AQA A-Level Religious Studies
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Component 1: Philosophy of religion and ethics (7062/1)
Section A: Philosophy of religion
3.1.1 - Arguments for God: Design argument (Paley)A watch found on a heath seems to demand a watchmaker; does nature likewise point to God? Beginning with William Paley's analogy in Natural Theology, you will trace the a posteriori, inductive move from complex, purposeful order to an intelligent designer. You will also evaluate how far this anal...
3.1.1 - Arguments for God: Design criticism (Hume)Paley compares organisms to designed artefacts, but is the universe sufficiently like a machine for that analogy to work? You will apply Hume's criticisms in Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion to Paley's reasoning: weak analogy, disproportionate conclusions, and rival explanations such as many...
3.1.1 - Arguments for God: Ontological argument (Anselm)Can God's existence follow from the concept of God alone? Anselm's Proslogion defines God as "that than which nothing greater can be conceived" and argues a priori, by reductio ad absurdum, that this being cannot exist only in the mind. You will explain the move from conceptual greatness to neces...
3.1.1 - Arguments for God: Ontological criticisms (Gaunilo, Kant)Anselm claims that the greatest conceivable being must exist, but can a definition establish reality? Gaunilo's perfect island parody and Kant's claim that existence is not a real predicate attack different steps in the ontological argument. You will distinguish their objections, examine Anselm's...
3.1.1 - Arguments for God: Cosmological argument (Aquinas' Way 3)Why is there anything contingent at all? In Aquinas' Third Way from the Summa Theologiae, beings that come into and pass out of existence cannot explain themselves, so the argument moves toward a necessary being. You will explain contingency, necessity, and the rejection of an infinite regress, t...
3.1.1 - Arguments for God: Cosmological critics (Hume, Russell)Even if every contingent thing has an explanation, must the universe as a whole have one? Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion challenges the move from explained parts to a necessary total explanation, while Bertrand Russell treats the universe as a brute fact. You will explain how both o...
3.1.1 - Arguments for God: proof, faith and reasonDesign and cosmological arguments begin with experience; Anselm begins with thought. Does either route produce proof, or do such arguments mainly make faith intellectually reasonable? Comparing Paley, Aquinas, and Anselm, you will explain a posteriori and a priori reasoning, deductive and inducti...
3.1.1 - Problem of evil: natural and moral evilA murder and an earthquake both cause suffering, yet only one appears to arise from human choice. The distinction between moral evil and natural evil sharpens the challenge posed to an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God. You will explain difficult boundary cases, from disease to negli...
3.1.1 - Problem of evil: logical and evidential formsIs one instance of evil enough to contradict belief in God, or does the scale and apparent pointlessness of suffering merely make God improbable? J. L. Mackie's logical problem and the evidential argument associated with William Rowe place different burdens on theism. You will explain inconsisten...
3.1.1 - Responses to evil and suffering: theodicy frameworkA theodicy must do more than say that suffering has a reason: it must reconcile evil with divine power, knowledge, and goodness without trivialising victims' pain. You will distinguish a defence from a full theodicy, map Hick's soul-making account, Plantinga's free will defence, and Griffin's pro...
3.1.1 - Hick's soul-making theodicyCould a world without danger, resistance, or suffering produce mature persons? Drawing on Irenaean themes, John Hick argues that humans develop from the image toward the likeness of God through soul-making under conditions of epistemic distance. You will explain freedom, a stable natural order, a...
3.1.1 - The free will defenceIf God prevents every harmful choice, can creatures possess morally significant freedom? Alvin Plantinga's free will defence answers Mackie's logical problem by proposing that even an omnipotent God cannot guarantee free choices that always go right. You will explain possible worlds, moral respon...
3.1.1 - Process theodicy as presented by GriffinProcess theodicy changes the usual question by denying that God possesses unilateral coercive power. In David Ray Griffin's account, God lures each event toward richer possibilities while creatures and natural processes retain genuine self-determination. You will explain persuasive power, creativ...
3.1.1 - Theodicies: strengths and weaknesses of each responseHick, Plantinga, and Griffin do not defend God in the same way: soul-making gives suffering a developmental purpose, free will locates moral evil in creaturely choice, and process thought limits divine control. You will compare these responses against logical consistency, coverage of natural and...
