Wisdom and Authority Flashcards
Why is the issue of authority complicated when talking about the Bible?
there are many types of literature and its difficult to understand how something like erotic poetry is authorative.
What do Evangelical protestants believe about the Bible
- literal word of God
- inerrant even in passages that are unscientific (incapable of being wrong)
What do Catholics believe about the Bible
- inspired by God but written by humans
- distinguishes between messages of salvation and individual accounts by authors who were products of their time
- guidance in interpreting the Bible comes from Tradition and the Magisterium
What is Karl Barth’s Neo Orthodox view about the Bible
- not the word of God but contains the word of God
- is the way through which humans experience God
- writers were products of their time and not immune to limitations of intellect
What is the Social Gospel Movement’s view about the authority of the Bible
- social action is more important than worrying about doctrine
What is the Catholic view on the authority of the Church and Bible
- the Bible and the Church have equal authority, being linked through the work of the holy spirit.
- The ongoing tradition of the church means that only they can interpret (apostolic succession, magisterium)
- Neither can stand alone
What is the protestant view of the authority of the Church and Bible
- only scripture holds authority (sola scriptura)
- humans can’t pass judgement on God’s word (pick and choose)
- Bible is above church
Why might someone believe Jesus’ authority is God’s authority
- He is shown to have the power to control disease even from a distance as well as resurrection.
- ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’ - Matthew 28:18
- belief in the Trinity makes Jesus a part of God
What are two fundamentalist approaches to Genesis 1?
- Young Earth Creationists
- Old Earth Creationists
What do Young Earth Creationists believe?
- creation occurred 6000 years ago
- literalist understanding of text
- creation in literally 6 days
What do Old Earth Creationists believe?
- acceptance of scientific dating of universe (13.8 bil)
- not literalist – Hebrew word for day has multiple meanings
- creation in six epochs/stages
Key features of the Old Testament
- contains the writings of the Jewish scripture (the tenakh) though the order is different
- it was in its fixed form by 1 century
- contains a wide range of different literature
- four main parts:
Key features of the New Testament
- contains christian writings that are mainly from the 1st Century
- reached fixed form by the 4th century
- four main parts
Four main parts of Old Testament
- 1 - 5 books – Torah (law), creation of universe to death of moses
- historical writings aout the Jews
- Propetic books that contain Gods purposes for Israel
- Wisdom literature that contains a wide range of themes
Four main parts of New Testament
- the gospels containing the good news about Jesus recounting his ministry, passion, death and resurrection
- the acts of the apostles – history of the early church
- the epistles – letters written to give advice
- book of revelation – uses graphic imagery to describe the Last Judgement
What are liberal approaches to the Bible?
- some believe writers were guided by God
- some believe the Bible is an entirely human document
- the Bible isn’t inspired, but may be inspiring
What did Martin Luther believe?
- sola scriptura
- christians can’t decide what is true or false in the Bible
- without the bible there would be no church
- the precedence of Bible over church is illustrated in Luthers belief that all Christians have equal access to God through pràyer
What are the baptist Churches views on the authority of the church
- combine the sola scriptura approach (special revelation) with the individual use of reason and conscience (general revelation)
- New Testament takes priority over the Old Testament and provides the standard by which all other teachings should be assessed
- they reject the authority of the church as an institution
what does the catholic church believe about the authority of the church?
- the Magisterium receives the authority from God to give an interpretation of the Bible and Tradition that is authentic, and its teachings must be obeyed
What are the two different views about the authority of Jesus
- Jesus’ authority as God’s authority
- based on the claim that Jesus was God incarnate
- Jesus’ authority as only human
- based on the claim that Jesus was not divine
why might people believe Jesus’ authority as Gods authority
- According to the Gospels, Jesus claimed to have divine authority
- the authority was seen in
- his teaching
- the miracles attributed to him
- the titles used by and of Jesus, e.g Son of God, Messiah, Son of Man
passages of Jesus having Gods authority
- ‘all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’ – Matthew 28:18
- ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people…’ – John 17:1-2
Evidence of Jesus’ divine authority seen in his healing
- ‘Lord don’t trouble yourself… But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me’ – Luke 7:6-8
Old and New Testament teachings about Jesus as the Son of God (title)
- in the OT, the title was used for Kings
- the prase son of means reflecting the nature of
- by the time of Jesus, it was linked with the title of Messiah which also included the idea of being chosen to rule on his behalf
- in the NT it indicates Jesus’ divine authority.
- Mark’s gospel – said to be Gods ‘beloved son’
scripture about jesus as son of man (title)
- in the OT it was an ambiguous term that could mean ‘I’, a human being or a representative of humanity
- it was Jesus’ preferred title for himself
- its ambiguity made it less likely he would be thought of as a revolutionary
Quotations about Jesus as the Son of Man?
- ‘i want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ – Mark 2:10
- ‘For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’ – Mark 10:45
- ‘you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty one…’ – Mark 14:62
who believes Jesus’ authority as only human
- two groups of christians take this view
- small groups in the early centuries of he church and in more recent times who interpret texts differently
- liberal christians who reject any idea of divine inspiration underlying the bible
What is Adoptionism
- the belief that Jesus was not divine by nature
- God adopted him as his son at the baptism in the same way as kings in ancient Israel were thought to be chosen by God as his earthly representatives
What is unitarianism?
- founded in the 18th century
- adopts a deist view of the creation of the world (God created the world but had no further connection)
- jesus was just a spiritual leader so his teachings may contain useful insights but there is no idea of divine authority attaching to them
Liberal christian views about Jesus as only human?
- Jesus’ teaching and the stories associated with him had been passed down by word of mouth and would have been altered and even exaggerated in the telling
- this process can be seen in the Gospels themselves e.g in the differing accounts of the calming of the storm
- jesus was a human, though his deeply spiritual nature gave him authority
christian responses to the teaching of Jesus
- those who see Jesus’ authority as Gods authority will feel they should obey his teaching.
- those who see Jesus’ authority as only human are free to decide for themselves whether or not they should follow his teachings
christian understandings of Jesus’ teaching on retaliation and love for enemies (Matthew)
- Jesus intended his disciples to be pacifists
- Jesus was stating an ideal realising it was virtually impossible
- His teaching made sense for those living under Roman occupation
- Jesus used violence when he flipped the table
Views about Jesus as a role model
- they believe they should seek to emulate his life of self-giving love
- many non christians, like Gandhi, have been inspired by thr teaching an example of Jesus
