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Christianity
RELS 110: World Religions
Announcements
• Panel on Christianity
• Panellists
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Rev. Peter Smith (United Church of Canada)
Sister Joanne O’Regan (Wellspring)
Pastor John Luten (Goshen Gospel Church)
Rev. Stephen Welch (Presbyterian)
Jordan Mattie (Xavier Christian Fellowship)
• What questions would you like to see
addressed by the panellists:
• http://moodle.stfx.ca/mod/feedback/view.php?id=
4616 (“Questions for Panellists on Christianity”
Slide 2.
Abrahamic Faith and
Christianity
• 1. Christianity grew out of, and accepted,
Israelite faith in one God who had revealed
himself to Abraham, Moses, and the prophets.
• But history is reinterpreted in the light of Jesus
Christ.
• Like a whodunit, you think some one dun it, then 10 pages
from the end, you find out it’s someone else, and all the
clues you though pointed in one direction, actually don’t,
and other clues you ignored are now important.
• 2. Christians also see the earth as full of the glory
of God, and the need for humans to acknowledge
and express it.
• But this conviction is more central to Judaism.
Slide 3.
Abrahamic Faith and
Christianity
• 3. Christians see the world, and human nature, as so
spoiled by sin that divine redemption is necessary.
• This is true also in Judaism, but is more central in
Christianity.
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Jews say we should choose differently than Adam & Eve.
Christians say the story illustrates what has gone wrong with
humanity: “The Fall”
• Things happen that we feel “ought not to happen”
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11 year old girl kidnapped and murdered
“wars ought not to happen”
• 4. Christians believe that God has already acted to
redeem creation and humankind in Jesus Christ.
Slide 4.
The Jesus of History
• Christianity, like Judaism, is a historyoriented religion.
• The earliest sources we have about Jesus
are the gospels in the New Testament.
• Did Jesus really do & say the things recorded
in the gospels?
• Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code suggests a
lot of what we think we know about Jesus
was made up (by Constantine).
• Historians have devised criteria to determine
what is historical and what is made up.
Slide 5.
Possible Test
Question
What do historians agree we can know about Jesus’ life?
The Jesus of History
• Beginnings: baptised by John the Baptist
• Proclamation: fulfilment of God’s promises & Israel’s hope:
the apocalyptic Kingdom of God.
• Public behaviour: 12 disciples; cures; hanging out with
sinners
• Teaching: answered questions with questions; used
comparisons; transcending Torah (follow the intention
behind the Torah; live now as if in the Kingdom: love, nonresistance)
• Identity & Destiny: the Messianic eschatological Son of
Man
• Death: entry & cleansing of the Temple; Last Supper;
Political misunderstanding; Pilate was harsh (crucifixion
was for Roman rebels like Spartacus)
• Easter experiences by his followers
Slide 7.
Possible Test
Question
What is meant when Christians say Jesus is “Christ”?
The Social Context for
Jesus's Life
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Jesus was born into a turbulent time.
The land of Israel, his birthplace, was under Roman occupation.
The Jewish people, who longed to govern themselves again, bitterly
resented the Roman rule.
Many Jews were looking forward to the coming of a Messiah whom
earlier Jewish prophets described as “the anointed one.”
The phrase “anointed one” relates to the practice of anointing the
heads of kings with olive oil.
It suggests that the anticipated messiah would be a king or military
ruler descended from the great King David.
Other Jews of the era, including John the Baptizer, were predicting a
coming apocalypse.
They claimed God was sending his judgment upon the Jewish people
for their sins against him.
Slide 9.
Jesus's Birth
• According to the Christian Bible, Mary conceived Jesus
through the action of the Holy Spirit when she was an
unmarried virgin.
• Jesus was born to her in humble surroundings in
Bethlehem shortly after she married her husband, Joseph.
• According to one Christian account (the gospel of
Matthew), Jesus’s birth was followed by the arrival of
wealthy visitors “from the East” heralding Jesus as the
promised Messiah.
• The Christian Bible records little information about Jesus’s
childhood and young adulthood prior to the beginning of his
public ministry when he was nearly thirty years old.
Slide 10.
Jesus's Early Life
• Jesus was born around 4 BCE (early
inaccuracies in the Christian calendar led to
the discrepancy between his actual birth date
and the year zero).
• Jesus was Jewish.
• Jesus spoke Aramaic (a local dialect related
to Hebrew).
• Jesus was baptized by John the Baptizer
before he began an itinerant religious
ministry.
Slide 11.
What Jesus Taught
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The central focus of Jesus’s teaching was his vision of the kingdom
of God.
Some scholars claim that Jesus, like John the Baptizer, taught that
God was about to destroy the old world and initiate a new one, a
utopian kingdom of God.
Others think that when Jesus referred to the “kingdom of God,” he
was speaking metaphorically about the sort of society Jews could
create through right behaviour.
Jesus concentrated his teachings on what he called the “two great
commandments,” which had long been a part of Jewish tradition: to
love God and to love your neighbour.
Jesus taught through parables, stories that carry a strong moral
message.
It is thought that Jesus also taught some version of the prayer
variously known as the Lord’s Prayer or the “Our Father.”
Slide 12.
Jesus as a Jew
• All the evidence we have suggests that
Jesus was a typical observant Jew of his era.
• He disputed certain Jewish laws, as did most
other prominent Jewish leaders in those
difficult times of rapid social change.
• Jesus never described himself as “nonJewish” or “beyond Jewish” in any way.
• Indeed, it seems that he kept a kosher diet
and observed the Sabbath, attending
synagogue regularly to pray.
Slide 13.
Jesus's Ministry
• Jesus probably began his teaching and preaching
when he was in his late twenties.
• He gathered around him a group of special
followers whom he called disciples.
• Jesus mainly confined his preaching to moral
lessons.
• Nevertheless, his ministry generated controversy
among both the Roman authorities and some
other Jews.
• Some feared Jesus would use his growing popularity
to overthrow the Roman occupiers.
• Others feared the opposite: that Jesus would be too
accommodating to the Romans.
Slide 14.
Jesus's Crucifixion
• Jesus had taught for only a few years when,
sometime between 30 and 36 CE, around the time
of Passover, he brought his disciples and other
followers to Jerusalem.
• There he was quickly arrested and accused of
sedition, of threatening Roman power.
• Pontius Pilate, the Roman leader who had been
appointed governor of Jerusalem, condemned
Jesus to death by crucifixion, a penalty the Jewish
leaders were not permitted to impose.
• Pilate was later recalled from Jerusalem to Rome
for his excessive cruelty.
Slide 15.
Jesus's Resurrection
& Ascension
• According to Christians and Christian scripture,
Jesus died on the cross, but was resurrected from
the dead three days later.
• He appeared to his disciples, most of whom did
not recognize him at first.
• He allowed them to touch his wounds and
convince themselves that he was indeed Jesus.
• He exhorted his disciples to “Go forth to every part
of the world, and proclaim the Good News to the
whole creation” (Mark 16:15).
• The scriptures record that, forty days after his
resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven.
Slide 16.
Try It
Christianity
Jesus
Try it: Jesus
Jesus’ Death and the
coming of the
Kingdom
• One needs to make amends to a person
one has wronged, if good relations are to
be restored.
• Human beings have wronged God.
• Human beings show no inclination to
make amends.
• God, bent on restoring creation to what it
was meant to be, takes the initiative.
Slide 18.
God’s initiative to
restore creation
• Becomes human
• Offers his own life to atone for human sins
• Shows both the seriousness of sin and the
extent of God’s love.
• Should produce in humans repentance for
sin and trust in God.
• Christ dying exhausted the evil
consequences of sin, and purged the world,
so that creation could be restored to its
original state.
Slide 19.
Summary of John’s
Gospel
• Central Theme: Incarnation
• Jesus came into the world from the Father.
• Three Abrahamic Faiths hold that God
reveals himself to put things right.
• Christianity: God reveals not only his will, but
also his person.
Slide 20.
Summary of John’s
Gospel
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Crucifixion & resurrection: ends the story of the incarnation.
