Social Doctrine of the Church
SDCH 4121 Module has two components: Social Philosophy and Social Doctrine of the Church.
Introduction to New Testament
Last year, in first year, we studied the Introduction to the Old Testament; this year we have the Introduction to the New Testament. The New Testament includes four gospels. We will study first, synoptic gospels, then, the Johannine corpus and lastly, the Pauline corpus. It’s a very long module. It is difficult to cover it in twenty credits only. But we will try to give an overview. It is the marrow of the Bible. Why? Because the Gospels tell us the words and actions of Jesus from his birth to his death and Resurrection. They share with us the experience of the first Christian communities. Saint Jerome said: « The knowledge of the Sacred Scripture is the knowledge of God and Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of God ».
As our study is about gospels, let’s first examine the meaning of the concept « gospel » and then, the word « synoptic ». Gospel comes from Greek Euaggelion (Euaggelion) = Good News. The word has a pagan origin. When there was healing of a seriously ill person, the birth of a child in a family, the victory in a war over enemies, for the Greeks, it was Gospel. This word took a Christian meaning: « story that chronicles the life of Jesus, his ministry, his death and resurrection ». We also have the term « Gospels » in plural. It refers to the various writings of each of the evangelists on the life of Jesus. Each evangelist has his own way to tell the mystery of Jesus (birth, ministry, death and resurrection).
As for the word synoptic, applied to the first three gospels (Mt, Mk and Lk), it was introduced by J.J. GRIESBACH (1776) because they are very close and have much more things in common than differences. This word synoptic comes from Greek (sunv oyiz) because when you put these three gospels in parallel, you find that they have much more similarities than differences.
Introduction to Old Testament
- •The word Bible comes from the Greek word Biblion (book). It derives from Biblos, the antique Phoenician harbor where papyrus (biblos) was treated before being exported to Greece. The plural Biblia (books), gives in latin the feminine singular biblia. Whence «Bible» in English. Why is the title in plural?
- •Because the Bible is a collection of scriptures. It is often given other names: scriptures, Holy Scriptures, sacred books, the Ancient and the New Testament. The Bible is neither a book of natural sciences, nor a book of history in the true meaning of the word. It is not a systematic course of religion or morals.
- • It’s a reflexion book of a people about its history, in the light of God their guide. The way the Bible narrates the origin of the Earth and humanity must not be taken literally (word for word). It reflects the state of human knowledge at a given period and literary genres of that period. It is currently the most read and the most translated book in the world. It has been translated in 391 languages in all.
Fundamental Theology
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
- Moral Theology is a branch of Theology that studies the principles, directives or norms that guide human being in order to attain his/her life purpose. It studies these directives in light of Christian faith and reason. Moral Theology consists of principles, norms, ideals, fundamental values inspired by the Holy Scriptures, in following Jesus Christ as the model in his obedient life to his Father, in love and liberty. The word « moral » derives from Latin « moralitas ».
- Hence, it signifies a manner, character, and an appropriate behaviour. It refers to a set of rules or precepts relative to human action conformity. These rules rest on the distinction between good and bad. In this line, its domain differs from that of Logic (whose values are true and false), that of Right (just and unjust), that of Art (the beauty and the ugliness), that of Economics (usefulness and unusefulness), etc. It is according to its values that moral fixes principles of action that are called « duties » of human being. There are two forms of attitudes contrary to moral ; the immorality which consists of breaking moral rules deliberately without thinking about it, and amorality which consists of refusing or denying the existence of a moral, even encouraging systematic transgression in certain cases