JC Religious Education flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Dei Verbum

Vatican II's 1965 Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation; it presents revelation as God's self-communication in deeds and words, completed in Christ.

Deposit of faith

The revelation of God entrusted to the Church in Scripture and Tradition, preserved and transmitted by the Church under the service of the Magisterium.

Literal sense

The meaning intended by the inspired human author, discerned through genre, language, and historical context; all spiritual senses depend on it.

Deuterocanonical books

Old Testament books such as Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, and 1-2 Maccabees that are canonical for Catholics but not for most Protestants.

Divine simplicity

The doctrine that God has no parts; God's attributes are identical with the divine essence and with each other, differing only in our way of conceiving them.

Filioque

The Latin addition stating the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son; it is a central point of disagreement with the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Appropriation

Attributing fitting properties to a divine person, such as power to the Father or wisdom to the Son, without denying that all three persons share them.

Creatio ex nihilo

Creation by God from nothing, excluding any pre-existing matter; it is the free act of the whole Trinity and is sustained at every moment.

Imago Dei

The human person's likeness to God in intellect, will, and capacity for relationship; the image is fulfilled in Christ, the perfect image of the Father.

Hypostatic union

The union in Christ of a complete divine nature and a complete human nature in one divine person, without confusion, change, division, or separation.

Communicatio idiomatum

The exchange of attributes by which properties of either nature are predicated of the one person of Christ, so one may say the Son of God was crucified.

Christus Victor

An atonement model presenting Christ's death and resurrection as victory over sin, death, and the devil, releasing humanity from bondage.

Theotokos

Greek for 'God-bearer,' the title of Mary affirmed at Ephesus in 431 to defend the unity of Christ's person against Nestorianism.

Divinization

The doctrine that grace makes believers partakers of the divine nature, based on 2 Peter 1:4; it is central to Eastern Christian soteriology.

Ex opere operato

The principle that a sacrament confers grace by the valid performance of the rite itself, not by the personal merit of the minister.

Sacramental character

An indelible spiritual mark given in baptism, confirmation, and order, which is why these three sacraments cannot be repeated.

Subsistit in

The phrase in Lumen Gentium 8 stating that the Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church, while elements of grace exist outside her.

Collegiality

The doctrine that the bishops together with the pope at their head exercise supreme authority over the whole Church, in a manner that preserves papal primacy.

Four marks of the Church

One, holy, catholic, and apostolic; each is a gift of Christ and a task of the Church, professed in the Nicene Creed.

Three fonts of morality

The object chosen, the intention, and the circumstances; an evil object cannot be made good by intention or circumstances.

Double effect

A principle permitting a foreseen bad effect when the act is good, the bad effect is not the means, intention is good, and proportionality holds.

Subsidiarity

The principle that higher communities must support and not replace lower ones, intervening only when needed for the common good.

Preferential option for the poor

Catholic social teaching's call to prioritize the needs of the poor and vulnerable in personal and social decisions, rooted in the Gospel.

Just war criteria

Conditions for legitimate armed force: legitimate authority, serious and lasting damage, last resort, proportionality, and non-combatant immunity.

Sacrosanctum Concilium

Vatican II's 1963 Constitution on the Liturgy; it promotes full, conscious, active participation and calls the liturgy the summit and source of the Church's life.

Liturgy of the Hours

The Church's daily public prayer sanctifying time; its hinge hours are Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, with the Office of Readings.

Ignatian discernment

The practice of reading interior consolation and desolation to discern God's will, with the rule that one should not change a good decision in desolation.

Nostra Aetate

Vatican II's 1965 Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions; it rejects nothing true and holy in them and calls for dialogue.

Unitatis Redintegratio

Vatican II's 1964 Decree on Ecumenism; it seeks restoration of unity among Christians and recognizes elements of sanctification in separated communities.

Differentiated consensus

A method in ecumenical dialogue where the parties affirm a common truth while allowing legitimate differences in formulation, as on justification in 1999.

Signs of the times

A phrase from Gaudium et Spes 4 calling the Church to read historical events and social realities in the light of the Gospel.

Integral ecology

The approach in Laudato Si' linking care for creation with justice for the poor, treating environmental, social, and human ecology as one system.