Justin
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
What demand does Justin make in chapter 3?
What is the true nature of the pagan gods?
How are Socrates and the Christians alike?
What four beings or kinds of beings do the Christians worship?
If God does not need material offerings, what kind of worship does he accept?
What means does God use to persuade and draw people to faith?
Who is the teacher of the Christians and how do they worship him?
What four empirical changes does the unbegotten God make in Christians through his
son?
What point is Justin making when he says some Christians “remain pure at the age of
sixty or seventy years”?
What point is Justin making when he talks about human reproduction?
After talking about how the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek, Justin says that in
these books the prophets predicted sixteen things about Jesus. What are they?
When Plato says that God is blameless, where did he get this idea?
What Greeks really were Christians, and why is it correct to talk about them in this way?
On Sunday, when the Christians gather, what do they read?
Augustine
1.
According to chapter 3, how should God be worshiped?
2.
What seven questions does Augustine propose to answer?
3.
Augustine answers the fifth question first. What is the answer?
4.
How does Augustine explain the existence of evil since God is omnipotent?
5.
Good can exist without evil, but why does evil require the existence of good?
6.
While it is never right to tell a lie, what makes a statement morally right or wrong?
7.
Why is it just for God to leave people to suffer everlasting punishment?
8.
Why is it not possible for those who have sinned to be saved by good works?
9.
What does God’s mercy do for the unwilling and what does it do for the willing?
10.
Remembering that “prevent” means “to go before” what does Augustine mean when he
says Christians pray that the mercy of God may prevent their enemies?
11.
What cures Christians of sins committed after baptism?
12.
How was the devil justly crushed and conquered?
13.
What weighs down people’s spirits and makes them fall back into sin?
14.
Does Augustine believe in purgatory?
15.
What human action must be used to propitiate God for past sins?
16.
Is it a sin for a married couple to have intercourse just for the fun of it?
17.
What quality of God is displayed when he changes the evil will of man and directs him to
what is good? What quality of God is displayed when he does not make this change?
18.
Why would it be just for God not to have saved anybody?
19.
Why does Augustine have to explain 1 Tim 2:4? How does he do it?
20.
What are the four stages of a Christian’s life?
Thomas
Remember that a scholastic disputation has five parts. First, there is the statement of the
antithesis, the wrong idea. Second come “objections” which are really arguments for the
antithesis. Third is the thesis, proceeded by the words, “On the contrary.” Then follows an
explanation or main argument for the thesis, proceeded by the words, “I answer that.” Finally
come the replies to the objections, which are counter-arguments, showing the original arguments
for the antithesis are not true.
1.
Is the existence of God self-evident?
2.
What are two reasons to conclude that God does not exist?
3.
How does the existence of “motion,” or change, argue for God’s existence?
4.
How does the idea that nothing can cause itself argue for God’s existence?
5.
The next argument says that in nature things are “possible.” That is, they may exist and
they may not. Anything that may not exist did, at one time, not exist, since if it always
existed we would not know that it was possible for it not to exist. If the existence of
everything is merely “possible,” then there must have been a time when nothing existed.
But if there were a time when nothing existed, then nothing would exist now, because
nothing comes from nothing. But it is clear that some things exist now. How does
Thomas use the concept of necessary existence to solve this problem?
6.
How does the argument from gradation prove the existence of God?
7.
How does the fact that in nature things that have no knowledge or intelligence act in such
a way that an “end” or goal is achieved argue for the existence of God?
8.
How does Thomas dispose of the first reason for God’s non-existence?
9.
How does he dispose of the second reason for God’s non-existence?
Luther
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Menno
What two questions does Luther’s friend ask him? (Note: A Papist is a Roman Catholic.)
What does Luther first criticize about the Papists?
What has one of Luther’s enemies (called the “bungler”) done that makes Luther laugh?
What is Luther’s first answer to the charge that he added the word “alone” to Paul’s
epistle?
What is Luther’s second answer, given to his friend, to the charge?
Luther gives four examples of where a word-for-word translation from Latin to German
does not work. What are they?
Luther says the nature of the German language demanded that he add the word “alone” to
Romans 3. What else demanded that addition?
Who else besides Luther says that faith alone makes one righteous?
What does Luther think of the worship of the saints?
Some people defend the worship of saints by saying that all Christendom believes in it.
How does Luther answer this argument?