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Table of Contents 1

About this Guide

• Augustine – Human Nature
  Background & Influences
  Key Terms
  Structure of Thought
  Human Relationships Pre and Post-Fall
  Pre-Fall
  Post-Fall
  Original Sin – Effects on the Human Will & Society
  Augustine and Pelagius
  Human Selfishness & Free Will
  Lack of Stability & Corruption in Human Societies
  God’s Grace
  Strengths
  Weaknesses
  Possible Exam Questions
  Practise Question
  Key Quotes
• Death and the Afterlife
  Background & Influences
  Key Terms
  Structure of Thought
  Christian Teaching on Heaven, Hell and Purgatory
  Ideas about the Kingdom Taught by Jesus
  Problems
  Eschatological Teaching
  Hell – Different Ideas
  Purgatory
  Dante’s Vision
  Catholic Teaching on Purgatory
  Hick – The Intermediary State
  Heaven
  Election – Who Will Be Saved?
  Limited Election
  Unlimited Election
  Universalist Belief
  Predestination
  Election and Predestination
  Single and Double Predestination
  Calvin
  Thomas Aquinas and Catholicism
  Parable of Sheep & Goats (Matthew 25)
  Possible Exam Questions
  Practise Question
  Assess the view that there is no last judgement; each person is judged by God at the moment of their death.
  Key Quotes

Table of Contents 2

• Knowledge of God
  Background & Influences
  Key Terms
  Structure of Thought
  Natural Knowledge of God’s Existence as an Innate Sense of the Divine
  Sensus Divinitatis
  Innate Knowledge
  Sense of Beauty & Moral Goodness
  Human Intellectual Ability to Reflect on & Recognise God’s Existence
  Natural Knowledge in the Order of Creation
  Purpose
  Revealed Knowledge of God’s Existence
  The Fall and Human Finiteness
  Faith
  Grace
  Revealed Knowledge of God’s Existence in Jesus Christ
  Consider: can God be known by non-Christians?
  The Bible and the Life of the Church
  Q. What is the Barth/Brunner Debate?
  Brunner
  Barth
  Possible Exam Questions
  Practise Essay Question
  To what extent is faith in God rational?
  Key Quotes
• Person of Jesus Christ
  Background & Influences
  Key Terms
  Structure of Thought
  Jesus of History and the Christ of Faith
  1. E.P. Sanders
  2. Rudolph Bultmann
  3. Black Messiah – James Cone
  Jesus Christ’s Authority as Son of God
  1. Son of God and Messiah (Mark 6:47-52; John 9:1-41)
  2. Christology from Above
  3. Christology from Below
  4. Did Jesus Think He Was Son of God?
  5. Miracles do not necessarily indicate Jesus’ Divinity
  6. Birth and Incarnation
  Some Heretical Views
  Miracles as Signs of Salvation
  1. Redemption and Creation Miracles
  2. Resurrection as Miracle
  3. Doubting Thomas
  Jesus as Moral Teacher
  1. The Living Word (John 1)
  2. Jesus’ Moral Teaching
  3. Forgiveness and Repentance
  4. Personal Responsibility
  Jesus as Liberator
  Some Key Authors
  Liberator of the Marginalised
  Possible Exam Questions
  Practise Exam Question
  To what extent was Jesus merely a teacher of wisdom? (40 marks)
  Key Quotes

Table of Contents 3

• Christian Moral Principles
  Background and Influences
  Key Terms
  Different Approaches to a Christian Moral Reading of the Bible
  Hermeneutic (Interpretation) Factors
  Propositional & Non-Propositional Revelation
  The Bible as Sole Authority for Ethics
  Literalism – Is It Realistic?
  Contradictions
  Strengths of Bible – Sole Authority
  Weaknesses of Bible as Sole Authority
  Bible Church & Reason
  Ethical Heteronomy – Roman Catholicism
  Thomas Aquinas’ Natural Law
  Magisterium – Roman Catholic
  Veritatis Splendor (Splendour of Truth)
  Liberation Theology
  Conscience & Tradition
  Stanley Hauerwas
  Criticisms of the Bible, Faith & Reason
  Agape Love is All
  Autonomous
  Applied to Euthanasia
  Possible Exam Questions
  Practise Exam Question
  Assess the view that the Bible is the comprehensive moral guide for Christians.
  Key Quotes
• Christian Moral Action
  Background & Influences
  Key Terms
  Structure of Thought
  Duty to God & the State
  Responsibility to the State
  Obedience, Leadership & Doing God’s Will
  Justification for Civil Disobedience
  Civil Disobedience – Examples
  Church – Community & Discipline
  The Confessing Church
  Finkenwalde
  The Cost of Discipleship
  Bonhoeffer’s teaching on Ethics as action
  Costly Grace
  Sacrifice & Suffering
  Solidarity
  Strengths
  Weaknesses
  Possible Exam Questions
  Practise Exam Question
  “Bonhoeffer’s most important teaching is on leadership”, Discuss.
  Key Quotes

