Term
| MLK: His Understanding of Time |
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Definition
12-14
From 13: “For years now I have heard the word “Wait!”...This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.”
“Wait, be patient” as if time holds the future
From 14: “We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights.
Protests don’t “just happen”
Time is the organizing piece
Philosophically: time is neutral --> time doesn’t hold the condition for change, nothing is inevitable
you make the time what you want it to be; individual creates quality of time
time is acted upon
-MLK video: “now is the time”
if someone just waits around for things to change, they will never change-must do something about it themselves
-action>inevitability, don’t get caught up in the false notion of gradualism
-time in relation to justice “We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied” (pg 3)
-pg 6 “Human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God…”
Qualitative vs. Quantitative |
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Term
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Definition
MLK video:
-Cannot have real/”true” freedom without justice
-”justice rolls down like water& righteousness like a holy stream” (referencing Book of Amos; the in breaking of the kingdom of God)
(Letter from Birmingham Jail) From 4: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly”
-”I’m here b/c injustice is here”(Jane Addams--caught up in a connection of humanity)
If the demonstrations, etc. become too much about law and order, justice cannot exist
-“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” (pg 1)
-an unjust law is no law at all (spirit of the law, letter of the law)
MLK long term goal- that people will come around
short term goal- change law to initiate justice |
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Term
| MLK: Disappointment with the White Moderate |
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Definition
23: “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is...the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”
Cannot blame King for what has happened; compares what is going on to a robber, Socrates, and Jesus (part 25)
Always an emphasis from white moderate on waiting. “It will come eventually.”
-disappointment in those who acknowledge the problem but don’t do anything about it
-white moderate believes that the problems will go away on their own (with time) but in order for change to come, action must be taken--more into keeping order
-white moderate=”who is more devoted to ‘order’; than to justice |
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Term
| MLK: Critiques of Christian Religious Practices |
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Definition
33: “I have been so greatly disappointed by the white church and it’s leadership.”
37: White church leaders say to follow integration busing “because it is the law,” not because “integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother.”
“I have heard many ministers say ‘Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern.’”
Church should be like thermostat (sets environmental conditions), instead of thermometer (responsive to environment)
-draws on christian history--they were once willing to die for what they believed in
-religious leaders were trying to separate social issues from the gospel, but the gospel was actually showing how people should act during social issues
-“I have heard many ministers day: ‘Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern’”. (9)
-Early Christians themselves were prosecuted and marginalized (9)à at this time churches were thermostats, and MLK wants them to be this way again |
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Term
| MLK: Maladjusted Extremists |
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Definition
-clergymen call MLK a “maladjusted extremist”
Jesus and others (prophets, Paul) were extremists, therefore he doesn’t mind being one
30-31
31: “Will we be extremists for hate or love?”
-the idea that an extremist is not actually a bad thing
-MLK is an extremist for love <3 |
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Term
| MLK: What “just” laws are |
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Definition
16: “A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.”
Uses Thomas Aquinas
“All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority...Segregation is not only politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful.”
-any human law that doesn’t satisfy the eternal law is unjust
GOD (law/grammar)
eternal law (grammar/structure of God)
natural law (“telos”; something’s purpose)
revealed law (through scripture)
divine positive law (sense of duty)
human positive law (laws that hold society together; promote ppl)
-just law uplifts human personhoods |
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Term
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Definition
33: “I commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Spring Hill College several years ago.”
-Jesuit school
-Catholic leaders integrated this school a couple years before the letter of a Birmingham Jail was written
-MLK commends them, but thinks Catholics can do more |
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Term
| Aristotle: Virtue - Know, Choose, Do |
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Definition
A virtuous action is knowing choosing and doing
p.1 “virtue, then is about feelings and actions.
virtuous action: doing good for itself and consequences |
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Term
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Definition
p. 1 “What comes about by force or because of ignorance seems to be involuntary. What is forced has external origin
-i.e. Sweeney pushes Ryan down the stairs and he kills her cat, not his fault
Aristotle: Voluntary
action is voluntary → receives praise or blame
origin in the agent himself when he knows the particulars that the action consists in |
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Term
| Aristotle: Involuntary (in ignorance) |
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Definition
action is involuntary → receives pity or pardon
by ignorance or force- if you rufy yourself-voluntary
in ignorance - what degree of responsibility does one have?- if someone else rufies you-involuntary
ignorance is an external force
-we are always acting in the context of presented/available options |
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Term
| Aristotle: Non-voluntary (by ignorance) |
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Definition
| p. 3 “Everything caused by ignorance is non-voluntary, but what is non-voluntary causes pain and regret” |
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Term
| Aristotle: Competing Goods |
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Definition
| p. 1 Actions done because of fear of greater evils, or because of something fine(???). God made everything so everything is good but some things are lesser goods. |
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Term
| Aristotle: Choiceworthy situations |
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Definition
p. 2 “For at the time they are done they are choiceworthy, and the goal of an action reflects the occasion.”
