Christianity Debate Guide

From PhiloWiki

Jump to: navigation, search

Christians are generally those who follow the teachings written down in the New Testament. They believe in God and they believe that Jesus Christ spoke the word of God.

Any attempt to define Christianity beyond that can be difficult, as there are now thousands of different sects and millions of individuals outside of those sects, each with their own unique interpretation of "the truth".

Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on Jesus of Nazareth, and on his life and teachings as presented in the New Testament. Christians believe Jesus to be the Messiah and God incarnate and thus refer to him as Jesus Christ. With an estimated 2.1 billion adherents in 2001, Christianity is the world's largest religion. It is the predominant religion in the Americas, Europe, Oceania, and large parts of Africa. It is also growing rapidly in Asia, particularly in China and South Korea, Northern Africa and the Middle East.

Christianity began in the 1st century as a Jewish sect, and shares many religious texts with Judaism, specifically the Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as Old Testament. Like Judaism and Islam, Christianity is classified as an Abrahamic religion because of the centrality of Abraham in their shared traditions.

Contents

[edit]

Jesus

  • If evolution is correct, and the story of Adam and Eve didn't happen, how can Jesus be a saviour? What is he saving us from?
  • What is the evidence for the existence of Jesus? Does it hold up to historical standards?
  • Did Paul know about the alleged earthly life of Jesus, or did he believe in a purely mythical Jesus?
  • How does one reconcile the supposed wisdom of Jesus with his frequent bouts of anger and belief in an imminent end of the world?
[edit]

Who was Jesus?

Catholic vs. Protestant views: The Initial Decision

The First Council of Nicaea, convoked by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325, was the first ecumenical conference of bishops of the Christian Church. The purpose of the council (also called a synod) was to resolve disagreements in the Church of Alexandria over the nature of Jesus in relationship to the Father; in particular, whether Jesus was of the same or of similar substance as God the Father.

The Council of Nicaea was historically significant because it was the first effort to attain consensus in the church through an assembly representing all of Christendom. "It was the first occasion for the development of technical Christology." Further, "Constantine in convoking and presiding over the council signaled a measure of imperial control over the church." With the creation of the Nicene Creed, a precedent was established for subsequent general councils to create a statement of belief and canons which were intended to become guidelines for doctrinal orthodoxy and a source of unity for the whole of Christendom — a momentous event in the history of the Church and subsequent history of Europe.

[edit]

Jesus's Family

A major emphasis of Catholicism is the Holy Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Ghost (female). This constitutes 'God' - i.e. both male and female.

  • What do you think is the reason the Church has downplayed the role of the female within its structure (e.g. women can't be priests)?
  • Additionally, do you think Jesus was married? What would the implications have been in ancient Jewish society?
  • Do you think the only reason Mary is venerated is her virginity?
  • In terms of fate, how could the immaculate conception (Mary born free of Original Sin) have happened?
  • Do you believe that Mary remained a virgin for the rest of her life? If so, where did Jesus's brothers and sisters come from?
[edit]

God

  • Is the God of the Old Testament (paternal, often wrathful) the same as the loving God of the New Testament?
  • What does the Trinity mean? Does it exist?
[edit]

Salvation

[edit]

Christian Divisions

Today, there is diversity of doctrines and practices amongst various groups that label themselves as Christian. These groups are sometimes classified under denominations, though for various theological reasons many groups reject this classification system. At other times these groups are described in terms of varying traditions, representing core historical similarities and differences. Christianity may be broadly represented as being divided into these main groupings:

  1. Roman Catholicism: The Roman Catholic Church, the largest single body, which includes Latin Rite and several Eastern Catholic communities and totals more than 1 billion baptized members.
  2. Eastern Christianity: Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East, and others with a combined membership of more than 300 million baptized members.
  3. Protestantism: Numerous groups such as Anglicans, Lutherans, Reformed/Presbyterians, Evangelical, Charismatic, Baptists, Methodists, Nazarenes, Anabaptists, and Pentecostals. The oldest of these separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century Protestant Reformation, followed in many cases by further divisions. Estimates of the total number of Protestants are very uncertain, partly because of the difficulty in determining which denominations should be placed in this category, but it seems to be unquestionable that Protestantism is the second major branch of Christianity (after Roman Catholicism) in number of followers.
  4. Alternative Christian religions, such as Gnosticism, and modern derivative religions, such as Mormonism and Christian Science.
[edit]