Not the tragic end of a good man, but the climax of the story of
incarnation.
Crucifixion is not tragic, but fitting: I lay my life down.
Some believed Jesus, but couldn’t believe he died
Others believed Jesus died, but God’s spirit left him just before he
died.
These two views are not in the early tradition, but are from the
second century, based on assumptions that God is eternal and cannot
die.
On the contrary, in John’s gospel, the death of Jesus is perfectly
appropriate ending of divine incarnation & love.
In John, he is glorified upon crucifixion (it is the hour of his glory).
Paul wrote to the Corinthians that the cross of Christ is
foolishness/weakness, a demonstration of God’s wisdom/power.
Slide 21.
Possible Test
Question
What is the relationship of Christianity to Judaism?
How did the two come to separate?
The Jesus Movement
as a Jewish Sect
• In its earliest days, Christianity was a sect within
Judaism.
• The Jesus movement was concentrated in
Jerusalem under the leadership of James, one of
Jesus’s disciples (also possibly his brother).
• The beliefs of the Jesus movement were
straightforward:
• Jesus was the promised Messiah.
• Since the Messiah had already come, those in the
Jesus movement believed they were living in “the
final days” before God’s judgment of the world and
his institution of the kingdom of God.
Slide 23.
Saul=Paul
• The Jesus movement came under sharp criticism from
other movements within Judaism.
• Saul, a tentmaker born in southern Turkey, was a Jew of
the sect of Pharisees who traveled around Palestine trying
to stamp out the Jesus movement.
• In the midst of his persecution of the Jesus movement and
its followers, Saul had a mystical experience.
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While walking on the road toward Damascus, Saul saw a bright
light and heard the voice of Jesus telling him that in persecuting
Christians, Saul was actually persecuting him.
• Thereafter, Saul took the message of Christ to both Jews
and Gentiles.
• Saul’s Roman name was Paul.
• He traveled throughout the Roman Empire preaching the
message that Jesus was the Messiah.
Slide 24.
Paul & the Emergence
of Christianity
• Paul made several key innovations in the
theology of the Jesus movement that
drastically changed the course of
Christianity.
• In fact, Paul, more than anyone else, was
responsible for the emergence of Christianity as
a religion separate from Judaism.
• Paul did what Jesus asked him to do when
he spoke to him on the road to Damascus:
• He took the message of Jesus to the Gentiles,
encouraging them to convert to the emerging
Christian movement.
Slide 25.
Gentiles & the Jesus
Movement
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The early Jesus movement based in Jerusalem expected its
followers to be Jews, either by birth or conversion.
• They were to recognize Jewish law and understand themselves as the
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people with whom God had made a covenant so many centuries
before; the people to whom God had promised the Messiah.
Some believed that if they were male, they had to be circumcised.
Paul believed that the Gentiles did not need to become Jews or
respect Jewish law to follow Jesus.
For example, circumcision was not required.
Converts from other religions could simply be baptized, as Jesus
himself had been.
More profoundly, much of Jewish law could be set aside.
According to Paul, Jewish ritual law became irrelevant after the
coming of Jesus because Jesus had superseded law (God’s
commandments) with grace: God’s love.
Slide 26.
Christianity came to
separate itself from
Judaism
• Gentiles don’t need to observe Jewish law.
• Jesus was a Jew; the disciples and earliest
Christian observed the law of Moses.
• If those who thought Gentiles had to convert
to Judaism had won out, then Christianity
would have remained within Judaism.
• But it was deemed unnecessary for Gentiles
to be circumcised, follow the dietary laws,
etc.
Slide 27.
Church begins with the
coming of God’s spirit
• In the Hebrew Bible, God’s spirit came when
needed.
• There was some sense of “wouldn’t it be
great if it was with us all the time” as an
expectation of the prophets.
• Jesus would send the spirit, after he left.
• How did one know one had the spirit?
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Ecstatic languages?
Prophesying
Other charismatic signs
Paul said yes, but ethical living is a surer sign.
Slide 28.
Church is led by
apostles
• The apostles are eyewitnesses of Christ & his
resurrection.
