This entire Unit looks to get you to understand 3 things.
1 – Some believe evil being present in the world proves God does not exist.
2 – What Christians respond to this with
3 – Get you to think about why do we suffer and why do bad things happen?
THE PROBLEM OF EVIL FOR CATHOLICS
Catholics believe in one God who is/has:
Omnipotent – all powerful
Benevolent – all-loving
Omniscient – complete knowledge of the past, present and future
The creator who has created a good world
But if God is all powerful why doesn’t he stop bad things from happening? Why do people suffer?
If God loves us why does he allow bad things to happen to us? Why do people suffer?
If God has complete knowledge of the past, present and future why does he not stop bad things form happening to us? Why does he allow us to do things that cause damage in the future?
If God has created this world why has created it with bad things in it? If God created a good world why do so many bad things happen?
Stephen Fry is an atheist. He does not believe in a God. Here he outlines why he doesn’t believe in a God and why he thinks if God exists then God isn’t a ‘good’ God. This is The Problem of Evil.
There is a long tradition of sacred art using themes and images from Christian belief. This goes back to a time when people couldn’t read. Learning about Jesus or the Bible was made easier by looking at pictures. The artist would use their artwork to express their views. To add to this the person looking at it could study it and reflect upon it over time – thinking about their belief and getting closer to God.
REMEMBER ALL THE P’s and 1 F
People couldn’t read – pictures were easier
Prayer and meditation could be a focus and it could make people feel closer to God as they stop their day to day worries and focus on the glory of God.
Personal responses to art can help people think and reflect on their own beliefs.
People can be challenged by art and may make a person rethink or reinforce their beliefs
FAITH – Catholic art is used to express faith in God and to glorify him.
Painting by Michaelangelo on the roof of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. It is an artistic portrayal of creation
Watch the video below that describes some of the key aspects of the painting. It explains why Michaelangelo painted it this way and what he was trying to show in his painting.
TASK – what do you think are the key features of the painting. Make a list before you watch the second video.
Here is another video that describes the painting.
TASK – Try adding to your list as you watch this second video.
This video is also very informative. Click the link to watch it.
The black writing describes what is being shown in the actual painting
The orange writing explains the link with Christian beliefs
Adam
Adam is lying back on the earth from which he has been formed. Remember in Genesis it says “then the lord God formed a man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being” Gen 2:7
Humans were created by God
Adam is the perfect human being. He is young, handsome and strong
God created a perfect world
Adam resembles God, like a son looks like his father
Adam mirrors the pose of God
Humans are made in the image of and likeness of God (imago dei)
God
God is presented as a dynamic, active figure as if he is hard at work at his greatest creation. God reaches out to the more passive figure of Adam
The viewer is reminded of the belief that God is both eternal and all powerful. He is the creator. He is omnipotent. He is benevolent and reaches out to human kind.
God is shown as older than Adam, yet he is strong and powerful.
This signifies the parent-child relationship that exists between God and humanity, God is the Father of all creation. He is omnipotent
The Hands
Adam and God are seen reaching out to touch each other with their fingertips
The touch of fingertips represents the spark of life given to all humans by God; human life is sacred and a gift from God.
REMEMBER God’s inspiration and “the breath of life”
REMEMBER – God is benevolent and trying harder to reach out to Adam than Adam is trying tor each out to him.
The Cloud
God is on a cloud carried by angels. This is contrast to Adam on earth
This shows the greatness and transcendence of God. God transcends the world he has created. He is outside of it and seperate to it. He existed before it.
Some believe the cloud is in the shape of a brain showing God is the source of all knowledge and wisdom
God is omniscient and all knowing
Others believe that the cloud represents a womb because of the red background. Also, the green cloth hanging down could be the umbilical chord.
This is symbolic of God as the creator. He gives all life. In the same way that a womb gives life to a new child.
REFLECTING CATHOLIC BELIEFS
Michaelangelo’s painting reflects many of the Catholic beliefs about creations:
God is OMNIPOTENT and TRANSCENDANT
God made each human being in his own image IMAGO DEI
Humans are God’s greatest creation
Life is a gift from God
God is a loving father who cares about his creation
RED ZONE
List the 4 key parts of Michaelangelo’s Creation of Adam.
