Prof. Randall Smith     
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Teachings of the Catholic Church

St.Sophia
Class Syllabus


Catechism of the Catholic Church


Semester-Long Reflection on the Nature of Suffering


Class Lecture Review Questions:

THEOLOGY AND THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS OF LIFE

1. Why Am I Here?  Man's Search For Meaning

Texts for Reflection: Luke 14:27-33 ("Who when he is building a tower ..."). The opening lines of Fides et Ratio by Pope John Paul II ("Know Thyself")

Readings:
Thomas Aquinas, Treatise on Happiness (Q.2: In What Does Man's Happiness Consist?)
Victor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
"Want the Job? Tell Him About the Meaning of Life," The New York Times
Stephen Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Dennis Ford, The Search for Meaning

Questions for Consideration:  How important is having a sense of meaning and purpose to authentic freedom?  How important is 'knowing youself" to authentic freedom?

2. Am I Ready?  Asking The Fundamental Questions During The First Year Out

Text for Reflection: "For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps... Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." (Mt 25:3,13)

Readings:

Tim Clydesdale, The First Year Out: Understanding American Teens after High School (selection)
Robert Leamnson, Thinking about Teaching and Learning, "Today's First Year Students"

Questions for Consideration:  If authentic freedom means confronting fundamental questions such as "Who am I?"  "Where am I going?"  and "What is the meaning and purpose of life?" are you a person ready for freedom?  Or are you content to live out a script written for you by someone else?  If a "conversation" requires at least two listeners, are you ready for a conversation?  Are you ready for this class?

3. Who Am I?  Meaning And Identity In Contemporary American Culture

Text for Reflection:  James 1:22-24 ("He looks at his own face in the mirror, and then promptly forgets it.")

Readings:

“Snapshots of America’s Finances”
“An Impressionable Age,” Ruth La Ferla, The New York Times
James Twitchell, Lead Us Into Temptation (selections)
“Private Property and the Universal Destination of Material Goods,” Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus
"Vision and Illusion," Thomas Merton, Ascent to Truth

Also, choose one of the following that interests you to report on in your group:

“Bridging Hip-Hop Consumers and Suits,” Jeff Leeds, The New York Times
“Well-Off but Still Pressed, Doctor Could Use Tax Cut,” Jim Yardley, The New York Times
Jean Kilbourne, “Still Killing Us Softly: Advertising and the Obsession with Thinness”
“Body-Conscious Boys Adopt Athletes’ Taste for Steroids,” Timothy Egan
The Millionaire Mind, Thomas J. Stanley,  (selection)

Additional Assignment:  Watch the video The Merchants of Cool

Questions for Consideration: What happens when we don't ask the fundamental questions of meaning and identity?  So, for example, how do most young people and adults in American culture give themselves a sense of meaning and identity?  What are some of the results of defining oneself and one's worth in this way?  Why is having a sense of meaning and purpose important to authentic freedom?  Why is 'knowing oneself" important to authentic freedom?  How much influenced are you by advertizing, packaging, and branding?  How much influenced are your friends?  How much influenced by advertizing, packaging, and branding would your friends and family say you are?  Are they wrong?  Do they know you better than you know yourself?

4. Where Am I Coming From?  Identity And The Social Pecking Order 

Texts for Reflection:  "And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Rom 12:2)

Reading:

Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids (selections)

Additional Assignment:  Watch the video People Like Us

Questions for Consideration:  How do most young people and adults in American culture give themselves a sense of meaning and identity?  What are some of the results of defining oneself and one's worth in this way?  Why do American teenagers treat each other the way they do in high school?  What would need to change for them to treat each other better?  How do you view other teenagers?  How do you treat them?  What would need to change for you to treat them better?

5. Where Am I Going?  Religion, Spirituality, And Education In The Lives Of Emerging Adults

Text for Reflection:  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. (1 Cor 13:11)

Readings:

Christian Smith, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (selection)

Questions for Consideration:  Where do you want to be in four years?  Who do you want to be in four years?  In what ways do you expect to be different?  The same?  What challenges do you expect to have to face?  What skills (both educational and life skills) will you have to develop during the next several years of you are to reach your goal?  How will you develop them?  How will you know that you are developing them?