• They are authorized by him to be his
representatives.
• A 12th apostle had to be appointed to replace
Judas.
• The books that became authoritative scriptures
were written by the apostles or their associates.
• No document can be added to the New Testament.
• Christians are to expect no more revelation.
• The testimony to that life is the end of revelation.
Slide 29.
Christian Scriptures
• The Jewish Tanakh and the Christian Old Testament are
essentially the same.
• The Christian New Testament was written in the first 150
years after Jesus’s death, but was not selected to form a
canon until the fifth century CE.
• The New Testament consists of gospels, acts of the
apostles, epistles, and Revelation.
• Each gospel addresses a different audience and stresses
different themes in Jesus’s life and ministry.
• Some epistles appear to have been written by Paul, while
other epistles are by other authors.
• Revelation is written in symbolic language and addressed
to Christians suffering persecution.
• (Try it)
Slide 30.
Try It
Christianity
Christian Scriptures
Try it: Christian Scriptures
The Early Spread of
Christianity
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Paul’s version of Christianity was far more successful than that of the
Jesus movement centered in Jerusalem under the leadership of
James, and other incipient forms of Christianity.
The Jesus movement suffered from the general disarray within
Judaism that followed the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.
Paul, on the other hand, won enthusiastic converts among Gentiles
throughout the Roman Empire.
Why did Christianity spread so quickly?
Many people in the Mediterranean region had been attracted to the
idea of monotheism as lived out by the Jews.
It was difficult to convert to Judaism, however, and many of the laws
that had to be followed may have seemed onerous to the practitioners
of Greco-Roman religions.
To them, Paul's version of Christianity may have seemed like a simpler
and easier way to become monotheistic than converting to Judaism.
Slide 32.
Review: Earliest
Christian History: Acts
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The Jesus Movement began as a Jewish Sect
Saul=Paul originally opposed the Jesus Movement until he saw the risen
Jesus on the road to Damascus
Paul was the most important thinker in Early Christianity, making several key
innovations
Paul felt commissioned to take the message of Jesus to the Gentiles,
converting many to the emerging Christian movement.
At first, Gentiles had to become Jews in order to become Christians.
Paul taught that Gentiles did not need to become Jews or follow Jewish law
to follow Jesus.
This teaching enabled Christianity to separate itself from Judaism
the arrival of God’s spirit was a sign of God empowering his people at the
end of this age.
The early Church was led by apostles, and the writings associated with them
became the New Testament.
Christianity spread quickly because it had the same attraction as Judaism
(ethical monotheism), but without the difficulty of following Jewish law.
Slide 33.
The 1st and 2nd Centuries
end
The Birth of a New Religion
Slide 34.
Try It
Christianity
Christian Scriptures
Try it: Christian Scriptures
Possible Test
Question
What do Christians mean when they speak of human nature
as “fallen”? How, according to Paul’s letter to the Romans,
does God redeem “fallen” humankind?
The Doctrine of the
Atonement
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Paul brought about a marked change in the emerging Christian
religion’s understanding of Jesus.
• Like those in the early Jesus movement, Paul saw Jesus as a spiritual
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teacher, a prophet, and the anticipated Messiah of the Hebrew
scriptures.
However, Paul saw Jesus as something else as well: a divine
sacrifice, an attempt by God to bring about reconciliation between God
and humanity.
As Paul came to understand it, Jesus was one with God.
Through Jesus, God established a new relationship with humanity.
God had always demanded a price for human sinfulness: death.
Then, as an act of mercy, God sent his son who was without sin to
accept that punishment on behalf of all humanity.
This is known as “the doctrine of the atonement.”
God sacrificed Jesus as compensation for human sin, relieving human
beings of that terrible burden.
This is what Christians mean when saying, “Jesus died for our sins.”
Slide 37.
Humanity’s Plight in
Romans: 5 points
• 1. All humans do things they know they
shouldn’t (1:18-3:20)
• Non-Jews fail to give their Creator his due
• They do things they know in their hearts are
wrong
• Jews possess God’s law and don’t keep it.
