Glossary

• Apostle / uh-POSS-ul /

  Apostle (Greek: *apostolos*, 'one sent out') refers most narrowly to the Twelve disciples whom Jesus named to share his ministry — Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot (replaced after his death by Matthias). The term broadens in early Christianity to include Paul (who claimed apostolic status from his vision of the risen Christ) and others sent on mission — including women like Junia (Romans 16:7), described by Paul as 'outstanding among the apostles.' Mary Magdalene is called the 'Apostle to the Apostles' because she was sent to bring news of the Resurrection to the others.

  Sources:

  • Mark 3:13-19
  • Acts 1:21-26
  • Romans 16:7

• Atonement / ah-TONE-ment /

  Atonement is the theological concept of how the broken relationship between God and humanity is restored. Christian theology has developed several theories of atonement to interpret the meaning of Jesus's death: *Penal Substitution* (Jesus bore the punishment humans deserved), *Christus Victor* (Jesus defeated the powers of sin and death), *Moral Influence* (Jesus's sacrificial love transforms human hearts), *Ransom* (Jesus's death liberates humanity from bondage). No single theory has been defined as exclusively orthodox; the tradition holds multiple interpretive lenses in tension.

  Sources:

  • Isaiah 53
  • Romans 3:21-26
  • 1 John 2:2
  • Anselm, Cur Deus Homo (1098)

• B'tzelem Elohim / buh-TZEH-lem eh-lo-HEEM /

  B'tzelem Elohim (Hebrew: 'in the image of God') is the foundational Jewish teaching drawn from Genesis 1:27: every human being, without exception, is created in the image of God and therefore possesses irreducible dignity. The Mishnah (Sanhedrin 4:5) draws from this the radical conclusion: 'whoever destroys a single soul, Scripture accounts it as if he had destroyed an entire world.' The Latin Catholic equivalent is *Imago Dei*. It is the theological root of every argument for universal human rights, regardless of race, gender, religion, or status.

  Sources:

  • Genesis 1:27
  • Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5

• Bal Tashchit / BAHL tash-KHEET /

  Bal Tashchit (Hebrew: 'do not destroy') is a Torah-rooted principle originating in Deuteronomy 20:19-20, which forbids cutting down fruit trees during a military siege. The rabbis extended this into a general prohibition on needless destruction — of food, clothing, water, buildings, natural resources. In contemporary Jewish environmental ethics, it is the foundational principle for treating ecological destruction as a religious violation, not merely a policy concern.

  Sources:

  • Deuteronomy 20:19-20
  • Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings 6:8-10

• Beatitudes / bee-AT-ih-toods /

  The Beatitudes are the opening blessings of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew 5:3-12 (with a shorter parallel in Luke 6). They pronounce blessing on those whom the dominant culture does not consider blessed: the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted. The Beatitudes are considered the theological heart of Jesus's ethical teaching — a systematic inversion of worldly notions of success and favor.

  Sources:

  • Matthew 5:3-12
  • Luke 6:20-26

• Chillul Hashem / khee-LOOL hah-SHEM /

  Chillul Hashem (Hebrew: 'desecration of the Name [of God]') is the Jewish concept that unethical, cruel, or dishonest behavior — especially when committed publicly by people identified as religious — brings dishonor to God. The reverse concept, *Kiddush Hashem* ('sanctification of the Name'), is ethical behavior that brings honor to God. The principle is particularly relevant when religious people use the Name of God to justify cruelty or injustice: doing so is not merely wrong, it is a specific and severe theological violation.

  Sources:

  • Leviticus 22:32
  • Talmud Yoma 86a

• Common Good

  The Common Good is a foundational principle of Catholic Social Teaching — defined in *Gaudium et Spes* (1965) as 'the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.' It is not majority interest nor utilitarian aggregate welfare; it is a substantive claim that certain conditions (health, education, just wages, peace, clean environment, civil rights) are owed to every person because of their dignity. The state exists to protect and advance the common good — not merely to secure individual freedom.

  Sources:

  • Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes §26 (1965)
  • Catechism §§1905-1912

• Covenant / KUV-uh-nent /

  A covenant (Hebrew: *brit*) is a binding agreement, but in the biblical sense it is more than a contract — it is a sacred, personal relationship with mutual obligations. The Hebrew Bible describes a series of covenants: with Noah, Abraham, Moses (at Sinai), and David. Christians understand Jesus as inaugurating a 'new covenant' that extends the relationship to all peoples, while Jewish tradition holds that the covenant with Israel remains unbroken. Covenant is the deep structural frame of biblical theology: God relates to humanity not primarily through rules but through relationships.

  Sources:

  • Genesis 17
  • Exodus 19-24
  • Jeremiah 31:31-34
  • Luke 22:20

• Crucifixion / kroo-sih-FIK-shun /

  Crucifixion was a method of execution used by the Roman Empire — particularly for slaves, rebels, and provincial subjects — designed to produce maximum suffering and maximum public humiliation. The condemned were typically scourged, then nailed or tied to a wooden cross and left to die slowly, often over hours or days, from a combination of blood loss, dehydration, and asphyxiation as the body's weight collapsed the chest. It was reserved for the lowest categories of offender; Roman citizens were exempt. Jesus's crucifixion under Pontius Pilate is one of the most historically attested events of the ancient world. The Christian claim is that this method of state torture and humiliation became the instrument of God's saving act.

