Catholic Theology Final

12 disciples

• all different types of Jewish (essences, zealots, pharisees)

• bring about political revolution

12 apostles

• sent one

• preach Gospel to all nations

• spoke to mostly, exclusively Jews

Jerusalem council

• paul (apostles to the Gentiles)

• peter and john (apostles to the jews)

Mark’s Gospel

• written around 70 AD

• shortest gospel and discuss jesus’s actions (tells us who jesus is)

• messianic secret --- jesus called the messiah (trying to convince people jesus is messiah but jesus doesn’t want mark to have people call him that)

• jesus functions off of self-giving love

• ends it that even though jesus is a “loser” (no weapons, wealth, wives) BUT was like the king israel needed

Matthew’s Gospel

• written around 80 AD

• adds details about jesus’s teaching --- sensitive to the jewish question and writing to jewish audience

• redefines what messiah means for the jewish audience --- focuses more on prophets who were rejected by their own people

• jesus tells jews they’re the salt of the earth and light of world

  • salt = seasoning and preserving food (meat)

  • light = always realted to darkness (being lost)

    • world has gotten themselves where they are intellectually lost and have no meaning (flavoring) → wants people to be different

• why visit ok to say we are christian? jesus is the fulfillment

• his agenda = it’s ok for jews to follow jesus

• presents jesus as new moses by getting to the root of the problem and by having no concessions to weakness ---accomplishemed through gift of grace (makes you wanna do the things you’re asked to)

Luke’s Gospel

• written around 80 AD

• most orderly and sophisticated Gospel

• 4 questions for the gentiles

  1. jesus geniality back to adam → which means he’s not jewish (gentiles are then relevant to jesus)

  2. outcasts → jesus is welcoming to them (everyone else thinks they’re “sinners” does tax collection on them)

  3. prodigal son → god loves both sons (younger son = gentiles and older son = jews)

  4. church begins in jerusalem (peter, james) → samaria → gentiles (paul)

• shows it’s ok to include gentiles (throughout Acts)

John’s Gospel

• symbolism of jesus (mystical-theological)

  • was a disciple and knew jesus better than anyone

• heavy on symbolism and sign (semeia)→ always goes with signifier (gift <-> giver)

• signs:

  1. life (bios) → eternal life

     1. nautral sign from creation = gifts from god)

  2. water → baptism

     1. 1st birth out of water = life and 2nd birth = new/eternal life

  3. wine (joy) → eucharist (supernatural joy)

  4. light (understanding reality and truth) → spiritual light (sees invisible god)

  5. bread (food) → bread of heaven (eternal life and celebration)

     1. gratitude = thank god for food

  6. love (philia) → love (agape = unconditional love for others wellbeing)

     1. god relentlessly loves

2 source hypothesis

matthew and luke use 2 sources for their gospels (hpothesis) → mark and “Q” (saying used as sources)

laws that jesus examines:

• “thou shalt not murder”

  • murder starts in the heart → “thou shalt not be angry”

  • can’t change behavior by saying not to do it but have to address underlying behavior

• law of adultery

  • refers to sex outside of the context of committed love

  • lust objectifies the other

2nd temple judaism (500 BC - 70 AD)

• jews are in exile

• this was land promised by abraham by god

• get writing of prophets → scolding jews for not upholding covenant (harsh, dramatic but also hopeful for future)

• writings become apocalyptic (futuristic) that deal with end of time where god steps in → supernatural intervention

  • daniel and ezekial have visions of heaven (200 bc)

  • taking hidden things and revealing them → revelation

• jesus is 2nd temple jew

quest for historical jesus

• “timeless” approach to jesus which loses his jewishness

• 18th-19th century get ruse of modern historical scholarship is start of scientific method (“just the facts”)

  • 1st quest to find the real and historical jesus → people on this quest had modern and scientific biases + were materialistic and realistic

  • rise of liberalism where religion is reduced to private morality and introduce liberal morality

  • describes jesus as 19th century liberal and Nietzsche calls this bullshit to recognize jesus for who he is (just say you don’t like him don’t change him to what you want)

1st enoch apart of jewish apocalyptic literature (200 BC - 70 AD)

• son of man (daniel) --- makes jesus dude to romans but jews know he’s a man “descending on the clouds” so he’s from above

