| A | B |
|---|
| religion | relationship between God and humans that results in a body of beliefs and a set of practices |
| irreligion | vice contrary to the virtue of religion that directs us away from what we owe to God in justice |
| secularism | belief that religion should be excluded from civic affairs and public education |
| monotheistic | religions that believe there is one God |
| polytheistic | religions that in the existence of more than one god |
| atheist | person who denies the existence of God |
| agnosticism | belief that God's existence cannot be known |
| Divine Revelation | way God communicates knowledge of himself to humankind, a self communication realized by his actions and words over time, most fully by sending us his son, Jesus |
| conscience | practical judgement of reason that helps a person decide the goodness or sinfulness of an action or attitde |
| Original Sin | the sin of disobedience commited by Adam and Eve that resulted in their loss of original holiness and justice and their becoming subjec to sin and death |
| ominpotent | an attribute of God that he is everywhere, unlimited, and all-powerful |
| Salvation History | the story of God's saving action in huma history |
| covenant | a binding and somlemn agreement bewteen human beings or between God and people |
| Sacred Tradition | living transmission of the Church's gospel message found in the Church's teaching, life and worship. It is fathfully preserved, handed down, and interpreted by the Church's Magesterium |
| Sacred Scripture | the written record of Divine revelation found in the books of the Old and New Testament |
| Magesterium | official teaching authority of the Church. The Lord bestowed the right and power to teach his name on Peter the Apostle and their successors. the Magesterium is the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Pope |
| circumcision | surgical removel of the male foreskin; it was the physical sign of the covenant between God and Abraham |
| prophet | from Greek, meaning "one who speaks before others." God entrusted Hebrew prophets with delivering the divine message to rulers and the people. |
| Deposit of Faith | "Heritage of faith contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, handed down in the Church from the time of the Apostles, from which the Magesterium draws all that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed." |
| dogma | central truth of Revelation that Catholics are obliged to believe |
| faith | gift from God; on of the three theological virtues. Faith refers to personal knowledge of God; assent of the mind to truths God has revealed |
| virtues | "Firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason of faith." |
| theological virtues | three foundational virtues that are infused by God into the souls of the faithful: faith, hope, and charity |
| literal sense (of biblical text) | meaning conveyed by word of scripture and discovered by exegesis, following rules of sound interpretation |
| literary genre | type of writing that has a paticular form, style, or content |
| exegesis | the process used by scholars to discover the meaning of biblical text |
| Vulgate | St. Jerome's fifth-century Latin translation of the Bible into the common language of the people of his day |
| Dead Sea Scrolls | Discovered in 1947 in caves near the Dead sea, these manuscripts belonged to the Jewish Essene sect, which lived in a monastery at Qumran. The scrolls contain Essene religious documents, commentaries on certain Hebrew scriptures and ancient Old testament |
| Church Father | traditional title given to thoelogians of the first eight centuries whose teachings made a lasting mark on the Church |
| Liturgy of the Hours | prayer of the Church; also known as the Divine Office. The Liturgy of the Hours utilizes the Scriptures, paticularly the Psalms, for specific times of the day from early morning to later evening |
