Sources of wisdom and authority

Christianity draws authority from several sources, weighted differently across traditions:

• The Bible (Old and New Testaments) — for some the supreme authority.
• Church tradition and teaching (especially in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity).
• Reason and conscience; for many, personal experience.

Christians differ on how to read scripture: fundamentalist/literalist, conservative, and liberal approaches (the latter reading texts in their historical and literary context, influenced by scholars such as Rudolf Bultmann and his call to "demythologise").

God and ultimate reality

Christianity is monotheist but holds God to be Trinity — one God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit — as set out in the Nicene Creed.

• God is traditionally omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent and eternal.
• Central is the Incarnation: God became human in Jesus Christ, who Christians believe was crucified and resurrected.

Debates include how to reconcile God's attributes (e.g. omnipotence and love with evil) and how literally to understand the Trinity.

Which doctrine?

Good conduct and moral principles

Christian ethics is shaped by:

• Love (agape) and the Golden Rule — to love God and neighbour.
• The Ten Commandments and the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.
• Internal debates between natural law (Aquinas, absolutist) and situation ethics (Fletcher, love-based, relativist).

Religion and science

The relationship of Christianity and science is often mapped using Ian Barbour's four models: conflict, independence, dialogue and integration.

• Conflict — e.g. the Galileo affair; the clash between Genesis and evolution; creationism vs Darwinism.
• Independence — science and religion answer different questions (how vs why); compare Gould's "non-overlapping magisteria".
• Dialogue / integration — theistic evolution sees evolution as God's method of creation.

Whose typology?

Religion and religious pluralism

How does Christianity relate to other faiths? Three classic positions:

• Exclusivism — salvation is only through explicit faith in Christ.
• Inclusivism — Karl Rahner's "anonymous Christians": sincere people of other faiths may be saved through Christ without knowing it.
• Pluralism — John Hick: the great religions are different human responses to the same ultimate Reality (a "Copernican revolution" from Christ-centred to God-centred).

Gender, society and secularisation

• Gender: debates over women's roles and ordination; feminist theology — Rosemary Radford Ruether and Mary Daly ("if God is male, then the male is God") critique patriarchal language and structures.
• Society: liberation theology (Gustavo Gutiérrez) reads the gospel as good news for the poor and demands social justice.
• Secularisation: declining church attendance in the West, and the challenge of secularism, prompt debate over whether religion is fading or adapting.

Whose anonymous Christians?

Weighing it up

• How should scripture be read — literally, or critically?
• Is the conflict between religion and science real or exaggerated?
• Is exclusivism, inclusivism or pluralism most coherent and most faithful?
• Is secularisation inevitable, or is religion resurging globally?

Sort each idea by theme

Tap a claim, then drop it under the theme it belongs to.

Match the thinker

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The big ideas to hold together

You can now survey Christianity across the Component 2 themes and evaluate the key debates. Press Finish to see your score.