Main Points from Readings and Class Lectures & Discussion Flashcards
What is the meaning of the Anselmian phrase, ‘faith seeking understanding’
That theology is the working out of truth about God that begins with belief. It is from the root of that belief that one may try to understand or reason about God.
How does Jacquelyn Grant characterize theology, in her article, “Subjectification as a Requirement for Christological Reflection?”
Working for the liberation of humanity, by answering the question of Jesus, “Who do you say that I am.” This is accomplished by explicitly seeking the response of the oppressed as the subjects of the question.
[ Theology is the practice of each population group collectively and individually naming who Jesus is to them. ]
On what basis – according to Aquinas – does ‘sacred doctrine’ qualify as a science?
Sacred doctrine is a science because it proceeds from principles established by the light of a higher science, namely, the science of God and the blessed. Hence, just as the musician accepts on authority the principles taught him by the mathematician, so sacred science is established on principles revealed by God.
[ Theology is a science, a participation in the knowledge that God has of Himself | Science is based upon something | What God tells us about himself is creation ]
What does Althaus‐Reid mean by the statement, “theology is a sexual act?”
She means that the engagement of theology is an intimate act, and that any metaphor of intimacy with God is a metaphor of mutuality, pleasurable activity and freedom after which neither we nor God are meant to remain the same. She sees theology as a reflection on God closely related to loving arts of intimacy (sex) with the Beloved.
Who - according to Gregory of Nazianzus - should be permitted to ‘philosophize about God’ (i.e. ‘do theology’)?
The Elite. Those who have been examined, and are past masters in meditation, and who have been previously purified in soul and body, or at the very least are being purified. He says that it is necessary to be truly at leisure to know God.
[They to whom the subject is of real concern, and not they who make it a matter of pleasant gossip, like any other thing, after the races, or the theater, or a concert, or a dinner, or still lower employments. To such men as these subjects are a part of their amusement. ]
What does McFague say that it means to have a “vocation of sainthood?” And who has this vocation?
Each Christian is asked to examine his or her life with the goal of discerning the action of God in it and then to express God’s power and love in everything. Each of us is expected to have a working theology, one that makes a difference in how we conduct our personal lives and how we act at professional and public levels. Humans are called to grow in the image of God more fully, and Christian saints focus on God’s work of helping to make all of us, every creature on the planet, fully alive.
What does McFague mean by a ‘relative absolute’ in theological method?
A central conviction that is neither a foundation nor the “essence” of Christianity, but a deeply held, abiding insight into God’s relation to us. A relative absolute informs everything that one says about God and the world, and is held with a deep and growing commitment.
What reason does Baker-Fletcher give, for her not being a ‘liberation theologian?’
She finds that God liberates, but God does not always liberate-at least not in the sense that some would have us imagine in terms of liberation from oppressive institutions like slavery, segregation, sexism, racism, classism, hatred of and violence against gays and lesbians, ableism, genocide, terrorism, war, and so forth. For her it implies that God is somehow, not present, and she believes that God is omnipresent in creation’s struggle for life abundant and for the full realization of freedom, justice, love, and wholeness on earth as in heaven.
[perhaps God is present “As a cruel, unmerciful, noninterventionist God?”]
What - according to Sang Hyun Lee - is the distinction between “marginality” and “liminality?”
Marginalization is dehumanizing and oppressive, and has been imposed by oppressive structures (the negative aspect of being excluded by the dominant group). Liminality is the positive, creative nature of the in-between-ness in marginality, a location of radical openness and possibility (potentially creative aspect from being situated between two or more worlds).
What - according to Namsoon Kang - are the three characteristics that a “transethnic feminist theology” will have?
1) a discourse and practice of social and geopolitcal criticism, ( a rearticluation and re-theologizing of how people in different geopolitical locations and circumstances are interlinked by the spread of capitalism and the neo-liberal market )
2) a discourse and practice of ‘world-travelling’ ( one acknowledges and experiences multiple locations and realities )
3) a discourse and practice of geoplitical alliances across the globe ( transcending borders between nations, cultures and ethnicities )
What - according to McFague - are the three main “household” rules of the “ecological model?”
Take only your share.
Clean up after yourself.
Keep the household in good repair.
What - according to Bultmann - is the purpose of myth? And how should it be interpreted?
The real purpose of myth is not to present an objective picture of the world as it is, but to express human understandings of themselves in the world in which they live. Myth should be interpreted not cosmologically, but anthropologically, or better still, existentially.
[The importance of mythology lies not in its imagery but in the understanding of existence it enshrines.]
How do Farley and Hodgson define the “scripture principle?”
The collection of writings called scripture contains a unique deposit of divine revelation- a deposit whose special qualities are due to its inspired origins, and which is to be handed down through the ages by an authoritative teaching tradition.
What are three chief ways that modern theologians construe God’s presence, according to David Kelsey?
God’s presence is like…
… our grasping certain true propositions (IDEATIONAL) or [when I encounter true things]
… our being confronted by a particular divine agent (CONCRETE ACTUALITY) or [person of Jesus]
… having the possibility of becoming fully human (IDEAL HUMANITY)
What - according to Cyril of Jerusalem - is the role of the creeds?
In order that the soul may not perish through ignorance, we summarise the whole doctrine of faith in a few lines. The creed is a summary of scriptural wisdom, designed to be learned by heart.
[This synthesis of faith was not made to be agreeable to human opinions, but to present the one teaching of the faith in its totality.]