6. Am I Becoming The Person I Want To Be?  Ordinary Men, Extraordinary Evil

Texts for Reflection:  "He began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." (Lk 12:1); "He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." (Mk 7:6)

Readings:

Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
Hierarchy and Role,” David R. Blumenthal, The Banality of Good and Evil

Questions for Consideration:  What would you do if you had to make a choice such as the one faced by the "ordinary men" of Reserve Police Batallion 101?  If you don't know what you would do, are there changes you can make to ensure that you become the sort of person you want to be?  Do you suppose your answers to any of the "Questions for Reflection" above would be relevant in the kind of choices you would make?  How?

7. Who Do I Want To Be Like?  Ordinary Men and Woman, Extraordinary Good

Text for Reflection:  "Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. (Mt 13:33)

Readings:

“Remembering the Rescuers,” Patrick Henry, First Things
Magda and the Great Virtues,” Philip Hallie, In the Eye of the Hurricane
 
 
Additional Assignment:  Watch the video Weapons of the Spirit

Questions for Consideration:  Would you do what Magda Trocme and the villagers of Le Chambon did if you were faced with a similar choice?  If you don't kinow what you would do, are there changes you can make to ensure that you become the sort of person you want to be?  Do you suppose your answers to any of the "Questions for Reflection" above would be relevant to the kind of person you will become in the future?  How?  Would what Christian Smith describes as "moralistic therapeutic deism" provide a sufficient set of religious convictions to be able to do what the villagers of Le Chambon did?

FAITH:  WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SAY "I BELIEVE"?

8. Revelation as God's Loving Communication of Himself to Man: Faith as the Free Human Response in Hope and Love

Text for Reflection:  "And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done unto me according to thy word." (Lk 1:38)

Readings:

Revelation as Word, Testimony, Encounter," René Latourelle, Theology of Revelation
Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum); chapter 1.
James Coventry, The Theology of Faith

Questions for Consideration:  Do you think of "revelation" primarily as a communication of information?  Would it make a difference if you thought of it as the self-communication of a person who is inviting you into a fellowship?  What sort of response is called for on your part if someone is communicating information to you?  Is the sort of response called for different if someone is inviting you into a fellowship?  Consider, for example, whether you respond differently to someone who says:  "Here are the directions for how to get to the Empire State Building," as opposed to someone who says:  "Hi, my name is Fred; what's your name?  Both are factual statements.  Both seem to require a certain degree of faith or trust.  But one seems to point beyond merely the facts of the case.  If this really is the way to get to the Empire State Building, then the issue is settled.  But presuming that this man's name really is Fred, the conversation has just begun.  Why?

9. Walking By Faith And Not By Sight:  Faith As An Interpretive Lens On Our Experience

Text for Reflection:  "Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen." (Heb 11:1)

Readings:

Philip Hallie, "The Hands of Joshua James,"  In the Eye of the Hurricane
“Thoreau’s Walk on the Wild Side,” Philip Hallie, In the Eye of the Hurricane

Questions for Consideration:  What underlying view of the world (perhaps entirely unreflected upon) would have provided the foundation for the kinds of choices made by Joshua James and his men?  How did that view of the world differ from that of Henry David Thoreau, when he looked upon the same scene?  Is one view of the world more "rational," more factual, than the other?  Which of the two is closer to your view of the world?   Now think back to the existential question posed by the contrast between the "ordinary men" of Reserve Police Batallion 101 and the "ordinary men and women" from the village of Le Chambon.  What would make possible the kind of person you want to become?