Slide 38.
2. Human nature is “fallen”
from what it was meant to
be (5:12-19; 7:7-25)
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It’s not just that everyone happens to sin, but that sin has led to
disorder in human nature that is universal.
Whether Adam & Eve are literal or metaphorical, human nature is
fallen.
What we shouldn’t do often appears more attractive than what we
should do.
E.g., movies sell better when they feature things we think are wrong.
We find ourselves unable to do the good that, at some level, we
know we ought to do.
Repeated wrong choices have distorted our moral compass.
We justify our actions.
Therefore, the problem of sin is one in which all are both implicated
(responsible) and entangled (cannot escape, even if one chose to do
so).
E.g., you are born in France at war with the Germans. It’s not your
choice, but as soon as you can make the choice to think of the
Germans as enemies, you do so.
Slide 39.
Humanity’s Plight in
Romans, cont’d
• 3. Humanity’s orientation toward sin is spoken of as “the
flesh”
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Not: body is bad; spirit is good.
1. The body is created by God.
2. The body will be resurrected
Human nature is fallen; it’s not evil.
It is good gone bad; not inherently bad.
• 4. The giving of God’s law doesn’t solve the problem.
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It makes it worse.
Paul can’t see the law as the solution, because then Jesus
wouldn’t have had to die.
Being told not to do something makes people want to do it,
because we don’t like being told what to do.
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Sin leads to both ‘spiritual’ death and ‘physical’ death.
(In the Garden of Eden, they were told, “you will surely die”)
Slide 40.
Divine Redemption in
Romans (4 points)
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1. Redemption is a display of God’s righteousness
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= God’s commitment to the goodness of his creation.
2. Jesus’ death atones for human sin (Romans 3:21-26)
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God does not overlook sin (pretending it doesn’t matter)
3. Redemption is an act of God’s grace (Romans 4:18-26)
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God takes the initiative.
4. Christ is seen as representative of the new humanity (Romans
5:12-6:11).
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Baptized believers leave (“die to”) Adam/old humanity & transfer to the
new humanity represented by Christ
Christ’s death was a representative death, not just substitutionary.
It is recalled when one is baptized.
Slide 41.
The life of the redeemed
in Romans (7 points)
• 1. “Walk in the spirit” summarizes Paul’s ethics.
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This means live a life guided by the spirit, and show its effects:
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Love, joy, peace, patience, generosity, etc.
• 2. Believers must carry on a war against the “flesh” and its
temptations.
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“the flesh”= the old humanity (represented by Adam)
• 3. The moral life can also be summarized in the
commandment to love.
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What is the most famous passage Paul wrote?
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1 Corinthians 13 makes at least three points:
(1) indispensability of love
(2) characteristics of love
(3) eternity of love
Slide 42.
The life of the
redeemed in Romans
(cont’d)
• 4. Life as part of the new creation = a life of freedom
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“freedom” here is not quite what we mean today.
Now we think of the absence of external constraint.
Paul thought a little differently:
Consider a bird with a broken wing.
It is not free to fly.
There is no cage or external constraints, but its own condition
disables it.
People are in bondage to, enslaved to sin.
Freedom is being enabled to live.
• 5. Believers are at home in the cosmos, cannot be
separated from God’s love. (Romans 8:31-39)
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The “cosmic dance” in Psalms:
All (non-human) creation lives in harmony; humans have choice.
Humans can choose not to live in harmony.
Slide 43.
The life of the
redeemed in Romans
(cont’d)
• 6. One can still expect hard times in this world
• (1) hard times don’t compare with the glorious future
• (2) hard times now mean suffering together with
Christ.
• (3) hard times cannot separate us from God’s love.
• Romans 8:28 – God will work things together for your
good.
• 7. The future is the redemption of all creation
• The earth is in the birth pangs of this redemption
• It will be complete with the appearance of Christ.
Slide 44.
Possible Test
Question
What fundamental convictions led Christians to
understand God as “Trinity,” and how does the doctrine
of the “Trinity” give expression to these convictions?
Trinity: Preliminaries 1
• 1. Human language for God is analogous,
not adequate language for conveying who
God is.
• God is ineffable, but it is not meaningless to
speak of what God is like.
• E.g., “The Lord is my shepherd” –
terminology familiar from experience.
Conveys something important: guidance,
care, etc. Yet there are things about God that
are not true of shepherds.
Slide 46.
Trinity: Preliminaries 2
• 2. Distinguish 2 levels of what Christians believe:
• (i) fundamental convictions of the Christian faith
• Christ died for sins; rose again; Lord; Messiah
• (ii) doctrines / doctrinal formulations based on these
convictions
• State the implications of convictions in category (i)
• Protect the integrity of convictions in category (i)
• E.g., What exactly is the relationship between Jesus &
God? Because people started thinking logically: there
can’t be more than one God, so he must have been top
creation; yet others thought that didn’t capture their
convictions (pray to, worship)
• Or: Jesus: fully God? Fully human? Both?
Slide 47.
Trinity: Preliminaries 3
• 3. When evidence is discovered that does
not fit present understandings, new
models of understanding must be worked
out.
• E.g., you trusted someone, they seem to
betray you. You can:
• (a) ignore it
• (b) reinterpret the evidence
• (c) change your view
Slide 48.
4 Basic Convictions
• 1. There is ONE God: Creator, sustainer, judge of
all
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(This view is shared with Jews & Muslims)
All early Christians were Jews.
Jesus believed in one God.
Jewish scriptures were adopted by Christians.
• 2. Jesus was God in human form.
• (Jews & Muslims both don’t agree.)
• Jesus said and did things not done by other humans:
• Forgive sins
• Demand exclusive allegiance
• Was worshipped and prayed to
Slide 49.
4 Basic Convictions
• 3. Jesus spoke of God as someone else,
namely his “Father”
• 4. Jesus spoke of the spirit of God whom
he would send from the Father.
• Jesus was going to leave; Christians
believed that the Spirit had come.
• Can’t compromise these 4; how to
reconcile them?
Slide 50.
Christian Doctrine of
the Triune God
• When other people started saying things they
couldn’t agree with, they had to formulate:
• 1. Jesus is both true God (prayed to) and true
man (if not, he can’t atone for sin).
• 2. Jesus is God’s son (in an analogous way;
can’t press the metaphor): same nature, but not
coming into existence.
• 3. One God exists in three persons.
Slide 51.
Christian Doctrine of
the Triune God
• These are not thought to be understandable,
but capture/protect basic convictions.
• Like scientists use models, recognizing the
limitations: Is light a wave or particle?
• They would say it must be true, whether we
understand or not.
• One river is made of source, stream, mouth.
• There is only one river.
• Source/stream/mouth are all called “the river”
• No one part can exist without the other.
• There is no river unless all 3 parts are present.
Slide 52.
Summary of Trinity
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Why would anyone think God is 1 and 3?
It’s not in the Bible.
Distinguished between:
A. Basic Convictions: One God. Jesus=God in human form. Jesus
called God Father. Jesus would send the Spirit.
B. Doctrinal statements: Later formulations that try to spell out the
basic convictions, but are not intended to be readily understandable.
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Models of Trinity. All language is analogy.
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River: source, stream, mouth
Candlelight
Flame (source; Father)
Light (necessary effect; Son reveals)
Warmth (necessary effect; Spirit is experiential)
Not: Parent-child (because a parent can exist without child).
The Son comes from the Father without coming after the Father. Like light
comes from flame, but flame doesn’t precede light.
Slide 53.
Possible Test
Question
Explain the issues which led to the split between the Roman
Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
After the Fall of Rome
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The Roman Empire became Christian in the fourth century CE.
Augustine influenced Christian beliefs about original sin and
celibacy.
The key beliefs of Christians were formulated by early councils of
Christian bishops.
Eastern Christianity, in the form of Eastern Orthodoxy, remained a
theocracy, with civil and religious life tied together.
Differences regarding Christian theology and how decisions about
how church doctrine should be made eventually caused a schism
between the Western and Eastern churches in 1054 CE.
