TOPIC 2

Theology is literally defined as discourse about God. It basically talks about God, about
faith and about beliefs or belief system. These discourses had ancient origin been coterminous
with human history and culture. Theology is an old-aged discipline, been tested through time by
radical thoughts but managed to continue the discourse to the present time.

Theologians firm conviction of their science comes not solely in facts but by faith and
reason. Their assertions are valid because they do not come from their own mind and thoughts
alone but from their reflections of the written wisdom of great men of faith who attributed
every good thing to God. This God who is the source of all knowledge and wisdom is the
Creator of nature and the sustainer of life. This God is living and communicating His divine self
in history. So long as humans have the intellect and will which are naturally bestowed by the
Creator, theological discourses go on. Faith lives and beliefs hold together the community of
faith.

DIVINE REVELATION
 Revelation from the Latin word "revelare" meaning to disclose or uncover.
 In the Old Testament, God manifested His glorious Self and power (Theophany)
 God discloses Himself to Abraham and the patriarchs, He formed a covenant with them.
He made known His will to Moses and communicated His plans for His people through
the prophets.
 "Revelation is the self-communication of God. It is the process which God initiates and
which we recognize and accept because of our radical capacity to be open to the
presence and action of God in our history and personal life" Mc. Brien p234

DIVINE REVELATION IN THE REFLECTION OF THE CHURCH

CFC 61. "It pleased God, in His goodness and wisdom to reveal Himself . .. By this revelation,
then, the invisible God, from the fullness of His love, addresses men as His friends, and moves
among them in order to invite and receive them in His own company" (DV 2).
Christian life is based on the conviction that God has spoken to us and that the central truths of
our Faith are given in this revelation. The Christian Scriptures attest that "in times past God
spoke in varied ways to our fathers through the prophets; in this, the final age, He has spoken
to us through His Son" (Heb 1:1-2).

SOURCES/WAYS OF DIVINE REVELATION

CREATION
The creative act of God is a revelation of God. Nature is what arises from the creative act of God
(Mc Brien) The world and everything in it are natural signs of God. But today Nature has been
stained by sin. CFC

HISTORY
We may come to the knowledge of God when we reflect on the principal events in our history.

JESUS CHRIST
As the incarnate Word of God, Jesus is the fullness of God's revelation in the Christian faith
experience.

Church and Other RELIGIOUS TRADITION

The Church as a community of disciples founded by Jesus is witnessing the Goodnews of Jesus
Christ
Thus, even non-Christians "who do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who
nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do His
will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience, may achieve eternal salvation" (LG
16).
SACRED SCRIPTURES
The written Word of God which reveals the accompaniment of God in the history of His people.

CATECHISM FOR FILIPINO CATHOLICS (CFC) Nos. 61 – 75

CHAPTER 2
God’s Call: Revelation

61. “It pleased God, in His goodness and wisdom to reveal Himself . . . By this revelation, then,
the invisible God, from the fullness of His love, addresses men as His friends, and moves among
them in order to invite and receive them in His own company” (DV 2). Christian life is based on
the conviction that God has spoken to us and that the central truths of our Faith are given in
this revelation. The Christian Scriptures attest that “in times past God spoke in varied ways to
our fathers through the prophets; in this, the final age, He has spoken to us through His Son”
(Heb 1:1-2).

62. But how does this idea of “revelation” relate to ordinary Filipino life? The answer is in our
personal relationships. One of the best things you can say about a Filipino is: “Marami siyang
kakilala” (He knows many people), or “Maraming nakakakilala sa kanya” (Many people know
him). On the other hand, one of the worst things to say about a Filipino is “Wala siyang kakilala”
(Nobody knows him), or “Walang kumikilala sa kanya” (No one gives him recognition). So in our
family relationships and friendships we reveal our personal selves to others, and openly receive
their self-giving to us. This is what uplifts the Filipino.

63. Now the first one to know us, the first one to show us recognition and reach out to establish
a personal relationship with us __ to become our kakilala __ is God. Only in relation to God do
we become our full selves. Only in coming to know God do we grow to the full stature of our
true selves. But how do we come to know the one true God?