Roman Catholicism

The Roman Catholic Church, most often called the Catholic Church, is the Christian Church in full communion with the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, currently Pope Benedict XVI. It traces its origins to the original, undivided Christian community founded by Jesus, with its traditions first established by the Twelve Apostles and maintained through unbroken Apostolic Succession.

The Catholic Church is not only the largest Christian Church, but also the largest organized body of any world religion.[1] According to the Statistical Yearbook of the Church, the Church's worldwide recorded membership at the end of 2004 was 1,098,366,000, or approximately 1 in 6 of the world's population.[2] According to canon law, members are those who have been baptized in, or have been received into, the Catholic Church on making a profession of faith, provided they have not formally renounced membership.

[edit]

Eastern Christianity

Eastern Christians have a shared tradition, but they became divided during the early centuries of Christianity in disputes about christology and fundamental theology. In general terms, Eastern Christianity can be described as comprising four families of churches: the Assyrian Church of the East, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodoxy, and the Eastern Catholic Churches.

Although there are important theological and dogmatic disagreements among these groups, nonetheless in some matters of traditional practice that are not matters of dogma, they resemble each other in some ways in which they differ from Catholic and Protestant churches in the West. For example, in all the Eastern churches, parish priests administer the sacrament of chrismation to newborn infants just after baptism; that is not done in Western churches. All the groups have weaker rules on clerical celibacy than those of the Latin Rite (i.e., Western) Catholic churches, in that, although they forbid marriage after ordination, they allow married men to become priests (though not bishops). The Eastern churches' differences from Western Christianity has as much to do with culture, language, and politics as theology.

The split between the Church of Rome and the Orthodox Church is usually dated to 1054 (often referred to as the Great Schism). The primary causes of the Schism were disputes over papal authority — the Pope claimed he held authority over the four Eastern Greek-speaking patriarchs, and over the insertion of the filioque clause into the Nicene Creed. Eastern Orthodox today claim that the primacy of the Patriarch of Rome was only honorary, and thus he had authority only over Western Christians and does not have the authority to change the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils. There were other, less significant catalysts for the Schism, including variance over liturgical practices and conflicting claims of jurisdiction.

  • Is the Great Schism harmful to the Western or Eastern Catholic religions? If so, how?
[edit]

Protestantism

In the early years of the Reformation, the term Protestant applied to a group of princes and imperial cities who "protested" the decision by the 1529 Diet of Speyer to reverse course, and enforce the 1521 Edict of Worms. The 1521 edict forbade Lutheran teachings within the Holy Roman Empire. The 1526 session of the Diet had agreed to toleration of Lutheran teachings (on the basis of Cuius regio, eius religio) until a General Council could be held to settle the question. However, by 1529, the Roman Catholic authorities felt they had gathered enough power to end toleration without waiting for an official pronouncement from any council.

In a broader sense of the word, Protestant came to be used as the collective name for those individuals and churches who advocated a formal separation from the Roman Catholic Church such as John Wycliffe and Jan Hus. The roots of this movement are typically accredited to Martin Luther and his 95 Theses. However, following Luther's posting of the 95 Theses at Wittenburg, significant contributions to the Protestant cause were made by reformers like John Calvin, Zwingli, Thomas Cranmer, and John Knox.

