The Christian View of Self (p. 91-92)

In his teachings and life on Earth, Jesus demonstrated to us how he contradicts the seven tendencies of individualism.

Jesus wants me to call God Abba/Father
Jesus’ greatest wish is that my relationship to God Abba/Father be like his own. I am most myself when I am in my relationship with God. I am not isolated or cut off from others.

Jesus knows that God is part of my deepest identity, and wants my relationship with God to be like his own.

My relationship with Abba/ Father is my freedom
Freedom is not a possession. Freedom is not a gift we can give ourselves. There are so many obstacles to freedom that God sent his only son to unbind us.

Freedom is a gift. God and the saving action of Jesus set us free from the obstacles to freedom (sin).

The earth is good and is a gift from God
I am not the master of the earth. Earth belongs to God. I must respect the earth as a gift and my relationship with earth should be one of thanksgiving, praise and stewardship.

The earth belongs to God, and must be respected as a gift.

Other people are important
The world does not revolve around me. Whomever seeks their own life loses it.

My life must not be centered around myself.

Before Abba/ Father, all are equal
All are in the love of God. That is the basis of the goodness of all creatures, their basis of equality.

God loves everyone equally

Five Greek Words for Love (p. 114-115)

Intimacy: The close bond that exists between human beings, whether as friends or associates. The bond is intimate because it touches our innermost being. Intimacy connects us with each other and our common humanity through our social, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and physical dimensions.

Love involves varying degrees of intimacy appropriate for various types of relationships.  The Greeks used different words to characterize several types of important relationships experienced in our lives.

HETAIREIA

This is a love based upon companionship and a sharing of common issues but without emotional closeness.

EROS
This is love in a sexual sense. It is a passionate, romantic love, pleasurable, spontaneous, even instinctive.

STORGE
This is family love: the love children have for their parents and parents for their children.

PHILIA
This is the love of friendship: the warm and tender affection felt between two friends.

AGAPE
This is the love of charity. It is a love that involves sacrifice. This is the love that Jesus referred to when he said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” This is the highest form of love. It can even be given to enemies.

Seven Tendencies of Individualism (p. 88-89)

The culture we live in impacts/affects the way we view ourselves (our identity) without our awareness. The following beliefs are commonly held by many people in Western cultures when it comes to identifying who they are. While it is unlikely that anyone holds all of these tendencies exactly as they are stated, it is likely that you recognize yourself and/or others in several of them. These beliefs place too much value on the individual and not enough value on a concern for the common good. For that reason, the traits of individualism conflict with the way Jesus desires us to live our lives and relate to others.

I am free - I am responsible for myself. The only authority I accept is the one that protects my freedom.

I have rights - Rights protect my freedom and dignity.

I am equal - I have the same claim to freedom and rights as everyone else. Government must protect the people and the people must have a say in decisions that affect them (i.e. government).

Only reason binds me - Things have to be proven to me or I may not accept them. Observation and experience “empirical knowledge” are essential in the search for truth.

I am isolated from everything - I treat the world as an object. I see everything from my own perspective, and in an attempt to maintain objectivity, I try to minimize the influence of relationships and feelings.

I am master of the Earth - The Earth is just another object to be used and exploited by me for my benefit and happiness. In the same way, I am master over my own body.

I am godless - In a world where everything is centred on me, God has no place except at the limits of my life when I need him most (i.e. sickness, death, natural disaster). God is squeezed out of a culture that operates out of self-interest.

Nietzsche's Madman (p. 95)

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly: "I seek God! I seek God!"---As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost? asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated?---Thus they yelled and laughed.
The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. "Whither is God?" he cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him---you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.

"How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whoever is born after us---for the sake of this deed he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto."

Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. "I have come too early," he said then; "my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars---and yet they have done it themselves.

It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo. Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing but: "What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?"

[Source: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science (1882, 1887) para. 125; Walter Kaufmann ed. (New York: Vintage, 1974), pp.181-82.]

Rene Descartes: "I think therefore I am"

Parables (p. 72)

A parable is a fictional story that compares something we do not know (The Kingdom of God/God's presence among us) with something we do know. In this way, a parable is a metaphor which teaches us about the Kingdom of God, or God's actions among us. A parable usually has a surprise twist that helps us to see God's love (grace) for us in a new way.

Five Characteristics of a Parable:
1) A parable is a story
Parables are a work of fiction. The events described in a parable did not actually occur.

2) A parable is a comparison
Parable comes from the Greek "parabole," meaning comparison. Parables make a comparison between something the audience has knowledge of, and something they may not have knowledge of, namely God.

3) A parable has a crisis
Parables usually contain some sort of conflict, crisis, twist, or surprise.

4) A parable has an ending
The conflict is resolved.

5) A parable is about the Kingdom of God, or God's actions among us
A parable helps us to better understand God.

-Mr. H.

What is a covenant? (p. 64-65)

A covenant is like a treaty, alliance, or promise
In scripture a covenant is used to express the relationship between the Lord and the Israelites.

A covenant has conditions
The Israelites became God's 'Chosen People' and gained their freedom from slavery when they accepted the conditions of the covenant.  The Israelites agreed to accept the Torah (think Old Testament), a set of instructions provided by the Lord on how to live their lives.  At the core of the Torah are the Ten Words (Ten Commandments), which teach the Lord's people how to be free.

A covenant is sealed with a ceremony
"Then he [Moses] took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, 'All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.'" The covenant and its conditions are read and agreed upon in a ritual ceremony.

A covenant is celebrated with both parties present
The Sinai covenant is sealed with a ceremonial meal.  Moses, Aaron, Na'dab, Abi'hu, and seventy elders of Israel (representing every nation known by Israel at the time), went up Mount Sinai to see God where they ate and drank a covenant meal.

- Mr. H.

Covenants (The Bible Project, 2015)

If Moses were to liberate his people today...

The Sacredness of Life and Dignity of the Human Person

 

Signs, Symbols, and Rituals of Culture

Sign - expresses one specific meaning or message.

Symbol - an object or thing used to represent an idea that is difficult to explain, describe, or understand.

Ritual - a set of bodily actions accompanied by language and symbols which help to connect us with others, and make life events more meaningful.

Four Traits of a Ritual (p. 44)
- passes on tradition
- requires our active participation (bodies)
- accompanied by words to help provide meaning
- creates community

Reflect on rituals in your life.  Identify and explain how each of the characteristics of a ritual is present in a ritual you have participated in.

- Mr. H.

Seven Traits of Culture (p. 35-36)

Culture is the way we live together.

Culture is comprised of three major components:
1) Human actions
2) A set of meanings, beliefs, values, and practices
3) Identifies individuals as belonging to a particular group

Culture...
1) is created by humans.
2) consists of ways of doing things.
3) is public.
4) arises from tradition.
5) is made up of rule governed actions.
6) becomes established in institutions.
7) gives us our identity.

- Mr. H.

Seven Principles of Catholic Social Teaching

1) Life and Dignity of the Human Person
All people are sacred, made in the image and likeness of God. People do not lose dignity because of disability, poverty, age, lack of success, or race. This emphasizes people over things, being over having.

2) Call to Family, Community, and Participation (Common good and community)

The human person is both sacred and social. We realize our dignity and rights in relationship with others, in community. Humans are social beings with a right and duty to participate in society to seek the common good and well-being of all. Family is fundamental to this process.

3) Rights and responsibilities

All people have a fundamental right to life, food, shelter, health care, education and employment. All people have a right to participate in decisions that affect their lives. Corresponding to these rights are duties and responsibilities to respect the rights of others within wider society and to work for the common good.

4) Option for the poor and vulnerable

The moral test of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable members. Society has a responsibility to examine the impact public policy decisions have on the poor.

5) The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers

The economy (system for the distribution of goods and services) exists to meet the needs of the people. This relationship is very different from people existing to meet the needs of the economy. People come first. Workers have a right to:

• productive work
• fair wages
• a safe work environment
• participate in decisions that affect them in the workplace
• security in the case of sickness, disability, unemployment or old age
• form unions which are considered "indispensable" in the search for social justice

6) Solidarity (Global solidarity and development)

We are one human family. Global development must respect the moral, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of the human person. Our responsibilities to each other crosses national, racial, economic, and ideological differences because we are a global community.

"If you want peace, work for justice." 

- Pope Paul VI (1972)

7) Stewardship of God's creation

The goods of creation are to be enjoyed by all and benefit everyone. We are not to exploit the earth's resources, but are called to protect, care for, and responsibly use the goods of creation.

                                              

Being Human: A Catholic Perspective

 

The Limits of Science.....

Five rational beliefs that cannot be proven by science
Dr. William Lane Craig

• Logical and mathematical truths cannot be proven by science. Science presupposes logic and math; to try to prove them by science would be arguing in a circle.
• Metaphysical truths such as that there are other minds other than my own or that the external world is real or that the past wasn’t created five minutes ago with the appearance of age.
• Ethical beliefs about statements of value are not accessible by the scientific method. You can’t show by science whether the Nazi scientists did anything in the camps that is evil as opposed to the scientists in western democracies.
• Aesthetic judgments cannot be accessed by the scientific method because the beautiful, like the good, cannot be scientifically proven.
• Science itself. Science cannot be justified by the scientific method. Science is permeated by improvable assumptions. For example, in the special theory of relativity, the whole theory hinges on the assumption that the speed of light is constant in a one-way direction from point A to point B, it must be assumed.

None of these beliefs can be proven yet they are accepted by almost everyone.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church: Seven traits of being human (p. 12)

1) Humans are created in the image and likeness of God
God is a part of all of us. This makes all people valuable, good, and holy. Humans are sacred.