-situation where there’s no force; even under duress |
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Term
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Definition
in ignorance - don’t know
(someone spikes your drink and you get drunk and do something stupid) in ignorance is if you are inactively put in a state of ignorance (getting roofied) IN ignorance is INvoluntary |
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Term
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Definition
acting in ignorance voluntarily; voluntarily putting yourself in a situation where you become ignorant (getting drunk to get shwasted then do soemthing stupid)
guard in Antigone - “just the messenger, “just doing my job”
put yourself in that situation, rendering yourself ignorant, get blackout drunk taking shots on your own accord |
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Term
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Definition
There are conditions on free will; we always have a choice but certain things limit our abilities ;
situational ; even in situations of duress you are responsible or the choices you make because it IS a choice (unless completely forced according to his definition)
-Can’t love God unless you have the option not to love God.
-Nicomachean ethics |
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Term
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Definition
Who Augustine is talking with during On Free Choice of the Will; his student
-asked why does free will allow people to sin if God gave it to them because everything from God is supposed to be good |
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Term
| Augustine: Free Will, and Why God Gave It to Humans |
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Definition
p 20 “If human beings are good things, and they cannot do right unless they so will, then they ought to have free will, without which they cannot do right. True, they can also use free will to sin, but we should not therefore believe that God gave them free will so that they would be able to sin.”
If God made it, therefore it must be good → God made humans who must be good, who have free will, which must be good.(ardently trying to defend God--Plato)
Humans do bad things. God can’t create bad. Therefore, Humans must have free will.
Humans can’t live rightly without free will, it renders us praiseworthy or blameworthy |
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Term
| Augustine: Faith Seeking Understanding |
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Definition
Faith and reason are not at odds with each other
Faith first, then knowledge → Faith seeking understanding
-beliefs
-using reason to understand and explain beliefs |
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Term
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Definition
p. 25
Sin is turning away from final good
When the will cleaves to private, external, inferior, it sins
Sins are actions done for reasons that don’t pursue the good--contradicting Plato/Aristotle who say humans naturally always seek the good
p. 28 “the movement by which the will turns from enjoying the Creator to enjoying his creatures belongs to the will itself.”
“Sin is turning away from the unchangeable good to the inferior good”
-when you misuse material goods |
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Term
| Augustine: Human Freedom and God’s Foreknowledge |
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Definition
By definition the will is free, if it weren’t, it wouldn’t be a will. If it weren’t true that we have free will because God has all foreknowledge, human beings wouldn’t be responsible.
God has foreknowledge and human beings have free will
-if God forsees everything then do we actually have freewill or is it planned/necessary?
-we have a choice God just knows it |
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Term
| Augustine: What’s at Stake in On Free Choice of the Will |
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Definition
If God didn’t give human beings free will, and if we didn’t have free will, then we wouldn’t be culpable for sins. Which means that God would be the creator of sin, but in Augustine’s eyes, that can’t be the case, so Augustine defends that we have free will so that God will not be understood as creating something bad
-if there’s only one way to use freewill is it really free?
-even if God foreknows something the will still has the will to choose differently; as if God is watching a movie of us again(he knows what’s going to happen but he isn’t making it happen)
-God is not the creator of sin |
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Term
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Definition
p. 25 “What is evil is the turning of the will away from the unchangeable good and toward the changeable goods.”