10. The Substance Of Things Hoped For:  Faith As An Affirmation Of The Meaningfulness Of Existence That Makes Love Possible

Texts for Reflection:  "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Heb 11:1) 

Readings: 

“Belief in the World of Today,” Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), Introduction to Christianity
Josef Pieper, In Tune With the World

Questions for Consideration:  According to Josef Pieper, we can’t festively celebrate the birth of a child if we hold with Jean Paul Sartre’s dictum that “It is absurd that we are born.”  Thus, says Pieper, "underlying all festive joy kindled by a specific circumstance there has to be an absolutely universal affirmation extending to the world as a whole, to the reality of things and the existence of man himself."  Do you agree or disagree?  In a similar vein, if you say "I love you" (and mean it), can that statement have any meaning at all in a universe that is ultimately meaningless?  Doesn't saying "I love you" seem to presuppose a universe in which love is not only possible, but ultimately meaningful?  The first question is not whether you believe in God, but whether you believe in love.  And whether or not you can believe in love depends upon whether you can accept the possibility of its meaningfulness.  To put it in Ratzinger's terminology, what sort of "understanding" stands under and thus makes possible saying "I love you" (especially in a world so full of what seems like meaningless suffering and death)?

11. Faith and Hope:  Faithfully Awaiting the Working Out of God's Providence in History

Text for Reflection:  "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you." (1 Pt 3:15)

Reading: 

Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, 1-31

Question for Consideration:  Is there a difference between: (A) renunciation of history and one's responsibility for history, (B) the attempt to control history, and (C) facing history with hope?  If so, what?  Which is the three did the villagers of Le Chambon exhibit?

12. Faith, Hope, and Love: On The "Obedience of Faith"

Text for Reflection:  "And Abraham believed the Lord, and the Lord counted it to him as righteousness." (Gen 15:6)

Readings:  

CCC 142 - 175, Faith: Reading Questions
Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 1-18


Questions for Consideration:  Why talk about the obedience of faith?  We've been saying sweet things about the relationship between faith, hope, and love. Why muck things up with terms like "obedience"?  Are there actions that will "naturally" (or necessarily) follow if one is in a relationship of love?  Are there other actions that are absolutely not in accord with love?  Is "love" merely a way one feels about something or someone, or does it involve acting in certain ways?  What sort of answer to this question do we find in the story of the villagers of Le Chambon?

13. Faith and Suffering:  The Lessons of Job

Texts for Reflection: "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." (Job 1:21)

Reading:

Epictetus, Enchiridion
Epicurus, Principal Doctrines
Prayer of Job (Job 19)
The Book of Job
Soren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death, "That Despair is the Sickness Unto Death"

Questions for Consideration:  What differences are there between the approaches to suffering taken by (A) Epictetus, (B) Epicurus, and (C) the Book of Job?  Which of these is closest to your own attitude toward suffering?  Which is closest to what seems to have been the attitude toward suffering that characterized the villagers of Le Chambon?  What challenges does the Book of Job present to "moralistic therapeutic deism"?

14. Faith and Reason:  The Two Wings by Which the Mind Rises to God

Text for Reflection:  "Faith and reason are like the two wings by which the mind rises to God."  (Fides et Ratio, preface) 

Reading: 

Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio (selections)
Pope Benedict XVI, "The Regensburg Address"

Questions for Consideration:  What are the differences between faith and reason?  Does reason require faith?  Does faith require reason?  Do you have faith in reason?  Do you think faith is unreasonable?  How do people usually think about the relationship between faith and reason?  Have the sort of considerations we've been engaged in over the last few classes changed the way you think about faith and its relationship to reason?  (NB:  I'm not asking whether you believe in anything new; only whether your view of what faith is has changed.)

15. Faith and the Creed:  What Do I Believe In?

Texts for Reflection:  The Apostles Creed; The Nicene Creed

Reading:

CCC 185-196
C. S. Lewis on the Importance of Theology (from Mere Christianity)
"The Creeds and their Role in the Church," John H. Leith, Creeds of the Churches
The Nicene Creed (with commentary)

Questions for Consideration:  Are there any potential benefits of having a creed?  Are there any potential drawbacks as well?  If so, what?

