GCSE Philosophy and Ethics Full Course

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GCSE Philosophy and EthicsFull Course

• The Nature of Belief

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Key Areas

• Private and public worship
• Christian prayer and contemplation
• The importance of food and fasting
• The architecture of Church buildings
• The use of music and art in worship
• The use of symbols

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Worship

• The word worship means worthiness. Christians
  believe that in their worship, they are offering
  something that is worthy and precious to God
  because He is worth it.
• Worship is important to Christians because God,
  the almighty creator of the universe, should be
  praised. It is also important because it gives
  each worshipper that opportunity to say and show
  how much God means to them. God is loving and so
  Christians should respond by loving Him in return
  and also by loving their neighbours to express
  their love for God.

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Private Worship

• Many Christians set aside a time each day when
  they read their Bible and pray quietly. Some
  Christians refer to this as their Quiet Time.
  They will use this time to pray for
• Anything in the world that concerns them. It
  might be something that they have read about or
  seen.
• The needs of their family and friends. Someone
  might be facing a decision about their future or
  their health
• Themselves and their own needs. Jesus encouraged
  people to pray for themselves but only after they
  had prayed for others.
• Christians feel that this time of private worship
  gives them a solid foundation on which to base
  their lives day by day

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Public Worship
Most Christians belong to a local Church and
attend services in their place of worship on
Sundays. Church services mostly fall into one of
two categories

• Liturgical Worship
• This follows a written pattern set down in a
  prayer book. While the Bible readings and hymns
  vary each service to suit the theme of the
  worship, the basic structure of the service stays
  the same each week. The familiarity of the
  service provides comfort, as does the continuity
  of the text being unaltered over centuries.
• Anglican, RC and Orthodox churches mainly follow
  a set liturgy.

• Non-Liturgical Worship
• This type of worship does not follow a set order
  of service / liturgy. While the services may have
  a general structure, the form it takes varies
  each week. Non-Liturgical worship is likely to be
  Bible-centred, with an emphasis on modern hymns.
  There is a stronger feeling of freedom and
  emotion in the service. The emphasis is on
  participation, and anyone can lead the
  congregation in spontaneous prayer.

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Worship

• Non Liturgical services, however, are not all
  the same. Far from it!! Many different
  Pentecostal groups, for example, participate in
  highly emotion-filled services while the Quakers,
  an older group going back to the C17th, spend
  their time worshipping in almost unbroken
  silence. Baptist and Methodist Churches do not
  have a regular structure to their services but
  they are non-liturgical since their services do
  not follow a prayer book.

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Sermon sometimes called the homily is a talk
given by a minister. It explains the meaning of a
passage from the Bible and how people might apply
it to their lives.
Prayers they play a very important part in all
Christian worship. The worshippers add Amen at
the end of the prayer. Sometimes people speak the
prayer out loud.
What do you find in most Church Services?
Hymns these are poetry set to music. By singing
them together, worshippers are expressing a
spiritual fellowship with each other.
Bible readings this is where a Bible passage is
read aloud, often by a member of the
congregation.
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The Lords Prayer

• The Lords prayer (Our Father - RC) is the most
  important of all Christian prayers. This is
  because it is the only one that Jesus actually
  taught his own disciples to use.

• Our Father in Heaven
• Hallowed be your name
• Thy kingdom come,
• Thy will be done,
• On earth as it is in heaven.
• Give us today our daily bread.
• Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our
  debtors.
• And lead us not into temptation.
• But deliver us from the evil one.
• Matt 6.9-13

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Church Services

• There are many different kinds of services of
  Church service. For the majority of Churches, the
  most important service is Holy Communion also
  known as Eucharist (Anglican) and Mass (RC) and
  the Lords Supper (Non-Conformist). This is the
  service at which worshippers share the symbols of
  bread and wine to help them share spiritually in
  the death of Jesus. By taking part in Communion
  worshippers are re-enacting the Last Supper.
• There are 2 major Christian Churches that dont
  celebrate Communion
• Salvation Army
• Quakers

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Baptism
In some Churches, services of baptism are very
important. This can take 2 different forms

• Infant Baptism
• This involves sprinkling holy water over the head
  of a young baby to indicate that he /she is being
  welcomed into the fellowship of the Christian
  Church.
• RCs, Anglicans and Orthodox Churches baptise
  babies.

• Believers Baptism
• Baptists and a few other Non-Conformist Churches
  baptise adults who have come to believe in Jesus
  Christ as their saviour. Those baptised are fully
  immersed beneath the water. This is why the
  service is often called baptism by immersion.

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Christian Prayer and Contemplation

• Prayer is the basic way in which they communicate
  with God.
• In any family, it is important that the children
  speak openly to their parents as Christians are
  part of Gods family (God the Father)
• They believe that God loves them and wishes to
  look after/support them.
• Christians believe that God listens and answers
  their prayers.
• When they pray, they are following the example of
  JC in the Gospels.
• JC put a big emphasis on prayer in his own life
  and encouraged others to do the same.
• Christians feel that when they pray they are
  entering into Gods presence where they receive
  divine strength and guidance.