Monasticism developed as an important thread within Christian
society, especially after the Roman Empire was Christianized.
(try it: After the Fall of Rome)
Slide 55.
Possible Test
Question
Explain the issues which led to the split between the Roman
Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Orthodox and Roman
Catholic Christianity
to the Church Councils
1. Which major events tie the
years 1054 C.E. and 1965
C.E. together?
2. What are the three main
branches of Christianity
today? (:01)
3. What are the main issues
that separate the Orthodox
and Roman Catholic
churches? What are the
main similarities between
them?
4. What was the relationship
between the Jewish faith
and Christianity at the time
of Christ?
5. Why did the Romans
persecute the Christians?
6. What are two monumental
actions made by
Constantine and how are
they significant?
7. What was the Arian heresy?
How did the bishops
respond? What was
Athanasius’ argument?
Medieval Christianity
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Christian monasteries helped to preserve learning and the arts
during the Middle Ages.
Mary was an enormously popular religious figure in the Middle Ages.
The Crusades were an attempt by western Christians to gain control
over the holy city of Jerusalem.
The Crusades and the Inquisition fostered religious intolerance.
The Crusades brought important bodies of knowledge to Europe,
including the work of the Greek philosopher Aristotle.
Thomas Aquinas provided a modern, rationalist, more universal
approach to Christianity by melding Christianity with the philosophy
of Aristotle.
The bubonic plague, the Inquisition, and corruption within the
Catholic church set the stage for future divisions in the Christian
church.
Slide 58.
Orthodox and Roman
Catholic Christianity
From the Fall of Rome to Papal Authority
(25:00-46:08)
8. How did the fall of Rome to
the Visigoths in 410 C.E.
change the growth and
evolution of the Roman
Catholic Church?
9. What are the Orthodox and
Roman Catholic views on
the concept of the Trinity?
10. What are the two initial
goals of the Crusades?
What are three significant
results of the Crusades?
11. Who are the Cistercians,
the Dominicans and the
Franciscans? Why are
these groups, among
others, important to the
Roman Catholic Church?
12. Why did the Roman
Catholic hierarchy come
under attack after the 13th
century?
13. What is the significance of
the Inquisition?
14. What did the Council of
Trent decide for the Roman
Catholic Church?
15. What does Papal Infallibility
mean?
Try it
Medieval Christianity
Possible Test
Question
Briefly explain the development of the Protestant Reformation, highlighting the
most important issues raised in this movement. What were the problems
Luther saw with the way Christianity was being practised? What were some of
his solutions? How did the Roman Catholic Church respond?
The Protestant
Reformation
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The Protestant Reformers felt compelled to make a break with the
Roman Catholic Church partly in order to give more authority to
ordinary Christians and less to the organized church.
In various ways, Martin Luther, John Calvin, King Henry VIII, and
others articulated their differences with Catholicism and constructed
new churches.
Many Protestant denominations today find their roots in one of the
three major Protestant reform movements.
The social unrest that followed the Protestant Reformation led to the
persecution of religious minorities and presumed witches.
The Catholic Church responded to the challenges set before it by the
Protestant Reformers by addressing corruption within the church, but
reasserting the church’s basic beliefs and practices.
Slide 62.
Protestant
Christianity
1. How did Protestantism originate in 16thcentury Germany?
2. What two principles became the heart of the
Protestant understanding of Christianity?
3. What is the religious significance of the
invention of the movable type printing
press?
4. Who are the principal leaders of the early
Protestant Reformation?
5. What does the concept “priesthood of all
believers”mean?What does it not mean?
6. How did the Protestants regard the Bible?
How did their views differ from the Roman
Catholic view of the Sacred Scripture?
7. How did the minister’s role change in
Protestantism with regard to the
celebration of worship services?
8. Why did the Protestants place emphasis on
the literacy of the laity?
9. What are the four distinct institutional forms of
Protestantism?
10. What is the Roman Catholic doctrine of
transubstantiation?
11. How does Luther’s teaching about
transubstantiation differ from the Roman
Catholic doctrine?
12. Which two sacraments did Luther maintain
as being valid?Which five did Luther not
accept as sacraments?
