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.
An Eduqas Component 1 (Christianity) guide to religious identity in the context of wealth, migration and equality. Covers Christian attitudes to wealth and poverty, hospitality to migrants and refugees, and teaching on equality and discrimination (gender and race), and how differing interpretations shape distinct Christian identities, with the evaluation the exam rewards.
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What this dot point is asking
Eduqas Component 1 studies how Christian identity is shaped in the context of wealth, migration and equality. You learn Christian attitudes to wealth and poverty (wealth as a danger and a trust), to migrants and refugees (the command to welcome the stranger), and to equality and discrimination (the imago-Dei basis of equality, and the internal debates over gender roles and race). The exam rewards explaining the teaching and its biblical roots precisely (AO1) and evaluating how far these issues bind or divide Christians and what they demand (AO2).
The answer
Wealth and poverty
Migration: welcoming the stranger
Equality and discrimination
How interpretation shapes identity
The unifying point is that how a Christian reads this teaching forms who they are: a community that shares possessions and welcomes refugees, or one that stresses personal generosity within ordered limits; a church that ordains women, or one that does not. The same scriptures yield different identities depending on the model of biblical authority (literalist, conservative, liberal) brought to them, which is why these issues are studied as identity-forming, not merely as ethics.
Examples in context
Try this
Q1. Explain Christian teaching on equality and discrimination. [part (a), AO1, 20 marks]
- What the marker wants. Accurate account of the imago-Dei basis of equality, Galatians 3:28, the churches' record on abolition and civil rights, and the internal debates over gender and race, organised and using specialist terms. AO1 band.
Q2. "Christian teaching on wealth and poverty divides Christians more than it unites them." Evaluate this view. [part (b), AO2, 30 marks]
- Cue. Weigh the shared biblical warnings and the common duty of generosity against the sharp differences between prosperity, stewardship and radical-renunciation readings, and judge. AO2 band, the larger 30-mark tariff.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of WJEC Eduqas exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
Eduqas A120 2019 (style)20 marksExplain Christian teaching on wealth and poverty. [part (a), AO1, 20 marks]Show worked answer →
A part (a) AO1 question on the five-band scheme. Explain the teaching accurately with biblical sources.
Wealth is not condemned in itself but is dangerous and carries obligations. Key teaching: "you cannot serve God and money" (Matthew 6:24); "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom" (Mark 10:25); the love of money is "the root of all kinds of evil" (1 Timothy 6:10); the rich must be generous and care for the poor (the sheep and the goats, Matthew 25; almsgiving). The early Church shared possessions (Acts 2-4). Stewardship: wealth is held in trust from God for the common good. A top band answer grounds the teaching in scripture and notes the tension between condemnation of greed and approval of responsible stewardship.
Eduqas A120 2022 (style)20 marks"Christianity demands that believers welcome migrants without limit." Evaluate this view. [part (b), AO2, the full Eduqas tariff is 30 marks; the worked answer below is scaled to a 20-mark exemplar.]Show worked answer →
A part (b) AO2 question; the top band rewards balanced argument and a justified conclusion.
For the view: the Bible repeatedly commands welcome of the stranger ("you shall love the alien as yourself", Leviticus 19:34; "I was a stranger and you welcomed me", Matthew 25), the Holy Family were themselves refugees, and the imago Dei gives every migrant equal dignity. Against: "without limit" ignores prudence, the duty to order society justly, the rights and needs of existing citizens, and the distinction many Christians draw between a duty of compassion and an unconditional open border. Weigh whether the biblical command to welcome the stranger entails unlimited admission or a strong but qualified duty of hospitality, and conclude.
Related dot points
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Sources & how we know this
- Eduqas A Level Religious Studies specification (A120QS) — WJEC Eduqas (2016)