Cameroon GCE A-Level Religious Studies key terms

The disciplined interpretation of a scriptural text, drawing on its language, historical setting and literary form to establish what it meant and what it means for a community of faith.

The theory of how texts are interpreted and applied, asking what assumptions a reader brings and how an ancient writing can speak meaningfully to a later community.

A method that classifies biblical units by their literary pattern and original setting in life, such as hymn, proverb or controversy story, before asking how they were transmitted orally.

Study of the editorial work of an author who arranged inherited traditions, aiming to identify that writer's theological emphasis through selection, order and added comment.

Reading an earlier scriptural person, event or institution as a pattern or foreshadowing fulfilled in a later one, for example Israel's Exodus understood as prefiguring salvation in Christ.

A solemn binding agreement establishing a relationship with obligations, as between God and Noah, Abraham, Moses or Israel, and central to how the Bible describes divine commitment.

In Judaism, the instruction or law given through Moses, comprising the first five books of the Bible and functioning as guidance for life rather than merely a list of prohibitions.

The account of a prophet being summoned by God, often marked by reluctance, a vision and a commission to speak, as in the call narratives of Moses, Isaiah and Jeremiah.

A short comparison drawn from everyday life that invites hearers to judge a situation and so confronts them with a demand or reversal they did not expect.

The rule or reign of God proclaimed in the gospels, understood variously as a present reality, a future hope or a social programme, and a key test case in interpreting Jesus' teaching.

The teaching associated with Paul that a person is set right with God through trusting faith rather than through meriting it by works of law, a central issue of the Reformation.

The self-disclosure of God to human beings, whether through nature, history, prophets, scripture or personal encounter, and the claim that such knowledge is given rather than invented.

Knowledge of God said to be available to all people through creation, conscience and the order of the world, as distinct from specific disclosure through a chosen messenger or text.

Reasoning about God from features of the world accessible to any observer, such as design or contingency, without appeal to a special revelation or sacred text.

The distinctive ways believers speak of the divine, including analogy, metaphor, symbol and myth, and the debate over whether such speech describes reality or only expresses attitude.

The claim that words applied to God are neither used in exactly the same sense as of creatures nor in a wholly unrelated sense, but in a proportionately similar way.

A criterion from logical positivism holding that a statement is meaningful only if it can be empirically tested or is true by definition, used to attack religious claims as meaningless.

The challenge that a religious claim is meaningless unless some conceivable experience could count against it, pressing believers to say what would show their assertion to be false.

A symbolic narrative expressing a community's deepest convictions about origins, meaning or destiny, not necessarily a story believed to be factually untrue.

The programme of interpreting scriptural myth as an expression of existential self-understanding rather than as factual cosmology, so that its challenge to the hearer is preserved.

An a priori proof arguing from the concept of a greatest conceivable being to its necessary existence, since a being that exists in reality is greater than one that exists only in thought.

An argument inferring a first or necessary cause of the universe from the fact that things exist and change, and that an infinite regress of causes seems unsatisfactory.

The argument from apparent order, purpose or fine-tuning in the world to the existence of an intelligent designer, and the counter-claim that order can arise without design.

The difficulty that the existence of suffering appears incompatible with a God who is all-powerful, all-knowing and wholly good, whether framed as a logical contradiction or a pastoral challenge.

An attempt to justify belief in a good and powerful God despite evil, for example by appeal to human freedom, soul-making, or a greater good that suffering makes possible.

The response that a world containing genuine freedom is more valuable than one of automatic goodness, so that God permits moral evil as the unavoidable cost of that gift.

An episode in which a person reports awareness of the divine, ranging from numinous awe and mystical union to answered prayer, and offered as evidence for belief.

The feeling of being confronted by a wholly other, awe-inspiring and fascinating reality, a category used to describe a core element of religious experience.

A form of religious experience involving deep union or identity with ultimate reality, typically described as ineffable, transient and noetic, and cultivated through disciplined practice.

An event interpreted as a special act of God, often violating or transcending regular natural processes, raising questions about evidence, natural law and interpretation.

The branch of belief concerned with final things, such as death, judgement, resurrection and the end of history, shaping how believers evaluate present life.

The belief that the dead are raised to new bodily or transformed life, grounded for Christians in the Easter claim about Jesus and debated as to its literal or symbolic sense.

An ethical theory judging actions right insofar as they maximise overall welfare, with variants differing over whether each act or a general rule is assessed.

Approaches holding that certain acts are right or wrong in themselves regardless of consequences, because they respect duty, rules or the dignity of persons.

The view that moral norms are discoverable by reason from human nature and its purposes, a framework prominent in Catholic moral teaching and in some Islamic and African thought.

An approach that rejects fixed rules in favour of deciding each case by the single principle of love, judged by the consequences for the persons involved.

The inner capacity by which a person discerns and feels bound by moral obligation, understood variously as a God-given voice, a trained habit or a social product.

The view that a person could genuinely have acted otherwise in a given situation, so that moral responsibility rests on an ability not determined by prior causes.

The claim that every event, including human choice, is fixed by preceding causes, raising the question of whether praise, blame and punishment can still be justified.

A moral command binding unconditionally, formulated as acting only on principles one could will as universal law and as treating persons as ends, never merely as means.

The Islamic affirmation of the absolute oneness and uniqueness of God, excluding any partner, image or intermediary, and shaping worship, law and community life.

The sin of associating anything or anyone with God in divinity or worship, regarded in Islam as the gravest error and the opposite of tawhid.

The body of divine guidance in Islam covering worship, morality and social dealings, interpreted by scholars through jurisprudence into practical legal rulings.

The belief that God selects human messengers to convey guidance, culminating for Muslims in Muhammad and for Christians in Christ, and central to how revelation is mediated.

African practice of honouring deceased forebears through libation, naming and ritual remembrance, understood by adherents as respect and communion rather than worship of the dead.

The principle that a person's identity and duties are bound up with family, clan and community, so that wrongdoing and blessing are shared rather than purely individual.

A southern African ethical outlook expressed in the idea that a person is a person through other persons, grounding hospitality, reconciliation and shared responsibility.

The process by which a religious tradition expresses its message through the language, symbols and customs of a local culture, producing new but contested forms of practice.

The blending of elements from different religious traditions into a new practice, which insiders may welcome as adaptation or condemn as compromise and loss of authenticity.

The recognition that several religious traditions coexist in one society, together with the debate over whether they are equally valid paths or must be evaluated against truth claims.

The decline of religion's public authority and practice in modern societies, explained by factors such as industrialisation, science and the differentiation of social institutions.

The debate over how empirical inquiry and religious belief relate, whether as conflict, independence, dialogue or integration, including disputes over creation and evolution.

A movement reading faith through the experience of the poor and oppressed, insisting that the gospel demands action against unjust social and economic structures.

The principle that women and men should enjoy equal dignity, opportunity and participation, applied to debates over religious leadership, interpretation and customary practice.