(S2-12-13)

History of Salvation Section A

This section used in RCIA_Stuff

references/resources

• Bible - GN 1-3
• CCC - The Prologue (para. 1-9)..., 355-361, and 374-412.

Readings:

• Swear_to_God,_Hahn
  • Swear to God - Chapter 5.
  • Ch. 11 Created for the Kingdom Ch. 11 Created for the Kingdom.
• Newman, JH. The Mystical Rose - Mary the Second Eve, Princeton: Scepter, 1996. pp.8-9.
• Ratzinger, J. Jesus of Nazareth. NY: Doubleday, 2007. pp 46-64.

Content

• CCC 1 - Sums up everything beautifully
  • How did the fall actually happen? (see Genesis 3:1-20)
    • Evil as a twisting of the truth
      • Cultural application - Tolkein. The Silmarilion
      • The fall of the angels CCC 391-395
  • Protoevangelion GN 3:15
    • Evoked in RV 12

• Dissolution and Reestablishment of 4 harmonies
  • CCC 355 ff - Made in the image of God, man is self-possessive and thus capable of making decisions for the right... sin would disrupt this (and all other) relationships.
  • CCC 376 - Harmonies outlined "Original Justice" He was created as righteous (i.e. in right relationship to God)
  • As a result of all of this, we are fundamentally weakened by Original Sin (CCC 388-412) -- WE NEED SAVING

• History of the Covenants - God beginning to bring his people back
  • Protoevangelion
  • Noah
  • Abraham
  • Jacob's 12 Sons
  • Moses
  • David/Solomon
  • Jesus

• The Book of Revelation - a look at the final victory
  • Cultural Application - G.F. Handel Messiah - the text encompasses the entire story Messiah Lyrics

Salvation History Section B

• The Kingdom as a central concept in the Gospel (Ratzinger 46)
• The very concrete sense that the faithful would've had of this in ancient times
  • Basilea of Caesar vs. the Basilea of God
    • Recall that following the fall, Man's dominion of the world is tainted and not = to the reign of God.
  • Evangelium as a matter of imperial vocabulary
    • Part of Rome's self-conception as saviors of the barbarous world
    • The idea was that what comes from the emperor is a saving message, that it is not just a piece of news, bua change of the world for the better... When the evangelists adopt this word, ...what they mean to tell us is this: what the emperors, who pretend to be gods illegitimately claim, really occurs here. (Ratzinger 47)
  • A contemporary debate (Ratzinger 48)
    • Kingdom and Church
    • Kingdom vs. Church
    • Kingdom = Church
    • -Christological autobasilea - the Kingdom is Christ... it is his reigning. He, by means of the Incarnation, makes the Kingdom fully present among men.
    • -Mystical Interpretation - The Kingdom exists in the hearts and souls of Christians, to become fully present at the end times.
      • Origen - those who pray for the coming of the Kingdom of God pray without any doubt for the Kingdom of God that they contain in themselves, and they pray that this Kingdom might bear fruit and attain its fullness.
    • Ecclesiastical Interpretation - The Church is where they Kingdom becomes present in history.
      • n.b. - the entire history of salvation identifies the People corporately... never have they been saved as individuals. (50-51)
  • Holes in the modernist argument (Ratzinger 53-54)
  • Perhaps today we do well to think "regnocentrically" focusing on bringing about the reign of God in and among each one of us - and so focusing on our prayer life.