3.1.1 - The nature of religious experienceWhen someone reports encountering God, the holy, or ultimate reality, what makes the event religious rather than an intense emotion or unusual perception? Using examples such as prayer, a sense of presence, and mystical awareness, you will explain first-person interpretation and the difference be...
3.1.1 - Visions: corporeal, imaginative and intellectualAn external apparition, a vivid dream-image, and a sudden non-visual grasp of divine truth may all be called visions, but they make very different claims. You will explain the distinction among corporeal, imaginative, and intellectual visions, compare their dependence on sense perception, and eva...
3.1.1 - Numinous experiences: Otto and the wholly otherFor Rudolf Otto, the numinous is neither a proof nor an ordinary feeling: it is an apprehension of the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, the holy as both overwhelming and compelling. You will explain why the "wholly other" resists rational description, connect creature-feeling with awe and depend...
3.1.1 - Mystical experiences: William James and Walter StaceWilliam James identifies mystical states by ineffability, noetic quality, transiency, and passivity; Walter Stace instead stresses non-sensuous, non-intellectual union. Do these accounts reveal one common mystical core across traditions, or impose a pattern on diverse experiences? You will explai...
3.1.1 - Verifying religious experiences: challengesA sincere report can establish that someone had a powerful experience without establishing that God caused it. This gap between first-person certainty and public verification raises questions about testimony, conflicting religious interpretations, repeatability, and alternative explanations. You...
3.1.1 - Religious experience and scientific challengesIf neuroscience can correlate a vision with temporal-lobe activity, has it explained away God or only described the experience's mechanism? Scientific challenges appeal to brain states, drugs, psychology, and social conditioning as naturalistic explanations. You will explain how these accounts ca...
3.1.1 - Religious responses to verification challengesA brain-based account of religious experience need not settle what the experience means. Religious responses argue that science may describe a mechanism without disproving divine agency, while William James tests experiences by their lasting "fruits" in a person's life. You will explain non-reduc...
3.1.1 - Swinburne's principles of credulity and testimonyOrdinary life depends on trusting appearances and other people's reports unless we have reasons for doubt. Richard Swinburne extends that practice to religious experience through the principles of credulity and testimony. You will explain why experiences count as prima facie evidence, identify de...
3.1.1 - Religious experiences: influence and value for faithReligious experiences can convert a sceptic, deepen prayer or reshape a community, yet influence is not the same as evidence. William James's focus on transformative effects and Swinburne's principles of credulity and testimony help explain personal, practical, communal and evidential value. The...
3.1.1 - Religious language: cognitive and non-cognitive viewsWhen believers say "God is loving," are they reporting a fact or expressing trust, worship and commitment? You will distinguish cognitive, truth-apt claims from non-cognitive uses of religious language, test the distinction against statements about God, prayer and life after death, and evaluate w...
3.1.1 - Religious language: verification and falsificationA. J. Ayer's verification principle and Antony Flew's falsification challenge press a question deeper than whether "God exists" is true: does the claim have factual meaning at all? You will explain analytic and empirically verifiable statements, Flew's demand that assertions exclude something, an...
3.1.1 - Religious language: Hick's eschatological verificationJohn Hick argues that claims about God, judgement and life after death may be meaningful now because they could be verified eschatologically if true. The Celestial City parable explains this future-facing answer to verificationism and exposes an asymmetry between verification and falsification. E...
3.1.1 - Religious language response: R.M. Hare and BliksR. M. Hare's dons parable begins with a person convinced that every don is murderous, illustrating a Blik: a basic framework that shapes how the world is interpreted and resists ordinary falsification. Explaining Hare means seeing why religious language can be non-cognitive yet meaningful. The ke...
3.1.1 - Religious language: Wittgenstein's language gamesA prayer, a confession and a laboratory report do not gain meaning in the same way. Drawing on Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, you will examine meaning as use, language games and forms of life, then evaluate whether locating God-talk within worship and communal practice reveals its r...
3.1.1 - Religious language as symbolic: TillichFor Paul Tillich, "God" does not name one being among others: religious symbols point beyond themselves, participate in what they disclose and express an ultimate concern. Distinguishing symbols from signs and literal descriptions reveals how talk of God as Being-itself or the ground of being wor...