Table of Contents 4

• Religious Pluralism and Theology
  Background
  Specification
  Key Terms
  Structure of Thought
  Christian Teaching on Exclusivism
  Christian Teaching on Inclusivism
  Christian Teaching on Pluralism
  Challenges to Pluralism
  Supporting Hick
  Opposing Hick
  How Was Hick Influenced by Kant?
  Confusions to Avoid
  Possible Exam Questions
  Practise Exam Question
  Critically assess the view that Christianity offers the only means of salvation.
  Key Quotes
  Suggested Reading
• Religious Pluralism and Society
  Background
  Specification
  Key Terms
  Structure of Thought
  The Development of Multi-Faith Societies
  Example – Migration
  Responses to Inter-faith Dialogue
  David Ford: The Future of Christian Theology
  Catholic Church – Redemptoris Missio (Mission of the Redeemer)
  Church of England – Sharing the Gospel of Salvation
  The Scriptural Reasoning Movement
  Cambridge Inter-faith Forum
  Strengths
  Weaknesses
  Confusions to Avoid
  Possible Exam Questions
  Practise Exam Question
  To what extent does scriptural reasoning relativise religious beliefs?
  Key Quotes
  Suggested Reading

Table of Contents 5

• The Challenge of Secularism
  Background
  Specification
  Key Terms
  Structure of Thought
  The Rise of Secularism and Secularisation
  Important Aims to Understand
  Difficulty in Defining Secularism
  Sigmund Freud
  Supported by Hume
  Wish Fulfilment
  Challenges to Freud
  Richard Dawkins – Programmatic Secularism
  Example- Philomena Lee
  Responses to Dawkins – Alister McGrath
  The Dawkins Delusion
  Secular Humanism – Christian Belief is Personal
  Two Types of Secularism
  Education and Schools
  Government and State
  Objections to the Secularisation Model
  Key Confusions to Avoid
  Possible Exam Questions
  Practise Exam Question
  To what extent should Christianity play a part in public life?
  Key Quotes
  Suggested Reading
• Liberation Theology and Marx
  Background
  Specification
  Key Terms
  Structure of Thought
  Marx’s Teaching on Alienation and Exploitation
  What does this look like?
  Leonardo Boff’s Three Mediations
  Liberation Theology’s Use of Marx and Social Sin
  Liberation Theology’s Teaching on “Preferential Option for the Poor’
  Confusions to Avoid
  Possible Exam Questions
  Practise Exam Question
  “Liberation theology relies too much on Marx”. Discuss
  Key Quotes
  Suggested Reading

Table of Contents 6

• Gender and Society
  Background
  Key Terms
  Specification
  Gender – Essentialist or Existentialist
  Exploitation and Power (Michael Foucault)
  Gender as a Fluid Concept – Judith Butler (Gender Trouble 1990)
  Gender and Women’s Liberation
  The Changing idea of Family
  Christian views on Gender Roles
  Augustine on Gender Roles
  Aquinas on Gender Roles
  Luther (1483-1536) on Gender Roles
  Modern church on Gender Roles – Catholic, Liberal Protestant (USA)
  Christian Views on Social Changes
  Christian Teaching – the Bible
  Ephesians 5:22-33
  Christian Teaching- Roman Catholic Mulieris Dignitatem (MD)
  Possible Exam Questions
  Practise Exam Question
  Critically evaluate the view that idea of family is entirely culturally determined.
  Key Quotes
  Suggested Reading
• Gender and Theology
  Background
  Specification
  Key terms
  Structure of Thought – Ruether
  Hermeneutics of Suspicion
  Ruether’s Hermeneutic
  Ruether’s God-Concept
  Can a Male Saviour Save?
  The New Age and the Eschatological Community
  Criticisms of Ruether
  Background – Mary Daly
  Structure of Thought – Mary Daly
  The Myths that Bolster Patriarchy
  The Patriarchal God
  Myth of the Feminine
  The Scapegoat Christ
  A Fall into the Sacred
  Gyn/Ecology
  Criticisms of Daly
  Confusions to Avoid
  Possible Exam Questions
  Practise Exam Question
  “If God is male the male is God’. Discuss
  Key Quotes
  Suggested Reading
• Revision Resources