The Sources of Catholic Belief

Scripture

Reason

Each has different authority, but each supports and reaffirms the other

We learn of both God’s existence and his attributes through human reason and from the sacred texts

These sources cannot tell us all there is to know about God; only God can know that

On the basis of what Scripture and Reason tell us about God the Church has formulated statements of belief - creeds

E.g., The Apostle’s Creed, The Nicene Creed

The Creeds are also considered to be authoritative and form the basis of other expositions of Catholic belief, such as the Catechism.

Ways of Speaking About God!

Human knowledge is restricted to the world of our experience

God is absolutely and radically other, i.e., different from anything else in existence

Because humans can only speak of God in terms that belong to the world of our experience, we cannot speak literally, directly or univocally about God

We must speak by analogy

The via analogiae, the way of analogy, is when we infer things about God the Creator from the world of things he has created

We can apply analogies to God both positively and negatively

Sometimes we talk about what God is like (cataphatic statements); at other times we must talk about what God is not like (apophatic statements)

The Credo of the People of God Pope Paul VI

"We believe in one only God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, Creator of things visible such as the world in which our transient life passes, of things invisible such as the pure spirits which are also called angels, and creator in each man of his spiritual and immortal soul."

The Unity of God

There is only one God

God is absolutely one

God is simple, not composed of parts

‘God is one in nature, substance and essence’ CCC 200

"The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" Deut 6:4-5

The Tri-unity of God

There is only one Divine substance

This Divine substance is possessed by three Persons - The ‘consubstantial trinity’ (Constantinople II -553)

Not tri-theism (3 Gods) but trinity or tri-unity

Council of Toledo (675) CCC 253

The Trinity

The Divine persons are distinct

Council of Toledo (675) CCC 254

“He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor the Spirit he who is the Father or the Son.”

The divine unity is triune

The Divine persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) are differentiated from each other by the different relationships they have to one another

‘The distinction of the persons from one another resides solely in the relationships which relate them to one another’ CCC 255

‘Person’ = 3 distinct subsistent relations

Title Relation

Father Paternity

Son Filiation

Holy Spirit Spiration

The Trinity of God

These 3 relationships (relations) occur because of two eternal, continuing events

The Son proceeds from the Father - (Nicene Creed ‘eternally begotten’)

The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son

God As Creator

‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ - Genesis 1:1

‘Maker of heaven & earth’ - Apostles Cr

‘of all that is, seen and unseen’ - Nicene Cr

Creation is the first act in the story of salvation that culminates in Christ - ccc 280

Just as there is only one God there is also one creation that includes all that is God

Malachi 2:10

The most fundamental dichotomy is that between Creator and creature

Isaiah 45:15, 55:8-9

Transcendence: God is … ‘eternal, immense, incomprehensible, infinite in his intellect and will and in all perfection … distinct from the world in existence and essence.’ (Vatican I 1869-70)

God transcends creation and is present to it

‘God is infinitely greater than all his works’ (Psalm 8:2; 145:3)

‘Because he is the free and sovereign creator, the first cause of all that exists, God is present to his creatures’ inmost being’ ccc 300

‘He created all things and set them in order, and brought out of non-existence into existence everything that is, and … He contains all things while He Himself is uncontained’ (The Shepherd of Hermas circa 140-155 CE)

‘He … brought out of non-existence into existence everything that is”

Creatio ex nihilo - Creation out of nothing.

‘God creates freely out of nothing’ (Lateran Council IV 1215)

Did not create out of pre-existing matter but out of nothing (2 Maccabees 7:28)

Creatio ex nihilo is a rejection of:

- Pantheism: Everything is one single reality; Everything is God

- Emanationism: Everything flows from or radiates from God

The world was created for the Glory of God

‘not to increase his glory, but to show it forth and communicate it’ St Bonaventure

‘creatures came into existence when the key of love opened his hand’ St Thomas Aquinas

For his glory & our beatitude CCC 294

God creates an Ordered and Good World

Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 31

Everything God created is good

Creation is good because:

God is its source: because creation comes forth from God’s goodness, it shares that goodness

God has invested creation with meaning & purpose

Creation is an act of Divine wisdom and love

If Creation is good how do we explain evil?

“With infinite wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world ‘in a state of journeying’ toward its ultimate perfection” ccc 310

“angels and men … have to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love.” ccc 311

“God in his almighty providence can bring a good from the consequences of an evil, even a moral evil, caused by his creatures.” ccc 312

“You meant it for evil against me; but God meant it for good” - (Joseph Genesis 50:20)

The Human Person

Human Kind Created to occupy a unique place in creation

Of all visible creatures only humans are able to know and love their creator. (Gaudium et Spes)

The only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake and called to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life.

