VCE Texts and Traditions cheat sheet

Sacred texts are classified by function: foundational narrative, law code, prophetic oracle, wisdom saying, hymn, letter, and apocalypse each carry distinct interpretive conventions.

Exegesis draws meaning from the text's original language, genre, and historical setting; eisegesis reads the interpreter's own assumptions into the text.

The documentary hypothesis attributes the Pentateuch to four strands (Yahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, Priestly), identified by divine names, style, and theology.

Form criticism asks what oral unit lies behind a written passage and in what life-setting (Sitz im Leben) it circulated before being recorded.

Redaction criticism compares a source with its edited final form to identify the theological priorities of the final editor.

Canon formation is a historical process: councils and communities settled which books were authoritative, so canon lists differ between traditions.

Translation theory distinguishes formal equivalence (word-for-word fidelity) from dynamic equivalence (thought-for-thought clarity), each shaping doctrinal reading.

Midrash, pesher, and allegory are distinct interpretive methods: respectively legal-homiletic expansion, fulfilment reading of prophecy, and symbolic correspondence.

Textual criticism reconstructs an earliest reading by weighing manuscript variants; a reading supported by older and geographically diverse witnesses is generally preferred.

Tradition (paradosis, 'handing on') denotes content transmitted plus the process of transmission, so it is both a body of belief and an activity.

Revelation models differ: propositional revelation conveys truths, while experiential or event-based revelation discloses God through history and encounter.

The Wesleyan quadrilateral weighs Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience; Scripture is normally given primacy, but the other three are not merely decorative.

Sola scriptura asserts Scripture as the sole final authority, not the sole authority; historic Protestant confessions still cite creeds and councils.

Development of doctrine (Newman) holds that later formulations may be implicit in earlier belief, tested by continuity, acceptance, and coherence with the whole.

Orthodoxy concerns right belief, orthopraxy right practice; traditions often treat the two as interdependent rather than separable.

Creeds function as boundary markers, catechetical summaries, and liturgical texts, so their authority can be doctrinal, educational, or devotional.

Hermeneutical circle: a passage is read against the whole canon and the whole canon against the passage, so interpretation is iterative rather than linear.

Inculturation adapts belief and practice to a receiving culture; critics ask whether adaptation preserves or dilutes the tradition's core.

Rites of passage follow a three-stage pattern (van Gennep, Turner): separation, liminality, and reaggregation, with the liminal phase often ritually dangerous.

A sacrament is an outward sign of inward grace; a rite is a prescribed ceremonial action, so all sacraments are rites but not all rites are sacraments.

Efficacy theories split: ex opere operato attributes effect to the act performed in faith, while ex opere operantis attributes it to the minister's or recipient's disposition.

Liturgical calendar structures time through cycles (weekly, annual, festal), marking identity and re-enacting founding narratives.

Pilgrimage combines spatial movement with interior transformation; shrines function as contact points between ordinary and sacred geography.

Prayer typology: petition, intercession, thanksgiving, adoration, and confession, each with different addressee and intent.

Ritual repetition forms habitus, shaping disposition and identity; ritual failure or omission can signal communal crisis, not mere oversight.

Symbols in ritual are multivalent: water can signify cleansing, death, birth, and chaos simultaneously, so interpretation depends on context.

Sacred space and sacred time (Eliade) distinguish the profane from the hierophanic, marking thresholds, orientations, and festival dates.

Normative theories: deontology judges acts by duty and rules, consequentialism by outcomes, virtue ethics by the agent's character and flourishing.

Natural law ethics holds that moral norms are discernible from human nature and reason, accessible apart from special revelation.

Divine command theory grounds obligation in God's will; the Euthyphro dilemma asks whether the good is good because commanded or commanded because good.

Situation ethics (Fletcher) weighs a single absolute (love) against circumstances, using the six factors: person, ends, means, motive, consequences, situation.

Casuistry resolves hard cases by analogy to settled paradigm cases, so consistency of reasoning matters more than the verdict alone.

Conscience is described as a capacity for moral judgment, not an infallible oracle; traditions distinguish antecedent and consequent conscience.

Preferential option for the poor and the common good shift moral analysis from individual acts to social structures and distributive justice.

Just war criteria divide into jus ad bellum (legitimate authority, just cause, right intention, proportionality, last resort) and jus in bello (discrimination, proportionality).

Proportionality weighs foreseen benefits against harms; double effect permits a foreseen bad side-effect only if the bad effect is not the means and is outweighed.