2) Humans are called to happiness and holiness
Humans have the desire to be happy. God calls us to behave in ways that reflect his goodness (holy). Only when we live in a relationship of love and gratitude with God and neighbour will we discover true happiness (when we lead our lives as Jesus/God want us to).

3) Humans are rational and free
Humans can contemplate/think about the impact our actions may or may not have on others and the world around us. We are free to make our own choices and we are held responsible for those choices.

4) Humans are moral beings
Humans are capable of doing good/evil/right/wrong. Because we are rational beings we act with the intention to do good or evil.

5) Humans have passions or feelings
The experience of emotion is part of being human. These emotions or feelings are neither morally good or evil. It is how we choose to deal with, or act upon, the emotions we experience that may be good or evil.

6) Humans are blessed with a conscience
We are created in the image and likeness of God; He is a part of all of us. When we reflect/pray and are honest with ourselves, and when we are willing to listen to God within us, we know/feel when a course of action is morally good or bad. An informed conscience allows us to know what is right and just.

7) Humans are able to sin
Our freedom to choose allows us to go astray and commit offence against reason, truth, and right conscience (sin). Sin distances us from God, impacts those around us and may influence others to also sin.

- Mr. H.

What does the Bible (Genesis) say about being human? (p. 9-10)

- Humans are a creation of God
- Humans are a mixture of earth and Divine Breath
- Humans are good
- Humans are created male and female

- Mr. H.

A Social Science Perspective

Five dimensions of the human person according to social science:

- spiritual      

- social      

- intellectual/cognitive

- emotional    

- physical              

            
- Mr. H

Unit One: To Be Human Is...?

Unit one will consist of looking at several perspectives that provide us with some insight into what it means to be fully human.

These perspectives include:

- the social sciences

- Genesis (Biblical)

- Catechism of the Catholic Church

- Catholic social teachings

- Mr. H.

Interpreting the Bible

Anthropology: the science that studies the origins, development, and customs of human beings.

Literal Interpretation: the direct interpretation of the Bible as fact. The belief that everything in the Bible happened exactly as it is written.

Contextual Interpretation: interpreting the Bible for its underlying meaning and messages, lessons, teachings, etc. (reading “between the lines”).

• Hermeneutics: text interpretation based on world changes. Examines the context (time, culture) within which text is written in an attempt to extract understanding.
• Exegesis: the critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture; to “draw out” the meaning of scripture.

Catechism of the Catholic Church: the official collection of Catholic teachings, often written in question and answer form, which interprets the Bible contextually.

Pope John Paul II on Evolution:

"The Bible itself speaks to us of the origin of the universe and its makeup, not in order to provide us with a scientific treatise but in order to state the correct relationships of humanity with God and with the universe. Sacred Scripture wishes simply to declare that the world was created by God, and in order to teach this truth it expresses itself in the terms of the cosmology in use at the time of the writer..."  

"... Any other teaching about the origin and the makeup of the universe is alien to the intentions of the Bible, which does not wish to teach us how heaven goes but how one goes to heaven."

                          - “Scientific Research and Man's Spiritual Heritage,”
                                              address of Pope John Paul II
                                              to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences,
                                              October 3, 1981.             

Classroom Expectations

Classroom Code of Conduct

• Be punctual.
• Arrive in full uniform.
• Arrive prepared (proper state of mind, books, paper, pen or pencil, homework complete).
• Do not bring your cellphones to class
• Respect yourself and others :
• Take responsibility for your learning by putting forth an honest effort in everything you do
• Listen to others while they are speaking
• Raise your hand if you have something to share
• Be honest with yourself
• Actively seek out help when it is needed. Be specific in communicating what you need.
• Help others when you are able to do so
• Leave the classroom in a better condition than it was when you arrived:
• Treat our classroom resources (tables, chairs, books, paper, computer, etc) with care
• Return any borrowed materials to their appropriate location(s) when you are finished with them
• Keep our classroom clean, neat and tidy. Put garbage in its place, pick up garbage if necessary
• Push in your chair before you leave the classroom
• If you need to leave the classroom ask permission. If permission is granted, write your name on the board. Be sure to erase it when you return to the classroom.
• One student is allowed out of the classroom at one time.
• No food or drink in the classroom (water bottles are acceptable).
• Unless explicit permission is given, cellphones, MP3 players, iPods, and other digital distractions are not to be used and are to be kept out of sight.
• Cellphones are NOT permitted in the classroom and will be taken away
• Remain seated until the bell rings.

Welcome to Our Course Web Page!

Welcome to Grade 10 Religion!  I am excited for the beginning of a new school year and look forward to working with you. The links under the 'Course Resources' tab provide you with access to course notes and handouts. Check back frequently to find helpful information related to course content.

-Mr. H.