QCAA Study of Religion study guide
QCAA Study of Religion · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
Study of Religion is a General senior subject in the Queensland Certificate of Education, assessed through school-based work during Year 12 and a single external assessment set by the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA). It suits students who want to examine how religious traditions shape meaning, identity, community and ethical debate, and who are willing to read primary sources closely and argue a case in writing. The QCAA Study of Religion study guide has 5 sections and about 1,558 words.
01Sacred Texts and Stories: Genre, Context and Interpretation
Candidates need to distinguish a sacred text (a fixed, often written corpus treated as authoritative) from a sacred story (narratives transmitted orally or in writing that carry meaning for a community). Know the difference between revelation (content believed disclosed by the divine) and inspiration (human authors shaped by divine influence).
337 words, about 2 min02Religious Rituals and Practices: Function, Form and Meaning
Be fluent in the categories: rites of passage (separation, liminality, incorporation - van Gennep and Turner's model), calendrical rituals (festivals tied to sacred time), rites of affliction and healing , purification , sacrifice and offering , pilgrimage , prayer and meditation , initiation , funerary rites , and domestic versus communal practice. Learn the vocabulary of sacred space and sacred time , symbol , myth-ritual relationship (does ritual enact story, or story explain ritual?), orthodoxy (right belief) versus orthopraxy (right practice), and rubric, liturgy, sacrament, ordinance .
303 words, about 2 min03Beliefs, Values and Worldviews: Structure and Comparison
A worldview is a comprehensive framework of assumptions about reality, humanity, knowledge, ethics and ultimate purpose. Candidates must handle theism, monotheism, polytheism, henotheism, pantheism, panentheism, deism, atheism, agnosticism, humanism, secularism and animism precisely.
283 words, about 1 min04Religious Traditions in Context: Historical and Social Development
Traditions are historical. Know the drivers of change: foundational figures and events , codification (oral to written), schism and reformation , councils and creeds , empire and patronage , mission and conversion , migration and diaspora , colonialism and post-colonial reform , modernity, secularisation and pluralism , and new religious movements .
305 words, about 2 min05Religion, Ethics and Contemporary Issues: Reasoning Well
Candidates must connect ethical theory to applied issues . Know deontological (duty, rule), teleological/consequentialist (outcome), virtue (character), natural law , divine command , situation ethics , and liberation and feminist ethics .
330 words, about 2 min