Mysterium

Introduction to Christian Theology

Theology (etymology of the word)
- Theos
- Logos
What is Theology?
- Study of God
- Word of God
- Discourse of God
- Reasoning about God
- Conversation about God
Definition of Theology
- “Faith seeking understanding” by St Anselm of Canterbury
5 areas in which we can do Theology
1. Folk Theology
a. Naïve
b. Traditional
c. Dogmatic
d. Uninformed and unreflective
2. Lay Theology
a. More reflective on learned theological concepts
b. Likely to formulate a doctrine of essentiality
c. More critical of unfounded tradition
d. More willing to use tools
3. Ministerial Theology
a. Reflections is more sophisticated
b. Educated in theological methodology
c. Uses tools and resources at a more effective level
d. Working knowledge of the languages
e. Ability to open critique personal theology
f. Devotes more time to reflection
 4. Professional Theology
a. Works with pastoral and lay theologians
b. Conducts practical original research
c. Critically evaluate common theological trends and folk theology
5. Academic Theology
a. Overly speculative
b. Overly critical
c. Dialogue only with other theologians
d. Unspiritual theology
e. Follows the academic status quo
Theology is for everyone. Everyone need to be a theologian. In reality, everyone is a
theologian --- of one sort or another.
Categories of Theology
1. Biblical Theology
a. Believed
b. Described
c. Taught
2. Historical Theology
a. Corrections
b. Improvements
c. Adherence
3. Philosophical Theology
a. Reflection
b. Language
c. Methods
4. Systematic Theology
a. Summarizes all biblical teachings
b. Addresses theological topics
Revelation
A. In Creation
The first way God reveals Himself to us is through creation. “The heavens declare the glory
of God, and the firmament proclaims His handiwork” (Ps 19:1). In creation, man holds a
special place. God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gn 1:26). God
even gives us a share in His own creativity: “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue
it” (Gn 1:28). God creates the whole world for us, to support us in life and reveals Himself to
us through His handiwork. “Since the creation of the world. . . God’s eternal power and
divinity have become visible, recognized through the things He has made” (Rom 1:20).
Natural Signs
For us Filipinos, then, the world and everything in it are natural signs of God - the
initial way God makes Himself known to us. Yet in our everyday experience, we meet not
only love, friendship, the good and the beautiful, but also suffering, temptation and evil. All
creation has become affected by sin – “sin entered the world, and with sin death” (Rom
5:12). The “natural signs” of the Creator have thus become disfigured by pollution,
exploitation, injustice, oppression and suffering. So God chose to reveal Himself in a
second, more intimate way, by entering into the history of the human race He had created.