  Sources:

  • Matthew 27
  • Mark 15
  • Luke 23
  • John 19
  • Tacitus, Annals 15.44

• Encyclical / en-SIK-lih-kul /

  An encyclical is a formal papal letter circulated to the bishops and, increasingly, to all people of goodwill, addressing major questions of faith, morals, or social teaching. Major modern examples include *Rerum Novarum* (1891, on labor and capital), *Humanae Vitae* (1968, on contraception), *Laudato Si'* (2015, on the environment), and *Fratelli Tutti* (2020, on human fraternity). Encyclicals carry significant teaching authority though they are not considered infallible in the strict technical sense.

  Sources:

  • Code of Canon Law

• Eschatology / ess-kah-TOL-oh-jee /

  Eschatology (from Greek *eschatos*, 'last') is the branch of theology dealing with the ultimate end of things: individual death and judgment, resurrection of the body, heaven and hell, and the final transformation or consummation of history. Jesus's own teaching was deeply eschatological — he announced the arrival of the Kingdom of God, which has both a present and a future dimension. Christian eschatology holds that history has a direction and a destination, that death is not the final word, and that justice will ultimately prevail.

  Sources:

  • Matthew 24-25
  • Revelation
  • 1 Corinthians 15

• Eucharist / YOO-kur-ist /

  The Eucharist (Greek: *eucharistia*, 'thanksgiving') is the central rite of Christian worship, commemorating the meal Jesus shared with his disciples the night before his crucifixion. Bread and wine are shared in memory of his body and blood. Catholic, Orthodox, and many Lutheran and Anglican traditions teach that Christ is genuinely present in the elements; most other Protestant traditions understand the rite more symbolically. In all cases, the Eucharist is a ritual of table fellowship — which is why questions about who is excluded from it carry such theological weight.

  Sources:

  • 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
  • Matthew 26:26-29

• Gaudium et Spes / GOW-dee-oom et SPES /

  *Gaudium et Spes* (Latin: 'Joy and Hope') is the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, one of the four constitutions of the Second Vatican Council, promulgated in December 1965. Its opening line is one of the most quoted in modern Catholicism: 'The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.' It addresses human dignity, the common good, marriage and family, culture, economics, politics, and peace — and commits the Church to genuine engagement with the modern world.

  Sources:

  • Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes (1965)

• Gehenna / geh-HEN-ah /

  Gehenna is the word translated 'hell' throughout the New Testament (Jesus uses it more than anyone else in the Gospels). It refers originally to the Valley of Hinnom (*Gei Hinnom*) outside Jerusalem — a place with a dark history of child sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible, and by the 1st century likely a refuse dump where fires burned continuously. Jesus uses it as a vivid image of destruction and judgment, not necessarily as a technical description of an eternal afterlife state. The Jewish tradition of Jesus's time had diverse and unsettled views on afterlife; Gehenna in rabbinic literature is often conceived as a temporary purification, not eternal damnation.

  Sources:

  • Matthew 5:22, 29-30; 10:28
  • 2 Kings 23:10
  • Talmud Rosh Hashanah 16b-17a

• Gospel / GOSS-pul /

  Gospel (from Old English *godspell*, 'good news,' translating Greek *euangelion*) refers both to (1) the central Christian message — that God has acted decisively in Jesus to redeem the world — and (2) the four New Testament books that narrate Jesus's life, teaching, death, and resurrection: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The first three (the 'Synoptic Gospels') share much material; John follows a distinct theological pattern. The Gospels are not biographies in the modern sense; they are theological narratives written to proclaim the meaning of Jesus's life, not just to record its facts.

  Sources:

  • Matthew
  • Mark
  • Luke
  • John

• Halacha / hah-lah-KHAH /

  Halacha (Hebrew: 'the way' or 'walking') is the body of Jewish religious law derived from the Torah, Talmud, and subsequent rabbinic decisions. It governs virtually every aspect of Jewish life: what to eat, how to observe Shabbat, how to conduct business, how to treat others, how to pray. Unlike civil law, Halacha is not enforced by a state but by community, conscience, and religious authority. Halacha is dynamic — rabbis have debated and adapted it across centuries in response to new circumstances.

  Sources:

  • Talmud
  • Shulchan Aruch (Joseph Karo, 1563)

• Hebrew Bible

  The Hebrew Bible (Hebrew: *Tanakh*, an acronym for *Torah*, *Nevi'im* [Prophets], and *Ketuvim* [Writings]) is the foundational sacred text of Judaism, written between roughly 1200 and 200 BCE, mostly in Hebrew (with some Aramaic). It contains 24 books in the Jewish enumeration (39 in the Christian Old Testament numbering). For Jews, it is the complete scripture; for Christians, it is the Old Testament — the foundation on which the New Testament builds. Many scholars now prefer the term 'Hebrew Bible' to 'Old Testament' in academic settings, since the Christian designation can imply (incorrectly) that the Jewish scriptures have been superseded.

  Sources:

  • The Tanakh (Hebrew canon)

• Hermeneutics / her-meh-NOO-tiks /

  Hermeneutics (from Greek *hermeneuein*, 'to interpret') is the discipline of textual interpretation: the principles and methods used to understand what a text means, especially an ancient or sacred text. Biblical hermeneutics asks: What did this text mean in its original context? What does it mean for us now? What is the relationship between the literal meaning and its spiritual or allegorical layers? Different hermeneutical approaches — historical-critical, typological, allegorical, literal — have been in tension throughout Jewish and Christian history. The choice of hermeneutic often determines the theological conclusion.

  Sources:

  • Origen, On First Principles (c. 230 CE)
  • Augustine, On Christian Teaching (c. 397 CE)

• Holy Spirit

  The Holy Spirit (Hebrew: *Ruach HaKodesh*; Greek: *Pneuma Hagion*) is, in Christian theology, the third person of the Trinity — God's own presence active in the world, in the Church, and in the lives of believers. The Hebrew Bible portrays the Spirit as the breath of God hovering over creation, inspiring prophets, and giving life. The New Testament describes the Spirit descending on Jesus at his baptism, on the apostles at Pentecost, and on believers as a continuing source of guidance, comfort, and transformation. The Nicene Creed confesses the Spirit as 'the Lord, the giver of life.'

  Sources:

  • Genesis 1:2
  • Acts 2:1-4
  • John 14:16-17
  • Nicene Creed (381 CE)

• Imago Dei / ee-MAH-goh DAY-ee /

  Imago Dei (Latin: 'image of God') is the theological doctrine, rooted in Genesis 1:27 ('God created humankind in his own image'), that every human being bears the image of God and therefore possesses inherent, inviolable dignity. It is the foundational Christian argument for universal human rights, opposition to slavery, racism, and the mistreatment of any person. The Hebrew equivalent is *B'tzelem Elohim*.

  Sources:

  • Genesis 1:27
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church §§356-361

• Incarnation / in-kar-NAY-shun /

  The Incarnation (Latin: *in carne*, 'in flesh') is the central Christian doctrine that the eternal Son of God — the second person of the Trinity — became fully human in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. The Gospel of John states it as: 'The Word became flesh and dwelt among us' (1:14). The doctrine is not that God merely appeared in human form, but that God genuinely entered human experience — including poverty, vulnerability, suffering, and death. The theological implications are enormous: creation, materiality, and human embodiment are permanently sanctified by God's choice to inhabit them.

  Sources:

  • John 1:1-14
  • Philippians 2:6-11
  • Council of Chalcedon (451 CE)

• Jubilee / JOO-bih-lee /

  The Jubilee (Hebrew: *Yovel*) was the 50th year prescribed in Leviticus 25 — occurring after seven cycles of the Sabbatical Year. In the Jubilee, debts were cancelled, enslaved Israelites were freed, and ancestral land was returned to the families who originally held it. The principle is a radical economic reset: wealth cannot accumulate indefinitely in a few hands, and poverty cannot become a permanent inherited condition. Jesus opens his public ministry in Luke 4 by reading from Isaiah 61 and announcing 'the year of the Lord's favor' — widely read as a proclamation of the Jubilee. The modern Jubilee 2000 debt-relief movement drew directly on this biblical framework.

  Sources:

  • Leviticus 25:8-55
  • Luke 4:16-21
  • Isaiah 61:1-2

• Just War Theory

  Just War Theory is the classical Christian ethical framework — developed by Augustine (4th century) and refined by Thomas Aquinas (13th century) — for determining when armed conflict can be morally permissible. The criteria include: just cause, right intention, proper authority, last resort, probability of success, and proportionality. The tradition also addresses jus in bello (justice within war): civilian immunity, proportional force, no use of intrinsically evil means. The theory is neither pacifism nor blank endorsement of war — it is a demanding standard that most actual wars fail to meet.

  Sources:

  • Augustine, City of God (413-426 CE)
  • Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II, q. 40
  • Catechism §§2307-2317

• Kavod HaBriot / kah-VOHD hah-bree-OHT /

  Kavod HaBriot (Hebrew: 'the honor of creatures/created beings') is the Jewish principle that every human being, simply by virtue of being a creation of God, is owed a basic and irreducible dignity. The Talmud treats this principle as so important that it can override certain rabbinic laws: humiliating another person is a graver offense than many ritual violations. In contemporary Jewish ethics, it is a foundational principle for opposition to humiliation, discrimination, and the dehumanization of any group of people.

  Sources:

  • Talmud Berachot 19b-20a

• Kiddush Hashem / KID-oosh hah-SHEM /

  Kiddush Hashem (Hebrew: 'sanctification of the Name [of God]') is the concept that ethical, compassionate, and honest behavior — especially by people identified as religious, and especially in public — brings honor to God. It is the opposite of *Chillul Hashem* (desecration of the Name). In its most extreme form, the tradition holds that dying rather than committing murder, idolatry, or certain sexual offenses is itself a Kiddush Hashem — a martyrdom that sanctifies God's name.

  Sources:

  • Leviticus 22:32
  • Talmud Yoma 86a

• Magisterium / maj-iss-TEER-ee-um /

  The Magisterium is the Catholic Church's official teaching office, exercised by the Pope and the bishops in communion with him. It is distinguished between the 'ordinary Magisterium' (the everyday teaching of bishops and popes) and the 'extraordinary Magisterium' (solemn definitions at ecumenical councils or papal ex cathedra pronouncements). The scope and limits of Magisterial authority are themselves an ongoing subject of theological reflection within the Church.

