Guided Reading for The Western Traditions.

Find the answer to each of these questions as it is given in the textbook before moving on to the next question. Some answers, drawn from the textbook alone, will be rather simplistic. They can, and should, be elaborated upon as your knowledge of the subject grows.

Pages 201 – 259:

The symbol (*) after a question indicates that these might be used for longer essays in your quizzes.

  1. What does being a Christian involve?

    2.  

  2. What do Christians often expect of other religious traditions?

    3.  

  3. Where do the various elements of Christmas come from?

    4.  

  4. What was Christianity before it became an established state religion?

    5.  

  5. What countries outside Europe are majority Christian?

    6.  

  6. When did the Latin Church separate from the Orthodox?

    7.  

  7. Why is it fitting that Mark’s gospel has a Roman centurion call Jesus the son of God?

    8.  

  8. What did Jesus particularly emphasize?

    9.  

  9. Upon what do we rely for our picture of Jesus?

    10.  

  10. When was the calendar dated from the birth of Jesus devised?

    11.  

  11. What does the early Christian literature demonstrate?

    12.  

  12. Which gospel is generally considered to be the earliest? (*)

    13.  

  13. How does the gospel of Mark start?

    14.  

  14. What does ‘Hosanna’ mean in Hebrew prayer?

    15.  

  15. What does the capital letter ‘Q’ indicate in this context?

    16.  

  16. What does the gospel of Luke contain which is not found in that of Mark? (*)

    17.  

  17. What does Luke omit which is found in Matthew?

    18.  

  18. What readership did Luke appear to have in mind?

    19.  

  19. What readership was Matthew addressing?

    20.  

  20. To whom does Matthew’s narration liken Jesus? (*)

    21.  

  21. Why is it the case that passages in, for example, Isaiah, must have had some contemporary significance other than their later Christian interpretations?

    22.  

  22. Does Mathew’s gospel contain any errors in the use of scripture?

    23.  

  23. What appears as the minimum core of Jesus' intent as teacher?

    24.  

  24. What are the ‘synoptic’ gospels?

    25.  

  25. Why is Mark’s gospel (and all the others) said to be ‘an interpretation?’

    26.  

  26. How does John relate Jesus and Moses?

    27.  

  27. What does the Greek word ‘Christ’ mean?

    28.  

  28. How does John portray Jesus?

    29.  

  29. When was Jesus status as a manifestation of God spelled out in the doctrine of the Trinity?

    30.  

  30. Why were the disciples gathered in Jerusalem seven weeks after the crucifixion?

    31.  

  31. Why should early Christians have been at pains to distance themselves from Jews?

    32.  

  32. What privileged status did Paul hold?

    33.  

  33. What is the relation of ‘works’ and ‘faith’ according to Paul?

    34.  

  34. To what did Paul leave open a path in Oxtoby’s suggestion?

    35.  

  35. When did Paul die?

    36.  

  36. What was Marcion’s principal influence?

    37.  

  37. What other spiritual and doctrinal challenge did early Christians face?

    38.  

  38. How did we mainly know about Gnostic teachings before the discovery of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts?

    39.  

  39. Who was Mani?

    40.  

  40. Were women ordained in the early Church?

    41.  

  41. To whom did Paul refer as ‘the saints?’

    42.  

  42. Which communities might possibly have served as models for Christian monasticism?

    43.  

  43. What are ‘stylites?’ Give an example.

    44.  

  44. What does the Greek word monos suggest as the origin of our word monastic?

    45.  

  45. What did Jesus say about how and where to pray?

    46.  

  46. What is the heart of the ritual in the typical Eucharist service?

    47.  

  47. What are catechumens?

    48.  

  48. What did sacramentum originally mean?

    49.  

  49. How do Anglicans describe the concept of sacrament?

    50.  

  50. What do we know about the actual time of year that Jesus was born? (*)

    51.  

  51. What is the effect of a feast celebrating the incarnation in relation to the teaching of the corruption of the body?

    52.  

  52. Why does Easter have a variable date?

    53.  

  53. When does Easter occur according to the Latin Church?

    54.  

  54. What is "Lent?" What is the origin of the word?

    55.  

  55. What is the origin of the word "Easter?" (*)

    56.  

  56. What is the connection between the Christian Pentecost and the Jewish festival of Shavuoth?

    57.  

  57. Where did Christians meet during the first three centuries of the Christian Era?

    58.  

  58. How did the meeting places of the Christians change in the fourth century?

    59.  

  59. What might be the significance of the fish as a Christian symbol?

    60.  

  60. What was the relationship of the early Christians to Roman civic religion?

    61.  

  61. What was the reward for the faith of the martyrs?

    62.  

  62. What factors helped to attract many pagans to become Christian? (*)

    63.  

  63. What happened in 303 C.E.?

    64.  

  64. Why does Oxtoby compare the early Christina writer, Eusebius to the "J" source in the Torah?

    65.  

  65. What evidence is there that conversion to Christianity after the vision of Constantine was not sudden and complete?

    66.  

  66. What was particularly significant about the reign of the emperor Theodosius?

    67.  

  67. When did the Christian symbol of the cross become widespread?

    68.  

  68. Were there any pre-Christian uses of the symbol of the cross?

    69.  

  69. What three things do the letters IHS signify in Christian Churches?

    70.  

  70. How have Christians defined themselves and what has this led to in their expectations about other religions?

    71.  

  71. What evidence do we have concerning the use of the Apostles’ Creed in the first generation of the Christian Church?

    72.  

  72. How does the Nicene Creed differ from the Apostles’ Creed?

    73.  

  73. How do both Nicene and Apostles’ Creed relate to the doctrine of an incorporeal afterlife (that is to say, without a body)? (*)

    74.  

  74. What did Origen of Alexandria write about the Holy Spirit?

    75.  

  75. Why was the population of the Roman Empire intensely interested in theological issues?

    76.  

  76. How does Oxtoby explain "orthodoxy?"

    77.  

  77. What is the difference between homoousion and homoiousion? What do they mean?

    78.  

  78. What did the Emperor Constantine do in 325 C.E.?

    79.  

  79. What is Christology?

    80.  

  80. What was believed about the person of Christ according to:

    81. Nestorians?

    Monophysites?

    The Greek and Latin Churches?

     

  81. What was Nestorius’ attitude to the description of Mary as "mother of God?"

    82.  

  82. What does Monophysite actually mean?

    83.  

  83. When was the council of Chalcedon?

    84.  

  84. What were the three major urban centers of Christian controversy in the 5th and 6th centuries?

    85.  

  85. What were the three national churches that went their separate ways from Constantinople during the reign of Justinian?

    86.  

  86. At what formulation did the Council of Chalcedon arrive in response to the Monophysite challenge?

    87.  

  87. What was the difference between the Latin West and the Greek East during the 7th and 8th centuries?

    88.  

  88. How did portrayals of the figure of Jesus change after the patronage introduced by Constantine?

    89.  

  89. What does pantocrator mean?

    90.  

  90. What (and when) were the Hesychasts?

    91.  

  91. Why might paradoxical language be appealing to religious thought?

    92.  

  92. What evidence is there that chanting similar to the Jewish chanting of the Torah was common in the first centuries of Christianity?

    93.  

  93. What and where is Hagia Sophia?

    94.  

  94. For what is the name Eastern Orthodox used?

    95.  

  95. Name the groups of predominantly Orthodox Slavs

    96.  

  96. Name the groups of predominantly Catholic Slavs.

    97.  

  97. Into what three pre-existing groups did Yugoslavia divide in the early 1990s.

    98.  

  98. What is the significance of the Latin word "filioque?" (*)

    99.  

  99. What lay behind the "theological niceties" over which the Roman and Byzantine Churches argued?

    100.  

  100. What are the "Uniate" Churches and what was significantly retained by them?

    101.  

  101. Who are Malabar Christians?

    102.  

  102. When and why did the Bishops of Rome claim primacy over all other Bishops?

    103.  

  103. Who was Aurelius Augustine?

    104.  

  104. What was the pattern that Augustine set for mediaeval Christian thought?

    105.  

  105. What did Pelagius emphasize, to the criticism of Augustine?

    106.  

  106. What was one of the reasons that Augustine had for writing?

    107.  

  107. What was the distinction between ‘religious’ and ‘secular’ clergy?

    108.  

  108. What do the Benedictine monks consider to be a vice that should be cut off from the monastery?

    109.  

  109. For what have the mediaeval monasteries received credit from historians?

    110.  

  110. For what have the mediaeval monasteries received criticism from historians?

    111.  

  111. How long did it take to build the chapel at Cluny? Is this particularly unusual?

    112.  

  112. To what order of monks do the Trappists belong?

    113.  

  113. Which order of monks helped to found the Knights Templar and the Knights of St. John?

    114.  

  114. What is a mendicant order?

    115.  

  115. The Poor Clares are an order of Nuns attached to which order of monks?

    116.  

  116. When did the Arab Muslims conquer Jerusalem?

    117.  

  117. What happened in 1054?

    118.  

  118. When did the Muslim Seljuq (or Seljuk) Turks capture Jerusalem?

    119.  

  119. When did the Crusaders recapture Jerusalem?

    120.  

  120. When were the Crusaders driven out of Jerusalem by Salah al-Din?

    121.  

  121. What is the difference between a Byzantine and a Gothic arch?

    122.  

  122. How were the narratives of the Christian religion conveyed as late as the fifteenth century?

    123.  

  123. How are the Saints thought to be powerful allies in one’s quest for spiritual benefit?

    124.  

  124. What often survives in the veneration of saints?

    125.  

  125. What precisely is a rosary?

    126.  

  126. When and by which Pope was the doctrine of the immaculate Conception defined as Dogma?

    127.  

  127. Why has the figure of Mary become something of a problem in today’s world?

    128.  

  128. When was the second council of Nicea? (When was the first?)

    129.  

  129. What exactly is a ‘relic’ in this context?

    130.  

  130. How could relics contribute to the geographical spread of Christianity?

    131.  

  131. Is pilgrimage comparable to modern tourism? Why or why not?

    132.  

  132. What is said to be house in the sanctuary of la Sainte Chapelle in Paris?

 

Additional notes: