Christianity assignment

The Church can only reach such a consensus through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit cannot be wrong. This doesn’t mean that Church doctrine cannot change – theologians use the idea of dogmatic progression, by which human ideas, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, slowly develop towards the real truth. Once the real truth is established, the “ universal consensus” of the Church then confirms it as an eternal truth. Before proclaiming the doctrine Pope Pips XII made sure that there was really was a consensus in the Church.

In 1946 he wrote to all the Roman Catholic bishops to ask them a) whether they thought the Assumption should become Catholic dogma, and b) whether the priests and the laity agreed with them. 99% of the bishops said yes. Theological suitability The other main argument for the Assumption was that it fitted well with other Catholic teaching, and would reinforce believers’ faith that they too would eventually go to heaven. The Assumption was also clearly in harmony with other Catholic ideas about Mary: * Her immaculate conception * Her perpetual virginity * Being the mother of God must have been taken up to be with him in heaven. Transduction Virtually all religions include an explanation for life on Earth in their scriptures. In the I-J, and even more so in the USA, the creationism debate largely involves Christians. In March 2006, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Joined the evolution versus creationism debate when he said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper that he did not believe that creationism – the scriptural account of the origins of the world – should be taught in schools. I think creationism is, in a sense, a kind of category mistake, as if the Bible were a theory like other theories.

Christians believe that God’s redeeming grace is available to all believers: those who accept the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception regard Mary as the perfect example of the redeeming action f God’s grace, and believe that Mary was only able to receive this grace because Christ would later redeem all humanity through his death on the cross. Chosen in advance to be the Mother of the incarnate Word, Mary is at the same time the first- fruits of his redeeming action. The grace of Christ the Redeemer acted in her in anticipation, preserving her from original sin and from any contagion of guilt. Pope John Paul II, Deck 82003 Catholic and Protestant views This is an ancient teaching, but it remains controversial to some Protestants because it is not explicitly referred to in the Bible. Early Protestant thinkers were more devoted to Mary than some of their successors.

Martin Luther, for example, was a firm believer in the Immaculate Conception: The infusion of Mar’s soul was effected without original sin… From the first moment she began to live she was free from all sin. Martin Luther, sermon: On the Day of the Conception of the Mother of God A 2005 report by Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians found common ground for this belief when it stated that: In view of her vocation to be the mother of the Holy One (Luke 1 : 35), we can affirm together that Chrism’s redeeming work reached ‘ back in o the teaching of Scripture, and can only be understood in the light of Scripture. Roman Catholics can recognize in this what is affirmed by the dogma – namely ‘ preserved from all stain of original sin’ and ‘ from the first moment of her conception. 2005 report by Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians Doctrine’s “ infallibility” The doctrine proclaimed as infallible The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was proclaimed quantifiable by Pope Pips IX in the bull (formal proclamation)landfills Dues in 1854, and thus is an important article of faith for Roman Catholics. We declare, pronounce and define that the citrine which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace of the Omnipotent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of mankind, was preserved immaculate from all stain of original sin, has been revealed by God, and therefore should firmly and constantly be believed by all the faithful.

The first Adam sins and causes unanimity to fall; the second Adam atones for that sin with his death and redeems humanity. The traditional story of original sin The story behind original sin is told in the Old Testament book of Genesis: God originally made a perfect world. He created Adam and put him to live in the Garden of Eden – a blissful place where he had nothing to do but take care of the garden. Serpent God told Adam that he could do anything he wanted, except eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Later, God created Eve to be Dam’s wife. Eve was tricked by the serpent into eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of life and death. She gave some of the fruit to Adam and he ate it too.

Adam and Eve realized that they were naked and hid in shame. When God next visited the Garden he realized that they had disobeyed him. God banished them from the Garden of Eden into the harsh world outside. God also banned them from eating the fruit of the tree of life, and so death entered the world. The Fall and the origin of evil Christians believe that when Adam and Eve sinned in Eden and turned away from God they brought sin into the world and turned the whole human race away from God. The doctrine absolves God of responsibility for the evils that make our world imperfect by teaching that Adam and Eve introduced evil to a perfect world when they disobeyed him.

Concupiscence is a chemical theological word that Augustine used to refer to sexual desire as something bad in the soul that was inseparable from normal human sexual impulses. Sexual depriving them of self-control and rational thought. This disapproving view of passion was quite common among Christians of Augustine time. Augustine thought that concupiscence was present in all sexual intercourse. He thought that it was Just as bad and uncontrolled in a marriage as it was in non-marital sex, but that an excuse could be made for it within marriage because its purpose was to produce legitimate children. This bad element in sex provides the means by which original sin is transmitted from father to child.

It transmits both humanity’s guilt for Dam’s crime and the sickness or defect that gives human beings a sinful nature. … Whenever it comes to the actual process of generation, the very embrace which is lawful and honorable cannot be effected without the ardor of lust…. [This lust] is the daughter of sin, as it were; and whenever it yields assent to the commission of shameful deeds, it becomes also the mother of many sins. Now from this concupiscence whatever comes into being by natural birth is bound by original sin… Augustine, De bono conjugal The Council of Treat The Council or Treat (1545-63), or Treating councils were a series of Roman Catholic theological meetings in response to the Reformation.

This destroys the idea of original sin as being caused by the misbehaver of the first man and woman, and the idea of inheriting guilt or punishment for that misbehaver. Most modern theologians don’t think this a good reason to abandon the doctrine of the fall. They believe that although the story is not historically true, it does contain important truths about the state of humanity. It’s contradicted by evolution The doctrine of original sin is based on the idea that God created a perfect world, and that humanity damaged it and themselves by disobeying him. Evolution, on the other hand, suggests that life in the world is steadily changing and becoming more diverse.

Scientists do not tend to think of this as a moral good or evil, but in a sense evolution sees life on earth as moving closer to ‘ perfection’ – becoming better adapted to its environment. The biblical story of the perfect and finished creation from which human beings fell into sin is pre-Darwinian mythology and post- Darwinian nonsense. Bishop John Shelby Spoon, A Call for a New Reformation, 1998 A more modern idea is to give an ethical spin to the evolutionary idea and suggest that humanity should not be concerned about a past fall from grace, but concentrate on becoming more ethical beings and thus bringing about a better world. What about unappeased babies?

In April 2007 Pope Benedict XVI approved the findings of a report by the International Theological Commission, a Vatican advisory body, which found grounds that the souls of unappeased children would go to heaven, thus revising traditional teaching on Limbo. The report said there were “ reasons to hope that infants who die without baptism may be saved and brought into eternal happiness”. Parents were urged to continue to Baptist their children, as the Vatican stressed that baptism is still considered necessary to achieve salvation; the report emphasized that “ there are reasons to hope that God will save these infants precisely because it was not possible” to Baptist them.