B. In Scripture, through Salvation History

The Bible recorded God’s entering into a special covenant relationship with His chosen
people, the race of Abraham, the people of Israel. “I will dwell in the midst of the Israelites
and will be their God” (Ex 29:45).
Biblical Signs
God revealed Himself in stages. In the Old Testament, God revealed Himself
through biblical signs made up of both deeds and words. He made covenants with Noah,
with Abraham, and with Moses. He performed great works for His Chosen People, and
proclaimed their saving power and truth through the prophets’ words (cf. DV 2; CCC 56-64).
Through chosen men and women - kings, judges, prophets, priests and wise men, God led,
liberated, and corrected His people. He forgave their sins. He thus revealed Himself as
Yahweh, He-who-is-with His people. He is “the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to
anger and rich in kindness and fidelity” (Ex 34:6). Today, through His inspired word in the
Old Testament, God still reveals Himself to us, and inspires us to respond to His covenant.
Yet, even God’s revelation in history was weakened by the infidelities and hardness
of heart of His Chosen People. But God so loved the world, that in the fullness of time, He
sent His only Son to be our Savior, like us in all things except sin (cf. Jn 3:16; Gal 4:4; Heb
4:15; CCC 65). Jesus Christ “completed and perfected God’s revelation by words and
works, signs and miracles, but above all by his death and glorious resurrection from the
dead” (DV 4). Thus the Risen Christ, prefigured in the Old Testament and proclaimed by the
apostles, is the unique, irrevocable and definitive revelation of God.
C. In the Church
But God’s definitive revelation in Jesus Christ did not stop with Christ’s ascension to his
Father. Jesus himself had gathered around him a group of disciples who would form the
nucleus of his Church. In this Church, the “Good News” of Jesus Christ would be
proclaimed and spread to the ends of the earth by the power of the Holy Spirit, sent down
upon the apostles at Pentecost (cf. Acts 1:8). “What was handed on by the apostles
comprises everything that serves to make the People of God live their lives in holiness and
increase their faith. In this way the Church in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and
transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes” (DV 8; cf. CCC 77-
79). PCP II summarizes this by stating that Sacred Scripture and the living tradition of the
Church transmit to us the teachings of Jesus” (PCP II 65).
Liturgical/Ecclesial Signs
God continues to manifest Himself today through the Holy Spirit in the Church. He is
present in the Church’s preaching the truth of Scripture, in its witness of loving service, and
through the celebration of its Christ-given Sacraments. Christ’s revelation in the Church is
“the new and definitive covenant [which] will never pass away. No new public revelation is to
be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord, Jesus Christ (1 Tim 6:14; Ti
2:13)” (DV 4).
D. In Other Religions
But many Filipino Catholics ask if non-Christians receive God’s revelation. The
Church, in her prophetic mission of “reading the signs of the times and of interpreting them
in the light of the Gospel” (GS 4), discerns the seeds of the Word in the history and culture
of all men of good will. Thus, even non-Christians “who do not know the Gospel of Christ or
his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try
in their actions to do His will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience, may
achieve eternal salvation” (LG 16).
For whatever is true and holy in non-Christian cultures and religions is accepted by
the Catholic Church since it “often reflect[s] a ray of that truth which enlightens all men.”
Filipino Catholics, therefore, should “acknowledge, preserve and encourage the spiritual
and moral truths found among non-Christians, also their social life and culture” (NA 2).
 PCP II provides guidelines for this inter-religious dialogue. It must be based firmly on
the fact that salvation in Jesus Christ is offered to all, and that the Church is the ordinary
means of salvation since she possesses the fullness of the means to salvation (cf. UR 3).
This makes possible “openness in understanding the religious convictions of others. [For]
‘dialogue based on hope and love will bear fruit in the Spirit’ (RMi 56)”[PCP II 112-13].
Bible Term Origin
Greek: “ta biblia” = the books/scrolls
Latin: “biblia” = the book
Traditional Names
- Divine Scripture
- Sacred Scripture
- Sacred Books
o Holy Scriptures (“graphai aiai”) Rom 1:3
o Sacred Letters (“tai era grammata”) 2 Tim 3:15
o Scriptures (“graphai”) Jo 10:35; Mt 21:42
o Testament (=covenant alliance) from the topics of the Bible, Old Testament
and New Testament (see 1 Mach 1:57)
o In Visayan: Biblia, Kasulatan, Testamento (Kasabutan)
Definition of Bible
- It is a partial record of a religious interpretation of the real history of the Israelites and
the effect of Jesus on those who experienced Him.
- Important Background to better understand the above definition:
- Jewish people make a distinction in their own history among the terms:
o Hebrew – people who lived BEFORE the covenant (1250)
o Jew – people who lived AFTER the return from Babylon
o Israelite – people who lived and made the Covenant with God
 After their escape from slavery in Egypt
 At the time of their formation as religious nation
Bible as Partial Record
- Being slaves and at escape, they had little time for keeping written records
- Stories were largely persevered in stories told to generation after generation
- These stories form what is still known today as “Oral Traditions”
 - Many were lost, destroyed, or may have disintegrated due to time and weather
- Much of the material we now have in the Bible is included only because it
demonstrated so forcibly God’s faithful care of the Israelites

Bible as Religious History

- It gives religious causes and meanings to historical events in a certain period of
Israelite history
- Shows that their God was the true God, all powerful, took care, punished them
- It is an interpretation to some degree, depending on the purpose of the author
- Like our own history (Gomburza execution, EDSA 1)
Bible as Real History
- It presents things the way they really were
o Slavery in Egypt
o Escape across the desert
o Conquest of Canaan by them and claim
o Had a king
o Civil wars and invasions
o Good times and bad, great moments
o Man named Jesus
- The Bible interprets real history, and interprets it religiously
Biblical Inspiration
- Inspiration means that the Spirit of God was at work in the community of Israel and in
the early Christian community to produce through a number of human authors, a
series of books that witness to God’s revelation of Himself through history.
Theories of Inspiration
1. Divine Dictation Theory
- God alone is responsible for the content of the Bible. The human authors were
merely recording machines, or robots, who wrote down what God, in some unknown
way, dictated to them.
2. Negative Assistance Theory
 - The human authors were alone responsible for the writing of the books except when
they were in danger of leading the reader into religious errors. Then, God in some
way, intervened and directed the author to the truth.
3. Subsequent Approbation Theory
- Which God approved of the Bible only after it was completed
ALL these THREE (3) Theories were rejected by the Church.

