Theology Midterm Review

Theology Review Sheet
Identifications
Tillich- Faith is the ultimate concern
Tilley- irreducible source of meaning and center of energy.
Four Misunderstands of faith according to Tilley
Reduces faith to believing things
Equates having faith with behaving morally
Reduces faith into something that we feel “deep in our souls”
Equates faith as being religious
Buddha- The Awakened one/ the enlightened one
Pascal’s Wager- It posits that humans all bet with their lives either that God exists or does not exist.
Skeptical Rationalism- Faith is not acceptable if there is no proof or something to back it up.
Ex: If person A says he loves person B because she is kind but if you cant prove person B is kind then your faith does not exist
They believe that faith is an irrational belief that a proposition is true.
Believing Rationalism- Reduces faith to one’s acceptance of some proposition as true.
Accept belief based on faith. One accepts the revelation on fith because God can neither deceiver nor be deceeivered.v
If one can show that it is rational to accept such propositions, one has shown that the faith founded on those propositions s reasonable.
Argue that a reasonable person can accept a propositioin such as “god exists” and that this reasonableness is a foundation for his faith.
The Gallup Fallacy-We commit a Gallup fallacy if we infer that such acceptance of a proposition says much about a person’s or nation’s faith.
If we say catholic jews muslims and most vaguely religious people have the “same faith”
Immanence- Feeling of closeness to one’s God
Who god is? Where god to be found?
Interpretative community
How bible became a book
Changing interpretations over time by different community emphasizes the fact that its not most important what something is but how we interpret it
It doesn’t matter who wrote it or how it was created but it’s important who the READER is.
Christ- Jesus’s title, the messiah or the savior.
Historical-Critical Criticism- is a branch of literary criticism that investigates the origins of ancient text in order to understand "the world behind the text". (HOW BIBLE BECAME A BOOK)
The primary goal of historical criticism is to ascertain the text's primitive or original meaning in its original historical context
The secondary goal seeks to establish a reconstruction of the historical situation of the author and recipients of the text.
The Bible and where it came to be and what it meant at the time. Who wrote it?
Oral teaching and then shift to written text. This creates big changes in society.
Gospels not eyewitnesses. Not biography
The Four Passing Sights- Buddha or Siddhartha discovered old age, disease, death, and a monk
1st sight he saw an old man
2nd sight he saw diseased
3rd sight he saw a dead body
4th sight he saw a hindu monk.
Four Noble Truths- what Buddha preached at the core of his teachings. . His key discoveries
1. Dukkha- there is suffering
2, the cause of suffering is desire
3. Suffering ceases when desire ceases
4. The way to achieve that is through the eight fold path
Eightfold Path-Buddha’s prescription to removing desire and reach nirvana, a state freed from desire.
The Middle Way- Buddha describes the middle way as a path of moderation, between the extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification. This, according to him, was the path of wisdom.
He realized this principal when he joined hindu ascetics and almost died.
Cant have too much or too little.
Rejects self-deprivation or self indulgence.
The Bo Tree
Where he got enlightenment
Under the tree he was tested by the temptation by mara.

Textualization of ancient Israel- How the bible became a book.
It went from predominately oral teachings or traditions to written words.
When a culture moves from oral tradition to written texts as a basis of authority, this is a radical shift in the social center of eduation.
The shift from oral to written creates a profound cultural shift.
Spread of literacy challenged oral tradition and the oral community with a new and independent basis of authority.
Evangelist- The preaching of the four gospels. Mark Luke Matthews John
How we know about the life of Jesus. It shapes the portrait of jesus not a CHRISTIAN portrait of him.
Gospels the lifeline that links the Jewish Jesus with the people of every age who claims to be his disciple.
Jesus was a Jews in Nazareth.
Gospels are not eyewitnesses. It’s not a biography.
Mark and other evangelists formed their gospels from material that already ha been touched by the life of the church.
Gospels were put together for more of a immediate purpose by each evangelist. It was for the immediate Christian communities that they serve.
Spirituality- the capacity of people to transcend themselves through knowledge and love
Spirituality denotes experience, a personal lived reality which has both active and passive dimesnions
An experience of conscious invovlment in a project that is neither accidental or result of drugs.
A project of life-integrtion which means that it is holistic involving body and spirit
This project of life intergration is pursed by consistent self transcendence towards ultimate value.
Spiritual but not religious
Spirituality is closely related to religion.
Often a mystical revelartory experience of a founding fiture leads to life transformation. For example, the enlightenment of the Buddha.
Institutionalization of religion is what makes sprirtuality a daily experience of participation in religion.
Mecca
Muslim Pilgrimage site.
Muhammad’s birth place
“the house of god” at center of Mecca, believed to be built by adam then rebuilt by Abraham.
Medina- Where the first Islamic Society was found
Muhammad migrate there by Divine Command after the success of his preaching brought mad attention to him and people want to kill him and shit.
This migration turned Islam from a small group to a full fledged community.
Atheism-rejection of belief in god
Nietzsche “god is dead”
He talks about the decline of religion and the rise of atheism. The absence of a moral authority can send society into chaos.
The western world depended on the rule of god for years it gave society order and meaning without it society would go into nihilism.
Nonthesis- neither reject or believe in god
Homo religious (Livingston)
All cultures and societies about which possess reliable information clearly reveal some form os this behavior.
Cultural Universal. All societies have religoiu sbeliefs. Universal human phenomenon

