final exam

Question 1

Adoptionism

Answer 1

One conception declared that the human Jesus of Nazareth was adopted by the heavenly Logos at his baptism or resurrection

Question 2

Apostles’ Creed

Question 3

Arianism

Answer 3

taught that Christ was the Father’s first creation, made from nothing and through whom then all other creation came into existence. Neither the Son nor the Spirit are eternally pre-existent (“there was a time when Christ was not”) nor of the “same nature” but only “similar nature” as God the Father. Christ was not God but rather a god, a changeable created being through whom the Father made the world. The Spirit was defined in Arianism as yet another semi-divine creature or immaterial energy.

Question 4

Athanasius

Answer 4

From about 330 to the 360s, Athanasius often stood almost alone in his forceful defense of Nicene Trinitarian faith

Question 5

Augustine’s Trinitarianism

Question 6

Cappadocian Father’ Trinitarianism

Answer 6

Basil of Caesarea (330-379), Gregory of Nazianzus (329-389), and Gregory of Nyssa (334-394). Appointed bishop of Caesarea in 370, Basil sought rapprochement of the Eastern bishops around the Nicene Creed, showing the homoousios of the West was basically equal to the homoiousios of the East

Question 7

Council of Nicea

Question 8

Council of Constantinople

Question 9

Deism: History, continuation

Answer 9

Until the 17th century synonymous with theism, the term Deism came to distin- guish a view that affirms that a Supreme Being created the world but has little or no direct involvement in that creation; knowledge of this God comes through natural reason as opposed to divine revelation. Nevertheless humankind has obli- gation to worship, live ethically, and repent of sin in light of eventual divine judgment.

Question 10

Divine Nature/Essence/Substance

Question 11

Divinization, Theosis

Answer 11

(God-lnfused)in c h a r a c t e ar n d p e r s o n . U n l i k e p a n t h e i s m , S p i r i t i s m , a n d N e w A g e b e l i e f s , it is not that a human beingbecomesGod himself,who is infinite and immutablein nature.Ratherby “partakingof thedivinenature”(2 Pet. i:4), the believeris filled with the divine presenceh, encein this sense God-like,Christ-liheand”Spirit-ua|.”

Question 12

Docetism

Answer 12

is the general term used to describe the way in which gnostic groups in- terpreted Jesus Christ. Christ was perceived as divine, usually a god or spirit manifes- tation. But he was not fully human in that he had neither an entirely human body nor fully human nature.

Question 13

Ebionism

Answer 13

Fairly obscure in history, semi-Christian Ebionism was a scattered, distinctly Jew- ish movement found in eastern Palestine and elsewhere. In Tertullian’s assessment, they (a) accepted Jesus as “a mere man,”10 (b) strictly adhered to Jewish law, and (c) re- jected Paul’s writings.

Question 14

Eternal Generation and Procession

Answer 14

Owing to Origen, the Nicean and Christian tradition affirms the eternal gen- eration of the Son from the Father, as expression of Ps 2:7 (“today I have begotten thee”) and its citations in the NT and, again, the Gk. monogenes (trad. “only begot- ten”; lit. “one and only”). Some question the exegetical bases of eternal generation; others see it as broadly expressing the ontological relations of the Son and the Fa- ther.

Question 15

Filioque: Historical Debate

Answer 15

procession of the Spirit from the

Father and the Son.

Question 16

Homoousios Vs. Homoiousios

Answer 16

single nature of God

Question 17

Modalism, Sabellianism

Answer 17

A 3rd century form of Modalism popularized by Sabellius, the teaching denied three distinct persons of the Trinity and, some surmise, posited three suc- cessive modes of divine manifestation from the Father of the OT, to the Son of the Gospels, to the Holy Spirit of Acts and the present age; deemed heretical. See Mo- dalism, Monarchianism.

Question 18

Montanism

Answer 18

The doctrine of Montanus, a converted priest from a frenetic sect of Asia Minor (c. 155) who claimed special anointing of the Holy Spirit through prophecy, glossalalia, and rigid moral standards by which he challenged the “lax” church; he claimed the old dispensations were now superceded by the law of the Spirit, and
that the New Jerusalem would soon be instituted in his home town in Phrygia.

Question 19

Person: Definition

Answer 19

as a center of self-consciousness existing in relationship to others; this entails (1) full self-consciousness (“I am”), (2) the I-Thou reality of self distinct from other persons (“the Word was with God”); and (3) the capacity of perichoresis (“I am in the Father and the Father in me”).

Question 20

Psychological Model of Trinity

Answer 20

Articulated by Augustine, this perspective suggests that since the human being is created in the imago dei and since God is Trinity,
then human nature (expressed in activity) will reflect a threefoldness, e.g. in mind, knowledge, love of self; etc. Until recently, the West has preferred emphasizing the personal unity of God in the three “subsistencies” of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. See Social Model of Trinity.

Question 21

Richard of St. Victor

Answer 21

The Scotsman Richard was prior of the Abby of St. Victor (Paris). He employed logic to argue that if God is supremely good and love, then
there is necessary self-giving relationship in the Trinity: the love of the Father cannot
remain alone and must flow to a person of equal dignity, the Son. The Father and Son, then, have a third person, the Holy Spirit, as the object of their love.

Question 22

Social Model of Trinity

Answer 22

the three persons only re-

lated through mutual indwelling or, again, only defined by relationships with one an- other.

Question 23

Tertullian

Answer 23

In his work Against Praxeas, the lawyer Tertullian articulates the the Christian Trinity against Modalism and Patripassianism (the belief that the Fa- ther suffered on the cross (i.e., no eternal personal distinction between Father and Son). He seems to be the first to employ the terms, trinitas and personae in the formula “one substance, three persons.”

Question 24

Tomas Aquinas: View of God

Answer 24

interpreted the Supreme Being as a perfect, ul- timately unknowable substance, the Unmoved Mover (First Cause) who sets all else in motion without moving in himself. The three members of the Godhead were typically elaborated in their operative roles (relatio) related to creation and redemption.