Describe the meaning behind each key part you have identified using keywords.
Explain how the Creation of Adam expresses the idea of Imago Dei
Explain how the Creation of Adam expresses the idea that God is transcendent
‘The Creation of Adam is a good alternative to reading the Genesis stories of creation’ Describe how a Christian may respond to this statement
‘Looking at Art can be the same thing as prayer.’ How might a Christian use the Creation of Adam to support this statement?
TASK – memorise word for word the two key words below:
Revelation – is the word used to describe all the ways in which God makes himself known to human beings. Christians believe that God does this finally and fully in the person of Jesus Christ.
Inspirations – refers to ‘God breathed’. The belief that the Spirit of God guides an individual to act or write what is good and true
CATHOLICS AND THE BIBLE – TAILGAP
Catholics believe:
the Bible is the inspired word of God.
God made use of specific people who wrote down God’s inspiration in a human language.
these people wrote at a particular time and place in history
not everything they wrote might have been historically or literally accurate – they may have made some guesses based on what they knew to be right at that time and place. This may now have changed
Catholics must work and think to determine exactly what a sacred author is saying to be true and when an author is writing metaphorically using an image to help bring out the truth more clearly.
The bible has a great authority as the message comes form God, impacting how they live their lives.
All Christians should be guided by the teachings in the Bible
so to help us remember this let’s reorganise it into an acrostic:
TAILGAP
TASK – write this out and memorise what each letter stands for. Practice it over and over by writing the letters down one side of the page and seeing if you can remember each letter fully.
T – Think – Catholics must work and think to determine exactly what a sacred author is saying to be true and when an author is writing metaphorically using an image to help bring out the truth more clearly.
A – Accurate– not everything they wrote might have been historically or literally accurate – they may have made some guesses based on what they knew to be right at that time and place. This may now have changed
I – Inspired– the Bible is the inspired word of God.
L – Language – God made use of specific people who wrote down God’s inspiration in a human language.
G – Guided – All Christians should be guided by the teachings in the Bible
A – Authority – The bible has a great authority as the message comes form God, impacting how they live their lives.
P – Particular Time and Place– These people wrote at a particular time and place in history
The Old Testament
The laws (Torah)
The first five books of the Bible deal with how the Jewish people became God’s chosen race and how God taught them to live. These books tell of the creation and the lives of the patriarchs such as Abraham. They also teach about moses and the laws given to the people of Israel, including the Ten Commandments.
History
There are 12 historical books in the Bible. These books show how God guided his people even though they were not always ready to listen.
Wisdom (sometimes called Poetry)
Psalms is in the prayer book of the Jewish people. There are also books of religious and moral teaching, such as the Book of Proverbs, which contains sayings about many aspects of life.
Prophets
From time to time God sent inspiring figures to challenge the Jews to remain faithful to God
The New Testament
The New Testament is based on the life and teachings of Jesus and the apostles to whom Jesus taught God’s message. It was all written in Greek. It is divided into four parts
The Gospels
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – these are the most important books of the Bible for Christians, as they tell Jesus’ story. The word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’ – the good news about Jesus.
The Acts of Apostles
This is the sequel to Luke’s Gospel. It tells the story of the Early Church, after Jesus’ resurrection.
The letters
These were written mainly by Paul, but also Peter, James, John and Jude. They were Christian leaders writing to Christians giving them advice on how to put Jesus’ teaching into practice and explaining what it means to be a Christian.
The Book of Revelation
This is the last book in the Bible, dealing with John’s vision of heaven and the defeat of evil.
ORIGINS OF THE BIBLE
It took 350 years for the books that we now know as the Bible to be accepted as authentic records of Christian beliefs.
THY SYNOD OF HIPPO in 393 CE decided which texts should be included in the Bible. For a book to be accepted into the New Testament it had to fit certain rules. They were:
It had to be accepted by all Christians
The work had to go back to the apostles
It had to have an early date
It had to agree with other presentations of Christian beliefs
The words of the Bible have been very carefully preserved over the centuries. The first Bibles were hand written and copies were made so other people could read them.
RED ZONE
Can You name each group of the Bible?
