Michael Angelo’s Adam

- Adam is not fully alive – waiting for the breath of God – humanity depends on God. He is perfect and
made in the image of God, with potential (muscles). God and Adam are nearly touching hands – shows
longing closeness for God’s presence.
- God is bringing us to life – we are in close contact to him. God is older than Adam and ancient and
eternal. God is carried by angels – transcendence.

Christian art which depicts God.

Meieres mosaic: Lines from God’s hand show he reaches the end of the universe. God’s hand is big – shows his
greatness and power over humans. Shows that God is continually creating everything. Shows God as infinite –
only hand is shown.

Genesis 1

- God is creator– created everything and all creation is special because it is created by God. Also,
humans share qualities with God bcs we created by him.
- God is omnipotent – He can do whatever he wants, inspires people to trust him because he can make
anything possible.
- God is transcendent – He only needs his words to create, he is beyond human understanding.

Genesis 2

- Humans were given the spirit of God, so we share his spirit and his qualities.
- We have freewill – Garden of Eden.

Significance of Creation stories

- God tells Adam to subdue the world. - we have authority over animals, but we must also take care of
them.
- God tells Adam to till the garden of eden – to care for the world.
- All humans are equal because we are made in the image of God – all have dignity
- All creation is holy – sanctity of life – so it must be kept holy because it was made and blessed by God.

Structure of the Bible.

- Old Testament: Law, History, Wisdom, Prophecy.

- New Testament: Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, Epistles, Book of revelation.
 - New Testament teaching agreed with authority of apostles, written early, agreed with teachings of
Christian beliefs, and were accepted by churches.

The bible as word of God.

- God guided the writing of the Bible through the holy spirit.
- The Bible contains word of God said by prophets.
- The Bible contains teachings of Jesus.
- The Bible contains writings of the apostles in the epistles.
- The magisterium is the teaching office of Christ, it is inspired by the Holy Spirit and can change the
interpretation of the Bible.

Interpretation of Genesis creation stories.

- Most Christians believe that Christian stories are not scientific explanations of how the earth was
created because they are stories to convey spiritual truths but not meant to be taken literally. But they
still believe God Created everything, everything he made was good, humans are the pinnacle of God’s
creation
- Fundamentalists interpret the bible literally and the word of God is literal in all its aspects. They believe
God wouldn’t mislead them and humans cannot prefer their interpretation of the creation of our world
than the words of God.
- Second Vatican said Christianity can coexist with theory of evolution because it is not a real story, the
church is keen on advancement of science – Lemaitre, religion tries to explain why, and science
explains how.

Natural Law

- Humans are born with an understanding of what is right and wrong because 1. God made all of creation
good and 2. Humans have qualities of God – to be good.
- We must follow natural law to please God, to avoid evil and preserve life.

Caring for the environment

- Because all creation is special, God made us stewards of creation, God said to love your neighbour as
yourself and you can do this by caring for the world your neighbour lives in.
- Christians believe Natural resources should be preserved for future nature; we should focus on how our
actions will impact future generations.
- We can do this by recycling, walking, reducing carbon footprint, put pressure on politicians that support
laws to protect the environment, expose international companies which threaten the environment.

Cafod and Sustainability

- Involves replaying fossil fuels at the same rate, which reduces long term damage to the environment
- God mad everything good, so it is all valuable. So, we must respect and protect God’s creation.
- Cafod encourages simpler life, helped create sustainability goals in 2015, helps farmers adopt
sustainable methods of farming and supports projects which uses renewable energy.

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