3.1.1 - Religious language as analogical: AquinasIf "God is good" uses good exactly as it does of humans, God seems creaturely; if it uses an unrelated sense, the claim becomes unintelligible. Aquinas's analogical middle way, developed in Summa Theologiae I, question 13, links divine names to creaturely perfections. You will explain analogy of...
3.1.1 - Religious language: Via NegativaApophatic thinkers warn that every positive description risks shrinking an infinite God into a creaturely object. Pseudo-Dionysius, Maimonides and the practice of remotion explain why the Via Negativa says God is not finite, physical or dependent. Its evaluation asks whether negation protects tra...
3.1.1 - Religious language: strengths and weaknesses of each viewWhich account best lets religious language be meaningful without misrepresenting God? You will compare Ayer and Flew's tests with Hick's eschatological verification, Hare's Bliks, Wittgenstein's language games, Tillich's symbols, Aquinas's analogy and the Via Negativa. Evaluating them through pub...
3.1.1 - Miracles: definitions, realist and anti-realist viewsA reported healing might be an objective divine act, a breach of natural law, a providentially timed natural event or a faith-shaped interpretation. Explaining the topic requires separating realist from anti-realist accounts and law-violation from natural-event accounts. The evaluation then asks...
3.1.1 - Miracles: David Hume and Maurice Wiles comparedDavid Hume and Maurice Wiles both challenge interventionist miracles, but from different starting points. Hume's Enquiry weighs fallible testimony against uniform experience of natural law; Wiles's God's Action in the World asks why a good God would intervene selectively while greater suffering c...
3.1.1 - Miracles: significance of these views for religionMiracle theories reshape more than belief in unusual events: they affect scripture, revelation, petitionary prayer, worship and the character attributed to God. Explaining their significance means tracing how realist, anti-realist, law-violation and natural-event views alter religious life. Evalu...
3.1.1 - Soul: nature, existence and Descartes' argumentDescartes begins not with scripture but radical doubt: even if body and world are uncertain, the thinking self disclosed by the cogito cannot be doubted while it thinks. Using Meditations II and VI, you will explain substance dualism, clear and distinct conceivability and the mind's alleged indiv...
3.1.1 - The body and soul relationshipIs a person a soul inhabiting a body, an embodied unity, or wholly physical? Plato's Phaedo and Descartes defend separability, Aristotle and Aquinas develop hylomorphism, while materialism links mental life to brain and body. The explanation must separate the relationship's ontological, causal an...
3.1.1 - Continuing personal existence after deathSurvival requires more than leaving influence behind: the subject after death must be numerically the same person, not merely a convincing copy. Comparing soul, bodily and psychological criteria of identity, then testing resurrection through John Hick's replica model, exposes what might bridge de...
Section B: Ethics and religion
3.1.2 - Natural moral law, double effect and proportionalismAquinas grounds morality in practical reason: good is to be pursued, human goods protected and secondary precepts derived from natural inclinations. Yet one act can bring both good and bad effects, as in Summa Theologiae on self-defence. You will explain natural moral law and double effect's cond...
3.1.2 - ProportionalismWhen a natural-law rule would produce grave harm, proportionalism asks whether a sufficiently serious reason can justify an exception. Aquinas's basic goods and double-effect reasoning anchor the explanation of proportionate reason, values and disvalues in concrete cases. The approach must then b...
3.1.2 - Situation ethics with reference to FletcherJoseph Fletcher rejects both legalism's fixed rules and antinomianism's lack of guidance, making agape the single absolute. Examining situationism, the four working principles, the six fundamental propositions and the demand for the most loving outcome explains how difficult choices are made. Eva...
3.1.2 - Virtue ethics with reference to AristotleAristotle asks not simply "What rule should I follow?" but "What kind of person am I becoming?" The Nicomachean Ethics connects eudaimonia to rational activity, habituation to stable character, and the doctrine of the mean to phronesis in particular situations. Evaluation must ask whether virtue...
3.1.2 - Differing approaches to moral decision makingThe same dilemma looks different when Aquinas asks about objective goods, Fletcher seeks the most loving outcome and Aristotle asks what a practically wise person would choose. You will compare natural law and double effect, proportionalism, situation ethics and virtue ethics by their first decis...