Two Elements
- God is actively present in a unique manner in the composition of the biblical books.
- The human authors exercised their freedom in making use of their own talents and
resources, in cooperation with the Spirit of God, in composing the sacred books.
- Some authors call this theory: The Positive Assistance Theory
Spiritus Paraclitus
- Pope Benedict XV, in the Encyclical Spiritus Paraclitus, wrote that “the individual
authors of these books worked in full freedom under the divine inspiration, each of
them in accordance with his individual nature and character”. This conviction was
repeated by Pius XII in the Encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu (#33) and by the Second
Vatican council (Dei Verbum #11). Because of this human element, we can rightly
say the Bible is the Word of God in the words of Men (and Women).
Revelation
- Revelation means God’s showing of Himself by word and act to His people. This self-
revelation took place primarily in history: in the lives of the patriarchs, in the saving
events of the Exodus, in the history of Israel, the people of God, and finally and most
fully in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Unity of the Bible
- The most basic source of unity and the one unifying theme of biblical revelation is,
not surprisingly, the one God Himself. It is the very same God who reveals Himself in
so many richly divergent ways on every page of the Scriptures.
- In other words, there are different ways of presenting God by reason of the different
experiences of the biblical authors, but God is the one and same God.
Is the Bible complete?
 - The Bible is (in some way) complete in its revelation in as much as it contains all the
God willed to reveal of Himself in this inspired form. It is because of this
completeness of the Bible that one scholar has referred to what is called “constitutive
revelation”. What this literally means is that the Bible is the constitution of, or the
essential basis for, our understanding of God and his will for salvation.

Scripture and Tradition

- This ongoing revelation of God in history and in the Church, however, does not mean
something totally different from the revelation in the Bible. Rather, it is necessarily
and intimately associated with that revelation.
- Thus, the Bible and Tradition go hand in hand. As the Fathers of Vatican II put it,
“Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scriptures from one sacred deposit of the Word of
God, which his committed to the Church” (Dei Verbum #10).
- In a sense, Tradition is Scripture lived in the Church.
Sacramentality of the Bible
- In the book of Isaiah, God says: As the rain and the snow come from heaven, and do
not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it
yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from
my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and
achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isa. 55:10-11)
- This passage speaks so convincingly of the power of God. Modern scholars refer to
this effect of inspiration as the sacramentality of the Word. It means that the biblical
Word has some similarity to the seven sacraments. In a sacrament, there is a real
encounter with God through Jesus Christ.
Truth of the Bible Inerrancy of the Bible
- In the Bible, we learn the truth about God and about his will for the world’s
redemption in Jesus Christ. But the truth of the Bible has often been grossly
misunderstood as giving us precise answers to scientific, historical, geographical,
and other problems. This misunderstanding flows from an excessive concern for the
literal meaning of the words. (Eg. The stories in Gen 1)
 - The Bible must be understood in the sense in which it was intended by God and by
the biblical authors. All their purpose was not to write history book in the modern
Western sense of that term, but to set forth the history of God’s salvation.
Two Kinds of Readers of the Bible
- Literalist reader = considers only the text
- Contextualist reader = considers both the text and the context

Canon of the Bible

- Canonization of the inspired literature is the process whereby the books are
recognized as inspired. For Catholics, the process was completed in 1546 AD when
the Council of Trent explicitly and authoritatively announced the canon of 73 books
of the Bible. The institutional Church, through its magisterium, that made the
decision, as Trent’s decree dictates.
- Magisterium is the Teaching authority of the Church
- Composed of the Pope and Cardinals (bishops)
Definition
- From Greek “kanon” = measuring rod
- Gradually it became a norm/standard of things
- Simply means “list”
- List of books
The canons being followed today
- The Jews and Protestants follow the Palestinian Canon
- Catholics follow the Alexandrian Canon
How many books in the Bible?
- Catholics = 46 Old, 27 New = 73 books
- Protestants = 39 Old, 27 New = 66 books
- Jewish = 28 Old, No New = 28 books
Deutero-canonical writings
- Sirach
- Judith
 - 1 and 2 Maccabees
- Tobit
- Wisdom
- Baruch and some additions to Books of Ester and Daniel
All Bible books except the 7
- Catholics: Proto-Canonical
- Protestants: Canonical

The 7 books
- Catholics: Deutero-Canonical
- Protestants: Apocrypha
Books not included in Bible’s today
- Catholics: Apocryphal
- Protestants: Pseudepigrapha
Translation of the Bible
- The old testament was written, for the most part, in Hebrew.
- The whole of the old testament was translated into Greek about 200 years BC. It is
known as the Septuagint. It was used by Christian missionaries among the Greek
speaking pagans.
- (Septuagint: The Greek Translation of the Bible)
- The whole of the new testament was written in Greek
- Latin Vulgate: The Latin Translation of the Bible