Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Philosophy And Ethics > Christian Moral Action > Flashcards

Christian Moral Action Flashcards

1
Q

discipleship

A

following the life, example and teaching of Jesus

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

cheap grace

A

grace that is offered freely but is received without any change in the recipient and ultimately is false as it does not save

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

costly grace

A

grace followed by obedience to God’s commands and discipleship

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

passion

A

Jesus’ suffering at the end of his life

we must suffer to

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

solidarity

A

an altruistic comment to stand alongside and be with those less fortunate, the oppressed, those who suffer
we must be active not passive in solidarity

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

what situation was Bonhoeffer faced with

A

an government seeking to remove Christianity because of the challenges it poses to the authority of the state
what should a Christian do when a key part of their faith is undermined by a law they are required to follow
- in this case the Nazi state and laws

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

what was Bonhoeffer a key founding member of

A

the Confessing Church

  • a breakaway Church that rejected much of the way the German Christian establishment had accepted Nazi ideology including anti-Semitism
  • sought to be authentically Christian
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

what did Bonhoeffer value

A

the church community as support for living as a Christian and as a source for spiritual discipline of life

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

what was Christian ethics for Bonhoeffer

A

an ethic of responsibility for others

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

what did Bonhoeffer’s experience of life and faith lead him to

A
  • a profound sense of the cost of discipleship and the sacrifice and suffering that it entails
  • for Christians today this might both inspire and challenge them in their understanding of what being Christian entails
  • Christian life can often come across as comfortable but many Christians experience struggles with persecution, loss and challenge
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

how did Nazi ideology divide Christianity

A
  • German Protestant Churches in 1934 split between German Church and Confessing Church
  • Nazi ideology gained strong influence and control over the Church
  • some leaders of the German Christians began to wear brown uniforms linking themselves to National Socialism
  • prevented ministers with Jewish ancestry for working for the Church
  • for German Churches Hitler was seen as the leader of Christianity alongside Jesus
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

how did Bonhoeffer see the situation in 1934

A
  • a conflict between Germanism and true Christianity
  • he accused the German Christians of not confessing their faith, not being true to their discipleship and the commands of God
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

what is the call to discipleship for Bonhoeffer

A
  • call of obedience to the leadership of Jesus and the will of God
  • the first disciples responded to the call with not a profession of faith or rational account of the theology they believed in but an act of obedience to Jesus’ call to leave their lives behind and follow him
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

give Bonhoeffer’s quote about the encounter with Jesus

A

a testimony to the absolute direct and unaccountable authority of Jesus. There is no need for any preliminaries and no other consequence but obedience to the call there is no road to faith or discipleship no other road only obedience to the call of Jesus

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Religion is often presented as a question of what you need to believe but what is Christian discipleship according to Bonhoeffer

A
  • Christian discipleship is fundamentally about something you do and which leader you obey
  • exclusive obedience to the leadership of God and all other legal ties are burnt
  • “The old life is left behind and completely surrendered”
  • “The disciple is dragged out of his relative security into a life of absolute insecurity”
  • “Beside Jesus nothing has any significance he alone matters”
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

why are Bonhoeffer’s beliefs about Christian discipleship controversial

A
  • they place discipleship above the law and any human leadership above the responsibilities of citizenship
  • Luke 9:57-62 - one man who Jesus calls says he must first bury his dead father following the legal responsibility he has but Jesus says the dead should be left to bury the dead
  • even the law cannot stand in the way of the call of Jesus
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

what does doing God’s will means

A
  • that we cannot take the call of Jesus on our own terms fitting it around our life in a way that is convenient
  • obedience to God entails cutting ourselves off from the previous existence
  • produces a new situation in which the disciple walks with Jesus
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

what does the road to faith pass through for Bonhoeffer

A

the road to faith passes through obedience to the call of Jesus and the severing of all earthly ties
“only he who believes is obedient and only he who is obedient believes”

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

what does Bonhoeffer believe is the only real faith

A
  • such an act of obedience as cutting off all earthly ties
  • there is no time to think things through or make a declaration of your belief you simply have to act
  • “you can only know and think about it by actually doing it”
  • “you can only learn what obedience is by obeying”
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

what did Bonhoeffer call for

A
  • single minded obedience
  • Jesus called Peter to risk his life and walk on the sea
  • by responding to the call into obedience faith becomes possible
  • putting aside single minded obedience to replace with individual preference e.g. replaces the justification of God with self justification
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

what things stand in the way of single minded obedience

A
  • reason
  • conscience
  • responsibility
  • piety (a belief which is accepted with unthinking conventional reverence/religious belief)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

what makes it possible to respond to Jesus’ call and why

A
  • Obedience to Jesus is not something that lies in human power
  • it is Jesus’ offer to us that makes it possible to respond, to step away from the attachment of life and into a space where faith is possible
  • “we do not walk under our self-made law and burdens, but under the yoke of hum who knows us and who walks under the yoke with us”
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

what do Bonhoeffer’s beliefs about discipleship that duty to God outweighs duty to the state lead to

A

civil disobedience
- in ‘ethics’ he wrote there is a need to break with the Lutheran teaching that a Christian should obey the civil authority and its laws

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

what did Bonhoeffer write in his letter to Reinhold Niebuhr

A

Christians in Germany will face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying our civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose.

