LC Religious Education key terms

The overall set of assumptions and beliefs through which a person interprets reality and decides what matters. It shapes how someone answers questions about purpose, suffering, and what counts as a good life.

Questions that cannot be settled by experiment or simple observation, such as why anything exists, what makes life meaningful, and what happens at death. Religions, philosophies, and atheist outlooks all offer answers to them.

The idea that reality is not exhausted by the physical world, and that there is a dimension beyond ordinary experience. Religions use the word for God's otherness; philosophers use it for whatever exceeds human categories.

The presence of the divine within the world and within human experience, rather than only beyond it. A strongly immanent view stresses God's closeness to creation, history, and everyday life.

The position that there is no God or gods. Candidates should distinguish it from agnosticism, which suspends judgement, and from indifference, which simply does not care about the question.

The view that whether God exists is unknown or cannot be known with certainty. It is a claim about the limits of knowledge rather than a denial that God exists.

The decline in the social authority and practice of religion in a society, as institutions, law, and public life become less shaped by religious belief. It is a social process, not simply personal unbelief.

God's self-communication to humanity, which believers hold to be received in events, scriptures, and persons rather than invented by human reasoning. Christianity speaks of revelation climaxing in the person of Jesus Christ.

The Christian teaching that the eternal Word of God became human in Jesus of Nazareth, so that one person is fully divine and fully human. It is a central claim distinguishing Christianity from Islam and Judaism.

The Christian doctrine that the one God exists as three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who share one divine nature. It was formulated in the early councils and is rejected by unitarian movements.

The branch of theology concerned with the identity and significance of Jesus Christ. It examines titles such as Messiah, Son of God, and Word, and the relation between his humanity and divinity.

A Hebrew term meaning anointed one, used for a hoped-for figure who would restore Israel. Christians identify Jesus as the Messiah, while Jewish expectation has generally not accepted that identification.

A binding agreement between God and a people, central to the biblical story. Judaism emphasises the covenant at Sinai, while Christianity speaks of a new covenant established through Jesus.

Literally good news, and the name given to the four New Testament accounts of Jesus's life, death, and resurrection. Each Gospel has its own audience, structure, and theological emphasis.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke, so called because they can be read side by side and share much material and structure. John differs markedly in style and in the discourses it records.

The belief that biblical writers were guided by God so that scripture reliably conveys revelation. Accounts differ on whether inspiration guarantees factual accuracy or concerns the saving message.

A church council held in 325 CE that condemned Arianism and produced a creed affirming the Son is of the same substance as the Father. It set a pattern for later doctrinal definition.

A distinct branch within Christianity, such as Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, or Lutheran, each with its own history, structures, and emphases. Denominations often differ on authority, sacraments, and ethics.

The sixteenth-century movement that protested abuses and doctrines in Western Christianity and produced Protestant churches. Key disputes concerned justification, scripture, and papal authority.

The effort to restore unity among divided Christian churches through dialogue, shared prayer, and common action. It treats denominational division as a problem to be overcome rather than a permanent state.

Belief in one God. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are the classic examples, though they describe that one God in importantly different ways.

Belief in many gods, often understood as distinct powers with particular roles and spheres of influence. It appears in ancient Greek, Roman, and Hindu traditions, though Hindu thought is more complex than the label suggests.

The worship of one god while acknowledging that other gods exist. It differs from monotheism, which denies other gods outright, and from atheism, which denies them all.

The first five books of the Hebrew Bible, also called the Law, and the core of Jewish scripture. It is read liturgically in annual cycles and is central to Jewish practice and identity.

The body of Jewish law and practice derived from scripture and rabbinic tradition, guiding daily life, worship, and ethics. It is developed through interpretation and debate rather than fixed once for all.

The authoritative collection of rabbinic discussion and law, comprising the Mishnah and the Gemara. It records debate rather than a single verdict, and it shapes Jewish study and legal reasoning.

The Islamic declaration of faith that there is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger. Recited with sincere intent, it is the act by which a person enters the Muslim community.

The Islamic doctrine of God's absolute oneness and unity. It rejects any association of partners with God, which is why Christian trinitarian language is a point of disagreement with Islam.

