Week 6 Glossary Flashcards
Week 6 Theological Terms
A system of belief in which personal opinion about religious statements (e.g., “God exists”) is suspended because it is assumed that they can be neither proven nor disproven or because such statements are seen as irrelevant.
Agnosticism
Assumes that biblical stories should be interpreted by seeking the “spiritual” meaning to which the literal sense points.
Allegorical method
Belief that the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20 do not represent a specific period of time between Christ’s first and second comings.
Amillennialism
Belief that all the wicked will be judged by God and thrown into the lake of fire, where they will cease to exist.
Annihilationism
Words about, or teaching concerning, humankind. The scriptural teachings about humans as God’s creatures.
Anthropology
Sought to disclose “heavenly secrets” concerning how the world would end and how the kingdom of God would suddenly appear to destroy the kingdom of evil. Made extensive use of visions, dreams, and symbols as instruments of revealing what was hidden.
Apocalyptic literature
Formal defense of the Christian Faith.
Apologetics
An early heretical teaching about the identity of Jesus Christ. The central characteristic was that because God is one, Jesus could not have also been truly God.
Arianism
Teaching that predestination was based on God’s foreknowledge in seeing whether an individual would freely accept or reject Christ.
Arminianism
Teaching that spirituality is attained through renunciation of physical pleasures and personal desires while concentrating on “spiritual” matters.
Asceticism
Refers to God’s act of dealing with the primary human problem, sin.
Atonement
Starts with the complete sinfulness of humankind (depravity), which leaves humans unable to respond in faith toward God. Asserts that God predestines those who are enabled to repent and believe.
Augustinianism
A discipline that attempts to summarize and restate the teaching of a biblical text or of a biblical author without imposing any modern categories of thought on the text.
Biblical theology
Major tenets are captured in the acronym TULIP (total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints).
Calvinism
The term is most closely associated with the collection of books that the church has recognized as the written Word of God (Scripture) and that functions as the rule or standard of faith and practice in the church.
Canon
Literally meaning “universal” or “worldwide” and that affirms that the church is universal in scope.
Catholic
Theological study devoted to answering two main questions: Who is Jesus? (the question of his identity) and What is the nature and significance of what Jesus accomplished in the incarnation? (the question of his work).
Christology
A term most closely related to the biblical idea of fellowship, also used in reference to the Lord’s Supper as an event marking the fellowship of the participants with Christ and with each other.
Communion
Attempts to demonstrate the existence of God by appeal to observation of the world, its objects and its processes.
Cosmological argument
Attempt to understand the origin, nature, and subsequent history of the universe.
Cosmology
The act of God in freely establishing a mutually binding relationship with humankind.
Covenant
Literally means “creation out of nothing.” Maintains a clear distinction between God and the created order and also maintains that God alone has eternal status.
Creation ex nihilo
Belief that understands God as distant, in that God created the universe but then left to run its course on its own, following certain “laws of nature” that God had built into the universe.
Deism
The corruption of human nature such that there is within every human an ongoing tendency toward sin. Total depravity refers to the extent and comprehensiveness of the effects of sin on all humans such that all are unable to do anything to obtain salvation.
Depravity, total depravity
Teaching that Jesus was fully God but only appeared to be human.
Docetism
A theological formulation that attempts to provide a summary statement of the teaching of Scripture on a particular theological topic.
Doctrine
Any system of thought that attempts to define the nature of something as being composed of two distinct realities, substances, or principles.
Dualism
The area of theological study concerned with understanding the church. It seeks to set forth the nature and function of the church.
Ecclesiology
