A priori
Knowledge, judgements, and principles which are true without verification or testing. It is universally true.
Absolution
In Catholicism, the act of releasing someone from their sin by God, through the means of a priest.
Adiaphora
Teachings and practices that are neither commanded nor forbidden in scripture. An example might be whether or not to use a sound-board in a church, to meet in a tent or a building, to have two or more services or simply one on the day of worship.
Advent
From the Latin, ?coming.? The coming of or the arrival of something very important as in the advent of Christ?s return. Advent is also an Christian time of preparation preceding Christmas.
Agnosticism
The belief that it is not possible to know if there is or is not a God.
Anabaptists
Any of a group of sects of the early Reformation period of the 16th century that believed in rebaptism of people as adults. Infant baptism was not recognized as valid and the Catholic Mass was rejected. Anabaptist means ?one who baptizes again.? They believed in non-violence and opposed state run churches.
Analogy of Being (analogia entis)
The theory, especially associated with Thomas Aquinas, that there exists a correspondence or analogy between the created order and God, as a result of the divine creatorship. The idea gives theoretical justification to the practice of drawing conclusions concerning God from the known objects and relationships of the natural order.
Angel
Angel means messenger. Angels are created, non-human, spirit beings. They are immortal, innumerable, invisible, sexless, and do the will of God. Angels were originally created for the purpose of serving and carrying out the will of God. The fallen angels rebelled and became evil angels. Satan is such an angel.
Animism
The belief that everything in the universe contains a living soul. The belief that every object is indwelt by a spirit.
Annihilationism
The teaching that when a person dies, he is annihilated, most often this doctrine is applied to the wicked, thereby negating eternal hell fire.
Anthropic Principle
The idea that the universe exhibits elements of design specifically for the purpose of containing intelligent beings; namely, humans.
Anthropomorphic
Manifesting in human form. It is from the Greek "anthropos" meaning "man" and "morphe" meaning "form." In biblical theology, God is described in anthropomorphic terms; that is, in human terms with human attributes. For example, God has hands and feet in Exodus 24:9-11 and is loving.
Apocrypha
The word apocrypha means hidden. It is used in a general sense to describe a list of books written by Jews between 300 and 100 B.C. More specifically, it is used of the seven additional books accepted by the Catholic church as being inspired.
Apologetics
The word "apologetics" is derived from the Greek word "apologia," which means to make a defence. It has come to mean defence of the faith.
Apostasy
The falling away from the faith. Rejecting a faith when once being a follower of it.
Argumentum ad hominem
An irrelevant attack upon a person to deflect the argument from the facts and reasons.
Argumentum ad judiciumAn argument where appeal is made to common sense and the judgment of people as validating a point.
Argumentum ad populumAn argument where appeal is made to emotions: loyalties, patriotism, prejudices, etc.
Argumentum ad verecundiamAn argument using respect for great men, customs, institutions, and authority in an attempt to strengthen one's argument and provide an illusion of proof.
Atheism
This word comes from two Greek words, a the negator, and theos, God. Atheism teaches that there is no God of any kind, anywhere, anytime. Some atheists claim to "Excercise no belief in a god" the same way they would exercise no belief in pink unicorns. Logically, an atheist would be an evolutionist.
Blasphemy
Denying God or divinity of a faith, or not accepting a faith.
Eisegesis
Eisegesis is when a person interprets and reads information into the text that is not there.
Empiricism
The proposition that the only source of true knowledge is experience. It is the search for knowledge through experiment and observation. Denial that knowledge can be obtained a priori.
Epistemology
The branch of philosophy that deals with the area of knowledge, its source, criteria, kinds, and the relationship between what is known and the one who is knowing it.
Ethics
The study of right and wrong and wrong, good and bad, moral judgement, etc.
Existentialism
A philosophical viewpoint that emphasis human freedom and abilities. Therefore, subjectivity and individual choice are elevated often above conceptual and moral absolutes.
Falsifiability
The ability of something to be proven false. A non falsifiable statement would be, "There is a green lizard sitting in a rocking chair on the fourth largest moon of Jupiter." This statement is not falsifiable in that it cannot be proven false because it cannot be verified or denied.
Fatalism
The idea that all things are predetermined to occur and that there is no ability of the person to alter the predetermined plan of God in any event.
Fideism
The position that religious doctrines rest not on reason, but only on faith.
Fool
The user liberated.
Freethinker
A person who forms his opinions about religion and God without regard to revelation, scripture, tradition, or experience.
Gehenna
Originally, a location southwest of Jerusalem where children were burned as sacrifices to the god Molech. It later became a garbage dump with an continuous burning of trash. Therefore, it was used, to illustrate the abode of the damned in Jewish theology. In Islam, Jehannam is the same thing as Gehenna, but is falsely implied to mean a supernatural place i.e. hell.
Hedonism
The teaching that pleasure is the principle good and proper goal of all action. Self indulgence.
Humanism
A philosophical system of thought that focuses on human value, thought, and actions. Humans are considered basically good and rationale creatures who can improve themselves and others through natural human abilities of reason and action. Secular Humanism is a late development emphasizing objectivity, human reason, and human standards, that govern art, economics, ethics, and belief. As such, no deity is acknowledged.
Induction
A system of logic where specific facts are used to draw a general conclusion.
Infidel
A person who does not belief in any particular religious system.
Karma
In Hinduism, the total compilation of all a person's past lives and actions that result in the present condition of that person. Normally, it is associated with reincarnation.
Law of non-contradiction
The Law of non-contradiction is the law that something cannot be both true and not true at the same time when dealing with the same context. For example, the chair in my living room, right now, cannot be made of wood and not made of wood at the same time. In the law of non-contradiction, where we have a set of statements about a subject, we cannot have any of the statements in that set negate the truth of any other statement in that same set. For example, we have a set of two statements about Judas. 1) Judas hung himself. 2) Judas fell down and his bowels spilled out. Neither statement about Judas contradicts the other. That is, neither statement makes the other impossible because neither excludes the possibility of the other. The statements can be harmonized by stating: Judas hung himself and then his body fell down and his bowels spilled out. In order to make the set of statements contradictory, we would have something like: 1) Judas hung himself. 2) Judas did not hang himself. Since either statement excludes the possibility of the other, we would then have a contradiction.
Topic: A glossary of philosophical and theological terms