The core obligations of Sunni Islam: declaration of faith, prayer, almsgiving, fasting in Ramadan, and pilgrimage to Mecca. They structure Muslim practice and communal identity.

The pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims are expected to make once in their lifetime if health and means allow. Its rites commemorate Abraham and unite pilgrims across national and social divisions.

In Indian religions, the moral and social order, and the duties that follow from one's role and stage of life. Its meaning varies between Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions.

The principle that actions produce consequences that shape future experience, in this life or in later rebirths. Traditions differ on whether karma is a natural law or administered by divine judgement.

The cycle of birth, death, and rebirth understood in Indian religions as unsatisfactory and driven by karma. Liberation traditions aim at release from this cycle rather than improvement within it.

Non-harm, a principle prominent in Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. It grounds commitments to vegetarianism, non-violence, and, in Gandhi's hands, political resistance without hatred.

The theory that moral norms are grounded in human nature and discoverable by reason, independently of revelation. Catholic moral teaching uses it to argue that ethics can be discussed with non-believers.

The capacity to judge what one ought to do here and now, and to feel responsibility for that judgement. Catholic teaching stresses that conscience must be formed and that it can be mistaken.

In Catholic moral analysis, the kind of action chosen, considered apart from the agent's intention and circumstances. The tradition holds that some kinds of action are never permissible regardless of consequences.

A moral method weighing the good and harm an action brings, criticised by Catholic authorities for making the moral quality of acts depend on consequences. Its defenders argued they were not crude consequentialists.

The family of theories holding that an action is right according to its outcomes, such as maximising welfare. It contrasts with approaches that judge certain acts wrong in themselves.

A consequentialist theory, associated with Bentham and Mill, that judges actions by the greatest happiness of the greatest number. It is attractive for its simplicity and criticised for ignoring rights and intentions.

Approaches that judge actions by duty and rules rather than results, with Kant's categorical imperative as the classic example. They hold that some acts are forbidden whatever good they might produce.

The charge that one cannot derive moral conclusions from purely factual descriptions of nature without an added value judgement. It is a key criticism aimed at natural law reasoning.

Kant's supreme moral principle, requiring that one act only on maxims that could be universalised and never treat persons merely as means. It grounds duties on reason rather than on consequences or rewards.

Theology that examines how religious language, institutions, and traditions have been shaped by patriarchy, and seeks liberating reinterpretations. It includes Christian, Jewish, and Muslim forms and is internally diverse.

A social order in which power and authority are concentrated with men and masculine norms set the standard. Analysis of patriarchy asks who is included, whose experience counts, and who interprets texts.

A method of reading that asks what interests, power relations, or blind spots a text or tradition may conceal. Applied to scripture, it does not dismiss texts but refuses to take them at face value.

The view that men and women have distinct, complementary natures and roles, often used to argue for differentiated religious or family roles. Critics argue it can entrench inequality while claiming to honour difference.

A movement, especially in Latin America, reading the gospel from the standpoint of the poor and treating structural injustice as a matter of faith. It emphasises praxis and the preferential option for the poor.

The fair distribution of rights, resources, and opportunities within a society, including attention to structures rather than only individual conduct. Catholic teaching links it to the common good and human dignity.

The sum of conditions that allow people and communities to flourish, not merely the total of private advantages. Catholic social teaching treats it as a responsibility of individuals and of the state.

The principle that decisions should be made at the lowest competent level, with higher bodies intervening only when necessary. It supports local initiative while allowing for support when communities cannot cope.

The principle that moral and political choices should be assessed from the perspective of those who are poorest and most vulnerable. It does not mean exclusive concern, but a priority of attention and action.

A tradition, developed by thinkers such as Augustine and Aquinas, setting conditions for when war may be begun and how it must be fought. Criteria include legitimate authority, proportionality, and non-combatant immunity.

The position that war and the deliberate taking of human life are morally wrong, usually grounded in the teaching and example of Jesus. Some pacifists reject all force; others allow limited non-violent resistance.

The use of protest, boycotts, strikes, and civil disobedience to oppose injustice without physical force. Figures such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King drew on religious convictions about the dignity of opponents.

The claim that every person has worth that is not earned by usefulness or status and so must not be reduced to a means. It is the foundation of much religious and secular human rights language.