Absence of good/Absence of God--perpetuated by the will of the human
-if God is all-good and made everything than nothing can be 100% evil b/c then it wouldn’t exist |
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Term
| Augustine: Human Happiness and Its Source |
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Definition
when one cleaves to the final (unchangeable) good, one is happy (p. 24)
we become happy by using our free will to cling to truth and wisdom
-happiness comes from fulfilling human “telos” (see below)= understanding/seeking God/Good |
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Term
| Augustine: Human Freedom and Human Telos |
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Definition
Telos: something’s purpose; human’s purpose is to seek the good
can only come to understand the good through freedom (free will)
must also understand bad to understand good
-can’t seek the purpose, the end all be all, without free will |
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Term
| Augustine: Influences of Plato and Aristotle in On Free Choice of the Will |
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Definition
p. 23-24: The Divided Line → ranking things in order of their closeness to the good
Plato: dialogue format, demonstrate/prove (don’t assume), primacy of good (everything that exists gets its existence from the good, particulars are good because they are created by God, everything that exists because God created it) |
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Term
| E Johnson: The Living God |
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Definition
p. 4
Living means the opposite of dead
There is always always more to divine Mystery than human beings can nail down
relevance in time. god exists in a human context. God doesn’t change but human interpretation does based upon time and place. DYNAMIC (yay steph) understanding and experience of God. |
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Term
| E. Johnson: What Theology Is and How It Happens – Experience » Critical Reflection » Action |
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Definition
process of theology: religious experience → theological reflection (Aquinas, Amos) → practical action (Aquinas, Amos, MLK, Johnson, Paul Tillich)
thing theology is talking about (God) cannot get too far from one’s experience of God
critical experience--experience--action
-critical reflection upon experience that leads to action--theology always engages with its surroundings
-expresses the inexpressable; attempting to contain powerful emotion/power into language--exceeds the limits of language
-levels of theology:
first level: experience of God
second level: articulation of experience
third level: articulation of the articulation
-hermenuetics: the spirit of God is always interpreted by a person’s person; determined by already existing conditions
-danger of getting stuck in what others are saying& being so far away from God
-good theology: how do words arouse the experience of that that is being discussed? |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Mysterium tremendum fascinans |
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Definition
How we experience the holy spirit p. 8-9
Mysterium: hidden character of the Holy Spirit, more fullness exists than we can grasp
Tremendum: awesome character of this mystery (we are filled with awe) in so far as it is beyond our control
Fascinans: it is overwhelmingly gracious, what we hunger/desire for (we dont understand God but we still get grace) |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Whither of Our Self-Transcendence |
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Definition
p. 35 “The whither of our self-transcendence is that toward which we are journeying, the goal toward which our self transcending minds and hearts are forever reaching”
uses human questioning to open up possibility of God
Rahner
p. 36 “The concept ‘God: is not a grasp of God by which a person masters the mystery; but it is the means by which one lets oneself be grasped by the mystery which is present yet ever distant”
journey not the destination. |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Languages about/for God – Benefits and Dangers of Language about God |
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Definition
p 18-19: language is intentionally confounding; analogy
Without language, cannot exist (Helen Keller); language is good because it gives existence to things.
God is not an object → language objectifies things
just because we can’t have totality, doesn’t mean we can’t hold part of it--> Augustine and Child on the beach: can’t fit the entire ocean into the hole in the sand, but can have part of it or experience of it |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Language about God – Language with God |
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Definition
when discoursing about God we must discourse with God
p. 20-21: “only when the presence of God encounters us at our very deepest point are we freed form the desire to grasp and define.” |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Names for God and Why we Need Many of Them |
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Definition
p. 21
No one term or image is ever adequate
-“free our imagination from the standard cultural model of the divine” (22)
-must have many because it is dangerous to get stuck with one image/name
-different words have different meanings thus giving us a broader understanding of God |
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Term
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Definition
p. 51
Trying to explain who God is and how does he relate to difficult questions (i.e. why did the Holocaust happen?)
Theodicy has to deal with mass, public suffering, not personal suffering
God also suffers (Jesus on the cross)
Johnson suggests that Theodicy is not enough. There needs to be more discussion? Claire is going to look up what she actually suggests. |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Hebrew and Greek Understandings of God |
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Definition
p. 57 Hebrew: traces the historical revelation at the core of biblical tradition; God becomes active in history. participatory
Greek: steeped in reason and philosophy; drives wedge between spirit and matter; non participatory |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Relationship between Mysticism and Politics |
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Definition
Love of neighbor must go beyond private relationships but must be expressed in Christian responsibility for the social sphere
Mysticism and responsibility are inseparable; we experience something of God
Mysticism= practicing your faith.
