Glossary

(Note: you may either scroll down the page to see all terms and their definitions or click on a term listed below to go immediately to its definition.)

•  List of Terms Defined in the Glossary

•  Terms with Definitions

Actual sin. Sin committed by an individual person, and for which that person is held to be morally responsible. (return to top)

A priori. Deductive; based on reasoning from self-evident propositions, probability, or presumption. (return to top)

Apoptosis. Genetically-programmed self-destruction of living cells. (return to top)

Baltimore Catechism. A uniform Catholic catechism for the United States that was prepared under the mandate of a council of bishops held in Baltimore in 1884. It served as the basis of Catholic catechetical programs and textbooks in the U.S. until the 1960s. (return to top)

Concupiscence. Disordered, inappropriate desire; the inclination to sin. (return to top)

Council of Orange. Held by the Catholic Church in 529 AD, in reaction to the Pelagians' teaching that humans sin by imitating the sin of Adam. (return to top)

Council of Trent. In 1545 the Council of Trent was set up by the Catholic Church to respond to the Reformers' accusation that Catholics took the Pelagian view that humans sin by imitating the sin of Adam. The Council published five canons pertaining to original sin to discredit the accusation. (return to top)

Counter-Reformation. The 16th- and 17th-century Roman Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation. It was both a continuation of pre-Lutheran attempts at internal reform of the Church, and an attempt to meet the challenge of Protestantism. (return to top)

Eschatological. Pertaining to the end of the world or the events associated with it in religious expectation. (return to top)

Etiological. Pertaining to the causes or origins of things. (return to top)

Evolution. Net change of gene frequencies in a population of living organisms over a long period of time. (return to top)

Exegetes. Those who interpret scripture. (return to top)

Fathers of the Early Church. Theologians of the early Christian centuries whose writings defended and developed the Church's teaching. They include such figures as Justin, Irenaeus, Basil, Gregory of Nazianzen, John Chrysostom, Athanasius, Jerome, and Augustine. (return to top)

Galileo Galilei. (1564–1642) Italian astronomer and physicist; silenced by the Catholic Church for espousing the Copernican theory that the Earth orbits around the Sun. (return to top)

Germ Cells. Cells that produce gametes which transmit genetic information during plant or animal reproduction. (return to top)

Gnostic. System of religious thought during the early Christian centuries that sought salvation by obtaining secret knowledge that would help one's soul pass through the nine spheres between earth and heaven. It disregarded the importance of the body, leading to both harsh asceticism and sexual excesses. (return to top)

Greek Fathers. Early Christian writers of the Church, 2nd to 6th century, who wrote primarily in Greek and who formed the basic theology of the Greek Church. Included among them are figures such as Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, Justin, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria, and Eusebius. (return to top)

Hammurabi. King of Babylon (1728–1686 BCE?); promulgated a noteworthy code of law. (return to top)

Hermeneutical. Referring to the rules for interpreting texts. (return to top)

Homologous. Similar in structure or function because derived from a common source or ancestor. (return to top)

Inclusive Fitness. An individual's total contribution of genes to future generations; the sum of its indirect fitness, due to reproduction by relatives made possible by its actions, and direct fitness, due to its own reproduction. (return to top)

Instruction of Ptah-hotep. One of the earliest, ancient Egyptian compilations of wise sayings, attributed to Ptah-hotep, a vizier of the Fifth Dynasty (ca. 2450 BCE). (return to top)

Justification. Right relationship with God wrought by God through Jesus Christ. (return to top)

Kin Selection. Natural selection based on gains in indirect fitness (see Inclusive Fitness). (return to top)

Manichaean. An ascetic form of Gnosticism founded by Mani (216-277 AD) in Babylonia. At one time St. Augustine was a member of this sect. (return to top)

Mutation. A sudden, heritable change in the genes or chromosomes of a living cell. (return to top)

Natural Selection. A process by which the genetic variants (arising from mutation or recombination) in a population of organisms that are best adapted to their environment tend to survive. (return to top)

Naturalism. The belief or assumption that observable phenomena result only from natural and not supernatural causes. Metaphysical naturalism is the philosophical assertion that this is actually the case; methodological naturalism is merely the working assumption (necessary to the conduct of the natural sciences) that all phenomena can be explained by natural causes, and hence that supernatural causes are not to be postulated for them in the course of scientific investigation. (return to top)

Neo-Darwinian Synthesis. The synthesis (achieved in the first half of the 20th century) of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection together with Gregor Mendel's theory of particulate genetic inheritance. (return to top)

Original Sin. The need for salvation by Christ that is universal to all human beings and acquired through natural generation. (return to top)

Parsimony. Economy in the use of a means to an end; in science, a criterion for selecting among alternative explanations based on minimizing the total amount of change or complexity. (return to top)

Pelagians. Those who believe we can earn our eternal salvation by ourselves. (return to top)

Phenotype. The visible characteristics of an organism, arising out of the interaction between genotype and environment during individual development. (return to top)

Proto-Evangelium. Literally "the first Gospel"; Genesis 3:15 viewed as a promise of future salvation. (return to top)

Reciprocal Altruism. The rendering of fitness benefits to another individual in return for comparable benefits expected or already received. (return to top)

Recombination. The formation, by crossing-over of chromosomes during meiosis, of new combinations of already-existing genes, resulting in new heritable characters or new combinations of such characters. (return to top)

Reformation. The movement to reform the Catholic Church in the 16th century. It originally implied no intent to divide the Church; but condemnation of the Reformers by Rome and subsequent mutual recriminations eventually led to the separation of large parts of Western Christianity from communion with Rome and with each other. (return to top)

Scholastics. Catholic theologians of the late Middle Ages, including such figures as Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas. (return to top)

Septuagint. Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible around 200 BC in Alexandria, Egypt. (return to top)

Somatic. Pertaining to the body, especially as distinguished from the germ cells. (return to top)

Synthetic Theory of Evolution. (see Neo-Darwinian Synthesis) (return to top)

Teleological. Pertaining to design or purpose, especially in nature. (return to top)

Theodicy. Defense of God's goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil. (return to top)

Tridentine. Pertaining to Trent, Italy, or the Roman Catholic Church council held there from 1545 to 1563 (see Council of Trent). (return to top)

Yahwist. Term applied to the author of those parts of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) that refer to the God of Israel primarily as Yahweh, especially the stories in Genesis of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, and Abraham. He is presumed to have written sometime between 950 and 650 BC. (return to top)

Yetzer Hara'. In Jewish rabbinical thought, the natural inclination of humans toward evil or selfishness; contrasted with a corresponding good inclination (yetzer hatov). (return to top)