CSL 407: Human & Spiritual Integration (Prof. Therese Cirner)

In light of the authors we have studied, Crosby, Crabbe, Hart, Kreeft, and Frankl, discuss your understanding of the human person, the concept of the self and the place that suffering may have in a person's life. Please address the challenge of helping people make moral choices in light of current cultural trends addressed in class.

PHL 436GA: TP: Philosophical Anthropology: Texts in Wojtyla

(Dr. Damian Fedoryka)

  1. What is the meaning of "subjectivity" in the essay Subjectivity and the Irreducible?

    What are the different terms that can be synonyms for "subjectivity?"

  2. What does Wojtyla mean with the term "Irreducible?" What does it mean to "pause at the irreducible?"

    What are the "structures disclosed in consciousness?"

    Explain self-determination, self-governance and self-possession and the relation between them.

    What does Wojtyla mean with the statement that "as persons [we] fulfill ourselves by going beyond ourselves?"

  3. In the essay on the Personal Structure of Self Determination, Wojtyla speaks of the Ego as always "given in experience?" What does this mean? Include in your explanation the difference between "I act" and "it happens."

  4. How does the distinction between the "two dimensions of the will" help in understanding Wojtyla's concept of the will in the essay?

    What does he mean when he says that the will cannot be reduced to intentionality?

    What is the difference between vertical and horizontal transcendence?

    What does Wojtyla mean when he says "only if one possesses oneself can one give oneself, and this in a disinterested way?" In your explanation, deal with the problem of the freedom of choosing an end and transcendence. What is the nature of the relation towards a transcendent end?

    What is the difference between "yielding" and "giving" in relation to an "end" as the motive for our acts? How does the difference impact on the notion that man always seeks the good? On possession and loss of self-possession?

  5. In the essay Participation and Alienation, Wojtyla builds on the notion of the "I act" that is given in experience. Starting with experience means taking into account consciousness. What does Wojtyla mean with the expression that "consciousness constitutes the entire world that is simultaneously given to us as a fact?" How does the previous discuss of "interiority" and "exteriority," the notion of "given from within" and "given from without" figure in this understanding?

    What is the difference between "ontological possession" and "juridical possession?"

    What does Wojtyla mean with the word "constitution" when he speaks of the "I" being constituted?

    Wojtyla speaks of the "I" as non-transferable. But on the same page he speaks of a transfer when he says, "I as though transfer what is given to me as my own I to one of the others."

  6. For Wojtyla, the category of the gift is central in understanding the human being as a person. Outline the major features of a gift. How does the notion FO possession and self-possession fit the notion FO a gift?

  7. In Love and Responsibility, Wojtyla speaks of the sexual "urge"? What is the difference between them?

THE 341GA: Christian Marriage (Dr. Alan Schreck)

Identify some major Scriptural texts on marriage, both Old and New Testament, and summarize what the Catholic Church recognizes as the foundational Christian understanding of marriage based upon these texts. How does Pope John Paul II draw from this Biblical teaching, and develop pastoral themes about marriage and family, in Familiaris Consortio ("The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World") and in his "Letter to Families" of 1994?
 

THE 436GA: TP: Western Spirituality (Fr. Giles Dimock, OP)

  1. Discuss one insight of the Catechism on Prayer: Section 4

    OR

  2. Discuss the spirituality of St. Benedict, St. Dominic or St. Francis

    AND

    that of Sts. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross.

THE 436GA: TP: Vatican II (Dr. Alan Schreck)

STUDY AND ANSWER BOTH QUESTIONS:

  1. Certain key issues emerged in the main eras of the history of Christianity and became focal points of attention for the Church's leaders and scholars for decades. In this question, I would like you to summarize the key figures, issues and development of thought or doctrine involved in one of the two topics from each of the four major eras of Christianity. (Therefore, you should summarize four issues, one from each period listed below.)
    1. Patristic period (Christ-800 A.D.)
      1. the doctrine of the Son of God in relation to the Father, and in the union of His divine and human natures
        OR
      2. the development of the Papacy
    2. Medieval period (800-1500 A.D.)
      1. Church-State relations, especially the "lay investiture" crisis
        OR
      2. the emergence, rise and decline of "Scholastic" theology.
    3. The Reformation and Counter-reformation (1500-1750 A.D.)
      1. the basic objections against Catholicism of the various Protestant reformers
        OR
      2. the Council of Trent's response to Protestantism and how it shaped the subsequent history of Catholicism.
    4. The "Modern" era (1750 A.D.-present)
      1. impact of Enlightenment thought on Christianity
        OR
      2. significant movements of renewal in the Church (Catholic and Protestant) in this era.
  2. If you had to select the 10 most important events in Church history after the apostolic age (1st century), which would you choose? Explain and defend your choices.

