Monotheistic
Belief in one God
Polytheistic
Belief in many gods
Agnostic
Unsure about the existence of God or gods
Atheistic
Denying that God or gods exist
Religion
A worldview that involves belief in God or gods, or some unseen power or powers, something beyond the human existence
Revelation
Deliberate self-disclosure of God (or the gods) to humanity
Theology
the study of God; discourse concerning the divine; God talk. For Anselm “faith seeking understanding”
Doctrines
Official religious teachings
Christian faith
A response to revelation, begins with belief in God and in God’s son, Jesus Christ. It also involves trust in God and Jesus
Moral theology
focuses on the values arising from the Bible and Christian beliefs
and practices and attempts to identify the behaviors that are
congruent and incongruent with these
values
Sacramental theology
Also known as liturgical theology, focuses on the study of Christian worship
Spirituality
investigates various forms of prayer and religious practice that orient persons toward God (or the divine) and that direct the way they live in the world
Theological anthropology
pertains to the study of human beings in relation to God and God’s creation.
Soteriology
pertains to the study of salvation
Pluralism
the presence of different religious or cultural groups within a single society
Secularism
the belief that religion has no place in the civic or political realm
Summa Theologica
Thomas Aquinas’s comprehensive systematic examination of Christian theology