  Sources:

  • Catechism of the Catholic Church §§85-87

• Mary Magdalene / MAG-duh-lin /

  Mary Magdalene (so named because she was from Magdala, a town on the Sea of Galilee) was a follower of Jesus throughout his ministry, present at his crucifixion, and according to all four Gospels, the first witness of the Resurrection. The Gospel of John portrays her in extended dialogue with the risen Jesus and entrusted with the message: 'Go to my brothers and tell them.' Despite her foundational role, Pope Gregory I conflated her with an unnamed sinful woman in Luke 7 — a confusion that wrongly cast her as a reformed prostitute for over 1,400 years. The Vatican formally corrected this in 1969. In 2016, Pope Francis elevated her feast day to the same rank as the male apostles, calling her 'Apostle to the Apostles.'

  Sources:

  • John 20:11-18
  • Luke 8:1-3
  • Pope Francis decree (June 2016)

• Messiah / meh-SIGH-uh /

  Messiah (Hebrew: *Mashiach*, 'anointed one') refers in the Hebrew Bible to a future king from the line of David who would deliver Israel, restore justice, and establish God's reign on earth. Different Jewish traditions developed different expectations: a political-military deliverer, a priestly figure, a suffering servant, a heavenly figure. The Greek translation of *Mashiach* is *Christos* — Christ. Christians proclaim Jesus as the Messiah; most Jewish traditions hold that the Messiah has not yet come, since the world has not been transformed in the ways the prophetic texts described. The disagreement is real and ancient and worth being honest about.

  Sources:

  • Isaiah 11
  • Daniel 7
  • Matthew 1:1
  • John 1:41

• Midrash / MID-rahsh /

  Midrash (Hebrew: from the root 'to seek' or 'to interpret') is a genre of rabbinic literature that interprets Scripture through story, parable, and creative elaboration. Where the biblical text is silent, sparse, or puzzling, Midrash asks 'what was really happening?' and answers imaginatively. Collections of Midrash (such as Midrash Rabbah) were compiled between roughly 400 and 1000 CE. Midrash is not meant to be taken literally — it is a method of theological imagination, expanding the meaning of the text through narrative.

  Sources:

  • Midrash Rabbah (various compilations)

• Mishnah / MISH-nah /

  The Mishnah is the first major written collection of Jewish oral tradition, compiled around 200 CE under the leadership of Rabbi Judah the Prince. Organized into six 'orders' covering agriculture, festivals, marriage, civil and criminal law, Temple ritual, and ritual purity. It forms the foundation of the Talmud, which is essentially extended commentary on the Mishnah's text.

  Sources:

  • Mishnah (c. 200 CE)

• Natural Law

  Natural Law is the philosophical and theological tradition — central to Catholic moral theology — that human beings can discern basic moral truths through reason, without reference to Scripture or Church teaching. Rooted in Aristotle and developed by Thomas Aquinas, Natural Law holds that human beings have a nature ordered toward certain ends (life, community, truth, justice), and that acting in accord with this nature is morally good. It underlies many Catholic social and moral positions, providing a framework for engagement with people of different religious backgrounds.

  Sources:

  • Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II, q. 91-94
  • Romans 2:14-15

• Nefesh / NEH-fesh /

  *Nefesh* (Hebrew) is variously translated as 'soul,' 'life,' or 'living being.' In the Torah, *nefesh* refers to a fully alive person — a living human being in their complete existence. The term is legally significant in Jewish discussions of abortion: Exodus 21:22-25 distinguishes between injury causing a miscarriage (treated as property damage) and injury causing the death of the pregnant woman (treated as murder), establishing that Jewish law does not equate a fetus with a *nefesh* — a full person.

  Sources:

  • Exodus 21:22-25
  • Genesis 2:7

• New Testament

  The New Testament is the second portion of the Christian Bible, containing 27 books written in Greek between roughly 50 and 110 CE. It includes the four Gospels (narratives of Jesus's life), the Acts of the Apostles (the early Church), 21 letters (most attributed to Paul; others to other early leaders), and Revelation (an apocalyptic vision). The collection was finalized in its current form by the late 4th century. The 'New Testament' is so called in relation to the Hebrew Bible (which Christians call the 'Old Testament') — but Jewish tradition does not use either term, and the relationship between the two collections has been the subject of two thousand years of theological reflection.

  Sources:

  • Council of Carthage (397 CE)

• Original Sin

  Original Sin is the Christian doctrine that all human beings inherit a fallen condition — a tendency toward sin and a damaged relationship with God — going back to the first humans (Adam and Eve in Genesis 3). It is not the doctrine that infants are personally guilty of sin; it is the claim that we are born into a world and a human nature already wounded, in need of grace and healing. Augustine in the 5th century gave the doctrine its most influential Western articulation. Eastern Orthodox theology generally accepts the brokenness without using the same juridical language. Jewish theology does not have an equivalent doctrine — it acknowledges the human capacity for sin but does not consider humans inherently fallen.

  Sources:

  • Genesis 3
  • Romans 5:12-21
  • Augustine, On Original Sin (418 CE)
  • Council of Trent (1546)

• Parable / PAIR-uh-bul /

  A parable (Greek: *parabolē*, 'comparison' or 'analogy') is a short narrative that uses an ordinary situation to illuminate a spiritual or moral truth. It was Jesus's primary teaching method — the Gospels record dozens of parables, including the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the Mustard Seed, the Rich Man and Lazarus, and the Sheep and the Goats. Parables function by surprise and reversal: they invite the listener into a familiar scenario and then overturn the expected outcome, often in ways that unsettled Jesus's original audience. They resist simple allegorical decoding; the best parables keep yielding new meanings.