  • Solus Christus: Christ alone. The Protestants characterized the dogma concerning the Pope as Christ's representative head of the Church on earth, the concept of meritorious works, and the Catholic idea of a treasury of the merits of saints, as a denial that Christ is the only mediator between God and man.
  • Sola scriptura: Scripture alone. Protestants believed that the Roman Catholic church obscured the teaching of the Bible, and undermined its authority, by regarding Tradition and Papal Authority as infallible, regardless of whether it appeared to conflict with or add to the doctrines found in Scripture.
  • Sola fide: Faith alone. The Protestants characterized the Roman Catholic concept of meritorious works, of penance and indulgences, masses for the dead, the treasury of the merits of saints and martyrs, a ministering priesthood who hears confessions, and purgatory, as reliance upon other means for justification, in addition to faith in Jesus and his work on the cross.
  • Sola gratia: Grace alone. The Roman Catholic view of the means of salvation was believed by the Protestants to be a mixture of reliance upon the grace of God, and confidence in the merits of one's own works, performed in love. The Reformers posited that salvation is entirely comprehended in God's gifts, (i.e. God's act of free grace) dispensed by the Holy Spirit according to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ alone. Consequently, they argued that a sinner is not accepted by God on account of the change wrought in the believer by God's grace, and that the believer is accepted without any regard for the merit of his works - for no one deserves salvation.
  • Soli deo gloria: to God alone the glory. This underlies the four above.


  • Do you agree or disagree with each of the five areas of belief listed above? Are you more sympathetic to the Protestant or Catholic arguments for faith?
[edit]

Gnosticism

Gnosticism is a term created by modern scholars to describe a collection of religious groups, many of which thought of themselves as Christians, which were active in the first few centuries AD.[1] There has been considerable scholarly controversy about exactly which groups to describe with this term. There is dispute among scholars on the extent to which early groups may have described themselves using the term "gnostikoi".[2][3] Sometimes the term gnosticism is reserved for groups that might have used it to describe themselves, but often the term is used more widely to identify groups emphasizing the salvific benefit of individual wisdom.

The term gnosis is a Greek word expressing a type of understanding or consciousness gained through personal experience. It is through this type of transcendental experience that followers of Gnostic belief systems seek escape from ignorance. Although many Gnostic movements identified with the teachings of Jesus Christ and were Christian by their own definition, there remains widespread variation in the particular religious orientations of many Gnostic groups. Especially notable for their extended and uninterrupted presence up until the modern era are the followers of the Persian Prophet Mani, the Manicheans; and the Pre-Christian Mandaeans who still survive in Iraq and Iran.

Particularly with the rise and fall of the Albigensian "Cathar" movement, European Gnostic thought became heavily influenced by the idea of a mythological struggle between competing forces of light and dark. This viewpoint would lead to the development of a strongly dualistic system in which there was a marked division between the higher celestial realms, and the material realms, the latter of which were thought to be under the governance of an ignorant entity known as the Demiurge who created the material universe or world. Influenced by more widespread branches of Christianity, the Demiurge was eventually conflated with many of the properties of Satan. One potential source of this newfound dualism is directly from the other Near-Eastern schools of Gnosticism, possibly via the influence of the Bogomils.

Main tenets of Gnosticism:

  1. The introduction of a distinct creator god, who is named as in the Platonist tradition demiurgos. Evidence exists that the conception of the demiurge has derivation from figures in Plato's Timaeus and Republic. In the former, the demiurge is the benevolent creator of the universe from pre-existent matter, to whose limitations he is enthralled in creating the cosmos; in the latter, the description of the leontomorphic 'desire' in Socrates's model of the psyche bears a strong resemblance to descriptions of the demiurge as being in the shape of the lion.
  2. The estimation of the world, owing to the above, as flawed or a production of 'error' but nevertheless as good as its constituent material might allow. This world is typically an inferior simulacrum of a higher-level reality or consciousness. The inferiority may be compared to the technical inferiority of a painting, sculpture, or other handicraft to the thing(s) those crafts are supposed to be a representation of. In certain other cases it is also perceived as evil and constrictive, a deliberate prison for its inhabitants;
  3. The explanation of this state through the use of a complex mythological-cosmological drama in which a divine element 'falls' into the material realm and lodges itself within certain human beings; from here, it may be returned to the divine realm through a process of awakening. It may be noted that the salvation of the individual thus mirrors a concurrent restoration of the divine nature; a central Gnostic innovation was to elevate individual redemption to the level of a cosmically significant event;
  4. Knowledge of a specific kind as a central factor in this process of restoration, achieved through the mediation of a redeemer figure (Christ, or, in other cases, Seth or Sophia).
  • In your opinion, do these beliefs do justice to Christianity, or detract from it?
  • How could the Gnostic Gospels have been historically accurate, having been written nearly 170 years after the Crucifixion?
[edit]

