England · WJEC EduqasSyllabus
Religious Studies syllabus, dot point by dot point
Every dot point in the England Religious Studiessyllabus, with a focused answer for each one. Click any dot point for a worked explainer, past exam questions, and links to related dot points. Written by Claude Opus 4.8, Anthropic's latest AI.
Christianity: Developments and Practices (Component 1)
Module overview →- How do baptism and the Eucharist shape Christian identity, and does disagreement over their meaning unite or divide the Church?Component 1 religious identity through practice: baptism (infant and believers') and the Eucharist (transubstantiation, consubstantiation, memorialism, spiritual presence) as practices that form and divide Christian identity.16 min answer →
- Is Western society becoming inevitably more secular, and how should Christianity respond to the decline of religious belief and practice?Component 1 religion, secularisation and Christian response: the meaning and evidence of secularisation, secularism as ideology, and the range of Christian responses (accommodation, resistance, re-evangelisation).16 min answer →
- Should Christianity confront poverty and injustice through structural change and political action, and is liberation theology's use of Marx a legitimate development of the gospel?Component 1 religion and the challenge of poverty and injustice: Christian approaches to poverty (charity versus structural change), liberation theology (Gutierrez and Boff), the preferential option for the poor, and the use of Marxist analysis.16 min answer →
- Did the conversion of Constantine and the alliance of Church and state strengthen Christianity or corrupt it?Component 1 the early Church and the state: persecution and martyrdom, the conversion of Constantine and the Edict of Milan, the move from persecuted sect to imperial religion, and the consolidation of doctrine and authority.16 min answer →
- What do Christians teach about wealth, migration and equality, and how far do these issues divide Christians and shape distinct religious identities?Component 1 religious identity in the context of wealth, migration and equality: Christian attitudes to wealth and poverty, to migrants and refugees, and to equality and discrimination (gender, race), and how differing interpretations shape identity.16 min answer →
Christianity: Figures and Texts (Component 1)
Module overview →- Are the birth and resurrection of Jesus historical events, theological symbols, or both, and how far do the differing scholarly readings affect Christian faith?Component 1 Jesus, his birth and resurrection: the Gospel and 1 Corinthians 15 accounts, historical versus theological readings, and the views of Vermes, Sanders, Wright and Bultmann.17 min answer →
- Which moral principles shape Christian identity and life, and is love of neighbour the single principle that governs Christian ethics?Component 1 religious identity through ethical teaching: the key moral principles of Christianity (love of neighbour, agape, forgiveness, sanctity of life, imago Dei) and how they shape Christian identity and conduct.16 min answer →
- How does the death of Jesus reconcile humanity to God, and which model of the atonement (ransom, satisfaction, penal substitution or moral exemplar) is most defensible?Component 1 the atonement: the models of how Christ's death saves (ransom and Christus Victor, satisfaction and penal substitution, moral exemplar), their biblical roots, and their strengths and weaknesses.16 min answer →
- Is the Bible the supreme authority for Christian belief and life, and how do literalist, conservative and liberal Christians differ in the authority they grant it?Component 1 the Bible as a source of wisdom and authority: models of biblical authority (literalist, conservative, liberal), Scripture and tradition and reason, and the Bible in worship, ethics and decision-making.16 min answer →
- Is the classical Christian picture of God as omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent coherent, and can it survive the challenge of evil and suffering?Component 1 the nature of God: the attributes (omnipotence, omniscience, omnibenevolence, eternity), personal versus impersonal models, and the challenge that evil poses to God's nature.16 min answer →
- Is the doctrine of the Trinity a coherent and biblically grounded account of God, or an incoherent later invention, and why does it matter for Christian worship and life?Component 1 the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit as one God in three persons, the biblical roots and creedal development, the heresies it excludes, and its significance for worship.16 min answer →
Ethical Thought and Deontology (Component 3)
Module overview →- Is conscience the voice of God or of reason, or merely the internalised voice of authority and society, and which account best explains moral guilt?Component 3 conscience: Aquinas's rational account (synderesis and conscientia) against the psychological accounts of Freud (the super-ego) and Fromm (authoritarian and humanistic conscience), with strengths and weaknesses.16 min answer →
- Is an action right because God commands it, or does God command it because it is right, and can morality depend on the will of God?Component 3 divine command theory: the claim that morality depends on God's commands, the Euthyphro dilemma, and the strengths and weaknesses of grounding ethics in the will of God.16 min answer →
- Does Aquinas's natural law give a sound, reason-based moral theory, or do its fixed precepts and reliance on a human telos make it too rigid for modern ethical issues?Component 3 Aquinas's natural law: the four tiers of law, the primary and secondary precepts, real and apparent goods, the doctrine of double effect, and its application to issues of life and death, with strengths and weaknesses.17 min answer →
- Does Hoose's proportionalism rescue natural law by allowing a proportionate reason to override a moral rule, or does it collapse into consequentialism?Component 3 Hoose's proportionalism: the distinction between moral and pre-moral (ontic) goods and evils, the idea of a proportionate reason, its relation to natural law, and its application to life and death, with strengths and weaknesses.16 min answer →