Live your faith in society → not just for yourself. |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Intellectual v. Experiential Knowledge of God |
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Definition
Intellectual: Thinkers engaged theological claims during the Enlightenment
Experiential: exactly that; experience of God written down i.e. the Bible/OT (p. 74) |
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Term
| E. Johnson: “The glory of God is the human being fully alive.” |
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Definition
Oscar Romero quote
The glory of God is the whole human race
p. 82 “In choosing to create, save, and dwell within the world, holy mystery has made the world and its inhabitants precious beyond all telling. Harming human beings inflicting violence or neglecting their good, translates logically into an insult to the Holy One.”
God made us so we are good. If you damage other people, you are damaging God’s goodness. |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Preferential Option for the Poor |
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Definition
God cares for and loves all, including the poor and oppressed
p 74 suffering is caused by humans, and thus must end with humans
In theological shorthand this is known as God’s preferential option for the poor. THe sole reason for this partiality is divine love, which freely sides with the poor not because they are more saintly or less sinful that others but because of their situation. The purpose of this Divine love revealed to be truly universal, because it includes the nonpersons whom the powerful and wealthy thought did not count.
Torah - Creation and covenant
Prophets: Amos, Isiah (connection to Jesus → compassion and love)
Wisdom Lit: Job
Special love for the poor. HE OR SHE (god). Errbody gets a full cup (metaphor courtesy of Barron Flood) .Humans are cups some peoples cups are less full. so god fills em up with the preferential option for the poor |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Orthodoxy – Orthopraxy |
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Definition
doxy - right thought
praxy - right action |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Pie-in-the Sky, or Saving Grace / Salvation now |
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Definition
God is “up there”; he is removed from human beings p. 73
poverty was somehow permitted by God’s will
Salvation now - focus a lot on Jesus’ suffering and humanity
“in situations of misery God is not neutral”
God cannot be separated from the reign of God (p. 83) |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Personal Sin / Social Sin/ Structural Sin |
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Definition
Personal sin is of the individual
Personal sin can lead to social sin, as something may become the “norm”
ex: The attitude that poverty is a result of someone not being loved by God
Structural sin: social sin that exists for a long time and has become a structure in society, something difficult to change; violates human worth; comes when power is introduced
Red shirt example - social norms become structuralized in laws. |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Why Poverty is a theological issue and thus a structural evil |
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Definition
God has preferential option for the poor
Dignity of human beings called into question, therefore it becomes theological
The answer is that all human beings are loved by God, so why do the poor get treated differently/are not helped? |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Interreligious Dialogues chapter 8 |
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Definition
1. life: living and working together with people of different religions
2. action: religions work together for a particular cause
3. religious experience: interfaith opportunities
4. theological exchange: can learn about your own religion as well as another |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Approaches to saving nature of differing religions |
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Definition
optimism of grace after 2nd Vatican
impossible to act goodly without motivating factor.source of God
if actions reflect Catholic teachings, one is saved
God’s presence is in the world
can non-christians be saved?
if yes, is it as a result of their faith or in spite of it?
if as a result of their faith, then does that mean other religions enjoy meaning in God’s plan for human history?
there is a reason everyone does good. For Christians, it is good because of God, in other religions it could be labelled differently. |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Feminist Theology |
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Definition
athiests view God as male → repeated physical anthropomorphism of who God is
contextual theology → whose experiences are being written down
language (God as a man): gets taken literally and becomes an idol, has negative social affects, women are less like God than men
expansive language → wisdom/sophia: female, mother hen
sexism is a sin because perpetuated degradation of full humanity of a person |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Political Theology |
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Definition
Theology became more individualistic through democracy and literacy rates going up
after Vatican II, people were encouraged to read their Bibles more.
hold belief in God accountable in the public arena. challenges the privatization of religion. |
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Term
| E. Johnson: African American spirituals and implicit theology therein |
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Definition
who is God in spirituals? → will stop suffering, someone who will guide them, protects, helps
isn’t an academic theology
similar experiences to Exodus/Israelites
coded messages
The songs from in class, a way of experiencing god |
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Term
| E. Johnson: Enlightenment Approaches to God, and Advantages and Disadvantages of This |
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Definition
science: pragmatic mentality rather than “supernatural causes”
politics: democracy, more individual, critical thinking increases
intellectual: thinkers engage in theological claims, even though they may not have theological experiences
What good comes out of this?
-how do we really know what we know
-questioning religion
-development of science
-emphasis on the individual
-emphasis on education, desire to teach the mind
Bad things?
-God gets explained away and is rendered unnecessary, obsolete. Don't need God to explain disease anymore because science can do it.