BELIEF IN ONE GOD, CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH

16. "In My Beginning Is My End":  The Kind of World You Think You Live In Will Set the Horizon of Possibilities Into Which You Live

Texts for Reflection:  Gen 1; Ps 104; Ps 19, Other Creation Texts in the Bible

Reading:

Dei Verbum, ch. III:  Divine Inspiration and the Interpretation of Sacred Scripture
"Prophecy, Poetry, or Some Other Type of Speech":  "The Most of It" by Robert Frost (A sound file of Robert Frost reading "The Most of It")
"Babylonian Myths and Biblical Revisions," by Laporte and Taylor
Hannes Stein, “Return of the Gods”
Joseph Ratzinger, In the Beginning, 1-39

Outline: An Outline of Dei Verbum, Chapter III
Outline: Creation in some ancient Babylonian Myths and in Genesis

Questions for Consideration:  The suggestion has been made that "the kind of world you think you live in will determine the way you live your life."  What view of the world do you hold?  (Is the world meaningless?  Is it a "dog-eat-dog world"?  Is it "the best of all possible worlds"?)  Does the view of the world you hold affect the way you live your life?  (And note, this may be a "view toward the world" you've never explicitly considered.  If you've never thought about your "view of the world," ask yourself what view of the world other people would assume you have listening to you day after day and watching what you do.)  In a related vein, do you think other people's views of the world affects the way they live their lives?   

17. Creation and Modern Cosmology:  Is Faith In A Creator Still Possible?

Text for Reflection:  "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?" (Eccl 1:2-3)

Reading:

Science Finds God,” Newsweek
What Came Before Creation,” U.S. News & World Report

Outline: Has Modern Science Demonstrated That Belief in a Creator is Fundamentally Irrational?

Questions for Consideration:  Has modern science demonstrated that belief in a Creator is inherently irrational?  If you answer "no," is that merely because you think that "faith" and "reason" have nothing to do with one another, primarily because "faith" doesn't really deal with "the real world"?  If you answer "yes," is that because you are (A) convinced that modern science has demonstrated there is no Creator, or (B) because you think that a certain sort of reading of the creation story in Genesis 1 is clearly silly, or (C) because you have faith in what you take to be the "consensus view" among educated people.  If you answer "yes," modern science has demonstrated that there is no Creator, do you still hold to the conviction that the universe is meaningful.  If so, on what basis?  From whence comes the meaning in the universe?  Is meaning something we, as human beings, make?  Or is it something we discover?  Is there such a thing as a meaning, a dignity, or worth which is inherent in a thing (such as another human being, an old-growth forest, or an endangered species)?

18. Thomas Aquinas on Creation and Change:  Is Faith In A God Who Acts In History Still Possible?

Text for Reflection:  "For from the creation of the world the invisible things of him are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." (Rom 1:20)

Reading: 

William Carroll, “Thomas Aquinas and Big Bang Cosmology”


Questions for Consideration:  What difference is there between what Thomas Aquinas means when he is talking about "creation" and what most modern scientists mean when they talk about "creation"?

19. Divine and Natural Causality: Grace Does Not Violate Nature, But Perfects It

Text for Reflection:  "Grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it." (Thomas Aquinas) 

Reading:

William Carroll, “Aquinas on Creation and the Metaphysical Foundations of Science”
Miracles,” C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock

Outline:  Thomas Aquinas on Divine and Natural Causality

Questions for Consideration:  What relationship does Thomas Aquinas believe there is between natural causes in the universe and God's divine causality?  Does Thomas, for example, see God as just another "being" in the cosmos, and thus as just another "cause"?  Or is his view somewhat different?  What does Thomas mean when he says "Grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it"?  What sort of relationship does such a view imply there is between grace and free will?  What difference would holding such a view make to a mother or father who had, let us say, a sick child?  Would such parents think or act differently from parents who believed that divine and natural causality were necessarily exclusive?  How about for an umemployed person who was trying to get a job? 