  Sources:

  • Matthew 13
  • Luke 10:25-37
  • Luke 15

• Paschal Mystery / PAS-kul /

  The Paschal Mystery (from *Pesach*, Passover) refers to the suffering, death, resurrection, and glorification of Jesus — understood as a unified saving event. It is called a 'mystery' not because it is unintelligible, but because it is an inexhaustible reality that can never be fully comprehended. The term draws an explicit connection to the Jewish Passover: just as God liberated Israel from slavery in Egypt through the Exodus, God liberates humanity from sin and death through Jesus's death and resurrection. The Eucharist makes this mystery present in every celebration of the Mass.

  Sources:

  • 1 Corinthians 5:7
  • Catechism §§571, 1085

• Passover / PASS-oh-ver /

  Passover (Hebrew: *Pesach*) is the major Jewish festival commemorating the Exodus from slavery in Egypt, narrated in the Book of Exodus. The name refers to God 'passing over' the Israelite homes during the final plague on Egypt, when the firstborn of the Egyptians died. Passover is observed annually in the spring, beginning with the *Seder* — a structured ritual meal at which the story of liberation is retold, four cups of wine are drunk, and unleavened bread (*matzah*) is eaten. Jesus's Last Supper, according to the Synoptic Gospels, was a Passover Seder. The Christian Eucharist is built on Passover symbolism: liberation, sacrifice, sharing a meal that makes the saving event present.

  Sources:

  • Exodus 12
  • Mark 14:12-26
  • 1 Corinthians 5:7

• Pentecost / PEN-teh-kost /

  Pentecost (Greek: 'fiftieth') is celebrated 50 days after Easter. The name comes from the Jewish festival of *Shavuot* — also fifty days after Passover — which commemorates the giving of the Torah at Sinai. The Christian feast commemorates the day, narrated in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit descended on the gathered apostles in the form of tongues of fire, enabling them to speak in many languages so that pilgrims from across the Roman Empire could understand. It is often called the birthday of the Church — the moment the small group of Jesus's followers became a movement empowered to take their message into the wider world.

  Sources:

  • Acts 2:1-41
  • Leviticus 23:15-22

• Pharisees / FAIR-uh-seez /

  The Pharisees were a Jewish religious movement during the Second Temple period (roughly 150 BCE to 70 CE). They emphasized the authority of the oral tradition alongside the written Torah, focused on applying religious law to daily life, and believed in the resurrection of the dead. After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Pharisaic tradition became the foundation of Rabbinic Judaism — the form of Judaism practiced today. The Gospels often portray Pharisees as Jesus's antagonists, but scholars note that Jesus's own teachings were closer to Pharisaic thought than to any other Jewish movement of his time. Much of the Gospel conflict reads more like an internal family argument than a fight with outsiders.

  Sources:

  • Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews

• Pikuach Nefesh / pee-KOO-akh NEH-fesh /

  Pikuach Nefesh (Hebrew: 'saving a life' or 'watching over a soul') is one of the most important principles in Jewish law: the preservation of human life overrides nearly every other religious commandment. You are not only allowed but *required* to break the Sabbath, eat non-kosher food, or violate almost any other law if doing so will save a human life. The only exceptions are murder, idolatry, and certain specific prohibitions on sexual violence. The principle reflects a deep theological claim: life itself is sacred, and religious rules exist to serve human flourishing, not to override it.

  Sources:

  • Talmud Yoma 85a-85b

• Pontius Pilate / PON-shus PIE-let /

  Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect (governor) of Judaea from roughly 26 to 36 CE. He is mentioned in all four Gospels as the official who authorized the crucifixion of Jesus after a trial in which Jesus was found innocent of any crime deserving death. The Gospels portray Pilate as reluctant but ultimately compliant with the demands of the Temple establishment. He appears in the ancient Creed: 'suffered under Pontius Pilate.' His mention in the Creed is historically significant — it anchors the death of Jesus to a specific, verifiable moment in Roman history.

  Sources:

  • Matthew 27
  • Luke 23
  • John 18-19
  • Tacitus, Annals 15.44

• Porneia / por-NEE-ah /

  *Porneia* is the Greek word used throughout the New Testament — most frequently by Paul — that is translated variously as 'fornication,' 'sexual immorality,' or 'sexual sin.' In 1st-century Greco-Roman usage, it clearly covered prostitution, adultery, incest, sex with slaves, and the exploitation of the vulnerable. Whether it encompassed committed unmarried relationships between equals (a social category that barely existed in the ancient world) is genuinely contested among scholars. The word's modern translation as a simple moral category can obscure the complexity of what it originally meant.

  Sources:

  • 1 Corinthians 6-7
  • Matthew 5:32

• Preferential Option for the Poor / pref-er-EN-shul OP-shun /

  The 'Preferential Option for the Poor' is a central principle of Catholic Social Teaching, especially associated with Latin American liberation theology and formally embraced in papal teaching from John Paul II onward. The principle holds that God and the Church take a particular side in human affairs — the side of the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed. This is not sentimentalism but a theological claim about how God acts in history, grounded in the Exodus, the prophets, and the life of Jesus.

