Topical Outline for Sunday Adult Faith Formation 2017-18
First Semester
Class / TopicClass 1: September 17 / Humanity’s Universal Search for Meaning & Happiness
What does it mean to be human?
Is there any meaning or purpose to my life?
Class 2: September 24 / Revelation
Is there a God and can we know anything about God?
Class 3: October 1 / The Bible
What is it?
How do I read it?
Is it true?
Class 4: October 8 / Intro to the Trinity
God the Father: Revealed through Covenants of Love
Why IS God love?
What is unique about the Christian understanding of God?
Class 5: October 15 / God the Father: Covenant w Israel & Ten Commandments
How did God relate to humanity before Jesus Christ?
Why were the Israelites God’s chosen people and what does that mean?
Class 6: October 22 / God the Father: Hebrew Prophets
Who is the Messiah?
What role did the Prophets play?
How does God’s relationship with Israel evolve?
How does Israel’s understanding of God evolve/deepen?
Class 7: October 29 / Jesus Christ: Messiah
Is this the Messiah?
How did Jesus fulfill the prophecies?
What did the Israelites expect from a Messiah and how was Jesus different?
Class 8: November 5 / Jesus Christ: Teaching & Miracles
What did Jesus teach?
What did Jesus do during his life?
Class 9: November 12 / Jesus Christ: Lamb of God & Atoning Sacrifice
What is the difference between Jesus’ death and the death of other great social reformers & teachers- like Socrates, Gandhi, or Martin Luther King Jr.?
What did Jesus’ death accomplish for our salvation?
Class 10: November 19 / Holy Spirit: the Sanctifier, Animator, Sustainer, Advocate
What do Catholics believe about the Holy Spirit?
What role does the Holy Spirit play in my life and in the life of the Church?
Class 11: December 3 / Problem of Evil
Why do good things happen to bad people?
If God is all-powerful and all-loving, why does God allow the innocent to suffer?
What about natural disasters and other examples of suffering in which free will and human choice are not involved?
Class 12: December 10 / The Church Part I
What is the Church?
How was the Church founded?
How did the Church grow and change?
What does it mean for the Church to be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic?
Class 13: December 17 / The Church Part II
What is the Magisterium and what is its role?
What is the Papacy and what is its role?
What is the relationship between the Bible and the Church?
Second Semester
Class 14: January 7 / Communion of Saints: Universal Call to HolinessWhat is the communion of saints?
What is the difference between the church militant, suffering, and triumphant?
What does it mean to be holy?
What is God’s plan for my life?
Class 15: January 14 / Mary & the Saints
Who was Mary?
What are the Marian Dogmas?
What is Mary’s role in the story of salvation?
What does it mean to be a Saint?
What is our relationship to the Saints?
Class 16: January 21 / Liturgy & Liturgical Year
From where does the liturgy come?
What does liturgy mean?
What is the relationship between liturgy and God’s creation?
What is the relationship between liturgy in the Hebrew Scriptures and liturgy in the Christian Church?
What is the liturgical year and what is its purpose?
What is the meaning/significance of each season?
Class 17: January 28 / Intro to the Sacraments & Baptism
What is a Sacrament?
What role do Sacraments play in the life of the Church?
What is the purpose of a Sacrament?
What is the relationship between liturgy and sacrament?
What does baptism do?
Why do we need it?
Why was Jesus baptized?
February 4 / No Class
Class 18: February 11 / Confirmation
What does Confirmation do?
Why do we need it?
Is it in the Bible?
What is the relationship between confirmation and baptism?
Class 19: February 18 / Eucharist Part I: “Behold the Lamb of God”
What is the relationship between the Eucharist and Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross?
Is the Eucharist a sacrifice?
How does the Eucharist relate to sacrifices in the Hebrew Scriptures?
Why is the Eucharist celebrated within the context of the liturgy?
Class 20: February 25 / Eucharist Part II: “Do this in remembrance of me”
Why is the Eucharist the “source and summit” of our faith?
What role does the Eucharist play in my salvation and in the life of the Church?
Why is the Eucharist a foretaste of heaven or “pledge of the glory to come”?
Class 21: March 4 / Sacrament of Reconciliation
Why should I confess my sins to a priest?
What does it mean for God to forgive me?
Am I still punished for my sins after I die?
What does it mean to be reconciled to God and to the Church?
Sacrament of the Sick
What is the purpose of this sacrament?
Who should receive this sacrament?
How do we prepare for death?
Class 22: March 11 / Marriage
What is the purpose of marriage?
What does it mean for marriage to be a vocation?
What is the difference between a sacramental marriage and a civil marriage?
Why is it wrong to have sex outside of marriage?
Why is the Catholic Church against contraception?
Class 23: March 18 / Human Sexuality
What does the Catholic Church say about gender? Can I change my gender?
What does the Catholic Church say about homosexuality?
How should I relate to my gay, lesbian, or transgender friends?
March 25 / No Class: Palm Sunday! Start of Holy Week
April 1 / No Class: Easter Sunday! He Is Risen!
Class 25: April 8 / Holy Orders
What are the “three degrees of holy orders”?
Why is the priesthood male?
What effect does ordination have on a man?
What does it mean for the priest to act in the person of Christ?
April 15 / No Class
Class 26: April 22 / Catholic Social Teaching
What is the source of morality?
What makes an act good? What makes an act evil?
What is the difference between a mortal and venial sin?
What does it mean to be made for communion?
What obligations and responsibilities do I have as a member of the human family?
What does the Catholic Church teach about:
Abortion?
Poverty?
War?
Racism?
Incarceration?
Capital Punishment?
Euthanasia?
Class 27: April 29 / The Four Last Things Part 1: Death, Purgatory, Hell, & Heaven
What happens when I die?
What is the last judgment?
How will I be judged?
What is purgatory?
What does it mean to be damned?
Who goes to hell?
What is heaven?
How do I get there?
What about people who don’t believe in Jesus?