-burden of proof changes: prior to enlightenment it was demonstrate that God doesn't exist, now it's proof that God does exist.
-over emphasis on reason: human mind thinks its true and therefore it must be true |
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Term
| Dostoevsky: Ivan’s and Zossima’s contrasting responses to the suffering of the world |
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Definition
Ivan: believes in God but doesn’t accept God’s world
one cannot have freedom and happiness
stories of cruelty
Zossima: has freedom and happiness
we are free when we can free ourselves form self-centered cravings and commit to accomplishing things for the world. happiness comes from accepting life on life’s own terms including suffering. strip oneself of worldly posessions for happiness. |
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Term
| Dostoevsky: Zossima’s and the Stranger’s understanding of slavery |
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Definition
Zossima: we enslave ourselves to things we think free us; people want what others have, physical world makes us less free
Stranger’s: one is greater through community. to be separated from one another is unnatural
Pg. 50
Ivan: The demon of rage and lust exists in every human being. Structural about human beings.
Afanasy: servant, creates power structure. He is beholden to Zossima. Zossima takes out his aggression on a person who cannot defend himself (pertaining to social structure at the time)
"That is what a man has been brought to, and that was a man beating in a fellow creature!" page 51
"After all, what am I worth that another man, a fellow creature, made in the likeness and image of God, should serve me?" pg. 51 |
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Term
| Dostoevsky: Critique of modern materialist enslavement |
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Definition
must free ourselves from things that bind us to materials; anything can become an addiction
life of a monk is to pray and to build community and structure
“Zossima is not saying all material desires are bad. Rather, superfluous material desires are not good. It’s important to not fall into the trap the spirit = good, matter = bad. Zossima cares very much about material conditions and well-being, but also understands material goods as intermediate ends. “ - Meghan T. Sweeney (aka The Sweenster)
The idea is to discipline the will so that it no longer wants these superfluous desires. |
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Term
| Dostoevsky: Connections between Markel and Zossima |
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Definition
Markel realizes that we’re responsible for everyone (p. 41); sudden realization
mother blames it on the fact that he’s sick; he is speaking nonsense
Zossima’s realization is also sudden. Called a coward when he does not fire back; explains himself but says he is going to become a monk, so what he is doing becomes accepted, unlike his brother |
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Term
| Dostoevsky: What the figures in the “The Grand Inquisitor” story mean for Dostoevsky |
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Definition
Grand Inquisitor: magisterial Roman Catholicism (authoritarianism)-too much authority, so no freedom and no happiness
Old man - Jesus → Protestantism (too much freedom), also silent
response that coming of Christ has worsened condition of humans → freedom is a burden not a gift, too much freedom and no happiness |
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Term
| Dostoevsky: 3 temptations of Jesus and what they mean |
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Definition
1. stone into bread: inquisitor annoyed because would have given people what they needed--food
2. fall from cliff and have angels catch you: cheap belief
3. temporal authority over the whole world: has control; humans don’t have to deal with the burden of freedom
The Grand Inquisitor is mad because Jesus didn’t utilize his freedom to help out humans. |
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Term
| Gutierrez: Temporal Retribution, connection with Justification/Sanctification |
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Definition
temporal retribution → you must have done something wrong for God to punish you
can’t be true, because Job did nothing wrong, yet he suffered
Job develops relationship WITH God; makes him want to care for suffering in the world |
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Term
| Gutierrez: Problems with Job’s friends’ theological language/speech |
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Definition
friends are speculative → talk (not experience) can spin out of control
once you experience something, it changes one’s perspective
Job goes from talking about God to talking TO God.
Emphasis on reason - he knew that he had not done anything that bad |
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Term
| Bhagavad Gita: Atman/Brahman |
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Definition
Brahman – the whole God is present in every selfless action
ultimate reality; ground of all being
Atman: the Self; Brahman within a particular being (the Brahman in YOU) |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
who one is within themselves; “Supreme Self”
Wisdom is path to understanding supreme self (p. 70)
-Wisdom to reach ‘your best self’ |
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Term
| Bhagavad Gita: Brahma / Vishnu / Shiva |
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Definition
Hindu Triumverate
Brahma - unembodied/ no incarnation
Shiva - Ganesh → son of Shiva
Vishnu
Krishna - incarnation of Vishnu |
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Term
| Bhagavad Gita: Krishna, Arjuna |
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Definition
| Krishna provides Arjuna with the spiritual means to take action under trying circumstances |
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Term
| Bhagavad Gita: Significance of the Story’s Location |
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Definition
| morning of a climactic battle - there is always a battle within human beings to reach toward the good or the Supreme Self, responsibility of the person to adhere to their “dharma”. |
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Term
| Bhagavad Gita: Types of Yoga |
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Definition
Raja: mental concentration
Jnana: rational inquiry
Karma: path of action
Bhakti: devotional, worship, puja (daily worship) |
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Term
| Bhagavad Gita: Gunas and the Self |
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Definition
gunas: capacities within a human person; yoga practices discipline guna
harmony/balance, energy, passion, ignorance
The three gunas are:
tamas – inertia; a tamastic person is sluggish, indifferent
rajas – activity; a rajastic person is full of energy
sattva – harmony; a sattvic person is calm and compassionate |
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Term
| Bhagavad Gita: Non-attachment |
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Definition
Brahman: freedom from self-attachment
Ch 12 Lines 18-19 – separate good from bad, Krishna saying to let go because those are selfish attachments. Important things are harmony with all beings
Jesus Before Christianity – making other’s pain your own
GI – moving toward unchangeable good |
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Term
| Bhagavad Gita: Non-reactivity |
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Definition
don’t attach to results; do something because it makes you happy
pay attention to the process because the process is the product |
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Term
| Day: Progressions to/from/between Christianity and Marxist movements |
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Definition
Attraction initially: experiences with watching other kids/families live out their faith, attracted to aesthetics/music, stability, life is fuller and richer
Rejection of Christianity: conscious effort to get religion out of life, disregard for world around her
Attraction to Marxist: Rayna Prohme, need to study socialism more, exposed to socialists, leftists are relevant, people embody things for her, “the Masses”
Attraction to Christianity/Rejection of Marxist: “living for myself,” child baptized, entrance into Church, couldn’t be involved in leftist movements, sympathetic suffering with the masses in NYC, solidarity born out of religious background, foundation that brings people together, structure of church is attractive → interweave spiritual and daily life
Synthesis of both: non-violent protests, love, respect for all of humanity, Catholic Worker, sees God in ordinary, charity and justice; can’t have one without the other, speaks out about injustices |
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Term
| Day: Natural / Supernatural |
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Definition
ordinary is a sight of transcendence
there is a foundation that brings people together that is bigger than human beings
supernatural: as in going from ordinary (washing dishes) to supernatural (praying and being involved in a larger spiritual world) |
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Term
| Day: Sacrament / Sacramental |
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Definition
sacrament - specific action in which one finds God
sacramental - describing an action in which one may find God |
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Term
| Day: Particularity / Details / Writing |
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Definition
writing opens up avenue of reflecting
writing lets her see more clearly
writing is a form of activism
have to observe/see
she pays attention to the details → way to hold onto the world
thru details, begins to think more about abstract concepts |
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Term
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Definition
| Her interest in Christianity began like that, but as she grew older, she didn’t like that God was so far away, but when she realized that God was not this “pie in the sky” figure, but was here on earth, she began to merge Christianity and Radicalism |
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Term
| Day: Eschatology and Ethics |
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Definition
| eschatology - study of “the end” |
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Term
| Farmer: Liberation Theology |
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Definition
help eradicate underlying problems
observe, judge, act (know, choose, do => in aristotle’s words)
helps restore the dignity of all human beings
relieve poverty through social justice, not just charity and development
live in solidarity with those in poverty
how can you be a __(physician, lawyer, farmer, teacher, etc.)___ in service of the poor?
God has a preferential option for the poor. Basic idea of liberation Theology. |
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Term
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Definition
More focused, personalized, and specific version of history than the general ‘History’
which histories are being told in the history books?
not the Black Matriarch’s (their microhistories aren’t told)
stories can always be told another way
p. 16 “These extended...
history (fact) v. memory (subjective) |
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Term
| Townes: Contextual Theology |
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Definition
theology must always be done in context to how the world is around them
it has to be relevant
poverty is a theological/ethical concern (p. 124)
black matriarch puts blame on the individual |
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Term
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Definition
patterns of interpretation/thinking
to change a pattern of thinking is scary/difficult
red shirt example - a powerful person who hates red shirts can spread this thought and then this can become institutionalized...how do you change this pattern of thinking?
