Theology

Midterm Study Guide – Understanding Theology

Identifications – Write brief but complete descriptions of the word. If you know what language the word is in (Greek, Hebrew, etc), the literal translation of the word, or if the word is associated with one thinker or a particular school of theology – make sure to include that in the definition. While exact dates are not mandatory, you should generally know the time period of when certain thinkers lived (e.g. you can list the centuries of the thinkers or round dates to the nearest 50 years as discussed in class). Make sure to use information from the text-book to flesh out your notes from class and give a full answer. Full answers are more than a few words but not as long as a full essay. Three to five sentences is a good general rule. Sometimes a word requires a little more or a little less. A good general guideline is to NOT assume I know anything. Explain your answer to me like I do not know any theology at all and you want to make sure I understand a basic term or definition.

There will only be 10 words to choose from on the day of the test and you will only have to complete 8.

Arianism Augustine

Patristic Gnosticism

Donatism Pelagianism

Christ scholasticism

Thomas Aquinas Martin Luther

Enlightenment orthodoxy

heresy apophatic/cataphatic (p. 164)

Yeshua ben Yosef agape

Imago Dei Theological Anthropology

Esse (p. 18 in Himes) theology

Short answer questions – Write brief answers in the form of a mini-essay for each question in order to explain your understanding of the topic. Your answers should be more than a sentence or two but it need not be pages of writing. There will only be 3 questions to choose from and you will only have to do 2.

1) Describe the two ways of knowing we discussed in class after we watched the videos about how the brain works and the small chart of two ways of knowing (the linear mind and the deep mind). How does this cause problems for us we attempt to “understand” theology in contemporary times?

2) Explain how God can be thought of more accurately as a verb rather than a noun.

3) Re-read the article Change Your Way of Seeing by Robert Barron (that is on blackboard in the content folder). Explain what he means by Christianity is mainly about a way of seeing. Connect it with what we have read and discussed in class and experienced in the podcasts. In your explanation make sure to discuss metanoia as described in the article.

4) In Himes, chapter two, what is difficult about being human? What is wonderful about being human, and utterly dependent on God?