  Sources:

  • Pope John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987) §42
  • USCCB, Economic Justice for All (1986)

• Prodigal Son / PROD-ih-gul /

  The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) is one of Jesus's most beloved teachings. A son demands his inheritance early — a deep insult in the ancient world, equivalent to wishing his father dead — and wastes it in a distant country. Destitute, he returns home intending to beg for work. Before he can finish his prepared apology, his father sees him from a distance, runs to him (an undignified act for an elder), embraces him, and throws a celebration. The older brother, who stayed and worked faithfully, resents the welcome. The parable is not primarily about repentance; it is about the scandalous extravagance of grace — a father who refuses to stand on his dignity when reconciliation is possible.

  Sources:

  • Luke 15:11-32

• Purgatory / PUR-guh-tor-ee /

  Purgatory is the Catholic doctrine that souls destined for heaven but not yet fully purified undergo a process of purification after death. It is not a 'second chance' and not a place of damnation; the souls in Purgatory are already saved. The medieval imagination developed vivid (and often distorted) popular pictures of it, which fueled the abuses around indulgences that triggered the Protestant Reformation. The actual doctrine is modest: sanctification, begun in this life, may be completed after death. Orthodox and Protestant traditions generally reject the doctrine; most Protestant theologians consider it unsupported by Scripture.

  Sources:

  • 2 Maccabees 12:38-46
  • 1 Corinthians 3:11-15
  • Catechism §§1030-1032

• Rerum Novarum / REH-room no-VAR-oom /

  *Rerum Novarum* (Latin: 'Of New Things') is the 1891 encyclical by Pope Leo XIII addressing the conditions of industrial workers at the height of the Industrial Revolution. It is considered the foundational document of modern Catholic Social Teaching. Written against the backdrop of brutal factory conditions, it defended the right to form labor unions, the right to a just wage sufficient to support a family, private property (against socialism), and the duty of the state to protect workers (against unfettered capitalism). Every subsequent CST document, including *Laudato Si'* and *Fratelli Tutti*, builds on its framework.

  Sources:

  • Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum (1891)

• Resurrection / rez-uh-REK-shun /

  The Resurrection is the central claim of Christian faith: that Jesus of Nazareth, executed by the Roman state and buried, was raised bodily from the dead on the third day. All four Gospels narrate the discovery of the empty tomb and appearances of the risen Jesus; Paul describes the Resurrection as the foundation of Christian hope ('if Christ has not been raised, our faith is in vain' — 1 Corinthians 15:14). The Resurrection is not, in Christian theology, a resuscitation (returning to ordinary mortal life) but a transformation — Jesus passes through death into a new mode of bodily existence. The doctrine grounds Christian belief in the future general resurrection of all believers.

  Sources:

  • Matthew 28
  • Mark 16
  • Luke 24
  • John 20-21
  • 1 Corinthians 15

• Rodef / ro-DEF /

  Rodef (Hebrew: 'pursuer' or 'chaser') is a Jewish legal category for a person who poses an imminent, lethal threat to another. Jewish law requires that a bystander intervene — with lethal force if necessary — to stop a *rodef* from killing an innocent person. The principle is one of the few situations in which the Torah's 'do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor' (Leviticus 19:16) is understood to mandate active, even forceful intervention. It is a narrow and carefully bounded category, but it grounds serious Jewish ethical conversations about self-defense, protection of others, and the moral limits of non-interference.

  Sources:

  • Leviticus 19:16
  • Talmud Sanhedrin 73a
  • Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of the Murderer 1:6-16

• Sadducees / SAD-yoo-seez /

  The Sadducees were the priestly aristocratic faction of Second Temple Judaism, closely associated with the Temple establishment and the Jewish elite collaborating with Roman authority. They accepted only the written Torah (rejecting oral tradition) and denied the resurrection of the dead. Their power base was the Temple itself; when the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 CE, the Sadducees essentially vanished as a movement.

  Sources:

  • Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews

• Sanhedrin / san-HEH-drin /

  The Sanhedrin (from Greek *synedrion*, 'council') was the supreme rabbinical court of ancient Israel during the Second Temple period, composed of 71 elders who held both legal and religious authority. A smaller 'lesser Sanhedrin' of 23 judges existed in each significant town. The Gospels describe Jesus being tried by the Sanhedrin before being handed to Pontius Pilate. The Mishnah preserves detailed rules for Sanhedrin procedure — including such strict standards for capital cases that the rabbis effectively abolished the death penalty: a court that executed even one person in seventy years was called 'bloodthirsty' (Mishnah Sanhedrin 1:6).

  Sources:

  • Mishnah tractate Sanhedrin
  • Matthew 26:57-68
  • Acts 4-5

• Sensus Fidelium / SEN-soos fee-DAY-lee-oom /

  *Sensus Fidelium* (Latin: 'the sense of the faithful') is a Catholic theological concept referring to the collective moral and spiritual intuition of the whole body of the faithful — not just the hierarchy. The Second Vatican Council (in *Lumen Gentium*, 1964) affirmed that this collective sense carries real theological weight: the whole people of God, guided by the Spirit, has a role in discerning the truth of the faith. It is not the same as popular opinion polling; it refers to a deeper shared moral instinct that develops through prayer, scripture, and life in the Church.

  Sources:

  • Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium §12 (1964)

• Sermon on the Mount

  The Sermon on the Mount is the most extended teaching of Jesus recorded in the Gospels — three chapters in Matthew (5–7), with parallel material in Luke 6 (sometimes called the 'Sermon on the Plain'). It opens with the Beatitudes, includes the Lord's Prayer, the Golden Rule, and Jesus's most demanding ethical teachings: love your enemies, turn the other cheek, do not store up treasures on earth, judge not. It is widely considered the heart of Jesus's ethical vision — and is also widely considered impossible to live by, which is part of its point. The Sermon does not lower the bar; it raises it past anything human power alone can achieve.

  Sources:

  • Matthew 5-7
  • Luke 6:17-49

• Shabbat / shah-BAHT /

  Shabbat (Hebrew: 'rest' or 'cessation') is the Jewish Sabbath, observed from sunset Friday to nightfall Saturday. It is commanded in the Ten Commandments and is one of the most distinctive and ancient Jewish practices. On Shabbat, traditional observance forbids thirty-nine categories of creative work, which modern Orthodox practice extends to include electricity, driving, writing, and commerce. The deeper meaning: for one day a week, the economy stops. Human beings are not production units. The world is received as gift, not extracted as resource.

  Sources:

  • Exodus 20:8-11
  • Deuteronomy 5:12-15

• Sheol / SHEH-ole /

  Sheol is the Hebrew Bible's term for the realm of the dead — a shadowy, grey underworld beneath the earth where all the dead go, righteous and wicked alike. It is not a place of punishment or reward but of dim, diminished existence. Sheol reflects an early Hebrew theology that was largely unconcerned with afterlife and focused instead on life in this world. Later, especially after contact with Persian and Greek thought, Jewish theology developed more differentiated views of afterlife — leading eventually to belief in resurrection, paradise, and Gehenna.

  Sources:

  • Psalm 88:3-6
  • Job 10:21-22
  • 1 Samuel 28:13-15

• Shmita / shmee-TAH /

  Shmita (Hebrew: 'release' or 'letting fall') is the Torah's Sabbatical Year: every seventh year, the land of Israel was to lie fallow — no planting, no harvesting, no commercial agriculture. Produce that grew on its own was to be left for anyone to take. Debts between Israelites were to be released. The principle is radical: the land is not property to extract from indefinitely, and the poor are not to be permanently trapped by debt. The Jubilee Year (*Yovel*), occurring every fifty years, extended this — returning land to original family ownership and freeing slaves.

  Sources:

  • Leviticus 25:1-7
  • Deuteronomy 15:1-11

• Social Sin

  Social Sin (or 'structural sin') is the Catholic teaching that sin is not only a matter of individual moral failure but can be embedded in social, economic, and political structures — structures of exploitation, racism, systemic poverty, and violence that harm people independently of any one person's bad intent. Pope John Paul II developed the concept in *Sollicitudo Rei Socialis* (1987), arguing that participating in unjust systems without working to change them is a form of moral complicity. The concept is important because it extends moral responsibility beyond individual acts to include the systems we uphold — an expansion with serious implications for economics, race, and environmental ethics.

  Sources:

  • Pope John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis §36 (1987)
  • USCCB, Open Wide Our Hearts (2018)

• Solidarity / sol-ih-DAIR-ih-tee /

  In Catholic Social Teaching, solidarity is not merely a feeling of sympathy but a firm commitment to the common good — the recognition that all people are bound together, that the suffering of one is the concern of all, and that mutual responsibility is structural, not optional. Pope John Paul II defined it in *Sollicitudo Rei Socialis* (1987) as 'a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good... because we are all really responsible for all.'

  Sources:

  • Pope John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987) §38

• Subsidiarity / sub-sid-ee-AIR-ih-tee /

  Subsidiarity is a core principle of Catholic Social Teaching, first formulated explicitly in Pope Pius XI's *Quadragesimo Anno* (1931). It holds that decisions should be made at the smallest, most local, most immediate level capable of addressing the issue well — and that higher-level structures (the state, for example) should intervene only when local structures cannot meet the need. Importantly, subsidiarity is always paired with *solidarity*: it is not a libertarian principle, but a claim about appropriate scale within a framework of mutual responsibility.

  Sources:

  • Pope Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno (1931) §§79-80

• Supersessionism / soo-per-SESH-uh-niz-um /

  Supersessionism (also called 'replacement theology') is the view that the Christian covenant with God — established through Jesus — replaced or fulfilled the Jewish covenant in a way that rendered Judaism theologically obsolete. In its strong form, it implies that Jews are no longer God's covenant people. The view has been used to justify centuries of antisemitism. The Second Vatican Council's *Nostra Aetate* (1965) formally repudiated supersessionism and the charge of collective Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus. Many theologians now reject supersessionism and speak instead of two covenants standing in relation.

  Sources:

  • Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate §4 (1965)
  • Romans 9-11

• Synod / SIN-uhd /

  A synod (from Greek *synodos*, 'assembly' or 'meeting') is a formal council of Church leaders convened to deliberate on matters of doctrine, governance, or pastoral practice. Various Christian traditions use the term differently. In the Catholic Church, the Synod of Bishops, established by Paul VI in 1965, advises the Pope. Pope Francis's *Synod on Synodality* (2021–2024) was a landmark global listening process that consulted ordinary Catholics worldwide, exploring how the Church might become more participatory and accountable. The word 'synodal' has become shorthand under Francis for a Church that listens more than it pronounces.

