Vocab

Question 1

Faith

Answer 1

Voluntary commitment to a belief without the need for complete evidence to support it

Question 2

Empiricism

Answer 2

A way of knowing that depends on the five senses

Question 3

Natural theology

Answer 3

Drawing conclusions about the nature and activity of God by using reason and observing the world

Question 4

Argument from Design

Answer 4

Teleological argument, the existence of a designer from the evidence or design in the world, a posteriori

Question 5

Principle of accommodation

Answer 5

The principle that God manifests himself through creation in ways that human finite minds can best understand

Question 6

Revealed Theology

Answer 6

Considers that God can only be known when he lets himself be known. Revelation might occur through a prophet, scripture, prayer and so on

Question 7

Point of contact

Answer 7

God’s revelation in the world which provides humans with the first step to knowing him as redeemer

Question 8

Immanence

Answer 8

Means ‘being part of’ and so when applied to God it refers to the way he participates in all aspects of the world and universe

Question 9

‘Duplex cognitio Domini’

Answer 9

A Latin phrase meaning the ‘two-fold knowledge of God’ - this is Calvin’s distinction of knowing God as creator and God as redeemer

Question 10

Trinitarianism

Answer 10

Central to the Christian teaching that God is one but reveals himself as three ‘persons’: Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Question 11

Protestantism

Answer 11

A form of Christianity which rejects the authority of the Catholic Church and places greater emphasis on the Bible and on personal faith

Question 12

Revelation

Answer 12

‘uncovering’ - in theological terms, this is when God chooses to let himself be known

Question 13

Immediate revelation

Answer 13

Where someone is given direct knowledge of God

Question 14

Mediate revelation

Answer 14

Where someone gains knowledge of God in a secondary non-direct way

Question 15

Grace of God

Answer 15

God’s unconditional and undeserved gifts

Question 16

Regeneration

Answer 16

In Christian terms, the process of renewal, restoration and recreation associated with baptism and other sacraments of the church

Question 17

‘Sensus Divinitatus’

Answer 17

The Latin phrase used by Calvin meaning a ‘sense of God’ or ‘sense of the divine’

Question 18

‘Si integer stetisset Adam’

Answer 18

The Latin phrase used by Calvin meaning ‘If Adam had remained upright’ and refers to The Fall when Adam and Eve sinned and fell from grace

Question 19

Wisdom Literature

Answer 19

A genre of writing from the ancient world, teaching about wisdom and virtue. In the Bible, books such as Proverbs and Job are classified as Wisdom Literature

Question 20

Incorrigible facts

Answer 20

Facts which are unshakably or unalterably the case

Question 21

Process Theology

Answer 21

Developed from the mathematical and philosophical ideas of A.N Whitehead and in particular his book ‘Process and Reality’ (1929). Other influential Process Theologians include Charles Hartshorne, John Cobb and Ian Barbour

Question 22

Reformed Epistemology

Answer 22

The view held by some modern theologians and philosophers in the Reformed or Calvinist tradition such as Alvin Plantinga, Nicholas Wolsterstorff and Michael Rea, who believe that knowledge of God is a ‘properly basic belief’

Question 23

Atheological objector

Answer 23

Plantinga’s term referring to those who reject all theological claims

Question 24

Fideism

Answer 24

The requirement that revelation is essential for the human mind to know anything about God’s existence or nature with certainty

Question 25

Thought experiment

Answer 25

Similar to a scientific experiment but done without instruments and as series of experimental thoughts in the mind. The intention is to discover, through reasoned reflection, truths about the real world