Religion Test 2 Flashcards
(9 cards)
Soelle Christ the Man for Others
From above - Jesus is all powerful and isn’t alongside humanity, jesus is with or is God (church idea)(esteeming)
From below - Jesus becomes more relatable and with us all, among us, (historian view) (following)
You can’t get rid of Jesus, he belongs with us. Soelle is against christology from above, if jesus is all powerful jesus is authoritarian and modern humans are vulnerable to authoritarianism. How is someone from 2000 years ago our savior, how can he do what we cannot?
Rudolf Bultmann, “Demythologization and the New Testament”
New Testament is full of myth (angels, miracles, heaven, hell).
Modern people can’t accept these myths literally.
Goal:
Interpret mythological language existentially.
Find messages about human existence: freedom, guilt, transformation.
Faith for Bultmann:
Not believing in supernatural events.
Faith = responding to God’s call in personal transformation.
Robert Jenson, “A Religion Against Itself,” Ch. 1
Religion = Human cultural activity to cope with uncertainty (especially death).
God reaches humans through Jesus.
Christianity is different:
Critiques religion itself.
Not about human effort reaching God.
God reaches humans through Jesus.
The Gospel:
Frees us from human religious systems.
Focus = trust in God’s action, not human achievement.
Robert Jenson, “A Religion Against Itself,” Ch. 2
resurrection:
God raising Jesus means love and hope define the future — not cruelty or injustice. The life of love, friendship, allows you to find freedom, allows you to be who you want, doesn’t bind you. To raise jesus from that dead means he is the important one, his love is all inclusive
Elizabeth Johnson, “Jesus and the Cosmos”
Method
From Above - start with conception of God, God as creator
From Below - start with Jesus, God is whatever happens to Jesus
Pg. 144 The particular material content of jesus…
This quote is saying God shows his love to all even those who are poor or are damaged in any way. He is deeply in the world.
God also shares all suffering within the cosmos because of him dying on the cross. He experiences it meaning suffering. There is hope even though there is death and suffering.
Resurrection is an offer of hope for all of nature/the cosmos, it is also unimaginable and unknowable. If God is incarnate humanity has to be talked about in terms of its intertwinedness. There is life out of death.
Zizek A God for Atheist
Zizek looks at the resurrection as a cause. What Jesus is after, mercy, forgiveness, love. Wherever that is, Jesus is.
Jesus and God’s Death:
God doesn’t remain powerful — God dies with Jesus.
Christianity as Atheism:
True Christianity rejects reliance on a transcendent God.
We live with hope, mercy, love — without needing a “Big Man in the Sky.”
Resurrection:
It is unknowable.
Jesus continues wherever love, forgiveness, and mercy exist.
Arnfríður Guðmundsdóttir So What? Feminist Rereadings of the Cross Event
Any emphasis on Jesus is abusive, Jesus’ cross is abusive. There is no way to talk about God in a good way if God is male. By sharing in suffering you become closer to Jesus, this is messed up. Liberative model of Jesus’ death. Jesus’s involuntary suffering becomes abusive to us.
Jesus’ death is voluntary, he chooses to be on the cross.
By choosing to suffer it offers others hope to get out of their suffering.
God chooses to resurrect Jesus, (the one who loves). This goes against normal standards and denies patriarchy.
Sobrino The resurrection of the one crucified
Hope for non-victims
The resurrection of someone who died a scandalous death offers hope to those who are dead without any hope.
Divine Agency and Providence Christoph Schwobel
Schwöbel explains that God’s action doesn’t constantly interrupt natural causes or human freedom. Instead, God lovingly creates a world that can act on its own, and God’s intention is perfectly expressed through creation, Jesus’ life, and the Spirit’s work in forming communities of love.
God’s agency is seen in creation, Jesus’ life, and the ongoing work of the Spirit in community.
