Goals of Junior Theology: Faith & Christology
Junior Faith-Christology Course Objectives
St. Louis University High School
Overall Goals:
1. To assist students in developing an awareness of the intellectual foundations which support those doctrines of the Catholic Church which make up the themes of fundamental theology.
2. The equip the students with a variety of tools for critically reflecting on the relationship between the gift and content of faith and the capcity for human reason.
3. To provide a foundational introduction to various intellectual traditions and paradigms which challenge a Catholic intellectual world view in our time.
4. To establish an enviroment where students can explore their own issues of faith and struggles for understanding it.
5. To provide regular opportunities for students to reflect on their own intellectual questions concerning the Catholic intellectual traditions.
6. To equip students to intelligently explain basic Catholic doctrines in a pluralistic enviroment.
7. To assist the student in a reading of the New Testament for its doctrinal teachings about the Mystery of Christ.
8. To place Jesus within a historical context as man, using geographical, cultural and historical evidence.
9. Through a careful reading of the gospel of Mark, students will place their own questions about Jesus within the concerns of his first disciples.
10. The student will be able to demonstrate a competence in showing how the New Testament unfolds its understanding of Jesus through a study of appropriate Christological texts outside the Gosple of Mark.
11. To equip students for apologetical discussions concerning the Church�s central teachings about Christ.
12. Using a variety of reflections, readings and prayer experiences the student will explore his own christological questions.
Goal #1: That the students will reflect on the nature of faith in general and come to a adequate understanding of the Nature of Catholic Faith.
Outcome: The student will discuss the elements of a secular definition of faith, i.e. Webster.
Outcome: The students will analyze and be able to articulate the reasons for the phenomenon of faith.
Outcome: The students will analyze the Catholic definition of Faith, using the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Outcome: The students will compare the secular definition of faith with the Catholic definition of Faith.
Goal #2: That the students will reflect on the multifaceted nature of human wonder and awe with an eye towards cultivating a sense of wonder and awe in their own person.
Outcome: The students will define the terms wonder and awe and will analyze various human experiences of wonder and awe that have been hander down to us throuout the ages.
Outcome: The students will be able to articulate the necessity of cultivating a sense of wonder and awe.
Outcome: The students will be exposed to the idea of mystery, being asked to generate and articulat certain ideas concerning mysterious aspects of their own human experience.
Outcome: The students will discuss the idea of mystery as an essential component of religion.
Outcome: The students will discuss the correlations between reason and wonder.
Goal #3: That the students will reflect upon and understand the nature of reason and apologetics and their role in a well-informed reasonable Faith decision.
Outcome: The students will be able to define apologetics and its relevance to Catholic Faith.
Outcome: The students will be able to define, compare and contrast three types of knowledge- experiential, reasoned, and knowledge from authority.
Outcome: The students will be able to list and briefly discuss the process of knowing and the interrelationships within the process.
Outcome: The students will be able to define five common errors in thinking, giving specific examples of each from written editorials.
Outcome: The students will be able to define and explain five important distinctions for effective critical thinking.
Outcome: The students will be able to define the terms �philosophy� and �theology�.
Goal #4: That the students will reflect upon and understand the nature of the human condition, and what this means for us as people of Faith.
Outcome: The students will analyze and discuss the definition of the human condition.
Outcome: The students will analyze the Catholic explanation for the human condition.
Outcome: The students will be familiar with the terms �the Fall�, �original justice�, �intrinsic goodness�, �state of being�, �concupiscence�, etc.
Outcome: The students will analyze and explain the four elements of Christian Eschatology, which are also known as the four last things.
Outcome: The students will compare and contrast four theories of the afterlife: annihilation, reincarnation, Nirvana, and resurrection.
Goal #5: That the students will reflect upon and discuss several traditional and contemporary demonstrations for the existence of God.
Outcome: The students will be able to articulate four demonstrations for God�s existence from a consideration of the natural world, as outlined in the text- Paley�s Teleological Argument, the Anthropic Principle, the Golden Ratio, Kalam�s Cosmological Argument, the Platonic-Thomistic Argument From Degrees of Perfection.
Outcome: The students will be able to articulate three demonstrations for God�s existence from a consideration via the human person, as outlined in the text- the argument from religious experience, the argument from conscience, and the argument from the moral law.
Goal #6: That the students will consider and reflect upon the idea of revelation and its relevance to their faitb as Catholic Christians.
Outcome: The students will outline parts of the �Dogmatic Constitution on Divne Revelation�, with an eye towards discovering key concepts.
Outcome: The students will know and discuss the key concepts of the Catholic understanding of revelation- �public and private revelation�, �mystic�, �prophet�, �evangelist�, �Father of the Church�, �Doctor of the Church�, Holy See�, �fundamentalism�, �Magisterium�, �Sacred Tradition�, �inerrancy�, �sola scriptura�, �oral tradition�, �apostolic succession�,� People of God�, �sensus fidei�.
Outcome: The students will be responsible for knowing the Nicene Creed from memory.
Goal #7: That the students will begin to reflect seriously upon the Person of Jesus Christ and His relevance in their lives.
Outcome: The students will be able to distingiush between implicit and explicit Christianity.
Outcome: The students will engage in a preliminary discussion of the question �Who is Jesus Christ?�, and will analyze several essays written by contemporary authors concerning this question.
Outcome: The students will read the Gospel of Mark in its entirety as a preparation for subsequent discussion of the question �Who is Jesus?�
Goal #8: The students will begin to analyze and reflect upon some of the core sources for discovering the Catholic understanding of the Person of Jesus.
Outcome: The students will be able to articulate the Catholic understanding of Christological Doctrine and its relevance to an understanding of the Person of Jesus.
Outcome: The students will be able to articulate the Catholic understanding of the Doctrine of the Incarnation and its relevance to understanding what the Nicene Creed says about Jesus.
Goal #9: The students will consider information contemporary to the times of Jesus which will help the students reflect upon the historical context and origins pertaining to the historical figure Jesus Christ.
Outcome: The students will identify various non-scriptural sources for the existence of the historical.
Outcome: The students will articulate and analyze the three-step theory for the formation of the gospels, and will articulate at least three reasons as to why Oral Tradition is effective.
Outcome: The students will discuss the idea of �authorship� and the writing of the four gospels.
Outcome: The students will discuss a brief sletch of the Church encyclical �Divino Afflante Spiritu�.
Outcome: The students will analyze the geography of Palestine with an eye towards more fully understanding the Gospel of Mark.
Outcome: The students will analyze other selected social groups during the time of Jesus- Sadduccees, Pharisees, essenes, scribes, and Zealots.
Goal #10: The students will consider the major themes and teachings of the Gospel of Mark, with an eye towards more fully understanding the Person of Jesus.
Outcome: The students will read and discuss and be able to articulate the main points of the historical material concerning Mark as author and apostolic figure.
Outcome: The students will demonstrate a basic understanding of the main themes of the Gospel of Mark: �Messianic Secret� �Suffering Servant� �Kingdom of God� �Who do you say that I am� �The Journey�.