64. Perhaps few countries in the world can compare to the Philippines when it comes to trying
to make God known. Newspapers, radio, TV and movies are filled with new preachers, religious
celebrations, public devotions, and never-ending appeals for new chapels and churches. Faith
healers abound in every community. Self-proclaimed mediums claim to lead their gullible
devotees in mysterious ways to supposedly closer contact with God, or the Sto. Niño, or the
Blessed Virgin Mary. With so many different people claiming to reveal God, who can we
believe? How does the one true God actually reveal Himself to us today?

I. GOD REVEALS HIMSELF

A. In Creation
65. The first way God reveals Himself to us is through creation.

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims His handiwork” (Ps 19:1).
In creation, man holds a special place. God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness” (Gn 1:26). God even gives us a share in His own creativity: “Be fertile and multiply; fill
the earth and subdue it” (Gn 1:28). God creates the whole world for us, to support us in life and
reveals Himself to us through His handiwork. “Since the creation of the world. . . God’s eternal
power and divinity have become visible, recognized through the things He has made” (Rom
1:20).

66. Our Fourth Eucharistic Prayer clearly expresses this recognition of God’s Self-revelation
through creation:
Father in heaven, You are the one God, living and true . . . Source of life and goodness, You have
created all things To fill Your creatures with every blessing And lead all men to the joyful vision
of Your light . . . Father, we acknowledge Your greatness: All Your actions show Your wisdom
and love, You formed man in Your own likeness, and set him over the whole world To serve
You, his Creator, and to rule over all creatures.

Natural Signs
67. For us Filipinos, then, the world and everything in it are natural signs of God __ the initial
way God makes Himself known to us. Yet in our everyday experience, we meet not only love,
friendship, the good and the beautiful, but also suffering, temptation and evil. All creation has
become affected by sin __ “sin entered the world, and with sin death” (Rom 5:12). The “natural
signs” of the Creator have thus become disfigured by pollution, exploitation, injustice,
oppression and suffering. So God chose to reveal Himself in a second, more intimate way, by
entering into the history of the human race He had created.

B. In Scripture, through Salvation History

68. The Bible records God’s entering into a special covenant relationship with His chosen
people, the race of Abraham, the people of Israel. “I will dwell in the midst of the Israelites and
will be their God” (Ex 29:45). Again, we pray in the Eucharistic Prayer IV:
Even when man disobeyed you and lost your friendship, You did not abandon him to the
power of death, But helped all men to seek and find you. Again and again you offered a
covenant to man, and through the prophets taught him to hope for salvation.
Biblical Signs
69. God revealed Himself in stages. In the Old Testament, God revealed Himself through biblical
signs made up of both deeds and words. He made covenants with Noah, with Abraham, and
with Moses. He performed great works for His Chosen People, and proclaimed their saving
power and truth through the prophets’ words (cf. DV 2; CCC 56-64). Through chosen men and
women __ kings, judges, prophets, priests and wisemen, God led, liberated, and corrected His
people. He forgave their sins. He thus revealed Himself as Yahweh, He-who-is-with His people.
He is “the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity” (Ex
34:6). Today, through His inspired word in the Old Testament, God still reveals Himself to us,
and inspires us to respond to His covenant.

70. Yet, even God’s revelation in history was weakened by the infidelities and hardness of heart
of His Chosen People. But God so loved the world, that in the fullness of time, He sent His only
Son to be our Savior, like us in all things except sin (cf. Jn 3:16; Gal 4:4; Heb 4:15; CCC 65). Jesus
Christ “completed and perfected God’s revelation by words and works, signs and miracles, but
above all by his death and glorious resurrection from the dead” (DV 4). Thus the Risen Christ,
prefigured in the Old Testament and proclaimed by the apostles, is the unique, irrevocable and
definitive revelation of God.