SHORT ANSWER
Nietzsche’s parable of the Madmen and its meaning
“god is dead” we have stopped believing in god. Decline of religion  rise in atheism
The madmen is observing more abandonment of old moral or principals or Christianity.
Madmen is talking to atheist
Even though atheist gave up on god, they still haven’t given up on the morality of god
Nietzsche say they are hyprocrites believe they try so hard to state that they don’t believe in god but they still hold the morality that they learned from relion and shape their daily life
The phasring Nietzsche uses for moral “devaluation of things”  then revluation of morality new morality in the place of the old.
Main Arguments of Feuerbach, Freud, and Marx
1. Feuerbach (Philosophical)
Religion is a projection of man
God is own our image  god is the perfect being of us
Divine Nature not real
Human self consciousness
“man is the measure of all things.”
Religion is a way for the mass to find comfort in an oppressing society
2. Marx (Socioeconomic)
Man makes religion
Escape reality  “opium of the people”
Justifies oppression from the top
Preserves the status quo
Religion serves as a social function
3. Freud (Psychological)
Illusion, terror, Religion is a reflection of one’s wishful thinking.
Humans wish for things that will alleviate he pains of life.
God is a father figure for us
Psychic subconscious
Big Raft vs Little Raft or Hinayana (Theravada) vs Mahayana
First group insisnted Buddhism is a full time job and must become monks
2nd group stressed cosmic grace and that anybody can be Buddhist
Theravada believed progress rest within oneself but Mahayanist believe it’s a field phenonmenon.
Theravada’s kind of prayer is meditation but Mahayanist added supplication petition and calling Buddha for strength. (Conservative vs Liberal)
Theravadas thought of him as a saint but mahayanas believed him as a savior.
Theravada believed in the personal liberation of suffering while Mahayana believed in the liberation of all things from suffering.
Theravada emphasize help from self and it’s a personal thing but Mahayana sought help from compassionate buddhas, and sought to enlighten others.
Main issue concerning scholarly objectivity and the study of religion (Livingston)
To fully understand, one must look at other religion the same way he/she looks at his own religion.
Religion can be defined in many ways. Each one of the definitions explain some aspects of religion but does not tell the whole picture.
One can learn different interpretations of religion and then combine them to have a better understand what religion is.
We have a narrow and ethnocentric view because we naturally tend to identify religion with experience of our own tradition.
We study religion to achieve a global perspective.
We can learn a great deal about the strengths and deficiencies of our own religious beliefs and behavior by looking at them from other points of view. Become Self-conscious and reflective of our own belief. We can have deeper insight and understanding.
If we are really to appreciate different possibilities of making sense of human life, we may have to make a more rigorous effort to stand outside our own preconceptions and to enter empathetically into the culture of religion we are studying.
Why is religious institutionalization a “paradoxical blessing”? (Schneider)
Religion can become corrupt ( Bad)
However, Religion can create a sense of community, social encouragement. (Good)
It passes on religious tradition and it’s spirituality (which can be good)
Can lead to empty ritualism. Hypocracy, clericalism, corruption, abuse of power, superstition.
Institutionalized religion initiates people into an authentic tradition of spirituality, gives them companions on the journey and tested wisdom by which to live, and support them in times of suffering and instability but it also provides a way for people to be publicly correct and socially respectable without ever becoming truly spiritual and it often undermines personal faith by its own infidelity.
It can often limit things due its tradition Ex: oppression and exclusion of women.
How does Islam understand its status relative to other religions in history?
Islam sees itself as at once the primordial religion, a return to the original religion of oneness, and the final religion; the Quran itself calls the Prophet of isalm the “seal of prophets.
It believes that the prophets that came before Muhammad such as Abraham moses Christ play a much greater role in islam than in Christianity.
They do not believe Jesus is the son of god. God is too great for something to be like.
From muslim point of view they came before Christianity and Judaism but from secular view they came after.

ESSAYS
Compare the role of the founding figures in Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, including this figure’s relationship to God or ultimate reality and to the religion ‘s scared texts or traditions.
1. Christianity
Jesus was the son of god.
God’s reflection, Divine God.
Trinity model. God the father, God the Son, The holy Spirit.
2. Islam
Founding figure of Muhammad. (Mortal)
He was God’s messenger
God is the source of all existence. He is beyond all duality and relationality, beyond the differences of gender and of all qualities that distinguish humans.
The Quran is the Words of God. It was given to the Prophet by Divine Command
Arabic is the Divine language
Quran deals with nature of reality, divine reality and it’s realtion to the realm of relativity. It says much about the natural world. And talks about “sacred History”
Most important source of Islamic Law
3. Buddhism
Buddha was Founding Figure
The ultimate goal is to end suffering
Buddha did not necessarily believe in God or Divine being. No worship for divine being
He emphasizes the relationship to underlying universe and the natural order.
Ultimate reality is Nirvana
He was viewed as a savior or saint.