WACE Religion Life ATAR cheat sheet

Substantive definition (Tillich): religion is ultimate concern - whatever a person takes as unconditionally meaningful functions religiously, whether or not it involves a god.

Functional definition (Durkheim): religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, uniting adherents into a moral community; it explains social function rather than truth claims.

Ninian Smart's seven dimensions: ritual, experiential/emotional, narrative/mythic, doctrinal/philosophical, ethical/legal, social/institutional, material - used as an analytical checklist, not a ranking.

Sacred/profane distinction: the sacred is set apart and treated with awe and taboo; the profane is ordinary. Boundaries are maintained by ritual and purity rules.

Belief systems include non-theistic and secular worldviews (Theravada Buddhism, Confucianism, humanism, nationalism); classifying them as religions depends on which definition is applied.

Types of belief: monotheism (one god), polytheism (many), henotheism (one favoured among many), pantheism (god equals universe), animism (spirits in nature), agnosticism (knowledge unavailable), atheism (denial of god).

Worldview functions: provides cosmology (where we are), anthropology (who we are), ethics (how to live) and soteriology (how to be saved or fulfilled).

Religious vs secular: a worldview is usually called religious when it involves ultimate commitment, transcendence or a sacred order; secular worldviews ground authority in reason, experience or the state.

Judaism: covenant (berit) between God and Abraham; Torah and Talmud as law and interpretation; key markers are circumcision, Sabbath and dietary laws (kashrut).

Christianity: develops from Second Temple Judaism; core doctrines are Trinity, incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection; sacraments (baptism, Eucharist) and the liturgical year structure practice.

Islam: Muhammad's revelation (610 CE, Mecca); Five Pillars - shahada, salat, zakat, sawm, hajj; Qur'an as literal revelation; sharia derived from Qur'an, sunna, qiyas and ijma.

Hinduism: no single founder; Vedic corpus, Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita; concepts of dharma, karma, samsara and moksha; diversity of deity focus (Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shakta).

Buddhism: Siddhartha Gautama's enlightenment; Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path; anatta (no fixed self) and dependent origination; Theravada/Mahayana/Vajrayana differences.

Indigenous Australian spirituality: Dreaming as an ongoing creative order, kinship with Country, totemic relationships, and law transmitted through song, dance and story rather than written text.

Origins analysis: a tradition's founding context (geography, persecution, reform movements) shapes its later institutions, texts and authority structures.

Practice-belief link: rituals such as pilgrimage, fasting and initiation enact and transmit doctrine, so beliefs are learned through embodied participation.

Text types: primary (scripture) vs secondary (commentary, law codes, creeds); closed canon vs open or living tradition (e.g. oral transmission).

Interpretation methods: literal, historical-critical, allegorical, and reader-response; the method chosen changes the ethical conclusion drawn from the same passage.

Jewish ethics: halakha derived from Torah plus rabbinic interpretation; 613 mitzvot; principles such as pikuach nefesh (saving a life overrides most laws).

Christian ethics: agape love as central norm; Sermon on the Mount; natural law (Aquinas) and situation ethics (Fletcher) as competing frameworks.

Islamic ethics: sharia with objectives (maqasid) protecting religion, life, intellect, lineage and property; fatwas are non-binding scholarly opinions, not universal law.

Hindu ethics: dharma is context-dependent (varnashrama), with ahimsa, non-attachment to outcomes (nishkama karma) and duties tied to stage of life.

Buddhist ethics: precepts (not killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, intoxicants) grounded in intention and the principle of non-harm (ahimsa) and compassion (karuna).

Evaluation rule: assess a teaching by its source authority, its interpretation community, and whether it is applied as a rule, a principle or a virtue.

Ritual functions: marking time (calendar), marking status change (rites of passage), expressing doctrine, creating community solidarity, and managing anxiety or transition.

Van Gennep's three phases of rites of passage: separation, liminality, reaggregation; Turner adds communitas - the egalitarian bond formed in the liminal stage.

