Theo 1 (Augustine, Scripture and Prayers)

Prelim Coverage

I. CSA-B Vision and Mission Statements

Vision
An Augustinian educative and evangelizing community of dynamic lifelong
learners with high ethical standards and global competence intent upon the
holistic transformation of the human person and society.

Vision – is the experiencing of seeing something that the other people cannot see (Collins
Dictionary); focusing on tomorrow what the organization would like to achieve or
accomplish…(Business Dictionary).

The Vision of CSA-B is not only to develop the intellectual or academic aspect of the students
but also the moral aspect, wherein they may be able to be competent locally or globally in
dealings in all aspects especially the different people in the society; on how to evangelize the
people and transform to live out the spirituality of St. Augustine.

Distinctive Characteristics of CSA-B

· Augustinian – CSA-B is administered by the order of St. Augustine (OSA)
particularly by the Filipino Augustinians. The quality of education given and earned at
CSA-B is in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church and of its spiritual
founder, St. Augustine.
· Educative – The CSA-B is an institution of learning that provides quality education
in the following major areas of discipline (Arts, Sciences, Education, Information and
Technology, Engineering, Nursing, Medical Technology, Accountancy, Library
Science, Entrepreneurship, Business Education, Basic and Pre-Elementary Education).
It aims to pursue premier Catholic education through innovative instruction, relevant
research and sustainable community.
· Evangelizing – The CSA-B educates its pupils and students to become agent of
social change according to the Gospel and Augustinian values.
· Community – CSA-B is an institution of earning or a school wherein the members
namely: the administration and the administrators, the pupils and the students, the
faculty and the non-academic personnel with the collaboration or help of their co-
partners namely, the parents and the alumni, work together harmoniously in a
conducive and friendly atmosphere for the holistic growth of every member in
particular and of the entire institution in general., so that every member and co-partner
will become closer to Jesus Christ.
 Mission
Colegio San Agustin-Bacolod is a Filipino Augustinian school that fosters a community life
that is of one mind and one heart on the way to God, and pursues premier Catholic education
through innovative instruction, relevant research and sustainable community service.

Mission – defines or describes what an organization is trying to achieve through its plan or
actions (Cambridge Dictionary).

The CSA-B Mission is let all people unite with one heart and one mind in the presence of God
especially in this time of pandemic and to continue to evangelize or giving instruction to them,
to continue to serve and love of God, through our family, community, society and to the whole
world.

VPAFRAM Vision and Mission Statements

Vision
Evangelize and transform the members of the academic community into individuals who
exemplify the Augustinian values in service of the church and the community.

The Vision of VPAFRAM is to teach and develop the values of St Augustine to the students;
to have the Augustinian spirit and to be able to serve the Church and to their communities. In
other words, the VPAFRAM wants the students to live like St. Augustine as the example to
others in the community and society.

Mission

The office of the VPAFRAM is committed to provide programs that invigorate the values of
unitas, caritas and veritas through religious activities, community service, moral refinement
and Augustinian pedagogy.

The VPAFRAM wants the students to be committed to live out the Augustinian Values: Unity,
Love and Truth (Unitas, Caritas et Veritas) in their daily lives, either they are inside or outside
the school campus or wherever they are and whatever they do.

II. On Theology

A. Meaning of Theology
1. Theology - it comes from the Greek words ‘theos’ (God) and ‘logos’ (word,
phrase, speech, science or reason). Nominally speaking, theology means
study of God
 - Objectively speaking – it means the science treating of God.
- Subjectively – it means the scientific knowledge of God and of Divine things.
B. Sources of Theology
1. Tradition – It comes from the Latin word ‘traditio’ which means ‘to pass down’
and its real meaning, it something handed down from one generation to another. This
referred to the list of beliefs that were passed down from Jesus to His followers until
they reached Christians today.
2. Scripture (Holy Scriptures– it comes from the Latin word ‘scriptura’ which means
‘anything written’ but this concept of Scripture is fully upheld by the Christian teachings.
The first section is the Old Testament that speaks about the Jewish people... and the
second section speaks about the Jesus and the early community.
3. Reason – It comes from the Latin word ‘ratio’ which means ‘I think’ but its real
meaning is that, a faculty or power of the mind whereby it draws just conclusions from
the true and clear principles. Reason is used to help determine how to understand like
for instance, the Bible.
4. Experience (Christian Experience) – it is the religious knowledge which is
acquired by any exercise, enjoyment or sufferings either of the body or mind. Most
Christians consider experience to be an important source of theological understanding
using the external senses.