20. Distinguishing Evolution: Must There Be An Either/Or Between Nature and God?

Text for Reflection:  Gen 1.24-2.9

Reading:

Pope John Paul II, “Message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on Evolution”

The Unraveling of Scientific Materialism,” Phillip E. Johnson
Stephen M. Barr, “Untangling Evolution”
C. S. Lewis, “The Self-Contradictions of Naturalism,” from Miracles

Stephen Jay Gould, "Dorothy, It's Really Oz"
John F. Haught, "The Darwinian Struggle: Catholics Pay Attention"
Steven Pinker, “The Stupidity of Dignity”

Also, choose one of the following that interests you to report on in your group:

Joseph Ratzinger, In the Beginning, 41-58
G. H. Colt, "The Magic of Touch"
Bill Moyers, Healing and the Mind (selections)
Abraham Joshua Heschel, "The Patient as Person"

Questions for Consideration:  What would a person who held the view of divine and natural causality set forth by Thomas Aquinas say about the contemporary debate over evolution?  So, for example, Genesis 2 suggests that man was formed from the "dust of the earth" and given life by "God's breath."  Isn't this at odds with what modern evolution tells us?  Is there any truth in what Genesis 2 says?  Are the two (modern evolution and the biblical vision presented in Genesis 2) necessarily opposed?

21. "Man Is The Priest of All Creation":  The Sacramental Character Of The World And Its Orientation Toward Worship

Text for Reflection: "So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation." (Gen 2:3)

Reading:

Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), The Spirit of the Liturgy (selection)
Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World (selection)

Questions for Consideration:  What did Pope John Paul II mean when he called man "the priest of all creation"?  What does it mean when Catholics describe the world as fundamentally "incarnational" or "sacramental'?  What does Pope Benedict mean when he says the world is properly oriented toward worship?

22. Distinguishing the Way Of Light And The Way of Darkness: On The Twofold Relationship of Creation To Its Creator

Text for Reflection:  "For from the creation of the world the invisible things of him are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." (Rom 1:20); "For we walk by faith and not by sight." (2 Cor 5)

Reading:

“Theology of Light and Theology of Darkness,” Thomas Merton, Ascent to Truth
The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, ch. 32: “Obscuration of Thérèse’s Faith”
St. John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul (selections)

Questions for Consideration:  What is the approach to creation that Thomas Merton describes as "the way of light"?  What is the approach he describes as "the way of darkness"?  Why is it important for Christian faith that Christians understand both "the way of light" and "the way of darkness"?  What is the way of talking about God that Thomas Aquinas describes as "the way of analogy"?  Why is it important that Christians understand their talk about God is always "by way of analogy"?

TO BE OR NOT TO BE: EVIL, SIN, AND DEATH

23. To Be Or Not To Be:  On The Metaphysical Possibility Of Evil

Text for Reflection:  "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God ... because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." (Rm 8:19-23)

Reading:

CCC, 279-324 (on evil and creation)
Augustine, Confessions (from bk 7: evil as a privation)
C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Questions for Consideration:  Many contemporary people think that modern science presents the most potent challenge to Christian faith.  Above, I've suggested reasons why I think this is something of a "red herring."  The more fundamental challenge to Christian faith is the classic one:  namely, the problem of evil.  How could an all-good, omnipotent, and (supposedly) loving God create a world with evil, such as the evil we see around us every day?  What sort of insight does St. Augustine's have on this problem?  What sort of insight does C. S. Lewis have?  What does the universal Catechism of the Catholic Church have to say about the problem of evil?  Is it important to have faced up honestly to the question of evil if one is going to give an honest and credible answer to someone like Job? 

24.  On The Biblical Story Of The Fall:  Analyzing Man's Tragic Misuse of Human Freedom

Text for Reflection:  The Fall (Gen 3)

Reading:

Joseph Ratzinger, In the Beginning, 59-74
Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor ("Freedom and the Law")
George Weigel, "Commandments as a Moral Code Are Tools of Liberation"

Also, choose one of the following that interests you to report on in your group:

George Weigel, "A Better Concept of Freedom"
Servais Pinckaers, "Freedom and Happiness"
Description of Aaron Furestein, CEO of Malden Mills, and Thomas Aquinas's commentary on certain Old Testament laws

Questions for Consideration:  What does the story of the Fall have to tell us about the nature of man and the nature of sin?  In particular, what does it teach about the nature of true human freedom?  On this view, what is the role of the moral law?

