QCAA Study of Religion flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Sacred text

A writing treated by a community as authoritative for belief or practice, often regarded as revealed, and interpreted through recognised traditions of reading and commentary.

Canon

The authorised list of texts a community accepts as scripture. Canon formation is a historical process of selection, and the boundary is maintained socially.

Exegesis

Critical interpretation that draws meaning out of a text by attending to its language, historical setting, genre and literary structure.

Hermeneutics

The theory of interpretation: the principles and assumptions governing how a text is read, including the reader's context and the community's interpretive tradition.

Myth

In religious studies, a sacred narrative conveying meaning about origins, identity or ultimate reality. It is not a synonym for a false or primitive story.

Sruti and smriti

Hindu categories distinguishing revealed texts said to be heard (sruti, the Vedas) from remembered, transmitted tradition (smriti, epics and Puranas).

Rite of passage

A ritual marking transition between social or life stages, analysed by van Gennep as separation, liminality and incorporation into the new status.

Liminality

The threshold phase of a rite of passage, in which participants are temporarily outside normal social structures and ordinary rules may be suspended.

Communitas

Turner's term for the temporary, egalitarian bond of solidarity experienced among participants during the liminal phase of ritual, especially pilgrimage.

Pilgrimage

A journey to a sacred place undertaken for devotion, penance or healing, marking sacred space and often producing transformation in the pilgrim.

Sacrifice

A ritual offering to the divine, from the Latin sacrum facere (to make sacred); theories include gift, communion, substitution and atonement.

Ex opere operato

Latin phrase meaning 'by the work performed', holding that a ritual's effect depends on the act itself rather than the minister's or recipient's merit.

Ritual

Patterned, repeated symbolic action distinguished from ordinary behaviour by formality, invariance, prescribed order and orientation toward the sacred or socially significant.

Worldview

A comprehensive framework of beliefs about reality, humanity, knowledge, ethics and purpose that shapes how a person or community interprets experience.

Monotheism

Belief in one God who is typically conceived as creator and sustainer of all reality, exclusive of other deities.

Henotheism

Worship of one deity while acknowledging the existence of others, a position distinguished from exclusive monotheism and from polytheism.

Transcendence

The quality of ultimate reality as beyond and greater than the created or material world, contrasted with immanence, its presence within the world.

Soteriology

The study of salvation or liberation: what humans are saved from, by what means, and toward what final state, within a religious system.

Eschatology

Beliefs about final things, including death, judgement, the end of history and ultimate destiny, which shape ethical motivation and hope.

Ninian Smart's dimensions

A comparative framework analysing religions through seven dimensions: doctrinal, mythological, ethical, ritual, experiential, social and material.

Orthopraxy

Emphasis on correct practice or conduct rather than correct belief (orthodoxy) as the primary marker of religious belonging.

Schism

A formal split within a religious body over doctrine, authority or practice, producing separate institutions that often retain much shared belief.

Inculturation

The process by which a religious tradition is expressed through and embedded within a local culture's language, art and customs.

Syncretism

The blending of elements from different religious traditions, often arising through trade, migration, conquest or colonial contact between communities.

Secularisation

The theory that religion's public and institutional influence declines as societies modernise; contested by evidence of religious revival and persistence.

Reformation

A movement calling for renewal of a tradition by returning to founding sources, often producing new institutions and lasting division.

Diaspora

A dispersed religious community living away from its place of origin, adapting practice while maintaining transnational links and identity.

Deontology

An ethical approach judging acts by conformity to duty or rules rather than by consequences, often grounded in divine command or natural law.

Natural law

An ethical theory holding that moral norms are knowable through reason from the created order and human nature, accessible apart from revelation.

Just war theory

Criteria for morally permissible war, covering legitimate authority, just cause, proportionality and non-combatant immunity before, during and after conflict.

Ahimsa

The principle of non-harm central to Hindu, Buddhist and Jain ethics, expressed in vegetarianism, restraint and non-violent action.

Conscience

An inner faculty of moral judgement; religious traditions differ on whether it is authoritative on its own or must be formed by teaching and community.

Stewardship

A model of environmental ethics holding humans responsible as caretakers of creation, distinguished from dominion readings that stress exploitation.