• suffering servant (isaiah) --- take upon himself the sins of the world

• messiah = king of kingdom of god

seeing kingdom of god as heaven or purely political

• both supernatural and historical reality → jesus’ teaching

• heaven = essences

• purely political = zealots → both called “messiah” because crucified by romans

adam and eve

• love VS lust

  • love = wills the good of the other

  • lust = competition, use, exploitation, power

• horizontal relationship - damaged by sin

• vertical relationship - damaged relationship with god

inri

• jesus of nazareth, king of jews (crucified)

• jesus didn’t want people to know he was the messiah

christ definition

• greek for messiah

  • “christ jesus” = “jesus is messiah”

• in letter of paul (40s)

jesus actions

1. committing exorcisms and performing miracles

   1. exorcisms = trying to restore kingdom of love since serpent brought competition btx beings

   2. miracles = healing people to try and restore eden before sickness and death

   3. god <-love-> human beings <-love-> human beings

   4. no violence or force b/c that’s not how you get love

2. call 12 disciples to make new israel (church)

   1. tells us his work will be going on as long as history lasts

      1. apostles have divine authority which allows then to teach infallibly and forgive sins and perform sacraments

   2. breathes on them (like adam)

   3. “body of christ” = church b/c gives jesus presence throughout history → each member that’s baptized has christ in them

3. rasied referring to god as “father”

   1. uses “abba” = daddy or papa (term of endearment and affection)

   2. has unique relationship w/ god (father)

   3. father calls jesus his “begotten son” which means to give birth to

      1. birth to something that’s same in kind

      2. create/make something is different in kind

   4. we are god’s children so we’re a part of sonship and get a part in eternal life

4. jesus has profound sense of mission → to do god’s work and represent him

   1. father sending son on mission

   2. trinity is eternal

      1. the son has eternally come from father

      2. historical mission on earth becomes visible

5. comes in jerusalem on donkey to show king should be HUMBLE

6. cleansing of temple → “you have turned my father’s house into a den of theives”

christ comes to earth

• undo damage done by sin

• referred to as 2nd god

• opposite of sin is self-giving love

god is in control of nature

• brings order

• heals sickness and death → taste of heaven

death of christ

• sacrifice (universal religious phenomenon) = ritual (formal external expression of invisible or inward sacred reality)

• nature of love = self-gift of ourselves

• sacrifice/ritual way to show love (or sometimes says sorry) to god

god is trinity of persons who are all equally god

father, son, holy spirit

christianity’s god

• only one eternal and transcendent god

• he creates the world and human beings in his image and likeness (which relates to freedom)

freedom

• not options it’s capacity to do something

• gift given by god so they can freely enter into relationships of love

• creates them out of love in hopes they will give back love to god

choosing not to have a relationship with god

• rejecting highest part of themselves → become more like animals

• no relationship = independence from god

• when ate fruit in garden they lose likeness of god

commandments

• show how to love god

• 1st covenant = following the commandments

sorrow

form that love takes when it has failed

eucharist

• liturgy of word…means thanks

• given by money and gifts → received by priest

  • bread and wine presented to god so his spirit can make them the body and blood of christ → so our actions are some way christ loves god

church

body of christ

baptism

birth into body of christ

sacraments

way for jesus to live throughout history

what kind of being is jesus?

• why would god come to us as a humble servant

  • to show how we should act and how greatly he sacrifice for our sins

• justin martyr - argued that jesus was not a second god

  • he believed that christ was eternal but was in flesh to save humanity from sin and death

modalism

• god in his own nature absolutely one and only appears to humans in three “modes”

  • father, son, and holy spirit

subordinationism

• overemphasizing the distinctiveness of the son

  • the son is subordinate to the father

  • protecting the oneness of god - showing there are not two gods

arianism

though jesus was fully god

arius

• jesus was mediators between us and god

  • thoughts that jesus was the first and greatest creation but him and god were on different levels of being

council of nicea (325 BC)

first worldwide council which affirmed the teaching that jesus and god shared the same being

nestorianism

• switching between god and man

  • separated jesus from human and jesus from devine (two natures)

  • said that mary was only the mother of jesus and not the mother of god

council of ephesus (431 BC)

• rejected nestorianism

• mary is the mother of god

• by saying this it says that we cannot separate god from being

monophysite

• one nature of jesus

  • jesus is demigod (mule)

council of chalcedon (451 BC)

jesus is one person with two distinct natures

helped god in social way

• social character of salvation

• community of redeemed = church

church is similar to israel

• disciples (all jewish) and apostles (teach and perform sacraments, anointing more apostles)

• eventually called bishops

• peter is the prince of the apostles → pope is the successor