25.  What Does Adam's Choice Teach Us?  Revealing The Threefold Alienation Of Sin

Reading: The Fall (Gen 3)

Fr. Roch Kereszty, O. Cist., “Sin as a Threefold Alienation”

Questions for Consideration:
  In what ways does sin alienate us and how?  What are some of the consequences of sin?  How many of these consequences are seen?  How many are unseen (or often go largely unnoticed)?

26. Born Into A Fallen World:  On The Effects Of Original Sin

Text for Reflection:  "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires." (Rom 6:12)

Reading:

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Bosom Serpent
“The Fact of Sin,” Henry Fairlie, The Seven Deadly Sins Today

Questions for Consideration:  Is sin something we do or something we suffer from?  What does it mean to suffer the consequences of "original sin"?

27. "Be Not Conformed To This World":  On The Difference Between Choosing Non-Existence And Respecting The Dignity Of The Human Person

Text for Reflection:  "And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Rom 12:2)

Reading:

Craig M. Gay, The Way of the (Modern) World
Gaudium et Spes
, ch. 1, "The Dignity of the Human Person," nos. 12-32
“Everything that Is, Is Holy,” Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

Questions for Consideration:  What does Paul mean when he says:  "Be not conformed to this world"?  Is this statement contradictory to the affirmation in Genesis 1 where God calls the whole world "good, very good"?  If the world is "good," why shouldn't we be "conformed" to it?  Or is the world evil?  What existential position do human beings find themselves in, according to the Christian faith?  What fundamental choice must they make, and make daily?

28. Has God Forsaken Us?  On God and the Permission of Evil

Text for Reflection:  "My God, my God; why have you forsaken me?" (Mk 15:34)

Reading:

Fydor Dostoevsky, "The Grand Inquisitor"
David Bentley Hart, The Doors of the Sea

Questions for Consideration:  What answer do Christians give to the question of why there is evil in the world?  Does "moralistic therapeutic deism" provide a sufficient answer to the problem of evil?   

REFLECTIONS ON THE BASIC COMPONENTS OF THE APOSTLE'S CREED
 
29. Belief in One God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: The Eternal Triune Communion of Love: 

Text for Reflection: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." (Mt 29:19)

Reading:

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Bk. III, chs. 1-4

Additional Material:

The Creed: The Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed
Scripture:
Trinity in the New Testament (Mt 28, Rom 8, Gal 4)
The Mass: Eucharist Prayer III
Overhead: Some Basic Trinitarian Thought

Questions for Consideration:  What does it mean for Christians to say that they believe in "one God," who is three Persons:  "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit"?  Why is it important to them?  Why is holding this view of God different from holding other, non-Trinitarian views of God?

30. Belief in One Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Son of God, Begotten Not Made, One in Being with the Father, Who Became Man:  Incarnation as the Marriage of Divinity and Humanity

Texts for Reflection: The Beginnings of Each of the Four Gospels:

Matthew 1
Mark 1
Luke 2
John 1

Reading:

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Bk. III, chs. 5-11
“What Think Ye of Christ?” Gerald Vann, Awake in Heaven
Second Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), 22 and 24

Outline: Some Basic Christology

Questions for Consideration:  Why did Christians in the early Church insist that Jesus was both "truly God" and "truly man"?  One not one or the other?  What significance does this view of who Jesus is have on one's view of what He accomplished by means of His life, death, and resurrection?

31. Who For Our Sake And Our Salvation Came Down From Heaven And Was Crucified Under Pontius Pilate: 
What Did Christ Accomplish?

Text for Reflection:  "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son ..." (Jn 3:16)

Reading:


"The Soteriology of the Fathers," Fr. Roch Kereszty, Jesus Christ: The Fundamentals of Christology

Outline:  Some Thoughts Concerning Christian Soteriology

Reading and Review Questions on Soteriology

Questions for Consideration:  If a man came up to you and asked, "Okay, so a certain guy named Jesus died 2000 years ago; what does that have to do with me?"  what would you say? 

