrine of the trinity
The doctrine of the inerrancy of scripture
What is theology?
Theology is the process of examination and reflection that leads to the construction and reconstruction of doctrines.
In Christianity, theology is the process of reflecting reasonably on divine revelation of transcendent realities and on consensus beliefs about it and then producing a relatively coherent, workable model of it. (AND) also to examine and reconstruct other partial, incomplete or incorrect models
Olson, Roger E.. The Mosaic of Christian Belief (p. 25). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
Theology is the process by which doctrines are created
What is heresy?
A heresy is a wrong belief—one that seriously undermines some crucial dimension of the gospel itself and must be denied and rejected.
What is dogma?
a dogma. (A dogma is a required doctrine that cannot be questioned without serious repercussions.)
example: papal infallibility (roman catholic church)
