Teachings of the Catholic Church

1.  According to classical Catholic moral theology, what is the ultimate end for which we do all the things that we do?  What, in other words, is the ultimate goal of all our actions?  If this is the ultimate goal of all our actions, does it necessarily follow that everything we do will actually help us to reach that goal? 

2. What famous phrase, which was engraved on the temple portal at Delphi, does Pope John Paul II use in the opening of his recent encyclical Fides et Ratio ("Faith and Reason")?  What, according to the Pope is the "minimal norm" to be adopted by those who wish to set themselves off from the rest of creation as "human beings"?

3. In his book Lost in the Cosmos, author Walker Percy asks the reader a series of self-examination questions.  What is the problem Percy is attempting to bring to light by means of asking these questions? Why does he describe his book as "The Last Self-Help Book"?

4. According to the German Bishop's Catechism, "Man ultimately remains a question and a deep mystery to himself."  "This," they say, "is his greatness and his burden."  Why is this the case?

5. Classically, it has frequently been thought that there was a natural antagonism between the concerns of humanism, on the one hand, and those of theology, on the other?  Explain why.  The position staked out by Pope John Paul II suggests that this may be a false dichotomy.  Explain why.

6. Explain the notion of "revelation" laid out in section 2 of the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on Divine Revelation ("Dei Verbum").  If we understand the revelation of God to man in this way, what sort of response does this call for on the part of the human person?

7. The German Bishop's Catechism ("I Believe -- Help My Unbelief") summarizes the Second Vatican Council's description of faith (in DV 5) in four points.  What are they?

8. The word "theology" literally means the "study of God."  In class (and on the class syllabus), I suggested another, more technical definition of theology.  What is it?

9. Describe the two senses of faith discussed on the first day of class.

10. In class I suggested that there was a way in which we should approach any religious tradition -- whether our own or others -- so that we would neither merely "give in" to the demands of the religion, nor would we become mere "tourists."  Explain how this might be done.

11. What is the danger for those in modern society if their theological learning is not on a par with their secular learning?

12. Who were the three Old Testament patriarchs?

13. Who was sold into slavery in Egypt by his eleven brothers?

14. Who led the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt and into the wilderness?

15. What is the name of the pact made by the Jewish people with God at Mt. Sinai?

16. Who led the Jewish people across the Jordan and into the Promised Land?

17. Who were the charismatic leaders who rallied the Twelve Tribes of Israel during the period of the Tribal Confederacy and challenged them to greater fidelity to God's law?

18. Who were the three kings who ruled over the whole of the united Jewish kingdom? (Please list them in chronological order.)

19. After the death of Solomon, the united Jewish kingdom split into two.  The nation to the north was known as what?  The nation to the south, in the territory around Jerusalem, was known as what?

20. By whom was this northern kingdom conquered and enslaved?

21. By whom was the southern kingdom conquered and sent into exile?

22. About how long was this exile of the southern kingdom?

23. Whose edict liberated the Jewish people from their exile and allowed them to return to their homeland?

24. Who was the famous governor of Jerusalem who, having returned from exile, attempted to rebuild the Temple and the walls of the city?

25. Who was the famous High Priest who spear-headed a major religious reform in Palestine among the returning exiles?

26. Who was the pupil of Aristotle who conquered the Persian Empire and made it his own?

27. Who was the Seleucid emperor who attempted to force the Jewish people to sacrifice to the Greek gods and violate the Jewish dietary laws?

28. Who were the Jewish leaders who led the revolt against the Seleucids?

29. Who was the Roman general who annexed the area of Palestine?

30. Who was the Jewish king over this territory when Jesus of Nazareth was born?

31. Please be able to match the following dates and events:
 1300 BC = the Exodus
 1000 BC = King David
 920 BC = Divided Kingdom
 720 BC = Assyrian Invasion
 600 BC = Babylonian Captivity begins
 540 BC = Babylonian Captivity ends (Edict of Cyrus)
 325 BC = Alexander the Great
 200 BC = Seleucid conquest
 170 BC = Maccabean Revolt
 63 BC = Pompey
 4 or 5 BC = death of Herod
NB:  Please note that these dates are rounded off;  they are not precise dates.  They are meant to help orient you in history and give you a rough sense of the distance between major events.

32. What are the four large categories into which we divided the books of the Old Testament?  What is the order of these broad categories in the Old Testament?  Which comes before which?  (Please be able to name all of the books of the Pentateuch, and at least three of the historical books, three of the books of the Wisdom literature, and at least five of the prophets.)

33. What part of the Old Testament history we reviewed in class is covered in I-II Samuel, I-II Kings, and I-II Chronicles?

34. During which period of Old Testament history did the prophets Amos, Hosea, and Jeremiah live?

35. In class, I suggested that the early Church wanted to maintain two points that have often seemed to many people throughout history to be polar opposities:  namely, that Christ was both fully God and fully man.  A number of questions arose in the early Church about this person Jesus.  First, if Jesus is divine, what is the relationship between Him and Yahweh, the one God of the Old Testament?  What, in other words, is the relationship between God the Father and Jesus, the "Son of God"?  What was the word for this relationship that arose at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.?

36. Are the Son and the Father just two "manifestations" or "projections" of one person?  What is the formula we use to describe the Trinity?

37. If we say that Jesus is "fully God" and "fully man," does that mean Jesus is two people?  When we point at Him, should we say: "There they go"?  What is the formula we use to describe the Incarnate Word?

38. In class, I described the Triune God as a "perfect unity in diversity, perfect diversity in unity."  Explain.

39. Why is it difficult for us to conceive of God as triune?  (I suggested two reasons in class:  one was drawn from C. S. Lewis's book Mere Christianity;  the other had to do with the way we often perceive relationships.)

40. According to the Second Vatican Council, through Christ, we can "share in the divine nature."  Explain what this means.

* Please be sure you can answer these fill-in-the-blank questions that relate to the first four ecumenical councils of the Church:

42. At the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., the Church proclaimed that the Son is one in Being (homo-ousios) with the Father -- a phrase we still recite in the Creed to this day.

43. At the Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D., the Church defined that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three persons in one Being.  The Council was very careful to clarify that there were not three gods in the Trinity, but one alone.

44. At the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD, the Church set forth the following confession of faith (please fill in the blanks):

"Following therefore the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man, the same one in Being with the Father as to the divinity, and one in Being with us as to the humanity, like unto us in all things but sin.
 
The same was begotten from the Father before the ages as to the divinity and in the latter days for us and our salvation was born as to his humanity from Mary the Virgin, Mother of God.
 
We confess that one and the same Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son, must be acknowledge in two natures, without confusion or change, without division or separation. The distinction between the (two) natures was never abolished by their union, but rather the character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in one person.
 
He is not split or divided into two persons, but he is one and the same only-begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ."