Key term
OCR A-Level Religious Studies H573
Philosophy of Religion
Topic overviewPlato: the Forms and the analogy of the caveAristotle: the four causes and the Prime MoverSoul, mind and bodyThe teleological argumentThe cosmological argumentAnselm and the ontological argumentKant's criticisms of the ontological argumentReligious experienceThe problem of evilOmnipotence, omniscience and benevolenceEternity, foreknowledge and free willReligious language: via negativa, analogy and symbolVerification and falsificationLanguage games and non-cognitive approaches
Religion and Ethics
Topic overviewAquinas and the precepts of natural lawApplying and evaluating natural lawFletcher's propositions and working principlesApplying and evaluating situation ethicsThe categorical imperativeDuty, the summum bonum and evaluationUtilitarianismEuthanasiaBusiness ethicsEthical language and meta-ethicsConscienceSexual ethics
Developments in Christian ThoughtReligion
Topic overviewAugustine on human natureDeath and the afterlifeKnowledge of God's existenceThe person of Jesus ChristChristian moral principlesChristian moral action: Dietrich BonhoefferReligious pluralism and theologyReligious pluralism and societyGender and societyGender and theology: Ruether and DalyThe challenge of secularismLiberation theology and Marx
Developments in Islamic ThoughtReligion
Topic overviewProphecy and revelation in IslamHadith, Sira and the formation of Sunni and Shi'a IslamThe oneness of God (tawhid)Human destiny, the afterlife and divine willThe Shari'a and Islamic law in practiceSufism and Islamic spiritualityIslam, science and philosophyGender in Islam: equality, law and feminismTolerance, religious freedom and apostasyJustice, jihad and liberationIslam and the stateIslam in Europe
Developments in Jewish ThoughtReligion
Topic overviewJewish oral and written lawCovenant in the TorahMaimonides and the Thirteen PrinciplesDebate over the Principles and Jewish beliefSuffering and messianic hopeKashrut and the dietary lawsBusiness ethics and sexual ethics in halakhahConversion to JudaismThe Haskalah and Jewish emancipationZionismThe land of Israel and the modern stateJewish feminism: Plaskow and AdlerResponses to the HolocaustThe Holocaust and the problem of evilChagall: art as resistance
Developments in Buddhist ThoughtReligion
Topic overviewThe Buddha: Siddhartha's life and intellectual contextTaking refuge: the Three JewelsSamsara, kamma and rebirthThe three marks of existenceThe Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold PathBuddhist meditationThe development of Mahayana BuddhismMadhyamaka and the perfection of wisdomZen and Pure Land BuddhismBuddhism in the WestEngaged Buddhism and social activismBuddhism and gender
Developments in Hindu ThoughtReligion
Topic overviewOrigins and diversity in HinduismHindu scriptures and holy personsBrahman, atman and mokshaSamsara, karma and liberationDharma and adharmaVarnashramadharma and Hindu virtuesVedanta and its schoolsIs Hinduism a single religion?Hinduism and IndiaHinduism and the WestCaste, gender and discriminationHindu social reform movements
Developments in Christian Thought
The person of Jesus Christ
- 1 thing to know
- Component 3
Overview
Recall questions on Jesus as Son of God, teacher of wisdom and liberator, walking on the water, the man born blind, the resurrection, the prodigal son, the woman with the haemorrhage, the good Samaritan, his challenge to religious and political authority, and whether he believed he was divine.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What are the three claims about Jesus' authority that Christians hold in tension with one another?
Model answer
That he has authority as the Son of God, so that his significance is a matter of who he is; that he has authority as a teacher of wisdom, so that his significance lies in what he taught about living well; and that he has authority as a liberator, so that his significance lies in what he did for the poor and marginalised and in his challenge to those in power. Christians differ over which of the three carries the others.
- 2
Explain how Jesus' knowledge of God is taken by Christians as evidence of his divinity.
Model answer
Christians point to the way he speaks of God with an intimacy that goes beyond that of a prophet, addressing him as Father and claiming to act on his behalf; to his teaching on his own authority rather than by citing earlier teachers; and above all to his pronouncing sins forgiven, which his opponents took as usurping something only God can do. The argument is that his relationship to God is presented as direct rather than mediated.
- 3
What happens in the account of Jesus walking on the water in Mark's Gospel, and how is it used in discussion of his divinity?
Model answer
The disciples are alone in the boat at night, struggling against the wind, and Jesus comes to them across the water; they take him for a ghost and are terrified, he tells them not to be afraid, the wind drops when he joins them, and the narrator remarks that they had not understood the earlier feeding miracle because their hearts were hardened. Christians read the mastery over the sea and the reassurance he gives as language the Jewish scriptures reserve for God, so the episode functions as a claim about his identity, not simply a rescue.
- 4
What happens in John's account of the man born blind, and why is it theologically significant?
Model answer
Jesus heals a man blind from birth, rejecting the assumption that the blindness was caused by anyone's sin; the healing takes place on the sabbath and provokes an investigation by the religious authorities, who interrogate the man and his parents and finally expel him. The man's understanding of Jesus grows through the chapter while the authorities' understanding shrinks, and the episode closes on the theme of spiritual blindness. It presents Jesus as the light of the world, so the miracle carries a claim about who he is.
- 5
Why is the resurrection treated as the decisive evidence for Jesus' divinity?
Model answer
Because Christians hold it is God's own verdict on him. Miracles and teaching could be attributed to a prophet, but being raised is understood as vindication after an execution that appeared to refute his claims, and as the beginning of the general resurrection rather than a resuscitation. It is also what the earliest Christian preaching leads with. Critics reply that the evidence is testimony from committed followers and that a unique event of this kind is exactly what testimony cannot establish.
- 6
What does Jesus teach about the relationship between his message and the Jewish law?
Model answer
In the Sermon on the Mount he denies that he has come to abolish the law and the prophets, saying instead that he comes to fulfil them, and then presses a series of contrasts in which the traditional command is not relaxed but deepened - anger as well as murder, lustful looking as well as adultery, straightforward speech instead of oath-taking, refusal of retaliation, and love extended to enemies. The effect is to move the focus from outward compliance to inward disposition.
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