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RELST I Ch 1
Vocabulary "Searching for God"
Term | Definition |
---|---|
religion | The relationship between God and humans that results in a body of beliefs and a set of practices: creed, cult, and code. It expresses itself in worship and service to God and by extension to all people and all creation. |
irreligion | A vice contrary to the virtue of religion that directs us away from what we owe to God in justice. |
secularism | An indifference to religion and a belief that religion should be excluded from civic affairs and public education. |
monotheistic | Religions that believe that there is only one God. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are three great monotheistic world religions. |
polytheistic | Religions that believe in the existence of many gods and goddesses. |
atheist | |
agnosticism | The belief that God's existence cannot be known. |
Divine Revelation | The way God communicates knowledge of himself to humankind, a self-communication realized by his actions and words over time, most fully by his sending us his divine Son, Jesus Christ. |
conscience | A practical judgment of reason that helps a person decide the goodness or sinfulness of an action or attitude. It is the subjective moral norm of morality we must form properly and then follow. |
Original Sin | Disobedience committed by Adam & Eve that resulted in their loss of original holiness & justice and their becoming subject to sin & death. Also, the fallen state of human nature into which all generations of people are born. Jesus saved us from this. |
omnipotent | An attribute of God that he is everywhere, unlimited, and all-powerful. |
Salvation History | The story of God's saving action in human history. |
covenant | A binding and solemn agreement between human beings or between God and people holding each to a particular course of action. |
Sacred Tradition | The living transmission of the Church's gospel message found in the Church's teaching, life and worship. It's faithfully preserved, handed down and interpreted by the Magisterium. |
Sacred Scripture | The written record of Divine Revelation found in the books of the Old Testament and the New Testament. |
Magisterium | The official teaching authority of the Church. The Lord bestowed the right & power to teach in his name on Peter & the Apostles and their successors. It is the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the bishop of Rome (pope). |
Circumcision | The surgical removal of the male foreskin; it was the physical sign of the covenant between God and Abraham. |
Prophet | The word is from the Greek, meaning "one who speaks before others." God entrusted them with delivering the divine message to rulers and people. Most were unpopular in their own day. Their style was poetic and memorable. |
Deposit of Faith | "The heritage of faith contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, handed down in the Church from the Apostles, from which the Magisterium draws all that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed." (CCC Glossary) |
dogma | A central truth of Revelation that Catholics are obliged to believe. |
Faith | A gift from God; one of the 3 theological virtues. It refers to personal knowledge of God; assent of the mind to truths God has revealed. |
virtues | "Firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith." (CCC 1804) |
theological virtues | Three foundational virtues that are infused by God into the souls of the faithful. |