C. In the Church
71. But God’s definitive revelation in Jesus Christ did not stop with Christ’s ascension to his
Father. Jesus himself had gathered around him a group of disciples who would form the nucleus
of his Church. In this Church, the “Good News” of Jesus Christ would be proclaimed and spread
to the ends of the earth by the power of the Holy Spirit, sent down upon the apostles at
Pentecost (cf. Acts 1:8). “What was handed on by the apostles comprises everything that serves
to make the People of God live their lives in holiness and increase their faith. In this way the
Church in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that
she herself is, all that she believes” (DV 8; cf. CCC 77-79). PCP II summarizes this by stating that
Sacred Scripture and the living tradition of the Church transmit to us the teachings of Jesus”
(PCP II 65)

Liturgical/Ecclesial Signs
72. God continues to manifest Himself today through the Holy Spirit in the Church. He is
present in the Church’s preaching the truth of Scripture, in its witness of loving service, and
through the celebration of its Christ-given Sacraments. Christ’s revelation in the Church is “the
new and definitive covenant [which] will never pass away. No new public revelation is to be
expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord, Jesus Christ (1 Tim 6:14; Ti 2:13)” (DV
4).

73. In summary, then, Filipino Catholics experience God’s Self-revelation today. First, God
shows Himself in the natural signs of the beauty and abundance of our natural resources and
our rich Filipino culture. Second, the biblical signs in God’s inspired Word in Scripture, the book
of the Church, reveal Him. Third, through the Church’s liturgical signs, we encounter the Risen
Christ in the Sacraments. Finally, God makes Himself known to us through the ecclesial signs of
the Church’s proclamation of the Creed and in her moral teachings and commitment to service.

D. In Other Religions
74. But many Filipino Catholics ask if non-Christians receive God’s revelation. The Church, in her
prophetic mission of “reading the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the
Gospel” (GS 4), discerns the seeds of the Word in the history and culture of all men of good will.
Thus, even nonChristians “who do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who
nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do His
will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience, may achieve eternal salvation” (LG
16).

75. For whatever is true and holy in non-Christian cultures and religions is accepted by the
Catholic Church since it “often reflect[s] a ray of that truth which enlightens all men.” Filipino
Catholics, therefore, should “acknowledge, preserve and encourage the spiritual and moral
truths found among nonChristians, also their social life and culture” (NA 2). PCP II provides
guidelines for this inter-religious dialogue. It must be based firmly on the fact that salvation in
Jesus Christ is offered to all, and that the Church is the ordinary means of salvation since she
possesses the fullness of the means to salvation (cf. UR 3). This makes possible “openness in
understanding the religious convictions of others. [For] ‘dialogue based on hope and love will
bear fruit in the Spirit’ (RMi 56)” [PCP II 112-13].

Theology and Faith

What is Theology?
Theology is "fides quarrens intellectum" i.e. faith seeking understanding according to St.
Anselm.

It is the more or less svstematic effort one makes to understand and express the fundamental
experience of God....

What is Faith?
-"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" Heb. 11:1

"Faith gives us the assurance and conviction that makes life manageable.
It relates to something or someone that we do not completely control, nevertheless, we trust
that someone something not to let us down." lan Knox (Introduction to Theology)

Theology is not Faith

 Theology is not faith but faith is an essential aspect of Theology.
 Faith is an indispensable component, a dimension, of human life.

Levels of Faith
Object of Faith

Human/Anthropological
- It can be directed towards anything or to anyone. One may have faith in something or
someone bevond one's control yet reliable.

Religious Faith
- The object/subject of religious faith is Someone, a transcendent Reality, a greater Being,
who surpasses human knowledge, wisdom, goodness and generosity... Someone
omnipotent (all powerful) omniscient (all knowing) and omnipresent (present
everywhere) [cf CCC

Christian Faith
- The object/subject of Christian faith is Jesus Christ, the "Word made flesh" who dwelt
among God's people, the Son of God who is the perfect revelation of God to humans.

Fortes in Fide as an Ignatian core value is not only operating in the level of human relationship.
In the Ignatian tradition, faith is stronger when is anchored to a transcendent Being.

Characteristics of Christian Faith cf CFC 119-122, NCDP

◦ Faith is Believing
◦ Faith is Doing
◦ Faith is Trusting
◦ Faith is a gift
◦ Faith is a personal decision
◦ Faith is real knowledge
◦ Faith is a living Process
◦ Faith's Proofs
◦ Faith and the Christian Community

Faith is a central reality in Filipino life. It includes believing acceptance (paniniwala); obedient
action (bagsunod) and personal entrusting

Faith is believing
- The personal act of faith is first of all an act of belief (paniniwala).
- An act of faith is an act of the intellect. It is thinking with assent.

