Docetism was a teaching in the early church that Jesus was fully God but only appeared to be human (taken from the Greek “to seem or appear”). Docetist theologians emphasized the qualitative difference between God and humans and therefore downplayed the human elements of Jesus’ life in favor of those that pointed to his deity. The early church rejected docetism as an heretical interpretation of the biblical teaching about Jesus (Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling. Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms).

Deism is a belief that understands God as distant, in that God created the universe but then left it to run its course on its own, following certain “laws of nature” that God had built into the universe (Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling. Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms).

Cosmology is derived from the Greek word kosmos (world) and refers to the attempt to understand the origin, nature and subsequent history of the universe. Cosmology is an area where theology and science intersect, insofar as both are interested in understanding whether or not there is a first cause to the universe and whether or not there is purposeful direction and design in the universe (Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling. Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms).

Circumincession is a theological concept, also referred to as perichoresis, that affirms that the divine essence is shared by each of the three persons of the Trinity in a manner that avoids blurring the distinctions among them. By extension, this idea suggests that any essential characteristic that belongs to one of the three is shared by the others (Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling. Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms).

Literally meaning “standard” or “rule,” the term is most closely associated with the collection of books that the church has recognized as the written Word of God (Scripture) and that functions as the rule or standard of faith and practice in the church. Although the various Christian traditions are not in full agreement as to which books should comprise the collection of Scripture, at the very least all agree that the sixty-six books of the Protestant Bible are canonical and therefore authoritative (Stanley J.

A dictionary or encyclopedia  of a subject (E.g., Dictionary of the Gospels) present short articles, alphabetically arranged, on key data concerning the subject (such as key figures, words, movements, etc.) along with a bibliography.

A database is a structured electronic system for indexing and storing information from journal articles. Databases are sometimes called indexes.

A commentary is a work that provides a series of explanations or interpretations and supporting arguments on a particular text, often with an accompanying translation if the text is in a foreign language. Commentaries range from technical exegetical treatments to popular applications of texts. Biblical commentaries can often be classified as technical, background, homiletical, or pastoral.