The fundamental difference between Christianity and humanism is in their attitude toward the transcendent, toward what might be called the vertical dimension of existence. In the parlance of theology, Christianity is fundamentally theonomous, and humanism is autonomous. As we have already indicated, Christianity with its goal of the salvation of man, relies ultimately upon grace, whereas humanism with its goal of human maturity relies ultimately upon the intuition and ethical will of self-sufficient and independent human nature. It has often been asserted that Christianity is heteronomous and that the humanism that accepts Christianity must also become heteronomous by submitting to an authority “anterior, superior and exterior” to itself. In this connection, a very important distinction must be made, a distinction often overlooked by Roman Catholics and orthodox Protestants and also by many exponents of humanism. The Christian movement arose as a protest against heteronomy, i.e., as a protest against rabbinical legalism and the heteronomy of the Jewish law. It did not call men to the absolute obedience of any earthly authority, any institution, or any man. It confronted men with the necessity of recognizing the inbreaking kingdom of God through its herald, Jesus Christ, and also with the demand for a change of heart in order that this kingdom might be fulfilled. Both the heteronomy of…
“Catholic Answers” breakdowns the definition of Heresies in Monophysitism .Therefore, it supplies its reader with a clear understand of the topic at hand. Monophysitism originated as a reaction to Nestorianism. The Monophysites (led by a man named Eutyches) were horrified by Nestorius’s implication that Christ was two people with two different natures (human and divine). They went to the other extreme, claiming that Christ was one person with only one nature (a fusion of human and divine elements). They are thus known as Monophysites because of their claim that Christ had only one nature (Greek: mono = one;…
One of the greatest shortcomings of the heresy-rationalist apologetic approach is its argumentative approach. (3) As a result, "apologetic debates rarely lead unbelievers or apostates to convert; they do not succeed in persuading Christians to abandon their new beliefs to return to the faith of their birth. Instead,…
5. What can Christians do to address these objections and better communicate the Christian gospel?…
In Learning Theology with the Church Fathers, Christopher Hall discusses the doctrinal beliefs of the early Christian leaders while Christianity was in its fledgling state of development. Much of what is discussed by Hill in his book is the standard for what the beliefs on the subject will be throughout the church’s history. The topics in Hill’s book are important because the church father’s findings concern these issues establishes the church’s beliefs on these doctrinal topics.…
1.) According to the edicts of February 380 and May 391, what is the status of heretical Christians- those who do not accept the orthodox (correctly taught) form of christianity?…
From a traditional perspective apologetics is the study of internalizing and perfecting “informational” approaches and arguments to defend the absolute truths of the Bible especially in light of consistent attacks from a pluralistic culture. Considering the fact that one’s Christian faith is totally dependant upon the validity of these truths relating to the biblical claims of Christ as Savior (i.e. Death and Physical Resurrection of Christ, Forgiveness of Sin, the Deity of Christ, etc.), this is obviously an essential issue to protect the integrity of historical Christianity.…
Bibliography: Beilby, James. Thinking about Christian apologetics: what is is and why we do it. Downers Gove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011.…
Distinguish between the historical aspect of salvation (salvation accomplished) and the applied aspect of salvation (salvation applied).…
In her work titled, “The Establishment of Christian Orthodoxy of the Holy Bible”, Kathy McFarland gives us a very in depth understanding of the foundation of orthodoxy and the establishment of canon. I will begin by reviewing her thought about the foundation of orthodoxy. McFarland states, “Both Christians and pagans were shocked by the heretical ideas that were developing by the late second-century. Irenaeus, a Christian author…
The foundation of Christian orthodoxy and canon are so entwined so that you cannot have one without the other; both drawing support from the other to establish details and outline its parameters. In the years that followed after the death of the apostles, there was a desire by the early Christian movement to consolidate, catalogue, and share the teachings of Jesus among the churches. Before there could be a collection of important writings however, there needed to be an agreement on what was considered worthy of high regard, useful for teaching, and what could be verified as legitimate or apostolic in nature, this would provide for foundation of what was to be considered canonical literature. These early attempts of establishing the canon also required the defining of orthodoxy. Today we recognize the definition of orthodoxy as the “acceptance of the truth, especially about Jesus Christ, that is revealed by the Holy Spirit in the gospel and is passed on through the teaching of sound doctrine.”…
1. The contribution to Christianity of ONE significant person OR school of thought, other than Jesus, drawn from:…
The early Church was birthed through perseverance against intense persecution: (i) physical persecution by the governments of the time which lauded the oppression, imprisonment, torture and death of Christians for their new religious doctrines; and (ii) intellectual persecution by opposing religious sects who sort to denounce the doctrines of Christianity. The Prescription Against Heretics was written in response to the latter – to defend the tenets of Christianity against the false teachings of heretics and religious-based philosophers. Heretics promoted controversial views which were in opposition to those offered by Christian doctrine, with the intention of creating followers of their beliefs. Religio-philosophers were quasi-Christians who promoted the use of intellect and logic to understand Christianity and in doing so, never becoming Christians. Tertullian saw the end of philosophy as heresy and categorizes both as the same. Tertullian defends Christianity by describing heresies as powerless, fallible and only expressive of a lack of faith; he therefore provides a rule of faith as a measure and the authority for Christianity.…
Since the fifth century we have been able to count ten of the major persecutions in the early Christian church which are:…
We can analyze the similarities and divergences between the Gospel of John and the Synoptic Gospel of Mark with Christology, Anthropology, Soteriolgy, and Eschatology. Even though many of the passages could refer to more than just one theology, it is achievable to separate the different theologies into the four categories. Regardless of how different the Gospel of John is to that of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, it can be concluded that John does have obvious relations to the Gospel of Mark, even though it was written much earlier.…