Christian Science

Christian Science is a teaching that does not rely on conventional medicine but holds that the ills of the flesh, including death itself, can be healed through prayer and faith in God. This belief extends to the possibility of healing any kind of wrong-doing, not just illness. Christian Scientists see sin, disease, and death as derived from a 'false sense' of separation from God. Healing is accomplished when one realizes one's perfection and unity with God.

  • Is it true that sickness is the result of either fear, ignorance, or sin, and therefore can be cured through prayer alone?
[edit]

Mormonism

  • Is Mormonism a Christian religion?
  • Is "Baptism of the dead" necessary?
  • Was the Garden of Eden really in Missouri?
  • Did Jesus really come to America?
[edit]

Christian Symbolism

Symbol Origins

  • Apple: Gnostic, wisdom
  • Snake: Pagan, fertility
  • Mother/Child image: Pagan, Isis & Horus (Egyptian)
  • Jesus's birthday/resurrection: Pagan, Dionysus/Osiris/Adonis
    (Greek/Egyptian)
  • 'Vine' reference (John 15:5): Pagan, Dionysian (Greek, eternal life)
  • Spikenard oil: Pagan, used in fertility rites (Hieros Gamos)

Hieros Gamos (Greek, "holy wedding") or Hierogamy (Greek, again "holy wedding") means a coupling (sometimes marriage) of a god and a man or a woman, often having a symbolic meaning and generally conducted in the spring. It is an ancient ritual in which participants believed that they could gain profound religious experience through sexual intercourse. Participants assumed characteristics of deities, often channeling the deities in question, and by their union provided symbolic and literal fertility for themselves, the land, and their people. This was often done by the monarch and hierodule of the dominant religion. [Note: In most Hieros Gamos traditions, the bridegroom was anointed with spikenard oil
and symbolically sacrificed, his bride searching for his tomb. Three days later he was symbolically resurrected].

  • What do these symbols, along with the Hieros Gamos rite, say about Christianity's origins?
  • How the can the Adam & Eve story be reinterpreted using the origin of its symbols?
  • Who do you think Jesus really is, in terms of these origins?
[edit]

Moral philosophy

  • Do Christians believe war is ever justified?
  • Can Christians reconcile the concept of justice with the concept of original sin and of atonement by proxy?
  • Can Christians reconcile the Plagues, the Flood and the Apocalypse with an all-benevolent God, or must they redefine "benevolent" out of existence?
[edit]

Current events

[edit]

United States

[edit]

Catholic Church

Throughout the 1950s, Roman Catholic theological and biblical studies had begun to sway away from the neo-scholasticism and biblical literalism that the reaction to the Modernist heresy had enforced from after the First Vatican Council well into the 20th century. This liberalism sprang from theologians such as Yves Congar, Karl Rahner, and John Courtney Murray who looked to integrate modern human experience with Christian dogma, as well as others such as Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) and Henri de Lubac who looked to what they saw as a more accurate understanding of scripture and the early Church Fathers as a source of renewal.

  • Do you think the Catholic Church can make up for its historical misuses of power?
  • Is Vatican II the best way to do this? If not, what is another equally-qualified modern effort?
  • Why were womens' groups the main focus of the Crusades?
  • Do you think this is due to overt sexism, or a deeper political motive? If so, what?
  • Why can only men be qualified as priests in the Catholic Church?
[edit]

Christianity and Islam

  • Concerning the current controversy over the Pope's remarks on Islam, who do you think is right?
  • How does Muslims' response change the interrelations of the world's two largest religions?
  • How would Muslims react to a photo of a statue of Mohammed immersed in a jar of urine, similar to Serrano's photo "Piss Christ", lauded publicly by the New York Times?
[edit]

Book debates

Retrieved from "http://www.europephilosophy.com/wiki/index.php/Christianity_Debate_Guide"
Personal tools