25
Q

what quote does Bonhoeffer give about love requiring injustice to be actively challenged and resisted

A

there is no standing amid the ruins of one’s native town in the consciousness that at least one has not oneself incurred guilt
- one was just as guilty of the town’s destruction for doing nothing as being amongst those that burnt it down

26
Q

why did Bonhoeffer believe that civil disobedience was acceptable within the life of Christians

A
  • saw duty to God as far outweighing duty to the state
  • need to break the Lutheran teaching that Christians should obey the civil authority and its laws
  • necessary to save Christianity in the face of oppression
  • to not let the state win and destroy Christianity
  • ensure the spread of love
  • ensure obedience to God and Jesus
27
Q

do you agree that duty to God comes before duty to the state? what are possible problems with this position?

A
  • it can be abused and chaos could ensue in societies
  • people see their duty to God as different - they take different interpretations, duty to God is perhaps not as easy to universally follow as set state laws which could be dangerous
  • Savitri Hensman talks of a Christian who was willing to commit atrocities as he thought it was his duty to God as a solider of Christ
  • arguable it only applies in times of oppression but people could abuse this
28
Q

is Bonhoeffer’s theology relevant for us today or is it only suitable in extreme circumstances

A
  • civil disobedience may be problematic in times of today where we are not living under the Nazi state but his call to renounce the materialistic attachments of life to follow the call to discipleship is more relevant than ever in today consumerist society
29
Q

what is Bonhoeffer’s quote about salt and light

A

you are the salt of the earth but if salt has lost its taste how can its saltiness be restored
you are the light of the world let your light shine before others so that they may see you good works and give glory to your father in heaven
- Mathew 5:13-16

30
Q

what is the requirement of Jesus’ followers to be salt and light a metaphor for

A
  • the presence of Christians amongst other people in the community just as salt adds flavour to food Christians must act as moral people just as light help high lights up a whole room
  • visible community
  • must follow in its mission and be a sign for others
  • without salt and light the Church is lost
  • when one has achieved having and sharing faith (salt and light) their good works and glory will be seen by God in heaven
  • not important that the disciples have special info, important what good works they do otherwise it would not be discipleship
31
Q

what are all good works

A

a bearing of the cross of Jesus Christ

they put you at some level in the image and likeness of God

32
Q

what was Bonhoeffer’s declaration about the German Christian church

A
  • evangelical Churches in Germany are grievously imperilled
  • threatened by the teaching methods and actions of the ruling Church party of the German Christians
  • Reich Government are devastating the Church
33
Q

what did Bonhoeffer’s declaration to the German Christian Churches confess

A
  • a number of evangelical truths
  • asserted the centrality of Jesus as the only way to God and rejected other worldly leaders like Hitler
  • asserted Jesus’ authority over the whole of a person’s life
34
Q

what was a key issue of pressure the confessing church came under

A
  • taking the civil oath to Hitler which Bonhoeffer opposed
35
Q

what did the leaders of the Confessing Church ask Bonhoeffer to do

A
  • lead and direct an illegal seminary - a place that trained new pastors
  • restrictions of the Aryan law could be evaded
  • funded by donations and allowed the Confessing Church to train ministers free from Nazi ideology
  • moved to a disused school in Fikenwalde
36
Q

what was the Finkenwalde seminary like

A
  • a time of peace and reflection
  • marked by prayer, working together and Bible study
  • reading Psalms and singing of Black spirituals
  • perhaps Bonhoeffer’s work at the seminary was reflective of Mary’s decision in Luke to focus on the one thing that matters - Jesus
37
Q

how did Bonhoeffer describe his time at the Finkenwalde seminary

A
  • as an experiment in community
  • essential to challenge the nationalist ideology
  • the church community and congregation must not be closed in on itself
  • must be a source of renewal and a refuge for the persecuted or spiritually damaged
  • it is a source of spiritual discipline offering the life of prayer and the caring service of the Church as a sign and expression of Christ being present in the community
  • this is what he thought was living under the Word of God
38
Q