- Does morality depend on religion, is it independent of it, or are religion and ethics so connected that one cannot be understood without the other?Component 3 the relationship between religion and morality: the autonomy, heteronomy and theonomy of ethics, whether morality needs God, and the views of Kant, Aquinas and secular critics, with strengths and weaknesses.16 min answer →
- Is the good life a matter of developing virtuous character and practical wisdom, as Aristotle argues, or does virtue theory fail to tell us what to do?Component 3 virtue theory: Aristotle's account of eudaimonia, the doctrine of the mean, moral and intellectual virtues, and the role of practical wisdom, with strengths and weaknesses.16 min answer →
Philosophy of Religion (Component 2)
Module overview →- Does the existence of a contingent universe require a necessary first cause, or do Hume and Russell show that the cosmological argument fails?Component 2 the cosmological argument: Aquinas's Third Way (contingency), the Copleston-Russell debate, and Hume's challenges, with strengths and weaknesses.16 min answer →
- Can the existence of God be proved from the definition of God alone, or do Gaunilo and Kant show that existence cannot be defined into being?Component 2 the ontological argument: Anselm's first and second forms, Gaunilo's perfect island objection, and Kant's claim that existence is not a predicate, with strengths and weaknesses.16 min answer →
- Is religious belief best explained as a product of the human mind, a wish-fulfilling illusion (Freud) or an expression of the collective unconscious (Jung), rather than as a response to God?Component 2 religious belief as a product of the human mind: Freud's account (wish-fulfilment, illusion, the Oedipus complex) and Jung's account (the collective unconscious, archetypes, individuation), with strengths and weaknesses.16 min answer →
- Do religious experiences provide good evidence for the existence of God, or can they be explained away by psychology, physiology and the conflicting claims of different religions?Component 2 religious experience: mystical experience (James), the numinous (Otto), Teresa of Avila, and the value of experience for belief (Swinburne's principles of credulity and testimony), with strengths and weaknesses.17 min answer →
- Is religious language meaningful, or is it (as the logical positivists argued) literally meaningless because it cannot be verified or falsified?Component 2 religious language: the via negativa, the verification and falsification debate (Ayer, Flew, Hare, Mitchell, Hick), analogy and symbol (Aquinas, Ramsey, Tillich), and Wittgenstein's language games, with strengths and weaknesses.18 min answer →
- Does the order, purpose and fine-tuning of the universe point to a designer, or do Hume, Mill and evolution explain the appearance of design without God?Component 2 the teleological argument: Aquinas's Fifth Way, Paley's design argument, Tennant's aesthetic and anthropic arguments, and the challenges of Hume, Mill and Darwinian evolution.17 min answer →
- Can the existence of an omnipotent, omnibenevolent God be reconciled with the evil and suffering of the world, and do the Augustinian, Irenaean or process theodicies succeed?Component 2 the problem of evil and suffering: the logical and evidential problem, the Augustinian theodicy, the Irenaean (Hick's soul-making) theodicy, and the process theodicy (Whitehead, Griffin), with strengths and weaknesses.18 min answer →
Teleological Ethics and Free Will (Component 3)
Module overview →- How do natural law, proportionalism, situation ethics and utilitarianism each handle abortion and euthanasia, and can any ethical theory be reliably applied to issues of life and death?Component 3 the application of ethical theories to issues of human life and death: abortion and euthanasia under natural law, proportionalism, situation ethics and utilitarianism, and whether ethical theories can be applied, with strengths and weaknesses.17 min answer →
- If our actions are fully determined by prior causes, genetics or conditioning, can we be morally responsible, and is praise, blame and punishment then unjust?Component 3 determinism: hard determinism, philosophical determinism (Locke), scientific determinism and psychological behaviourism (Skinner), and the implications for moral responsibility, with strengths and weaknesses.16 min answer →
- Are we genuinely free, as libertarianism claims, or does the truth lie with compatibilism, which holds that freedom and determinism can both be true?Component 3 libertarianism and the compatibility of determinism and free will: Sartre's radical freedom, the libertarian case, and compatibilism (soft determinism), with the implications for moral responsibility and strengths and weaknesses.16 min answer →
- If God predestines who is saved, as Augustine and Calvin teach, can human beings be free and morally responsible, and is such a God just?Component 3 religious concepts of predestination: Augustine on grace and the Fall, Calvin's double predestination, the relation to divine omniscience and human freedom, and the implications for justice and responsibility, with strengths and weaknesses.16 min answer →
- Does Fletcher's situation ethics, by making agape the one absolute, give a genuinely Christian and workable moral method, or does its rejection of rules make it dangerously subjective?Component 3 Fletcher's situation ethics: agape as the one absolute, the four working principles and six fundamental principles, conscience as a verb, and its application to life and death, with strengths and weaknesses.17 min answer →
- Does utilitarianism, by judging acts on the happiness they produce, give a sound moral theory, or do the calculation, the neglect of justice and the demandingness undermine it?Component 3 utilitarianism: Bentham's act utilitarianism (principle of utility, hedonic calculus) and Mill's rule utilitarianism (higher and lower pleasures, the harm principle), with their application to life and death and their strengths and weaknesses.17 min answer →