Ritual types: sacrifice/offering, purification, prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, initiation, funerary, and seasonal celebration.

Symbols are multivalent: a cross, crescent, om, lotus or fire carries several meanings at once and is interpreted through its tradition's narratives.

Myth and symbol: myth communicates meaning through narrative rather than literal history; symbols condense myth into visual or enacted form.

Religious experience types: numinous (Otto - mysterium tremendum et fascinans), mystical (union or absorption), conversion, and charismatic or ecstatic experience.

Verification problem: experience is private and cannot be directly tested; James argues by its fruits, while Freud and Marx read it as psychological or social projection.

Sacred space and time: pilgrimage sites and festivals set apart ordinary geography and chronology, reinforcing the sacred/profane boundary.

Durkheim: religion reinforces collective conscience and social cohesion; rituals create solidarity; deviance from shared norms is treated as threat to the sacred order.

Weber: Protestant ethic as a case study of religion shaping economic behaviour; also the routinisation of charisma and types of religious authority (traditional, charismatic, rational-legal).

Marx: religion as 'opium of the people' - consolation that can dull resistance; also critique of religion as ideology legitimating inequality.

Secularisation thesis (Berger, Wilson): modernisation, pluralism and rationalisation reduce religion's public authority; countered by desecularisation and post-secular arguments.

Religiosity measures: belief, practice, belonging and experience vary independently - high nominal belonging can coexist with low practice.

Religion and culture: traditions absorb local customs (inculturation) and also resist them; fundamentalism is a modern reaction to pluralism, not a simple return to the past.

Case-study skills: name the tradition, the social context, the mechanism (cohesion, legitimation, protest, welfare provision) and the evidence for the claim.

Media and law: religious vilification, freedom of religion versus other rights, and the effect of public discourse on minority traditions.

Ethical frameworks: consequentialism judges acts by outcomes; deontology by duty/rules; virtue ethics by character and flourishing; natural law by human purpose and reason.

Religious decision-making models: divine command, natural law, scriptural authority, magisterial teaching, conscience, and contextual or situational reasoning.

Conscience: Aquinas treats it as reason applying moral principles (synderesis); Newman emphasises conscience as a voice demanding obedience; Freud reads it as internalised authority.

Bioethics case method: state the issue, identify stakeholders, apply at least two frameworks, consider a religious teaching, then evaluate with strengths and weaknesses.

Key bioethics positions: sanctity of life (absolute value) versus quality-of-life reasoning; abortion, euthanasia, IVF and genetic selection are contested along this axis.

Sexual and gender ethics: traditions differ on marriage, contraception and homosexuality; distinguish official teaching from lived practice and from internal reform movements.

Environmental ethics: stewardship, creation care and kinship with Country contrast with dominion readings of Genesis; Laudato Si' and Buddhist interdependence offer alternatives.

Just war criteria: legitimate authority, just cause, proportionality, last resort, discrimination between combatants and non-combatants, and reasonable chance of success.

Evaluation rule: a strong answer acknowledges that the same source (scripture, natural law, tradition) can yield different conclusions when interpreted differently.

Use precise terms: sacred, profane, immanent, transcendent, orthodoxy, orthopraxy, syncretism, inculturation, fundamentalism, secularisation.

Distinguish description from evaluation: describe what a tradition teaches, then assess it against a named criterion such as coherence, or human dignity.

Compare traditions by function (what the belief or practice does) rather than by surface similarity.

Evidence hierarchy: cite a text, a teaching, a practice and a scholarly interpretation to support each claim.

Avoid generalisation: name the branch (e.g. Sunni versus Shia, Theravada versus Mahayana, Orthodox versus Protestant) when it affects the point.

Structure extended answers as claim, evidence, interpretation, counter-argument, and evaluation.

Check the question's command word: 'explain' needs mechanism, 'analyse' needs parts and relationships, 'evaluate' needs a judgement with criteria.