For this end humanity was created, and this is the fundamental reason for their dignity(CCC 356)

Human Kind Created in the image of God

Genesis 1:27

Each individual possesses the dignity of a person

Capable of self-knowledge, self-possession, and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons (CCC 357)

Human Kind Created A unity of body and soul

Genesis 2:7 –dust of ground & breath of life

“Soul” = the innermost aspect of the human person; that which is of greatest value in him (CCC 363)

Human person = corporeal and incorporeal

Physical body animated by spiritual soul (CCC 364)

Human Kind Created as Male and female

Genesis 1:27

“Created” = willed by God

Equality and difference willed by God (CCC 363)

Humankind (Man) is not merely male, but man and woman. Together the man and the woman are the ‘image of God’

Human Kind Created For a relationship with God

‘Inner Harmony‘

‘Harmony between man and woman’

‘Harmony with all creation’ CCC 376

The Human Person After Eden

The Original State of Humankind

First humans created good, in friendship with God and in harmony with themselves and the created world

Original state of ‘holiness and justice’

‘Dominion’ over creation

From friendship with God flowed the happiness of human existence in paradise

The Human Condition

But our own experience paints a very different picture of what it is to be human.

Dislocation from self, world and God

Suffering, sickness and pain

Moral evil

Death

How do we account for the fact that something is wrong?

“I sought whence evil comes and there was no solution” (St Augustine’s Confessions)

The Theological Solution

The doctrine of “The Fall of Man”

Based on the myths/stories in Genesis 2 & 3

The Church teaches that the account of the origins of sin in Genesis 3

Uses figurative language

But affirms a primeval event

That took place at the beginning of human history (Gaudium et spes)

Essential elements of the Creation Story

Human freedom (Gen 2:9, 15-17)

Interference of the tempter (Gen 3:1)

Human decision (Gen 3:6)

Human shame (Gen 3:8-10)

Consequences (Gen 3:14-24)

Teachings implied in the story

Entry of sin into human experience as the result of a willful abuse of freedom

Entry of death into human experience as the result of sin

The necessity of salvation from sin and death - a solution only God can provide, but with which humanity must freely cooperate

The Resurrection

Nicene Creed

‘For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures;

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.’

Sources: Texts

1 Corinthians 15:3-7

Earliest known formulation of belief in Christ’s resurrection (53-54 CE)

Oral tradition - ‘For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received’

‘That Christ died … was buried… was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures’

Romans 10:9

Written ca 57 CE from Corinth

‘If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’

Gospel formula

Faith in resurrection essential for salvation

Sources: Stories

Mark 16:1-8 [9-20] (65 CE)

Matthew 28:1-20 (80 - 90 CE)

Luke 24:1-53 (80 - 85 CE)

John 20:1-29 [21:1-25] (90 - 110 CE)

Sources: Pre-Christian

“Resurrection” is absent from Old Testament until the late book of Daniel

OT - traditional idea of Sheol as the perm-anent abode of the shades of all departed

Daniel 12:2 - double resurrection; Jews loyal during the Maccabean struggle raised to everlasting life, those who were not loyal raised to everlasting judgment

Later Jewish literature shows diverse ideas

- Resurrection of righteous Jews only

- Of righteous and unrighteous Jews

- Of all men to judgment

Resurrection to earth

- To a transformed earth

- To paradise

Resurrection in a body

- Without body

- In a transformed body

Book of Wisdom and Maccabees IV incorporate dualistic Greek concept of the immortality of the soul

Pharisees (1st Century CE Jewish sect) believed in the resurrection of the dead

Sadducees (1st Century CE ruling Jewish party) did not accept the idea of a resurrection

The Pre Christian Concept

Belongs within the eschatological action of God wherein, in consummation of his creation, He would resolve the contradictions of human life by:

- finally discriminating between good and evil in judgment
- destroying evil and death, and raising up his chosen ones to everlasting life

The Incarnation

Nicene Creed

‘For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.’

John 1:1 & 14

‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

And the Word was God …

And the Word became flesh

And lived among us

And we beheld his glory

The glory as of a father’s only son.’

Philippians 2:5-8

‘Though he was in the form of God

did not count equality with God

A thing to be grasped

But emptied himself,

taking the form of a servant

Being born in the likeness of men.’

True God and True Man (Hypostatic)

Not part God and part human

Not a confused mixture of the human and the divine

He became truly man while remaining truly God (CCC 464)

Heresies

Gnostic docetism denied Christ’s true humanity - he merely appeared to be human

Adoptionism claimed Jesus was not God by nature but by adoption

Arianism affirmed that the Son of God ‘came to be’ and was of ‘another substance from the Father’

Nestorianism taught that Jesus, the human person, was joined to the Divine person of God’s Son

Monophysites claimed that Jesus’ human nature ceased to exist when the Divine person of God’s Son assumed it.

Ecumenical Councils

NICAEA 325 - the Son is ‘begotten, not made, of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father’

EPHESUS 431 - Mary became mother of God by the human conception of the Son of God in her womb.

CHALCEDON 451 - consubstantial with the Father as to his divinity and consubstantial with us as to his humanity - truly man and truly God. Hypostatic Union - 1 Divine person, 2 natures

	Created by Winbaj08 about 11 years ago

VCE Religion and Society (Meaning in Religious Traditions) Note on U3AOS1, created by Winbaj08 on 01/09/2013.