32. Who Was Crucified, Died, and Was Buried: 
The Challenge of Death and the Meaning of Life

Text for Reflection:  "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep." (1 Cor 15:20). "Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. (Rm 6)

Reading:


Annie Dillard, "The Wreck of Time"
John Searle, "I Married a Computer," book review of The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil
Leon Kass, "Mortality and Morality"
The Eternal Pity:  Reflections on Dying, Richard John Neuhaus, "Introduction"

Questions for Consideration:  Do you want to live forever?  Do you want to die?  Is there a third possibility?  If so, what?

33. Who On The Third Day, Rose Again:  Belief In The Communion of Saints, The Forgiveness Of Sins, Resurrection Of The Body, And Life Everlasting

Texts for Reflection: "Christ is risen!  He is truly risen!"(Greeting of the Orthodox on Easter)  Also, texts on the resurrection appearances of Christ:

Matthew 28
Mark 16
Luke 24 and Acts 1-2
John 20-21
Paul's Epistles (Rom 6 and 1 Cor 15)

Reading:

Fr. Roch Kereszty, Jesus Christ: Fundamentals of Christology, ch. II: "The Death and Resurrection of Jesus"

Outline: St. Paul and the Resurrection

Outline: The Good News of the Resurrection

Questions for Consideration:  What do the resurrection appearances of Christ reveal to us about the kind of eternal life for those in the general resurrection?  How is this view different from other views of the "afterlife"?  What, on this view, is the nature of what we sometimes call "heaven"?

34.  Who Will Come to Judge The Living And the Dead:  Living Now In The Kingdom Of God

Text for Reflection:  "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent." (Luke 4:43)

Re-Reading:


“Remembering the Rescuers,” Patrick Henry, First Things
Magda and the Great Virtues,” Philip Hallie, In the Eye of the Hurricane

Reading:

Josef Pieper, “The Christian Virtues”
Margaret Atkins, “Can we ever be Satisfied?”

Overhead:  The Cardinal Virtues

Questions for Consideration:  Jesus talked a lot about "establishing the Kingdom of God"? What does it mean for Christians to live in "the Kingdom of God"?  Is living in "the Kingdom of God" the same as reaching "heaven"?  If not, is "the Kingdom of God" something that can be fully realized in this world?  If not, is it still possible to live in "the Kingdom of God" in this world?  What is the relationship between participating in the life of the Trinity and living in "the Kingdom of God"?  What is the relationship between living in "the Kingdom of God" and developing the cardinal and theological virtues?  What is the difference between this view of human flourishing and fulfillment and (A) the view held by most secular humanists, and (B) the view on offer by "moralistic therapeutic deism"?

35. Whose Kingdom Will Have No End:  Life In The Spirit

Texts for Reflection:  "Looking at his disciples, he said: 'Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.'" (Luke 6:20)  "Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." (Rom 8:2)

Reading:

"Faithful for Life: A Moral Reflection," A Statement from the U. S. Bishops (1995)
Two Versions of the Beatitudes (Mt 7 and Lk 6)
Pope Benedict, Jesus of Nazareth, "The Beatitudes"


Questions for Consideration:  For Christians, is salvation something we "earn"?  Do we get into heaven by doing good works?  If not, why do good works at all?  What is the relationship between the two fundamental commandments to "love God" and "love your neighbor as yourself" and the moral life to which Christians are called?  To what sort of moral life are Christians called?  And what is the relationship between the Christian view of God as Triune, their view of what Christ accomplishes, and the moral life to which Christians are called?  How is it possible, for example, for someone to seriously claim "Blessed are the poor" or "Blessed are the persecuted"?  Such a view seems, one hardly needs say, completely contrary to our own notion of "happiness."  What, moreover, is authentic "freedom" on this view?  Please be able to write an essay connecting the following key concepts:  human happiness, human freedom, the dictum "Know Thyself," being made in the image of God, the Incarnation, human nature, the natural law, life in the Spirit. 



713.942.5059 | rsmith@stthom.edu