13. Why did Luther disregard the concepts of
purgatory, honoring the saints and
indulgences?
14. What are the basic principles of Ulrich
Zwingli’s Protestant belief?
15. What function did art and architecture play
for the laity before the Reformation in the
Roman Catholic Church?
16. What model did John Calvin use for the
organization of church leadership in his
Protestant movement?
17. What are the four radical groups that
emerged early in the Reformation?
18. Who are the Anabaptists? What
distinguishes them most from Catholics?
19. How does the Church of England stand in
regard to the Catholic Church? What is
similar and what is different about the two
churches?
Try it
The Protestant Reformation
Midterm test question
possibilities for Judaism
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Multiple Choice (on textbook and lectures)
Passage Identification (on scripture readings and lectures): Proverbs,
Genesis, Exodus, Psalms, Amos, Isaiah
Possible paragraph questions (on lectures and textbook)
Discuss briefly the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament) as a drama of the relationship
of God with humanity.
What is in each of the three parts of the Jewish scriptures?
What, according to Proverbs, are the differences between the “wise” and the
“foolish” in terms of their (a) thinking, (b) behaviour, and (c) fortunes?
What view of human nature and potential is reflected in the first three chapters of
Genesis?
What is meant by “Torah”? What role does “Torah” play in Judaism?
Summarize the message of the following prophets to their contemporaries and the
themes in their prophecies that are important in Judaism:.
How do the major groupings of contemporary Judaism differ in practice and beliefs?
List as many of Moses Maimonides’ 13 articles as you can remember, and explain
them in a sentence or two each.
Slide 65.
Midterm test question
possibilities for Christianity
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What is known about the historical life of Jesus? How is this similar to and
different from the Jesus appearing throughout the New Testament, especially
the gospels?
What is meant by the “kingdom of heaven” in Matthew? What, according to
Matthew, is Jesus’ part in the dawning of the kingdom?
What fundamental convictions led Christians to understand God as “Trinity,”
and how does the doctrine of the “Trinity” give expression to these
convictions?
What do Christians mean when they speak of human nature as “fallen”?
How, according to Paul’s letter to the Romans, does God redeem
humankind?
Explain the issues which led to the split between the Roman Catholic Church
and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Briefly explain the development of the Protestant Reformation, highlighting
the most important issues raised in this movement. What were the problems
Luther saw with the way Christianity was being practised? What were some
of his solutions? How did the Roman Catholic Church respond?
Slide 66.
Possible Final Exam
Questions
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Islam
•
Definitions
Allah; Imam; ;Shari’ah; Caliph; Islam; Shi’a; Fatwa; Islamist; Sufism; Hajj; Jihad; Sunnah; Hadith;
Madrasa; Sunni; Hijab; Muezzin; Sura; Hijrah; Shahadah; Ummah; Islam
What distinguishes a Sunni from a Shi’ite Muslim? Explain.
According to the Koran, what “revelations” of God are contained in nature, and how ought human
beings to respond to these revelations? What does the Koran say about the “signs” that God has
provided for humankind: what kinds of “signs” are there, what are they “signs” of, how should
people react, how do they respond?
Summarize the role played by prophets (including Muhammad himself) in Islam.
Summarize the understanding and importance of law as reflected in the Koran.
Western religions
For Muslims, the religion of Islam is not distinct from Judaism and Christianity but the completion
thereof. What is meant by this claim? What, ultimately, are the chief distinctions between these
three Semitic religions?
We have discussed five common characteristics shared by the “Abrahamic faiths.” Be able to
illustrate the role of each of these convictions in each of the three faiths.
All religions
Summarize the life of the prophet Muhammad, placing his life in the context of his times.
Compare and contrast what is known about the life of Muhammad with one of the following
religious founders: Buddha, Confucius, Zarathushtra, or Jesus. What are the most significant
similarities and differences between the Muhammad and whoever else is selected? Explain.
Slide 67.
In the Religious
Calendar (BBC)
Lent
• http://www.y
outube.com/
watch?v=6D
8o2At_UUc