C. Areas of Theology
1. God (Theology) – The study of God’s existence; who is God
2. Christ (Christology) – The study of His person, life, work/ministry
3. Holy Spirit (Pneumatology) – The study of His Work
4. Scripture (Bibliology) – The study of God’s revelation to us through the sacred
scripture
5. Humanity (Theological Anthropology) – The study of humankind in relation to
Divine Being.
6. Salvation (Soteriology) – The study of what God has been doing throughout the
history of the world in order to redeem His people
7. Sin (Hamartiology) – The study of the nature of sin and its effects to the people
and the world
8. Church (Christology) – The study of the formation and the structure, leadership
and the nature of the church
9. Angels (Angelology)– The study of the nature of angels
10. Last things (Eschatology) – The study of prophecy, heaven, hell and the
judgment.

D. Branches of Theology
1. Biblical Theology – it refers to the study of the Bible that seeks to discover what
the biblical writers under the divine guidance, believed, described and taught in the
context during their time.
2. Historical Theology – it investigates the development of Christian thought in its
growth through the centuries since biblical times.
3. Practical Theology – it focuses on pastoral application of biblical truths in
modern life.
4. Christian Ethics/Moral Theology – is the branch of theology that studies in a
systematic way the practical implication of God’s revelatory intervention in Jesus Christ.
It is concerned with the kind of people we ought to be and the kinds of actions we ought
to perform or avoid.
 5. Philosophical Theology – is the process of doing theology with the aid and
support of philosophical reflection, language and methods.
6. Apologetics – (“Speaking in defense”) it is the religious discipline of defending
the religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse.
7. Christian Apologetics – is a branch of Christian theology that defends
Christianity against objections.
8. Systematic Theology – It refers to something being put into a system; a discipline
of Christian theology that formulates an orderly, rational and coherent account on the
doctrine of the Christian faith.
E. Reasons for Studying Theology
1. Everything is theological.
2. To know what you believe and why you believe.
3. To defend the faith and guard against false teaching
4. Our beliefs impact our actions.
5. As a means of worship
F. Goals of Theology
1. To glorify God
2. To think theologically
3. To live accordingly....
4. To connect faith and practices

III. Revelation and Faith

A. The Revelation and Its Meaning

1. Revelation – it comes from the Greek word ‘apokalypsis’ which

means uncovering, unveiling, exposing or manifesting something hidden.

‘Apo’ means ‘away from’

‘Kalupsis’ means ‘a hiding or ‘veiling’

Therefore, ‘apokalypsis’ means ‘a revealing’ or ‘taking away of a veil.’

2. Real Meaning - it is the communication of some truths by God to rational creatures

through means which are beyond the ordinary course of nature (Catholic Encyclopedia).

- 51 "It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known
the mystery of his will. His will was that men should have access to the Father, through
Christ, the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine
nature."2

- 52 God, who "dwells in unapproachable light", wants to communicate his own divine life
to the men he freely created, in order to adopt them as his sons in his only-begotten
Son.3 By revealing himself God wishes to make them capable of responding to him, and
of knowing him and of loving him far beyond their own natural capacity.

B. Stages of Revelation
1. Adam and Eve – Our first parents wherein God had appeared
Himself to them
2. Redemption of Nation (Noah) – God had appeared to Noah (the
only righteous person and remained faithful to God), by telling him to
make an ‘Ark.’
 3. Abraham’s Covenant – God had appeared to Abraham by telling
him, I will make you the ‘Father of the Nation.’
4. Israel: God’s Chosen People – God had appeared to His chose
people and guiding them going to Promised Land
5. Jesus Christ (Transmission of Revelation) - “Christ the Lord, in whom the
entire Revelation of the Most High God is summed up, commanded the
apostles to preach the Gospel. (CCC. 54 – 67).