Psalm 31:8

A

who will speak up for those who are voiceless

39
Q

what is the badge of true discipleship

A

suffering

40
Q

what is grace

A

gods love and mercy including forgiveness of sins and the offer of eternal life

  • not earned by human actions
  • freely given gift
41
Q

what does Bonhoeffer say about cheap grace

A
  • the deadly enemy of our Church
  • the sacraments the forgiveness of sin and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices
  • grace is represented as the Church’s inexhaustible treasury
42
Q

why does Bonhoeffer attack cheap grace

A
  • it attacks Churches that do not place any expectations that people should struggle to be good Christians
  • it criticises the idea that Christian living is easy
  • troubling because of an idea that Jesus has saved everyone from their sins
  • Bonhoeffer is concerned that people think because Christ paid the price for grace the Church can keep giving it out for free
  • you can do what you were doing before without making any changes
  • it insinuates that God loves everyone so much that they do not even have to notice him
  • cheap grace is offered without discipleship or the cross
43
Q

what does Bonhoeffer write about cheap grace

A

the world finds a cheap covering for its sins no contrition is requires still less any real desire to be delivered from sin

44
Q

what does Bonhoeffer worry the knowledge of been forgiven will lead to

A
  • people thinking they did not have to make any changes to their lives but for Bonhoeffer being a Christian means picking up your cross as Jesus did
  • an unpicking of the heart of Christianity
  • cheap grace is effectively a lie as it is not the grace of God but a self congratulating grace we give ourselves
45
Q

what is costly grace

A
  • the grace a person would gladly sell everything to obtain
  • worth the sacrifice
  • the kingly rule of Christ
46
Q

what quote does Bonhoeffer give about costly grace

A

for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him

  • the rule of Christ means taking his demands seriously
  • costly grace is the incarnation of God
47
Q

why is grace costly

A

because it calls us to follow Jesus and that means making changes to our lives and decisions

48
Q

why does Bonhoeffer worry about the Church

A
  • worried that Church has become secularised and lost this sense of costly grace
  • perhaps there has been a pressure to take on the values of the modern world
49
Q

what did Luther claim and what did Bonhoeffer think about this

A
  • Luther proclaimed that grace alone is needed for salvation
  • Bonhoeffer thought some have misinterpreted this as meaning the commands of Jesus can be disobeyed
  • receiving grace means you become subject to absolute obedience of God
  • thought that following the Lutheran way comes at the cost of true discipleship as disciples must seek costly grace
50
Q

mark quote about sacrifice, suffering and the cross

A

if any want to become my followers let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me for those who wan to save their life will lost it for what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life

51
Q

what does Bonhoeffer say the call to discipleship is linked to

A
  • the passion of the death of Jesus, his suffering and rejection - death without honour, without the admiration and sympathy of the world
  • ‘to die on the cross means to die despised and rejected of men’
  • for disciples to try and reject this is to be tempted by the words of Satan
  • Jesus says to Peter get behind me satan
52
Q

why are suffering and sacrifice inherent to discipleship for anyone who follow Jesus

A

because they must pick up his cross and follow the path of suffering he walks
- the disciple is a disciple only in so far as he shares Jesus suffering, rejection and crucifixion

53
Q

what does the burden of Christian life involve

A
  • temptation and the burden of forgiving others
  • bearing the burden of the sins of others rather than seeking revenge for acts done against them
  • kind of cross Jesus refers to
  • bearing it is the only way to triumph over suffering
  • suffering the way is open to come into communion with God
54
Q

Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane

A
  • take this cup of suffering away from me

- but the way in which he leaves suffering behind is by drinking the cup

55
Q

what are Bonhoeffer’s ideas around suffering linked to

A
  • solidarity
  • existence for others
  • he saw Christ as a man for others
  • we encounter the transcendental God in the middle of life when we are there for our neighbours in reach of their situation
  • being there for others is what makes a Christian
56
Q

what did Bonhoeffer feel he had to do in terms of suffering and solidarity

A
  • live through the experience of suffering that his people were enduring rather than writing in safety and security
  • solidarity for Bonhoeffer became a subversive act against the state and for the sake of human relationships
57
Q

what is the purpose of Christian life

A

not to be religious but to be in a relationship with God through living an existence for others
goal of Christian life is to be there for others as it is an experience of transcendence

58
Q

what is transcendence

A

existence or experience beyond the normal or physical level

59
Q

what does Kelly argue about living your Christian life for others rather than striving to be religious as such

A
  • it is not a glib answer for suffering (fluent but insincere and shallow)
  • God makes a bond of suffering with humanity

Philosophy And Ethics (16 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions