ARW Week 11

Comes from rogare, the Latin verb meaning “to ask.”

• (1) To abolish or annul.
• (2) To ignore or treat as if nonexistent.

To claim or seize without justification.

Derived from the Latin verb meaning “to seek or obtain.”

Eager to acquire; greedy.

A demand or request (such as for supplies) made with proper authority.

Comes from a Latin word meaning “to fill.”

To reduce in amount by using up.

Fully or abundantly filled or supplied.

Comes to us from Greek by way of Latin; in both languages it refers to “measure.”

• (1) Having or exhibiting balanced proportions or the beauty that results from such balance.
• (2) Corresponding in size, shape, or other qualities on opposite sides of a dividing line or plane or around a center.

A device used to measure speed of rotation.

This term most often refers to a theological movement developed in the late 1960s in Latin America (where it continues to hold prominence). In attempting to unite theology and sociopolitical concerns, liberation theologians such as Gustavo Gutiérrez emphasize the scriptural theme of liberation, understood as the overcoming of poverty and oppression. Liberation theologies have also found expression among representatives of seemingly marginalized groups in North American society, including women, African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and Asian Americans.

A strict adherence to the exact word or meaning, either in interpretation or translation, of the biblical text. Regarding interpretation, literalism generally attempts to understand the author’s intent by pursuing the most plain, obvious meaning of the text as judged by the interpreter. In translation, the attempt is made to convey with utmost accuracy through the words of another language the actual meaning of the biblical text.

The English word arises from the Greek term leitourgia, which was connected to the idea of sacrifice and designated the priestly service connected initially with the temple (e.g., Luke 1:23) and subsequently with Christian ministry and worship. Liturgy came to designate the church’s official (or unofficial) public and corporate ritual of worship, including the Eucharist (Communion), baptism and other sacred acts. Certain ecclesiastical traditions (such as Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican) follow a set pattern of worship (the liturgy), whereas many Protestant churches prefer a less structured style. This gives rise to the distinction sometimes made between “liturgical” and “nonliturgical” churches.

The designation by postmodern philosophers such as Jacques Derrida for the philosophical method that looks to the logos (the word or written language) as the carrier of meaning. Derrida rejects the attendant philosophical assumption that human language is able to designate, signify or represent an essence (or presence of being) that we can come to know.

• A postmodern form of literary criticism that explores the capacity of the biblical texts to shape, revise or confirm the expectations readers bring to their reading of the text. This approach challenges the assumption of much of modern hermeneutics that the main task of exegesis is to approach a task as a disinterested exegete and to determine, through the use of scientific strategies of interpretation, the intent of the original author of the text.
• Reader-response theorists, in contrast, maintain that the reader and the text are interdependent. What is important then is not so much the intent of the original author of the text but the “conversation” between reader and text that emerges in the reading of the text.

An approach to biblical interpretation focusing on the literary, theological contributions of the biblical authors by analyzing the way they modified their sources to arrive creatively and purposefully at their own special emphases.

The tradition and theological framework that grew out of the teachings of John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli, as distinct from the Lutheran and Anabaptist traditions. Reformed theology focuses foundationally on God’s glory and often emphasized divine sovereignty as a crucial beginning point for theological reflection.

The theory that denies that humans can possess any objective, universally meaningful knowledge, that there are any ultimate and unchanging metaphysical realities (God, persons, space, time, natural laws) or that there are any moral absolutes. Hence meaning and truth are relative to each culture and historical period or to each person, situation, relationship and outcome.

French for “rebirth,” this term refers to the period of time roughly between 1400 and 1600 during which there was a perceived return to or rebirth of the aesthetic artistic values of ancient Greece and Rome. The Renaissance entailed a shift from the medieval perception of reality in spiritual terms (with God occupying the central role) to one in which humans were the central figures. Hence this period is often depicted as an era of humanism.

• A movement (perhaps better described as an attitude or temperament) within the humanities during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in reaction to Enlightenment rationalism and classicism.
• Romanticism emphasized a subjective, expressive and existential outlook; engagement with the natural, sensual world; and the priority of the imagination over things rational and ordered. Romanticism influenced the theology of Friedrich Schleiermacher.