C. Types of Revelation
1. General (or indirect) revelation – called 'general' or 'indirect' because it
is available to everyone. This is often used to describe the way God is revealed through
the natural world, conscience, people, awareness of morality, scripture or reason.
2. The second type of revelation is known as 'special' revelation. In contrast to
general revelation, special revelation occurs only in specific ways, to certain people or in
certain objects.
MAN'S RESPONSE TO GOD
 142By his Revelation, "the invisible God, from the fullness of his love,
addresses men as his friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and
receive them into his own company."1 The adequate response to this invitation is
faith.
 143By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God.2 With
his whole being man gives his assent to God the revealer. Sacred Scripture calls
this human response to God, the author of revelation, "the obedience of
faith".3 (CCC).
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A. Faith and Its Meaning

- Faith
 “Faith grows in our life when we step in obedience”
 To obey (Latin, ob-audire) to hear or to listen; in faith is
to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth
is guaranteed by God.
1. - Meaning of Faith
 Faith - (Latin ) ‘fides’ which means trust
 (Greek) ‘pistis’ which means conviction, trust, belief,
dependency, integrity and persuasion
 (Hebrew) ‘amunh’ which means steadfastness (OT). This is used
to describe the strengthening of Moses’ hands; hence, it comes to
mean ‘faithfulness’ whether of God towards man or of man
towards God… (Catholic Encyclopedia)

 Faith (Biblically) – Now faith the substance of things to be

hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not (Heb. 11:1).
 Faith – is a supernatural virtue by which we firmly believe all
the truths that God has revealed, on the Word of God revealing,
who can neither deceive nor be deceived.
 Examples of Persons having with Great Faith
- Abraham - "father of all who believe“
145 The Letter to the Hebrews, in its great eulogy of the faith of Israel's ancestors, lays special
emphasis on Abraham's faith: "By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a
place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to
go."4 By faith, he lived as a stranger and pilgrim in the promised land.5 By faith, Sarah was given
to conceive the son of the promise. And by faith Abraham offered his only son in sacrifice.6 (CCC).
- Mary - "Blessed is she who believed“
148 The Virgin Mary most perfectly embodies the obedience of faith. By faith Mary welcomes
the tidings and promise brought by the angel Gabriel, believing that "with God nothing will be
impossible" and so giving her assent: "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be [done] to
me according to your word."12 Elizabeth greeted her: "Blessed is she who believed that there
would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord."13 It is for this faith that all
generations have called Mary blessed.14

B. Source of Faith
 Jesus – the author of faith
 “Looking away unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith,
who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the
shame and sat down on the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb.
12:2).
 Author: Originator, Inaugurator, leader, Pioneer and Forerunner

C. Characteristics of Faith
- Faith is a grace.
 153… Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. "Before this
faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him;
he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and
converts it to God,
- Faith is a human act
 155 In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace:
"Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of
the will moved by God through grace."27
- Faith and understanding
 158"Faith seeks understanding":33 it is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to
know better the One in whom he has put his faith, and to understand better what
He has revealed; in the words of St. Augustine, "I believe, in order to understand;
and I understand, the better to believe."36
- The freedom of faith
 160To be human, "man's response to God by faith must be free, and. . . therefore
nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith against his will. The act of faith is of
its very nature a free act."39
- The necessity of faith
 161Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is
necessary for obtaining that salvation.42 "Since "without faith it is impossible to
please [God]" and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no
one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life 'But he who
endures to the end.'"43
 - Perseverance in faith
 162Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can lose this
priceless gift, as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: "Wage the good warfare,
holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons
have made shipwreck of their faith."44 To live, grow and persevere in the faith
until the end we must nourish it with the word of God; we must beg the Lord to
increase our faith;45 it must be "working through charity," abounding in hope, and
rooted in the faith of the Church.46
- Faith - the beginning of eternal life
 163Faith makes us taste in advance the light of the beatific vision, the goal of
our journey here below. Then we shall see God "face to face", "as he is".47 So
faith is already the beginning of eternal life:
 When we contemplate the blessings of faith even now, as if gazing at a
reflection in a mirror, it is as if we already possessed the wonderful things which
our faith assures us we shall one day enjoy.48

D. Effects of Faith
 Love to Christ (1 Pet. 1:8)
 Confidence (Eph. 3: 1-21)
 Joy (Romans 5:11)
 Prayer (Heb. 4: 16)
 Attention to His ordinances & profit by them (Heb. 4:2)
 Zeal in the promotion of His glory (1 Cor. 15: 58)
 Holiness of heart and life (Mt. 7:20)

E. Elements of Faith
 Firm – (Strong/Steadfast)
 Authentic (Real)

 “And Jesus answered them, truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not
doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree but even if you say
to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen; whatever
you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith” (Mt. 21: 21-22).

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