Week 7 Glossary Flashcards
Word used to speak of God’s choosing of individuals or people to bring about God’s good purposes.
Election
A term used to refer primarily to the philosophical mood among seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Western intellectuals. It rejected eternal authorities as a source of knowledge and instead elevated human reasoning as the best way to bring about an understanding of the world.
Enlightenment
Philosophical inquiry into the nature, sources, limits and methods of gaining knowledge.
Epistemology
Theological study that seeks to understand the ultimate direction or purpose of history as it moves towards the future, both from an individual perspective (What happens when a person dies?) and from a corporate perspective (Where is history going, and how will it end?)
Eschatology
Argues that salvation is found only in and through Jesus Christ. Also generally argues that Christ must be believed upon and explicitly confessed in order for a person to qualify for salvation.
Exclusivism
Any philosophical system that attempts to define what it means to be human in terms of “existence” (How does a human live?) rather than in terms of “essence” (What is a human?). Persons are all uniquely defined by their free decisions and acts.
Existentialism
Refers to both intellectual belief and to relational trust or commitment.
Faith
Belief that human behavior is self-caused. Actions are ultimately chosen, even if the person choosing knows that the chosen action may bring about undesirable consequences.
Free will
Term used to declare that God reveals something about the divine nature through the created order.
General revelation
Refers to different types or varieties of literature, recognition of which is crucial for good biblical interpretation.
Genre
Early Greek religious movement particularly influential in the second-century. Believed that devotees had gained a special kind of spiritual enlightenment, through which they had attained a secret or higher level of knowledge not accessible to the uninitiated.
Gnosticism
God’s loving actions toward creation and toward humankind in particular.
Grace
Approach to biblical interpretation that seeks to understand the Bible in light of its historical and cultural backgrounds, that is, as a book arising out of a human context.
Historical criticism
Seeks to understand and delineate how the church interpreted scripture and developed doctrine throughout its history, from the time of the apostles to the present day.
Historical theology
A term describing the uniqueness of humans as God’s creatures.
Imago Dei
The idea that God is present in, close to and involved with creation.
Immanence
The inability to cease to exist or the ability to exist eternally.
Immortality
A theological assertion that in Jesus the eternal Word of God appeared in human form.
Incarnation
Theory of salvation that suggests that although God saves people only on the merits of Christ, not all who are saved have consciously known of Jesus or heard the gospel.
Inclusivism
Idea that scripture is free from error.
Inerrancy
Term used to designate the work of the Holy Spirit in enabling the human authors of the Bible to record what God desired to have written in the scriptures.
Inspiration
Refers to the divine act whereby God makes humans, who are sinful and therefore worthy of condemnation, acceptable before a God who is holy and righteous.
Justification
Literally, “proclamation.” Refers to the fundamental NT message of the gospel of Jesus Christ or to the proclamation of his message, especially through preaching.
Kerygma
The dynamic reign of God as sovereign over creation, both a given reality and a process that is moving toward its future fulfillment or completion.
Kingdom
Refers to the community or fellowship of Christian believers participating together in the life of Christ as made possible by the Spirit.
Koinonia
Philosophical outlook that contends that physical matter is the only reality or category of existence.
Materialism
Hebrew term meaning, “anointed one.”
Messiah
Philosophical exploration into the ultimate nature of reality. Deals with questions about what constitutes something as “real” or as having “being.”
Metaphysics
