MATSEC AM Religious Knowledge flashcards

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

Dei Verbum

Vatican II dogmatic constitution on divine revelation (1965). It stresses Scripture read in the Spirit, the unity of the canon, and the role of tradition alongside Scripture.

Documentary Hypothesis

Model attributing the Pentateuch to four traditions: Yahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist and Priestly. It explains repetitions and style shifts but is a scholarly reconstruction, not Church teaching.

Form criticism

Method that traces written Gospel units back to oral traditions and classifies them by form (pronouncement story, miracle story, parable, legend), asking about their original life-setting.

Analogy of faith

Principle that individual passages must be read in harmony with the whole of Scripture and the Church's rule of faith, since God is the ultimate author.

Hypostatic union

Chalcedonian teaching that in Christ one divine person subsists in two complete natures, divine and human, united without confusion, change, division or separation.

Son of Man

Title Jesus uses of himself, echoing Daniel 7's heavenly figure. It carries overtones of suffering service and future vindication, and is rare on others' lips.

Kingdom of God

God's reign proclaimed by Jesus: already breaking in through healings, exorcisms and table fellowship, yet still awaited in fullness at the end of history.

Beatitudes

Eight or nine blessings opening the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5), declaring God's favour on the poor, meek, merciful and persecuted, and setting the pattern of discipleship.

Parable

Short narrative drawn from everyday life that invites hearers to see reality differently. Interpretation usually seeks one central point rather than allegorising every detail.

Apostolic succession

Continuity of ordained ministry from the apostles through the laying on of hands by bishops, understood as a sign and guarantee of fidelity to the apostolic faith.

Lumen Gentium

Vatican II constitution on the Church (1964). It presents the Church as mystery, People of God, Body of Christ, and speaks of the universal call to holiness.

Four marks of the Church

One, holy, catholic and apostolic: attributes confessed in the Nicene Creed describing the Church's unity, sanctity, universality and continuity with the apostles.

Subsidiarity

Catholic social principle that matters should be handled at the lowest competent level, with higher bodies intervening only to support, never to absorb, smaller communities.

Nostra Aetate

Vatican II declaration (1965) on non-Christian religions. It affirms what is true and holy in them, rejects discrimination, and repudiates antisemitism.

Three fonts of morality

Object, intention and circumstances together determine the moral quality of a human act; a good intention cannot make an intrinsically evil object good.

Natural law

Aquinas' account of the rational creature's participation in eternal law, knowable by reason through basic human goods such as life, knowledge, friendship and worship.

Principle of double effect

Rule for acts with both good and bad effects: the act must be good or neutral, the bad effect not the means, intention good, and proportionality satisfied.

Just war criteria

Conditions for legitimate armed force: legitimate authority, just cause, right intention, proportionality, last resort, and discrimination between combatants and non-combatants.

Conscience

The judgment of practical reason on the moral quality of a concrete act. It must be formed, and must be followed even when mistaken if the error is invincible.

Five Pillars of Islam

Shahada (profession of faith), salat (prayer), zakat (almsgiving), sawm (fasting in Ramadan) and hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca): core practices of Sunni and Shi'i Islam.

Four Noble Truths

Buddhist teaching that suffering exists, has a cause in craving, can cease, and that the Eightfold Path leads to that cessation, culminating in nirvana.

Anatta

Buddhist doctrine of no-self: persons are impermanent processes without a permanent, unchanging essence, contrasting with Hindu notions of atman.

Moksha

Hindu liberation from samsara, the cycle of rebirth, understood variously as union with Brahman, loving devotion to a deity, or realisation of one's true self.

Interreligious dialogue

Fourfold framework: dialogue of life, of action, of theological exchange and of religious experience, aimed at mutual understanding and cooperation rather than conversion by argument.

Inclusivism

Position that salvation is mediated through Christ while God's grace can reach people of other faiths. Contrasts with exclusivism and with pluralism, which relativises religious differences.

Secularisation thesis

Claim that modernisation erodes the social significance of religion. It is contested by evidence of desecularisation, new religious movements and religion's digital resurgence.

Durkheim on religion

Religion is a system of beliefs and practices uniting a community around sacred things; it functions as social glue and expresses collective identity rather than explaining nature.

Inculturation

Process by which the Gospel takes root in a culture's language, symbols and practices, while remaining faithful to the apostolic faith and avoiding syncretism.

Barbour's typology

Four models of science–religion relations: conflict, independence, dialogue and integration. The typology is a classificatory tool, not a normative recommendation.

Cosmological argument

Reasoning from the contingency or motion of the world to a first cause. Aquinas' Five Ways and the Kalam version differ in how they frame the conclusion.

Problem of evil

Challenge that evil seems incompatible with an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good God. Responses include free-will, soul-making and greater-good defences; natural and moral evil are distinguished.

Fideism

View that faith is independent of, or opposed to, reason, so religious belief needs no rational justification. Catholic teaching rejects it in favour of faith seeking understanding.

Analogical predication

Aquinas' account of religious language: terms like 'wise' apply to God neither univocally nor equivocally, but by analogy, with similarity amid greater dissimilarity.