Explain why the Bible is a source of authority for Christians.
Explain how the Bible came into being.
‘The Bible should be literally followed as the actual word of God.’ How might a Christian respond to this statement?
Within the creation narratives from Genesis it is clear that human life is special and sacred. Humans are different from all other animals and God gives them a special responsibility to look after the world
SANCTITY OF LIFE
In Genesis 1 God creates humans beings LAST and they are the high point of creation. In Genesis 2 God PERSONALLY creates Adam and Eve. Adam from the dust of the earth and Eve from Ada’s rib. All that God has made “is good” and that includes human beings.
IMAGO DEI
Humans were made in the image of God. Imago Dei. “so God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them” (Gen 1,27). This makes human beings sacred and holy. Unlike other animals.
STEWARDS
Stewardship is the duty to care for creation responsibly, as stewards rather than consumers, ad to protect what God created for future generations. God commands that humans have authority over nature and responsibility to take care of it. In Genesis 1 God creates humans to rule over his creatures. In Genesis 2 Adam is pout in the garden to ‘work it and take of it’ but his authority is seen when God asks him to name all the animals.
This links creation to other topics such as Abortion, Euthanasia, Social Teaching, Charity work, Environmentalism and many many more.
RED ZONE
How might you use creation as an argument against abortion?
Catholics should support renewable energy sources. Discuss your answer using creation as part of your argument.
Genesis 2 has a second (or different) account of creation.
In this account:
God created a man called Adam. He is created out of dust. God breathes life into him.
God provides him everything he needed in the Garden of Eden. God told Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
God creates all the animals in the world and Adam names them but none are suitable to be his partner.
God puts Adam to sleep and taking a rib from Adam creates Eve.
Their lives were perfect until they disobeyed him, which led to God banishing them from the Garden of Eden forever.
TASK 1 – Can you memorise this different story of creation in the correct order?
WHAT DOES THIS ACCOUNT TELL US?
Firstly it agrees with Genesis 1
GOD HAS
TRANSCENDENCE – He is above and beyond everything he created. He is unlike anything else that exists. He is separate to his creation.
GOD IS
ETERNAL – God creates heaven and earth ‘in the beginning”, but as he already existed it shows he was there before the beginning of this world. He is eternal.
OMNIPOTENT – God i all powerful, creation happens just by him commanding it (Gen 1:3). Before he starts creating nothing exists. He creates the world form nothing – CREATION EX NIHILO
But it also shows GOD IS:
BENEVOLENT – God is all loving. He creates out of love. God needs nothing but provides everything humans need. God does not want man (Adam) to be lovely so he creates other species to keep him company and lets Adam name them. He also knew they were not suitable partners so creates Eve.
THIS VIDEO SUMMARIES WHAT WE LEARN FROM GENESIS:
RED ZONE
Describe the two different creation stories from Genesis.
Explain the differences between the accounts of creation in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2
Explain what the accounts of creation tell us about God and Humans
“The Bible contains two different creation stories which proves The Bible is wrong” How might a Christian respond to this statement?
Explain how the creation stories within Genesis might prove a link between Science and Religion?
Genesis is the first book of Old Testament. Within it there are two accounts of creation.
Most Catholics think of these stories as symbolic. They believe they reveal some important things about the nature of God and humanity but are not literal representations of what happened.
Creationism describes people who believe literally that God created the world one day at a time.
GENESIS 1 – The Days of Creation
TASK – can you come up with actions for each day?TASK – memorise the days of creation in the correct order. Get someone to test you!
So what does this tell us?
Genesis 1 and The Days of Creation emphasise the greatness of God as the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE
GOD HAS
TRANSCENDENCE – He is above and beyond everything he created. He is unlike anything else that exists. He is separate to his creation.
GOD IS
ETERNAL – God creates heaven and earth ‘in the beginning”, but as he already existed it shows he was there before the beginning of this world. He is eternal.
OMNIPOTENT – God i all powerful, creation happens just by him commanding it (Gen 1:3). Before he starts creating nothing exists. He creates the world form nothing – CREATION EX NIHILO
Task – memorise this KEY QUOTE:
This quote shows God is transcendent, Eternal and Omnipotent.
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