DCT Topics Year 1
Augustine on Human Nature
Humans after the Fall
Pride caused the Fall
Divided will: desires/concupiscence control the will
Evil will precede the evil act
Satan plants envy into Adam and Eve's minds
Original Sin 'double death'
Passed on through sexual intercourse
Death of friendship and mortality
Salvation through God's grace not human will
Humans before the Fall
Human will in harmony
Adam and Eve live as friends (no lust)
Complete obedience to God and duties to the world
Cupiditas (self-love) and Caritas (generous love) in harmony
Modern Interpretations
Sexual guilt is cured through psychoanalysis not God's grace
The Fall and Original Sin are reminders of social moral responsibility
The Fall and Original Sin are causes of guilt and unhealthy behaviour
The Fall is not a historical event, but a symbol of each person's spiritual journey
Key Influences
Pelagians
The Fall did not cause universal guilt
Humans have enough free will to overcome personal sin
Manicheans
Salvation through abstinence
Higher soul desires God
Lower soul craves bodily delights
Platonists
Christ is an enlightened being: brings knowledge for salvation
Soul not able to fully control the body
Soul able to ascend through levels to the One (God)
Death and the Afterlife
Meaning of Jesus' ambiguous teaching on the Kingdom of God
Time and Judgement
Is Matthew 25 about Last Judgement or personal judgement of one's moral life now?
Is judgement personal or collective, at death or at the end of time?
Is the Kingdom a perfect/redeemed state of mind or place?
Meaning of Jesus' resurrection
God will create a new world for the good
God has forgiven humanity's sins
Revelation 21-22. Are heaven and hell actual or symbolic promises of reward and punishment?
Election
Limited
Predestination
Unlimited
Heaven
Symbol of personal or inner peace? Life after death or transformation of this world?
State of joy, seeing God 'face to face' everlasting bliss
Dante's vision of Paradise and the Beatific Vision
Catholic teaching: community of immortal souls who reign with Christ
Hell
State of eternal separation (punishment for mortal sins)
Symbol of alienation and guilty conscience
Dante's vision of physical torment by Lucifer
Spiritual state of separation (not eternal)
Purgatory
Catholic teaching: purification of the soul
Dante's vision of the journey of the soul overcoming temptations
Protestant teaching: no purgatory, but could be an intermediate state after death
Foretaste of heaven/hell now or after death
Knowledge of God's Existence
How can God be known?
God can be only known because he reveals himself; he is the redeemer of world
Because of Original Sin, humans cannot know God personally
God reveals himself through the person of Jesus Christ (as Mediator)
God's grace and redemption (regeneration) enables humans to have true knowledge/relationship with him
Calvin: faith is firm and certain knowledge in Christ, 'sealed by the Holy Spirit'
The Bible is God's revealed Word
God can be known through the human intellect because he is the creator of the world
All human cultures have an innate sense of the divine (sensis divinatatis)
Design, purpose, order, beauty and natural law provide points of contact with God
Rational arguments (ontological/cosmological etc.) for God's existence indicate God can be known through human reason
Aquinas' 'formed' faith is the rational assent and willingness to believe in the existence of God's existence
Reason and faith relationship. Natural and revealed theology relationship.
The Bible is the collection of human experiences of God
The Bible, prophets, the Church are also witnesses to God's revelation. The Bible is the 'soul of the Church'
Natural/revealed theology debate
Does natural theology undermine or support central Christian teachings?
Reason reduces God to human level and makes his grace meaningless
Barth
The natural world/reason provides general knowledge of God but not sufficient for salvation
Brunner
Natural theology can't prove or disprove God's existence: firm faith in God is philosophically coherent
Plantinga
Human imagination provides a natural means into the mystery of God
Hedley
Lack of reason leads to fideism
Catholic Church
Jesus Christ
Jesus the Teacher of Wisdom
Jesus' affirmation of living life well
Jesus' moral teaching - fulfilment of the law
Motive, forgiveness and repentance
Personal responsibility, inner purity
Is Jesus just a teacher of wisdom?
Jesus the Liberator
Jesus' political challenge
Liberator of those on the 'underside of history'
Liberation of the marginalised
Liberation of the poor
Is Jesus more than a liberator?
Jesus the Son of God
Jesus' relationship with God
Christianity from above, Jesus' divinity from below, Jesus' effect on people
Jesus' knowledge of God
Miracles and resurrection
Is Jesus unique?
Christian Moral Principles
Are Christian Moral Principles natural or revealed or both?
Heteronomous - Christian ethics and practices
Roman Catholic sources - Natural Law, reason, Magisterium, Bible, Conscience
Protestant sources - Bible, reason, Conscience, Church tradition, Christian community
Problems - Which sources are legitimate? Which sources have greater authority?
Autonomous - Christian ethics and practices
Roman Catholic - Hans Kung's global ethic: responsibility for personal judgements
Protestant - Joseph Fletcher's four working principles: situations judged according to agape
Problems - Could undermine the Magisterium of the Church. Is agape distinctively Christian?
Theonomous - Christian ethics and practices
Biblicism - the Bible is the revealed Word of God and is the only source of authority for Christian ethics
Key Bible Passages - Ten Commandments, Sermon on the Mount
Problem - How are contradictory Bible passages to be interpreted?
Christian Moral Action: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer's example of Christian moral life in action
Discipleship
Prayer, conscience, example of Christ, life in the Christian community
Cost of Discipleship: ethics as action, costly grace vs. cheap grace, sacrifice, suffering, 'crisis', solidarity against injustice
Life Examples: return from America as the 'terrible alternative', life in prison, execution in Flossenburg
Church as Community
Religionless Christianity needed to fil the Western void
No Christian can act morally in isolation: Church communities provide moral and spiritual tools to live in the wider society
Life Examples: involvement with the Confession Church and religious community of Finkenwalde
Duty to God, Duty to the State
Obedience to God's will can only be known in the moment of action
Civil Disobedience: the state must behave according to God's will. Church and state must be independent - the Church is the conscience of society
Life Examples: Radio broadcast (1933), member of the resistance, plot against Hitler