>>Biblical hermeneutics is the study of the principles of interpretation concerning the books of the Bible. It is part of the broader field of hermeneutics which involves the study of principles for the text and includes all forms of communication: verbal and nonverbal |
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Term
| Townes: Justification / Sanctification |
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Definition
there is a cultural production of evil
people are not “saved” based on their socioeconomic standing aka the poor aren’t poor because they did anything wrong; living in solidarity with the poor
you have money, so you’re “blessed”. the intention wasn’t for material well-being to be tied to being loved by God.Inverting the equation in that blessedness is a mark of justification.
Justification: you are rich, and therefore because you are rich god has blessed you; being saved;Being chosen by God yields a kind of blessedness.
Sanctification:blessedness |
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Term
| Townes: Fantastic Hegemonic Imagination |
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Definition
fantasy (desire and possibility; pros) (fear; neg)
hegemonic - empire, one way of living that deploys power
imagination - an image, deployment of idea
serves to maintain deep-seated understandings
deeply held stereotypes (good and bad)--> so engrained in society and social way of thinking that the stereotypes are made without even thinking about it (aka I see a guy walking in front of me wearing certain things and of a certain race, i automatically classify him without thinking/knowing i’m doing it)
The Black Mammy → poverty is a moral failure
embodies everything deemed to be wrong
take worst of what you think you’re seeing and make it normative for an entire group of people |
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Term
| Addams: Christianity as a Social Religion |
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Definition
way of living, not a religion
humanitarianism
The premise of Christianity is that human beings need to be saved → Jesus is a part of this salvation
social salvation (human beings are saved through their interactions, through love) and individual salvation are interrelated |
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Term
| Addams: Interdependence of People |
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Definition
People depend on each other
The whole premise of the Settlements |
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Term
| Addams: Christian Impulses |
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Definition
help others
early Christians believed in love as a cosmic force
deep enthusiasm for humanity |
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Term
| Addams: Challenges for Young People |
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Definition
told to help the world in India and China, or “over there” far away, instead of doing something to fix the problems that exist in their own communities
only real way they can help the poor is to become a religious
want to go back and study but that’s “out of the ordinary” |
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Term
| Addams: Her Basic Anthropology |
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Definition
Human beings need other human beings to be human, that is what we all want and desire and through Settlements we can achieve that
HUMAN SOLIDARITY, especially when it comes to helping those in poverty |
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Term
| Power and Knowledge, and the relationship between them |
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Definition
-Enslaved African Spirituals
-a sense of power becomes affiliated with experience--whose stories will be silenced?
-interpretation differs--who’s right? how do we know?
-contextual structured by society--the powerful |
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Term
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Definition
describing what God is rather what He is not
Negative Theology
+: God is a rock.
-: God is not a rock. (not literally)
--: God is not not a rock. (not not a rock?)
+: God is a rock. (so he is a rock)
++: God exceeds rockness. |
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Term
| “In the beginning, God created…” / Imago Dei |
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Definition
-Easter Vigil Hebrew Bible texts
-time begins with creation; setting up a different time/existence
-objectivity, time and existence are tied together and God is before them |
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Term
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Definition
“in our attempt to give a girl pleasure and freedom from care, we succeed, for the most part, in making her pitifully miserable” - 4
Talks about freedom in the early church along with the quote about Jesus commanding everyone to love one another with “joyous simplicity” - 5
restriction leads to unhappiness - 5 |
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Term
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Definition
restriction leads to unhappiness - 5
early christians were happy “a happiness ranging from the heroic to the pastoral enveloped them. They were to possess a revelation as long as life had new meaning to unfold, new action to purpose” -6 |
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Term
| Principle of Subsidiarity |
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Definition
From Shipler
-political philosophy
-figuring out the analysis of a problem and what are the appropriate ways of dealing with the problem
-looks at a need in a particular situation and then attends to it as it is appropriate.
-if there are multiple spheres impacting the problem then need to solve it by looking at multiple spheres of power/influence |
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Term
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Definition
orthodoxy- beliefs, scriptures
orthopraxy- practice, action |
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Term
Personal Sin / Social Sin / Structural Sin
Personal Good / Social Good / Structural Good
Source of Good / How humans understand Good
Relationship among theology, ideology, privilege, power, public policy, and structural/social sin
Interdependence / Interconnectedness of All
Community |
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Definition
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Term
| E Johnson Three Levels of Theology |
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Definition
1. Experience
2. Articulation of experience
3. articulation of articulation
(hermeneutics) |
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