Faith, Religion, and Theology. While

¶ … faith, religion, and theology.

While faith, religion, and theology are interrelated, it is important to understand that they represent different concepts. It is not uncommon for one to hear someone say, "I am not religious, but I am spiritual." Such a distinction indicates that people may not be able to define the different concepts, but that they have an inherent understanding that there some differences. Faith is what drives people to search for truth and makes them believe that there is some truth out there. Religion is not faith, but refers to the ceremonies and other rituals that might be linked to a particular faith. In fact, "Religion is structured in terms of creed, code, and ceremony" (p.3). Theology differs from both religion and faith. From a Christian perspective, "theology is…the process and the product of conversation between the Christian tradition and our contemporary situation" (p.4).

B) What are the two important elements of theology (for both theology in the narrow and broad sense)

Theology is a process and a product. First, as a process, theology is the way one reconciles modern religious expression with a religious tradition. The process element of theology is primary in its definition, reminding people that theology is an ongoing and fluid part of religious studies. In this way, "theology is a dynamic 'conversation' involving three basic conversation partners: a religious tradition, a contemporary situation, and a person engaged in understanding the tradition and the situation, and in relating them to each other" (p.286). Second, as a product, theology can refer to the result of those reflections on religious tradition.

C) How do Catholics and Protestants differ in their view of the Bible?

Protestants believe that the Bible is the sole source of Christian belief, while the Catholic Church has allowed tradition to be a source of authority. For example, the Pope is said to be God's mouthpiece, and is able to provide extra-Biblical religious authority.

D) Explain the major claims of fundamentalism.

Fundamentalism impacts every religion, but the text focuses its examination on Christian fundamentalists. These fundamentalists claims that the Bible is infallible, that history should be interpreted through the Bible, that the apocalypse is coming, and focuses on the idea of the rapture to save the devout. This infallibility does not attach solely to the people who originally wrote the Biblical books, but also to the myriad number of translations that have led to the modern Bible. Fundamentalism impacts life outside of religious areas, for example, fundamentalists claim that the earth is only as old as it would be according to the Bible and that evolution did not occur. Therefore, it is fair to say that fundamentalism is critical of modern life, science, and any other advances that it views as taking people away from life as described in the Bible.

E) Explain how to understand the Bible from a critical contextual perspective

Understanding the Bible from a critical contextual perspective requires looking at the Bible as a spiritual guidebook, rather than a history text. It does not suggest that Scripture is infallible; merely that it is divinely inspired. It does not suggest that Scripture should be the controlling definer of Christian faith. It does not suggest that the New Testament should be treated in the same manner as the Old Testament, because Scripture referred solely to the Old Testament until well after the establishment of Christianity. What this means is that someone who uses a critical contextual perspective looks at the actual history behind the writings, places those writings within their historical, anthropological, and sociological settings, and uses those writing as a guidepost for understanding Christianity, rather than as an unwavering definition of Christianity.

Read the first two chapters of Genesis, and based on what you have studied about historical critical interpretation of the Bible, Why don't they (2 stories of creation) coincide? What do you think is the "truth," the message that God wanted to transmit through these words.

The two stories of creation in the Bible do coincide if one looks at them as general descriptions, rather than looking at them for specific details. Chapter one provides general details about God's plan for creation and the order in which he created things, while chapter two specifically discusses God's decision to create mankind and his actions in doing so. The fact that the two stories are not identical of may even have information that seems contradictory is unimportant when one looks at them and sees their overall message, which is that a creator god was responsible for the creation of the universe and, perhaps more importantly from a religious perspective, for the creation of humankind.