Course Review Questions for Test & Exam

First Part of Course: Introductory Material

1. What is faith? Holden Caulfield, James Longstreet and you.
2. Is one person ideals/values/beliefs always as good/valid/true as everyone else's? Explain.
3. The JSEA Preamble states, "We must go beyond the criteria of academic excellence, as important as that is, to the far more challenging task of bringing about a true eatnoia in our students." What is meant by metanoia?
4. Know these key teachings of Jesus: the greatest commandment, the story of the rich young man,the judgment of nations, the Beatitudes.
5. What does the snail question with this course?
6. two ideas about faith from freshman year:
7. What are the two necessary components of faith?
   What are the four charactersitics of biblical faith?
   
8. Be able to list and explain the Five Foundational Lessons.
9. List the three persons, groups or things in which you have the greatest faith. List three persons, groups or things in which you have no faith.
10. What is does it really mean to have faith in Jesus? Do you have faith in Jesus?
11. Who said this? And why is it important to this course?

• Seek beauty, seek the truth, seek goodness. No matter what kind of faith--people get all tangled up in thier faith. The one duty in life is to seek the truth. And what is true will be beautifaul and what is beautiful will be good. And that's my goal in life.
• "The unexamined life is not worth living."
• "I went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

Second Part of Course: Reason

1. What is the difference between between fact, opinion, and belief? What do these have to do with faith?
2. What is theology? Who is the greatest theologican in the history of the Church and how did he describe theology? List at least four different fields of theological study.
3. What is philosophy? What are some major, recurring philosophical questions? How does a philosopher look for truth? Why is G.K. Chesterton a good example of the philosophical method? List some of the different kinds of philosophical study.
4. Which famous philosphical question does the reading devote a section? This is a major theme of this course, and will be for your next two years of theolgy. For all of us, this is a life-long challenge.
5. List what the text offers as "three types of knowing." Give a concrete example of each from the reading. Be able to offer examples of this from your life. What is the "greatest obstacle to knowledge from authority?" Do you agree? Why is an open mind a terrible risk?
6. List and explain the "five common thinking errors from the text." Give an example of each from your experience.
7. List and explain the "five steps to critical thinking."
8. List and explain what the text offers as the "process of knowing."
9. What does it mean to be "intellectually humble"?
10. Did the "jury experience" or the "Bush/Kerry" Paideia help you experience any of these key ideas about reason?

Third Part of Course: The Human Condition

1. Know and understand Plato's "allegory of the cave." How does the life of Socrates illustrate this?
2. Know the story of "Icarus and Daedelus"
3. List three aspects fo the human condition offered in George Carlin's "euphemisms." Did the right speech experiment" bring this home for you?
4. Know some basic Aristotle: his ideas living a good life, metaphor of man as ship at sea, and Aritotle�s epistemology.
5. List and explain five aspects of the human condition.
6. What is the classic, philosophical problem of evil?
7. Summarize what these historical figures have said aboout the human condition: Pascal, Marcus Aurelius, Buddha, Fromm, Plato and Aristotle.
8. What does the Christian doctrine of original sin offer about the human condition? Would the above thinkers agree or disagree with this view of man? Key idea=concupiscence.
9. List and explain three effects of original sin.
10. According to Chrisitan theology, what are the four last things every person faces?

1. M. Scott Peck's "Choosing a Map for Life"
   � Why are �maps� important in your life?
   � Most people choose to ignore their �maps. Give Peck�s two reason why.
   � Peck says that transference is the basis for much mental illness. What is transference?
   � Give a concrete and specific example of transference, either from your own life or from literature or movies.
   � �Truth can ovecome transference.� Mental health is an ongoing process of dedication to reality at all costs. What does a life of dedication to the mean really entail for you?
   
2. Harry Chapin's "The Cat's in the Cradle." � How does this illustrate a key idea about "maps"?
3. "Fides et Ratio" article from the St. Louis Review
   � What is the major message of this encyclical to you and me about faith?
4. John Kavanaugh's "Natural Law Applies Regardless ofReligion, Race or Gender� form the St. Louis Review
   � Where does the idea of �natual law� originate?
   � What is �natural law�?
   
5. Thomas Jefferson �Develop an Honest Heart�
   � Jefferson lists many important things in life. What is first, second and third on his list?
   � When a person is tempted to be dishonest or immoral, what does Jefferson suggest that person do?
   � To what does Jefferson compare the the physical exercise of a limb?
   
6. Richard Feynman after the bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

1. from Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book About Everythng and Nothing, edited by William Irwin
   � George�s Failed Quest for Happiness: An Aristotelian Analysis
   Q: Looking at it through Aristotle�s views, why isn�t George happy?
   � Jerry and Socrates: An Examined Life?
   Q: How are Jerry and Socrates similar? How are they different?
2. from The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D�oh of Homer, edited by William Irwin, Mark T. Conard and Aeon J. Skoble
   � Marge�s Moral Motivation
   Q: How is Marge and excellent illustration of Aristotle�s virtuous person?
   � Homer and Aristotle
   Q: Why does Homer fare badly in judging his character? And, yet, in what ways is he admirable?
3. from The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real, edited by William Irwin
   � Computers, Caves and Oracles: Neo and Socrates
   Q: How is the Matrix a retelling of the story of Socrates?

Fourth Part of Course: Challenges to Faith

1. Be able to summarize the eky ides of Nietzsche, Hobbes, Ignatius, Jesus, andyour ideas on the meaning of life, what it means to be human, reason, and morality..
2. What is scientism?
3. Give Readings' three stages in the relationship between science and faith.
4. What are three limitations of the scientific method?
5. List Zanzig's major negative societal values from the freshman text.
6. Be able to explain why Fr. Kavanaugh worries that advertising is shpaign our cultural values, our images of what it means to a person, of what whapiness is all about.
7. Summarize the message of "The Merchants of Cool" about the meaning of life, about morality, about reason, about what it means to be human.

Fifth Part of Course: Faith

1. What is the secular definition of faith?
2. Give the four charactersitics of biblical faith from the freshman text.
3. Explain how the secular definition of faith differs from the theological definition of faith?
4. Give the Catholic definition of faith. List its seven major characterstics. In The Mission which of the major characters demonstrate each of these?
5. Describe nihilism. Describe radicalism. What is the Golden Way?
6. Be able to reprodue the chart in the test. Reflection: Where are you personally in your faith on this chart?
7. How does the video Crisis in Faith demonstrate the human condition in the modern world?

Sixth Part of Course: Jesus: Model of Faith, Model of Humanity.

1. The Gospel of Mark. What was the benefit of reading a Gospel all the way through?
2. Reflect upon the key question Jesus asked Peter, "Who do you say that I am?" (Isn't this the most important question each of us must answer about Jesus?)
3. C.S. Lewis "The Shocking Alternative" from Mere Christianity
   � What does C.S. Lewis say is the key to history?
   � What did God do to help us �get it right�?
   
4. In his �Understanding Jesus� from Becoming a Catechist,
   � what does Father O�Malley say he believes are the four �non-negotiables of Christianity?�
   � What are Father O�Malley�s major ideas about Jesus� Appearance and Personality? About Jesus� Resurrection?
   � What was O�Malley�s understanding about �Jesus� Consciousness of His Divinity�?
   
5. In both O�Malley and in C.S. Lewis they both responded to those who say �I�m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don�t accept His claim to be God.�
6. Jesus Project assignment and class presentations

Images of faith: The Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, Jesus.

Let me, and your classmates, know if there is anything missed on this review.

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