- Ours is a religion based on data. Theology, and thus religion class, is not just a series of opinions, but the study of objective truth.
- Sacred Tradition is the totality of everything that was given to the Church by God, primarily through the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus, for us to believe. a. We sometimes call this "the Deposit of Faith," or, in other contexts, simply "Tradition" (with a capital T to distinguish from merely human traditions). a. It cannot be changed, nor can any part of it be removed/deleted no matter how unpopular it may be in a given time/place. a. It can grow in the sense that we can come to understand it better and thus discover meaning in what has always been taught.
- The idea of "sola scriptura" (scripture alone is infallible and sufficient) should be rejected. a. It was a novel idea in the sixteenth century. a. We did not even have a defined canon for the Bible until the end of the fourth century. * "canon" in this context means list of what should be included. * The development of the canon of the Bible was discussed further in class. a. People reading the same text often disagree on what it means, thus Protestants believing in "sola scriptura" have segmented into many different groups believing different things. a. "sola scriptura" as an idea is itself contradicted in scripture. Truth cannot contradict truth.
- In the context of religion, the word "mystery" refers to something we cannot have ever discovered (as humans) on our own, nor which can we fully understand it, but which does not contradict other truths we can understand.
Faith a. Faith must be a free choice or it is not real. a. Faith is not a feeling. It is a choice to believe what has been revealed. - Feelings can be influenced by any number of things and cannot be trusted. - Faith can (but may or may not) cause feelings.
a\. Faith differs from mere belief. - Faith includes the decision to act on that which is believed. - Faith is in a person, belief may be in an idea. a\. Belief is insufficient to obtain salvation. The Devil *believes* in God, but does not have *Faith* in God. a\. Faith is a gift from God which we freely choose to accept or reject. We cannot have faith on our own without God first reaching out to us. a\. Faith *results in* (but is not the same as) grace (God's life) in our souls. a\. Many Protestants will also talk about "Faith alone." This is also wrong. - It is contradicted in the Bible. - 1 Corinthians 13:13 - James 2:17 - John 14:15 - Hebrews 11:8 - Luke 1:38 - Protestants are generally arguing against a misunderstanding of actual Catholic teaching. - The Bible uses both the words "Faith" and "salvation" in different senses in different places. This can be confusing. - They are right to emphasize we cannot in any way earn or deserve Heaven. It is always because of God's grace that we are *able* to be and do good. a\. Faith in God will never require belief in something that contradicts the truth. - Science is also a search for truth. - Theology is the effort by the Church to take what we have discovered from science and what we know from Sacred Tradition and use both to understand more about the world, and ourselves. - because scientific ideas change over time, so does theology. - The theory of evolution is not *necessarily* contradictory with our faith *unless* the person uses it to justify materialism. - materialism is the idea that only the material world exists. - *If* evolution is true (it is a *theory*), we are obliged by Faith to believe that God at some point specifically created the first human souls, that these souls did *not* evolve, and that the presence of these immortal souls mark the first true humans. a\. Faith is never forced, not even by God. - The last judgment at the end of time is the ultimate answer to the two questions "why do bad things happen to good people" and "why do good things happen to bad people." - God allows us to reject the gift of faith because God judges that our free will is a valuable and important part of us. - The rejection of God, His plans and commandments (sin) is is the ultimate origin of suffering (this point is not in the book, but was discussed in class). - the analogy of the small thimble, the cup, and the bucket. In heaven, we are all equal in that we are all full; but you would rather be a bucket.