Faith is Doing
- Acting in obedience to God's will (pagsunod). The person with authentic faith is one who
hears the Word of God and keep it (Lk. 11:28)
- The true friend of Christ is one who keeps the commandment (In 14:15)
 - Orthopraxis is a constitutive part of authentic faith "Faith without works is as dead as a
body without breath" (James 2:26)
- Faith can coexist with sin (Council of Trent)
- Faith as doing or obedience includes: acknowledgement of failures, repentance, contrition
and metanoia.

Faith is Trusting
- Act of trust and confidence (pagtitiwala)
- In faith we enter into a relationship with God as the ever-reliable rock of our salvation,
and as the all powerful and loving Savior. To believe is to trust that God will be true to
His Word. To believe is to trust in God through all our trials and sufferings. It is this
aspect of trust that we express in prayer and liturgical worship.

Faith is a gift, like the gift of life- is a gift to be lived, developed, deepened, practiced. It is a
living force to be nurtured, cultivated and fostered in prayer, study, sacrifice, good works and
by sacramental practice. It is a gift bestowed by God that need to be received freely.

Faith can not be inherited; nor one can have it by proxy; can not be lived out by custom or
routine, it should be an act of the believer's own self, a personal decision to accept and commit
oneself to Christ. As a personal decision, Faith involves the whole person encompassing three
main dimensions of the head: a grasp or conviction of the truth; hands, an active obedience and
commitment to God's will and Heart: a filial trust shown in prayer and worship.

Faith is a personal decision

Faith is real knowledge.

In Christian faith we know and hold something to be true because we believe God has revealed
it. God expresses His truth to us in terms of our intellect and will. Hence God communicates His
true self to us through the revealed truths of the Gospel, we come to know God in faith by
assenting to, meditating on, living out, the truths Christ exemplified and taught.

Faith is a living process

- It is not a static possession.
- Faith must grow ( 2 Cor. 10:15). It can become weak and die ( 1 Thes 3:10). The principle
of growth is love. (Gal. 5:6) Faith as a gift, like the gift of life- is a gift to be lived,
developed, deepened, practiced. It is a living force to be nurtured, cultivated and
fostered in prayer, study, sacrifice, good works and by sacramental practice

Proof of Faith
- The Gospel norm: "By their fruits you shall know them (Mt. 7:16,20) Pope Paul VI "It is
unthinkable that a person should accept the Word and give himself to the kingdom with
out becoming a person who bears witness to it in his turn "(EN24) The triple dimension
 of creed, cult and code provide the best practical check on the authenticity of the
Filipino Catholic faith

Faith and Christian Community

- No one believes in Christ in isolation, but always in the company of those accepting the
witness of the Christian community, and united as disciples of Christ, inspired by His
indwelling Spirit. Our personal faith is supported and sustained by the faith of the
community, while at the same time contributing in its turn to the growth of the
community's faith. Christian faith is by nature ecclesial, communitarian.

What is a Belief?
A Belief is any expression of faith

Personal Belief
Personal Beliefs are subjective, based on the personal experiences and subject to individual
interpretations
Ex. Believing on a soul mate or destiny in love

Communitarian Beliefs
Communitarian beliefs are grounded on a communal experience which meaning are discerned
by a group of people... In religious traditions beliefs are revealed to a particular people, who
adhere to it.

Sources of Beliefs in the Catholic Christian Tradition

The Bible
Consists of sacred writings written with divine inspiration; goes through the process of
canonicity and considered inerrant in matters of faith and morals

Tradition
The whole process of handing on the faith from Christian generation to another Christian
generation, through preaching, catechesis, teaching, devotions, gestures, doctrine and the Bible
itself. Sacred TRADITION refers to the living and lived faith of the church

Doctrine
Is a belief that is officially taught by the Church

Dogma
A doctrine taught with highest solemnity and is immune from fundamental error.