  Sources:

  • Code of Canon Law §§342-348

• Talmud / TAHL-mood /

  The Talmud is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism, compiled between roughly 200 and 500 CE. It consists of the Mishnah (the first written compilation of Jewish oral law, c. 200 CE) and the Gemara (extensive rabbinic commentary on the Mishnah). There are two versions: the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud; the Babylonian is considered authoritative in most Jewish communities. The Talmud is not a single-authored book but a recorded conversation across generations of rabbis, preserving minority opinions alongside majority rulings. It is the engine room of Jewish legal, ethical, and theological reasoning.

  Sources:

  • Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud)
  • Talmud Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud)

• Teshuvah / teh-SHOO-vah /

  Teshuvah (Hebrew: 'return' or 'turning') is the Jewish concept of repentance, but the root meaning is not 'feeling sorry' — it is 'turning back.' Teshuvah is the process of returning to one's truest self, to right relationship with God and community. Maimonides's laws of teshuvah describe the complete process: acknowledging the wrong, feeling genuine regret, making restitution where possible, committing to change, and being tested by the same situation and acting differently. The Jewish High Holidays — Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur — are structured around communal teshuvah.

  Sources:

  • Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Repentance

• Theodicy / thee-OD-ih-see /

  Theodicy (from Greek *theos*, God, and *dike*, justice) is the branch of theology that wrestles with the problem of evil: if God is all-good and all-powerful, why does suffering, injustice, and evil exist? The Book of Job is the Bible's sustained engagement with this question. Christian and Jewish thinkers have offered many responses — free will, the necessity of suffering for spiritual growth, the limits of human understanding, eschatological hope — but none resolves the tension completely. The tradition is honest about this: lament is as old as the Psalms.

  Sources:

  • Book of Job
  • Psalm 22
  • Leibniz, Theodicy (1710)

• Tikkun Olam / tee-KOON oh-LAHM /

  Tikkun Olam (Hebrew: 'repair of the world') is the Jewish concept that human beings bear responsibility for fixing the broken world they find themselves in. Its origins are in Kabbalistic mysticism — the idea that divine sparks were scattered at creation and must be gathered back into wholeness through human action. In modern Jewish ethics, it has become the most widely invoked shorthand for social justice activism: feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, healing the sick, pursuing justice for the oppressed. Critically, the obligation is to *this* world — the one we are already in — not to an afterlife or a future escape.

  Sources:

  • Lurianic Kabbalah
  • Mishnah Gittin 4:2

• Torah / TOE-rah /

  The Torah (Hebrew: 'teaching' or 'instruction') refers to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Also called the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses. These contain the foundational narratives of Jewish identity — creation, the exodus from Egypt, the giving of the law at Sinai — and the 613 commandments that form the core of Jewish religious life. For Christians, these are the opening books of the Old Testament. For Jews, they are the center of the tradition itself.

  Sources:

  • Genesis through Deuteronomy (Hebrew Bible)

• Trinity / TRIN-ih-tee /

  The Trinity is the central Christian doctrine that the one God exists eternally in three distinct 'persons' — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — each fully God, sharing one divine essence. The doctrine was formally articulated at the Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381) in response to debates about the nature of Christ. The Trinity is a mystery in the technical theological sense: it is not a contradiction to be solved but a reality that exceeds what human reason can fully grasp. It is not three gods (tritheism) and not one God wearing three masks (modalism). The doctrine distinguishes Christianity from strict monotheism (Judaism, Islam) without abandoning monotheism.

  Sources:

  • Matthew 28:19
  • Council of Nicaea (325 CE)
  • Council of Constantinople (381 CE)

• Tzedakah / tzeh-DAH-kah /

  Tzedakah (Hebrew, from the root meaning 'justice' or 'righteousness') is often translated as 'charity,' but the translation is misleading. In English, charity implies voluntary generosity — something nice you choose to do. Tzedakah is not optional. It is a legal and religious obligation: the wealthy owe the poor a share of what they have, because all wealth ultimately belongs to God and justice requires its redistribution. Maimonides famously ranked eight levels of tzedakah, with the highest form being helping a person become self-sufficient so they never need charity again.

  Sources:

  • Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Gifts to the Poor 10:7-14

• Universal Destination of Goods / yoo-nih-VER-sul /

  The Universal Destination of Goods is a central principle of Catholic Social Teaching: the goods of creation — land, resources, the fruits of human labor — are intended by God for the benefit of all humanity, not for the exclusive accumulation of a few. Private property is recognized as legitimate, but it is not absolute; it is subordinate to the prior, more fundamental claim that everyone has a right to what they need to live with dignity. The principle is the theological basis for Catholic support of social safety nets, just wages, and the redistribution of wealth.

  Sources:

  • Catechism of the Catholic Church §§2402-2406
  • Pope Paul VI, Populorum Progressio (1967)

• Zealots / ZEL-uts /

  The Zealots were a Jewish political-religious faction active in 1st-century Roman Palestine who believed that violent resistance to Roman rule was a religious duty. Their activities contributed to the Jewish-Roman War of 66-70 CE, which ended with the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. Jesus had at least one disciple identified as 'Simon the Zealot' (Luke 6:15), though his exact affiliation is debated. Jesus's own message of non-violent love of enemies was in explicit tension with Zealot ideology — making his refusal to lead an armed revolt a significant theological and political statement.

  Sources:

  • Luke 6:15
  • Josephus, Jewish War

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