All thinkers
Theologian · Patristic
St. Justin Martyr
c. 100–165 · Greek Apologists
Saint
Byzantine
Martyr and Apologist; feast 1 June in both East and West.
A Samaritan-born philosopher who tried the Stoics, Peripatetics, Pythagoreans and Platonists before finding in Christ “the only sure and useful philosophy.” In his Apologies and Dialogue with Trypho he defended Christians before the emperor, taught that the Logos who became flesh had sown seeds of truth in every man, so that Socrates and Heraclitus were “Christians before Christ,” and gave the earliest description of the Sunday Eucharist.
Why he matters: He founded the Catholic tradition that philosophy is a praeparatio evangelica rather than an enemy of the Gospel, and his account of baptism and the Eucharist is a primary witness to the apostolic liturgy.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.
Settled teaching
Its center
Open question
Beyond teaching, not condemned
Condemned error
I
God and Being · What is, and whence it is.
Can reason know that God exists?
Natural theology
Fideism or agnosticism
Natural theology
How is God related to the world?
Creation from nothing
Pantheism or emanation
Creation from nothing
Is the world governed by purpose?
Providence and final causes
Chance and mechanism
Providence and final causes
II
Faith, Reason and Truth · How we know, and whom we trust.
Faith and reason: who has the last word?
Rationalism
Rationalism
Fideism
Where does knowledge begin?
Illumination and innate ideas
Senses and abstraction
Illumination and innate ideas
Is truth objective?
Objective truth
Relativism and pragmatism
Objective truth
Who interprets revelation?
Living Tradition and Magisterium
Private judgment
Living Tradition and Magisterium
How should Scripture be read?
Between
Critical reductionism
Fundamentalist literalism
What is theology for?
A science ordered to knowing
A science ordered to knowing
A wisdom ordered to loving
Are the world's learning and arts a danger or a gift?
A gift to be baptized
A danger: Athens has nothing to do with Jerusalem
A gift to be baptized
III
The Human Person · Soul, body, freedom and the Fall.
Is there a spiritual soul?
Immortal spiritual soul
Mind is brain
Immortal spiritual soul
Is the body really you?
Body–soul unity
Dualism
Body–soul unity
Are you free?
Free will
Determinism
Free will
How fallen is human nature?
Basically good
Totally depraved
Basically good
Marriage, sex and the body's meaning
Given by nature and grace
Given by nature and grace
Defined by consent and identity
What is suffering for?
A share in the Cross
An evil to be relieved
A share in the Cross
IV
The Moral Life · Law, virtue, conscience and the good.
Is morality objective and knowable?
Natural law
Relativism
Natural law
Why is the good good?
Eternal law (intellectualism)
Divine command (voluntarism)
Eternal law (intellectualism)
Are some acts always wrong?
Intrinsically evil acts
Consequentialism
Intrinsically evil acts
What is happiness?
Beatitude in God
Earthly flourishing
Beatitude in God
V
Grace and Salvation · How God saves, and whom.
How does grace move the will?
Molinist
Thomist (Bañezian)
Molinist
Who can be saved?
Indifferentism
Strict exclusivism
Indifferentism
Hell and hope
The many are lost
The many are lost
All will be saved
Where does your eye rest in Christ: His divinity or His humanity?
The eternal Word made flesh
The eternal Word made flesh
The man Jesus of Nazareth
VI
Church and Society · Authority, the state, wealth and the nation.
Church and state
Between
Laicism
Social kingship of Christ
Where does authority come from?
Authority from God
Social contract
Authority from God
The nation and the Church
Nation does not matter
Nation or race first
Nation does not matter
May the state restrain false religion?
Civil liberty for every religion
The confessional state: error has no rights
Civil liberty for every religion
May a Christian take up the sword?
Never: the way of the Cross is nonviolence
Never: the way of the Cross is nonviolence
Yes: war can be just and sometimes a duty
VII
Worship, Prayer and the Two Lungs · Liturgy, icons, the Spirit, and the See of Peter.
Liturgical development
Receive and develop organically
Reconstruct and innovate
Receive and develop organically
What do the sacraments do?
Efficacious ex opere operato
Signs only
Efficacious ex opere operato
Should the faith take the forms of each culture it enters?
The Gospel in each people's own forms
One form everywhere
The Gospel in each people's own forms