The Official beliefs of the Church are communicated by an authoritative teaching body known
as MAGISTERIUM.

TOPIC 3

The Theology of centers as Ereator fo all St creations the Frat traciousness or doas
evident rom the eations, creation and in the entirety of the history of the world. The God of
creation is the God of history.

God's grace infused in nature by the Holy Spirit sustains all the creative activities, beauty
and life in the world. Humans who are bestowed with the highest faculty of intellect and will,
appointed to be stewards of the rest of creation are called to participate, in the divine life of
grace and to be channels of God's blessings to other creatures.

However, the sublime potentials of humans, the intellect and will are oftentimes
misused to pursue human disordered passion contrary to the goodwill of God.

So humans maybe agents of the proclivity of love when they do according to the will of
God or may be perpetrators of sin in the human society and in the natural world.

Christian Theology which is centered on the faith of the resurrection of Jesus firmly
believed that the mercy of God is greater than human weakness. So when sin abounds, grace
abounds all the more.

What is Grace?
It is associated with the Hebrew word hen, meaning favor or hanan to show favor The Latin
term gratia which is a translation of the Greek word charis, bears similar meaning "favor",
"gratuitous gift”, "benefit". Grace literally means favor, gratuitous gift or a benefit.

In the Christian experience, Grace is a divine favor, a gratuitous gift from God and unmerited
benefit bestowed by the transcendent being
Why does God bestow grace?

The Catholic Creed proclaims God Almighty. This attribute of God may be understood in these
three specific qualities:

1. Universal. God is Almighty or Omnipotent because God's power is universal. He is the

Pantokrator, the creator and ruler of all things, the infinite Father beyond human
experience. God creates out of His divine goodness, to share His goodness with others...
God creates by a free, intentional and purposeful act... and God creates out of nothing, that
is not from any matter or already existing.

2. Loving. " The "almighty" in the Bible is not some impersonal, arbitrary, self- seeking, force
imposing terror... but the Father's almighty power is the re-creating personal energy of non-
violent love. CFC 287 " This loving power of the Father. His "kagandahang-loob" is revealed
especially in Christ our Lord. present among us in the Spirit. God keeps us as His "segullah" -
the apple of His eye. His almighty love is forever yearning to do more for us, in the Spirit of
malasakit as Christ pictured for all in his parable of the Good Shepherd. " CFC 288

3. A Mystery. A mystery is something we may understand but not fully grasp. God's being
almighty is a mystery because if He is powerful, why is evil existing? And it seems that God's
power appears as powerlessness. As thus manifested in the passion and death of Jesus. Yet
St. Paul says "proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to
Gentiles, but to those who are called....Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God...
For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is
stronger than human strength. (1 Cor. 1: 23-25)

What grace are gratuitously given to humans?

A. At the moment of Creation…

1. God has created humans in divine image and likeness Gn. 1: 26.
God has given human the intellect and freewill. The intellect makes us know God and the
freewill is to love God.. God "has placed in man a longing for truth and goodness that only He
can satisfy. The promises of "eternal life" respond, beyond all hope, to this desire: CCC 2002

Human life is God-given, it is a gratuitous gift from God. Freedom is from God and serves well
when exercised according to the divine will.
B. By the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus

The Father loves me for this: that I lay down my life to take it up again. No one takes it from
me: Flay it down freelv... Jn. 10:17-18

"Our Lord Jesus was once and for all to offer himself to God the Father by his death on the altar
of the cross, to accomplish an everlasting redemption" (Council of Trent; ND:1546):

Jesus saved us by a perfect self-giving love for his Father and for us, a love lived out to the
death, CFC 558

C. By the Holy Spirit

In the Nicene Creed, the Holy Spirit is professed as the Lord, the giver of Life. The life which the
Spirit shares with us is the divine life, the life of God who is love.

The Gospel of John calls the Spirit the Paraclete which means "he who is called to help". The
Holy Spirit is our Advocate, Helper and Counsellor. CCC 692

The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion, effecting justification in accordance
with Jesus' proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand." Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting
forgiveness and righteousness from on high. "Justification is not only the remission of sins, but
also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man. CCC 1989