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Intercession praying for other people who are in
need
Adoration praising God for his greatness
Petition praying for their own needs
Christian Prayer Includes
Thanksgiving thanking God for all His good
gifts. Christians believe that everything comes
in/directly from God
Confession Christians believe that they are
sinners who need to ask for Gods forgiveness
before they pray
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Meditation and Contemplation

• Meditation is an important spiritual activity.
• When some Christians meditate they try to focus
  their thoughts quietly on God.
• They might do this by thinking about a particular
  Bible passage or by focusing on a piece of music
  or art(icon).
• They might simply go and sit in their favourite
  place or in their place of worship and know that
  they are in the presence of God.
• Contemplation is a slightly different form of
  this in which believers find themselves taken up
  with God. This is a form of prayer that some
  Christian saints did in the past.

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The Jesus Prayer

• As well as using icons in their spiritual
  devotions, Christians in the Orthodox tradition
  also make use of the Jesus Prayer. This prayer
  can take several different forms but it basically
  says
• Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me
• More than just a prayer, this is really a cry for
  help. Many Christians use it as an arrow
  prayer, one that they use when they do not have
  time for anything longer.
• The Jesus Prayer recognises 2 things

Who Jesus is the Son of God. This means that
Jesus had the power to help because he is divine
God himself.
We are all sinners and so need Gods help we
cannot enter Gods presence unless we have His
forgiveness.
Many Christians use this prayer as a basis for
their spiritual meditation, thinking deeply on
the depth of meaning in each word. They say the
prayer in rhythm with their own breathing so that
it is muttered many times a day almost without
the person being aware of it
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Ask and it shall be given unto you
Christians believe that Jesus is Gods own Son
and very close to Him. The favourite name that
Jesus applied to God was that of Father and he
encouraged his followers to think of God in the
same way. He told his disciples
Ask and it shall be given unto you seek and you
will find knock and the door will be opened unto
you. For everyone who asks receives he who seeks
finds and to him who knocks the door will be
opened. (Matt 77-8)

• Jesus is not telling his disciples that all of
  their prayers will be answered in the way they
  want /expect. That clearly does not happen.
  Christians believe that God will answer their own
  prayers in His own way and in His own good time.

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Food and Fasting

• Unlike many other religions, there are no rules
  about what a believer may / not eat.
• We read in the NT (Mk 81-13) about JC feeding a
  large crowd of people with just a small number of
  loaves and fishes.
• He encouraged his followers to use the symbols of
  bread and wine to remember, and celebrate, his
  death on the cross (1 Corinthians 1123-25)
• One incident in the life of Peter (Acts 109-16)
  suggests that they were allowed to eat all kinds
  of meat as the animals were given by God to
  enjoy.

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Food and Fasting

• In many religions, fasting going without food
  is an important religious discipline. Many people
  believe fasting is important because it is a form
  of self-denial and discipline.
• It leads the worshipper to realise some things
  are more important than physical needs.
• Fasting is not a widespread or important
  discipline for the vast majority of Christians
  today.
• A few people may give up some luxury during Lent,
  but this is not real fasting.

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Architecture
Christians have been building churches since C3rd
C.E. The design was intended to help worship and
suggest certain truths about God.

• Churches dominated by the altar.
• Most churches were built in the shape of a cross
  with the alter at the far end of the building.
  This was to make God seem distant, remote and
  Holy. A rail was placed around the alter that
  only the Priest could go within.
• The same is seen in an Orthodox Church where
  Gods holiness is conveyed by a screen called the
  iconostasis, which hides the alter from ordinary
  eyes.
• Holy Communion is at the centre of of RC, A O
  services.

• Churches dominated by the pulpit.
• The alter in modern churches is now centred in
  the middle of the congregation and the emphasis
  has changed to the pulpit from the alter.
• This a raised platform from which the sermon is
  given . Non-conformist churches tend to be very
  simple as the preaching of Gods word in the
  Bible is at the centre of their worship.
• These are often called chapels.

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Music and Art

• Music
• This has always played an important part in most
  act of Christian worship. Vocal music going back
  to C15th, and sung by a choir, plays an important
  part in services in larger churches.
• Hymns have long been one of the most important
  forms of music in the western world.
• Traditionally hymns were accompanied by an organ
  although now its more likely to be guitars,
  drums and pianos.

• Art
• Many Christian Churches are richly decorated with
  art in various forms
• Stained glass windows
• Statues
• Icons
• These are used to illustrate Bible stories and
  different symbols that Christians might find
  useful in worship.
• Statues of the Virgin Mary are very common in RC
  Churches.
• Icons are characteristic of Orthodox Churches.

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Christians often use symbols as language is
inadequate. Over the centuries many Christian
symbols have been used and they can still be seen
today in many places of worship.
Cross this is the most well known and important
symbol. It reminds people of Jesus death on the
cross and that Jesus brought them forgiveness and
everlasting life.
The Chi-Rho this is an old Christian symbol
taken from 2 Greek letters, the 1st two letters
of the word Christ.
Four Important Christian Symbol
The Fish in the earliest days of Christianity in
the empire, Christians were persecuted and
killed. The fish was used as a sacred sign so
that Christians would know that other believers
were around.
Alpha and Omega these are the first and last
letters of the Greek alphabet. The were used to
speak of God at the beginning and end of time.