Th 151 Thesis Statements Edilberto C. Jimenez 2014-2015
1. Vocation is God’s call towards authentic self-realization in union with Godself in one’s particular state of life and work by way of the common good. Jesuit education forms and helps its students discern their vocations through cura personalis, total holistic formation, developing them to be persons for others, dialogue between faith and reason, and magis. 2. Jesus Christ is the full Truth (Jn 1:14-16), the goal of our desire to know. It is through dialogue between faith and reason that enables humanity to reach the fullness of truth. Divorced from faith, reason falters and becomes enmeshed in errors such as reductionisms and self-deception. 3. Freedom is primarily the human person’s capacity to achieve his final, irrevocable and eternal self, and secondarily the choices one makes which can affirm or undo one’s primordial commitment. Authentic freedom directs one’s primordial commitment towards indwelling. 4. Conscience is the secret core and sanctuary of the human person, where he is alone with God, whose voice echoes in his depths. A correct conscience must be obeyed above all else under God in order for the human person to realize one’s authentic self through concrete actions that conform to the objective divine moral order. 5. Jesus becomes the ultimate source and norm of Christian moral life by way of discipleship, i.e., to be with Christ and be like Christ, to be caught up in God’s love, enabling oneself to renounce self-made securities that create dominating and excluding power and replace it with self-giving love that creates hospitable inclusion. 6. The Sermon on the Mount is an invitation to indwell with God through Christ. The Sermon reorients and empowers the believer through the power of God’s Spirit towards unlimited concern for the good of the other even at the expense of one’s own rights. 7. Sin is the ungrateful missing the mark of the human person’s goal that is God, the source of personal worth, social solidarity and mutual entrustment. Sin in turn results in disordered relations to others. Only God’s reconciling and forgiving love can overcome sin. 8. Only in the unconditional promise of loving “forever” the personal Other, an act of indwelling through total self-donation, can a human person put down and deepen the roots of one’s selfhood, and thus can realize oneself and bear fruit through fidelity. 9. The entire personhood of the Father, the Son and the Spirit of the Triune God is constituted by the complete self-donation to one another towards indwelling (perichoresis). The Triune God is the final ground and archetype of human fidelity and commitment.
10. The Gospel of John is an invitation to believe, i.e., to be open to the truth that is the glory of God revealed through Christ, which leads the believer to commit one’s entire self to lifegiving abiding union with Jesus, the Son who abides with the Father and with all humanity through the Spirit.
Guidelines for the Final Oral Examination a. You are only allowed to bring a Bible to the oral exam venue. Use markers to easily access key passages associated with some of the thesis statements. You do not have to use the Bible for all the thesis statements—only some thesis statements directly refer to Scripture as source. b. State what the thesis statement as a whole is about. Then describe the role of each sentence relative to the thesis statement. Define key words. Cite the thesis statement’s sources. c. For your preparation, use the syllabus, then the articles and your classnotes. d. Superior grasp involves using concrete examples, or extra sources that illustrate, complement and affirm the thesis statement, but not to replace it or cover up one’s lack of knowledge of it. Also, be able to relate the thesis statement to one or two thesis statements in the course. Magis: personal appropriation or rejection of the claims of the thesis statement. e. Time per student: 9 minutes (1 minute for entrance/exit). It is recommended that you allot yourself 5-6 minutes for exposition and the remainder for discussion between you and the teacher. f.
Theses 8-10 will have 200 % chance of being selected compared to the other theses.
