MATSEC AM Religious Knowledge key terms

The books Joshua to 2 Kings read as one edited narrative that judges Israel's kings by covenant loyalty, promising blessing for faithfulness and exile for apostasy.

One of the four documentary strands in the Pentateuch, marked by the name YHWH for God, vivid anthropomorphic storytelling, and a focus on Judah and Davidic promises.

A method that classifies biblical units by their literary shape and original oral setting, asking how a saying or story functioned before it was written down.

Study of the final editors who arranged and shaped inherited traditions, asking what theological purpose their additions, seams and rearrangements reveal.

The closed list of books a faith community accepts as authoritative Scripture, fixed for Catholics at the Council of Trent and differently for Protestants and Orthodox.

The Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures begun in Alexandria from the third century BCE, containing books later called deuterocanonical and quoted widely in the New Testament.

Books such as Tobit, Judith, Wisdom and 1-2 Maccabees found in the Septuagint and Catholic canon but absent from the Hebrew canon used by Protestants.

Reading an Old Testament person or event as a God-given pattern fulfilled in Christ, for example the Passover lamb prefiguring the crucifixion.

The fuller meaning intended by God but not consciously intended by the human author, later discerned by the Church in the light of Christ and the Spirit.

An interpretative approach that treats narrative details as symbols of deeper spiritual truths, as in reading the Song of Songs as God's love for Israel.

The doctrine defined at Chalcedon that one divine person, the Son, subsists in two complete natures, divine and human, without confusion, change, division or separation.

The belief that the eternal Word of God became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth, taking on full humanity while remaining fully divine.

The self-emptying of Christ described in Philippians 2, by which he set aside the exercise of divine glory and took the form of a servant.

The central theme of Jesus' preaching: God's sovereign rule breaking into history, demanding repentance and embodied in healing, table fellowship and forgiveness.

The Hebrew term for an anointed figure; Christians identify Jesus as the Christ, the anointed king and deliverer promised to Israel.

Jesus' favourite self-designation, echoing Daniel 7, evoking a figure who suffers and is vindicated while hinting at authority and future glory.

A short comparison drawn from everyday life that invites hearers to see themselves differently, often ending in a surprising reversal rather than a moral lesson.

The sustained account of Jesus' arrest, trial, suffering and death, the earliest connected Gospel tradition and the goal toward which each Gospel moves.

God's raising of the crucified Jesus to new bodily life, the event the earliest Christians proclaimed as vindication of his mission and ground of hope.

The core apostolic proclamation that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, was raised and is now Lord, preached before any Gospel was written.

The teaching that bishops, in unbroken line from the apostles through the laying on of hands, hand on the same gospel and pastoral authority.

The teaching office of the Pope and bishops in communion with him, understood as serving the Word of God by authentically interpreting Scripture and tradition.

The gift by which the Church is preserved from error when the Pope defines a doctrine of faith or morals ex cathedra, or when the college of bishops teaches definitively.

The supernatural instinct of faith by which the whole people of God, from bishops to laypeople, recognises and holds fast to what the Church truly teaches.

The principle that decisions should be made at the lowest competent level, with higher authorities intervening only to support or correct when needed.

The moral order knowable by human reason apart from revelation, grounding universal norms in the rational nature and purposes of human persons.

The person's reasoned judgement about the moral quality of a concrete act, which must be followed even when mistaken, though it can be culpably or inculpably erroneous.

A test for acts with both good and bad foreseen outcomes: the act itself must be good, the bad effect not the means, and the good proportionate to the harm.

The sum of social conditions enabling persons and groups to reach their fulfilment, comprising respect for rights, social wellbeing, peace and an ordered legal system.

The firm and persevering commitment to seek the good of others and of the whole human family, recognising interdependence as a moral bond rather than mere fact.

Belief in one God, held by Judaism, Christianity and Islam, each confessing divine unity while differing over the Trinity and the person of Christ.

The Christian confession of one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, sharing one undivided divine nature in eternal relationship.

The Islamic profession that there is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger, whose sincere recitation marks entry into the Muslim community.

The Islamic doctrine of God's absolute oneness, which excludes any partner, image or intermediary and shapes Muslim worship, law and daily life.

The 1965 Second Vatican Council declaration on non-Christian religions, which repudiated antisemitism and affirmed what is true and holy in other faiths.

The position that salvation is mediated through Christ yet may reach those who never hear the gospel, through grace and good faith not explicitly named.

Interreligious encounter in which partners speak honestly from their own convictions and listen without hidden agenda, seeking mutual understanding and common action.

The historical decline of religion's social authority, as institutions, politics and education gain autonomy from religious control and practice becomes a private option.

A social condition in which several religious and non-religious worldviews coexist with comparable public standing, requiring negotiation of shared civic space.

A theological position, associated with John Hick, that great religions are culturally different responses to one ultimate reality rather than rival truth claims.

A movement, especially Latin American, reading the gospel from the perspective of the poor and treating structural injustice as a matter of salvation, not merely charity.

An argument inferring God from the existence of a contingent universe, holding that whatever begins or depends on another requires a first cause.

An argument from apparent order and purpose in the world to an intelligent designer, classically stated by William Paley and challenged by evolutionary accounts.

Anselm's argument that a being than which nothing greater can be conceived must exist in reality, since existence in reality is greater than existence in thought alone.

The challenge that an all-powerful, all-knowing and wholly good God is hard to reconcile with the reality of suffering, whether moral or natural.

Any attempt to justify belief in God despite evil, such as arguing that freedom, soul-making or a greater good requires the possibility of suffering.

The view that religious truth rests on faith and revelation rather than rational argument, so attempts to prove God's existence misrepresent what belief is.