Exam (elaborations)
Theo 10001 Exam Questions answers latest update
- Course
- THEO 10001
- Institution
- University Of Notre Dame
Theo 10001 Exam Questions answers latest update
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Theo 10001 ExamWhy does theology begin with faith? (Cavadini) - We may speak of theology as
"faith seeking understanding" in the sense that knowing a transcendent and
invisible God must begin somewhere other than pure reason. Were it to begin
only with reason, one could never be sure one was actually talking about God,
rather than, as Cavadini puts it, "some illusion of our own making."
Why does faith seek understanding? That is, what is the role of reason with
respect to faith? - When we turn to the God revealed in Scripture, we find that
our reason (perhaps our knowledge of other disciplines) causes us to ask
questions about what is revealed. The approach of faith-seeking-understanding
asks us to consider revelation in the light of reason without leaving either behind.
In what senses can we say faith is "reasonable"? - First, faith is a basic part of
everyday human affairs (171-72). We could not say we "know" much if we always
mean mathematical or scientific proof. Second, all learning of complex matters
begins with faith in an authority. For Augustine (354-430 CE), to call Christianity
necessarily unreasonable because it depends upon something taken on faith from
an "authority" is an absurdity, since this is how most human learning/thinking
proceeds (Cf. Wilken, 168 and 169). To know (reason) things of God one must
begin with faith in reliable witnesses--those who know God.Thirdly, since one
must decide who to believe or what to count as evidence, practically speaking, it
is the case that those who believe first think Christianity believable or possible.
These points are not meant to say that a given thing is true, but only that faith is
not itself an implausible way to begin to know something.
, Where does one encounter the source of faith? - One learns from those who
know God, that is, through other people, a lived tradition with its ways of
speaking about God.
Why does theology require an "authority"? - If theology's goal is true knowledge
of God and all things in relation to God, theology "turns to something we
ourselves have not devised" (31). And thus we can say that theology, if it is to
really be theology, requires something to turn to, some authority. This authority
is, of course, what God has revealed about the divine self and the world in
relation to God.
Is this authority the same things as the Bible? What does it mean to say the Bible
and Tradition are of the "same divine wellspring" (DV 9) That is, how are they
related? - The point is not that Christian revelation is in two separate places.
Rather, we must note that before there was a Bible there was the people who
wrote it, after "more or less [a] long process of oral tradition" (Ratzinger, 32).
Hence the Bible is inseparable from this people and their heirs, whom Ratzinger
calls the "People of God" (=the Tradition). In summary, we can speak of a
reciprocal relationship between the Church (people of God/Tradition) and the
Bible.
Who is (or are) the author or authors of Scripture? As a result of this, what kinds
of things are necessary to pay attention to in reading it? - It originates from both
God and humanity, or in other words is God's word in human language, an act of
condescension by God so that we can understand God. Pay attention to the fact
that the Bible is a collection of stories written by different people in different
times so must consider the context of the story when reading it.
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