Below is a sampling of what I'll be doing most of today and tomorrow as I get ready for my first test on Monday. If you know any of the answers, leave them in the comments. Enjoy:
- How did the Christians interpret the Hebrew Bible through prophecy and prefiguring to make it refer to the coming and the work of Jesus? Illustrate your explanation with examples from the New Testament.
- How did the criterion of apostolic origin function in determining the contents of the New Testament? Illustrate your answer from the New Testament itself and/or the Muratori Canon.
- How did the Christian gnostic methods of interpreting scripture influence the authority of the bishops as teachers in the non-gnostic churches?
- According to the Word theology of the second and third centuries, why was a secondary divine being considered necessary to explain the appearance and working of God in the history of Israel?
- In the theology of Athanasius, why is the divinity of the Savior necessary to deal with the mortality and ignorance of humans in their fallen state?
- Compare the creed produced by the Council of Constantinople to that of Nicea. How do their affirmations differ? How has the question changed in the intervening time (i.e., between Nicea and Constantinople I)?
- Be prepared to explain Cyril of Alexandria’s theory of the union of divine and human natures in the one hypostasis of the Savior.
- How did John of Damascus argue that the veneration of icons did not violate the Decalogue?