THE 501: Biblical Foundations (Dr. Scott Hahn)

Discuss the Church's teaching over the last hundred years on the inspiration and interpretation of Scripture. Briefly explain the theological analogy between the word incarnate/inspired. What are the distinctive meanings of revelation and inspiration, inerrancy and infallibility? Briefly discuss the meaning of the key phrase, "for the sake of salvation," in Dei Verbum II. How is Scripture's sacramental quality related to its saving purpose? Briefly explain the literal and spiritual senses. What are the various principles and methods used for determining the literal meaning and historical truth? What are the three "interpretive criteria" for spiritual exegesis (as presented in DV 12 and CCC 112-114)? Briefly explain the three spiritual senses, along with the notion of typology.

THE 504 A&B: Teachings of Vatican II (Fr. Ronald Lawler, OFM)

The Second Vatican Council sought to make the message of Catholic faith more attractive to contemporary people. Give specific evidences from council documents to illumine and justify your answers to any three of the four following questions:

  1. Did the Council change or abandon the content of her faith to make its position more attractive?
  2. What did it wish to do to make Catholic faith more attractive to the world?
  3. Did the Council change Catholic positions on freedom, autonomy, the nature of the Church, and the nature of faith, to be more in accord with the views of the "modern world?"
  4. Did the Council seriously think that modern people outside the Church would have any inclination to move toward positions the Church held to be revealed by God?

THE 620: Christian Discipleship (Fr. Dan Sinisi, TOR)

Discuss the following areas of the process of formation in Christian Discipleship: two points on being led by the Holy Spirit and His gifts, two points on combating the spirit of the world, and two marks of the Christian mind.

THE 655: Mary in the Modern World (Dr. Mark Miravalle)

  1. Offer a competent theological definition of the Mariological terms: "Co-Redemptrix" and "Mediatrix of all Graces" with support from Divine Revelation, and
  2. Summarize the treatment of the Blessed Virgin Mary in her "maternal mediation" as contained in Pope John Paul II's Marian Encyclical, Redemptoris Mater.

THE 660: PI: Christian Marriage (Dr. Alan Schreck)

Identify some major Scriptural texts on marriage, both Old and New Testament, and summarize what the Catholic Church recognizes as the foundational Christian understanding of marriage based upon these texts. How does Pope John Paul II draw from this Biblical teaching, and develop pastoral themes about marriage and family, in Familiaris Consortio ("The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World") and in his "Letter to Families" of 1994?

THE 680: Applied Christian Ministry (Fr. Richard Tuttle)

After making an outline in your blue book, discuss the Spirituality of the Minister by defining each of these two terms and fleshing out their meaning from both our class notes and our textbooks. Make another outline in your blue book and discuss methods: lesson plans and group management from our class notes and guest speakers plus some from observations and field experiences in terms of methods as they apply to content.

THE 681: Catechetical Practicum

No question required

THE 691A & B: Catechetical Methods I (Prof. Barbara Morgan)

Describe the steps of "ecclesial" methodology in relation to a catechetical setting of your choice and include a discussion of the five aims of organic methodology.

THE 693: The Catechumenate in the RCIA (Prof. Barbara Morgan)

Discuss the similarities and any divergencies between the fourth century catechumenates and the present-day Order of Christian Initiation.

THE 711A: NTW: Scriptural Exegesis and the Senses of Scripture

(Dr. Stephen Miletic)

ANSWER BOTH PARTS:

Use any of the "key plot events of the narrative" of Luke (as listed in the Miletic-Minto polyglot 711A course text, p. xliv) and

  1. present a brief narratological analysis of the passage as a preface to the main concern,
  2. to actualize that passage in any of the possible levels of actualization (mentioned in the class syllabus [page 2] or in class or as approved by the instructor, such as Christology, Apologetics, Catechetics, etc.)

THE 711B: NTW: Biblical Theology: Galatians/Hebrews (Dr. Scott Hahn)

What is Biblical Theology? Summarize the theological argument in Galatians 3-4 or Hebrews 1-9. What is being demonstrated? What are the key Old Testament texts? Briefly explain how the author uses Old Testament texts (in their original context) to advance his main points. How does the author understand the various divine covenants (e.g., Abraham, Mosaic, David) relative to Christ's sacrifice and the New Covenant? How does the covenant-concept fit into the divine pedagogy and economy of salvation history?

THE 730: Grace and the Virtues (Dr. Michael Brees)

The purpose of this question is to allow you to demonstrate that you have mastered the material covered in this course and have begun to integrate the various pieces into a unified whole. Please answer both parts of this one question.

  1. Present an overview of the development of our understanding of grace, covering key points from the Old Testament through the work of Thomas Aquinas.
  2. Discuss one contemporary issue related to grace and virtue that arose in our reading: grace and addiction, grace and holistic spirituality, contemporary approaches to virtue, etc.

THE 740: TI: Catholic Imagination in Literature (Dr. Regis Martin)

Choosing any one of the Catholic writers, read and discussed in the course (i.e., O'Connor, Greene, Waugh, Percy), reflect on the nature and extent to which he or she embodied an integral Catholic vision of man and his condition, place, and destiny in a redeemed activity.

Return to Comprehensive Examination Schedule