3.1.2 - Applying ethical theories to theft and lyingWould stealing food in extreme necessity still violate justice, and should someone lie to a murderer seeking a victim? These cases expose what each theory treats as decisive. Applying Aquinas's natural law and account of truth, proportionalism's exceptions, Fletcher's agape and Aristotle's phrone...
3.1.2 - Ethical theories: strengths and weaknessesShould moral decisions follow objective goods, respond flexibly to circumstances, or cultivate a wise character? Aquinas' natural moral law and double effect, proportionalism, Fletcher's agape-centred situation ethics, and Aristotle's virtue ethics answer differently. We will explain how each met...
3.1.2 - Embryo research, cloning and designer babiesEmbryo research may relieve suffering, yet it can involve destroying embryos; genetic selection may prevent disease, yet turn parenthood towards design. Using the 14-day rule, reproductive cloning and "designer baby" enhancement as examples, we will explain how Aquinas' natural moral law, Fletche...
3.1.2 - AbortionAbortion brings fetal moral status, bodily autonomy and the preservation of life into direct conflict. Aquinas' natural moral law and double effect, Fletcher's situation ethics, and Aristotle's virtue ethics do not rank these concerns alike. You will explain how intended and foreseen harm, agape...
3.1.2 - Voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicideWhen a competent person asks for help to die, does respect for autonomy and relief of suffering outweigh the duty to preserve life? You will distinguish voluntary euthanasia from assisted suicide before applying Aquinas' natural moral law and double effect, Fletcher's agape, and Aristotle's virtu...
3.1.2 - Capital punishmentCan the state deliberately kill a convicted offender while still respecting life and human dignity? Capital punishment tests retribution, deterrence, public protection, repentance and the risk of irreversible injustice. We will explain how Aquinas' natural moral law, Fletcher's agape-centred situ...
3.1.2 - Animals as food and intensive farmingEating animals can sustain human life and livelihoods, but intensive farming may make efficiency depend on restricted lives and avoidable suffering. Starting with animal sentience and welfare, you will explain Aquinas' hierarchy of rational goods, Fletcher's demand for agape and Aristotle's conce...
3.1.2 - Animals in scientific procedures and cloningAnimal experiments promise medical knowledge, while cloning may aid agriculture or conservation; both can also impose pain, failed pregnancies and death on sentient creatures. Dolly the sheep and the 3Rs of replacement, reduction and refinement make the conflict concrete. You will apply Aquinas'...
3.1.2 - Blood sportsFox hunting, bullfighting and animal fighting turn pursuit, injury or death into sport, yet defenders invoke tradition, skill, community and pest control. Do any of those goods justify animal suffering for entertainment? We will explain how Aquinas' rational moral order, Fletcher's agape and Aris...
3.1.2 - Animals as a source of organs for transplantsXenotransplantation could answer a desperate shortage of human organs, but genetically modified pigs may be bred, confined and killed as biological resources. This tension sets preservation of human life against animal welfare, consent and public-health risk. We will explain how Aquinas' natural...
3.1.2 - Meta ethics: the meaning of right and wrongWhen someone says "lying is wrong", are they describing a fact, reporting a command, naming harmful consequences or expressing a self-evident value? Meta-ethics steps back from the action to examine what "right", "wrong" and "ought" mean. You will distinguish normative, applied and meta-ethical q...
3.1.2 - Divine Command TheoryDoes God command actions because they are good, or are they good because God commands them? Plato's Euthyphro dilemma exposes the central pressure on Divine Command Theory. You will explain how divine commands are said to ground moral obligation and objectivity, then evaluate questions about God'...
3.1.2 - Naturalism and UtilitarianismCan "right" be translated into the production of pleasure and "wrong" into the production of pain? Ethical naturalism says moral claims refer to natural features of the world, and utilitarianism supplies a concrete test case. Through Bentham's utility and Mill's account of happiness, we will expl...
3.1.2 - Non-naturalism and IntuitionismIf pleasure is not the same thing as goodness, what kind of property is moral value, and how could we know it? G. E. Moore's Principia Ethica, the open-question argument and the naturalistic fallacy lead towards non-naturalism and intuitionism. You will explain why basic values are called self-ev...
3.1.2 - Meta-ethical strengths and weaknessesThree rival accounts compete to explain moral authority: God's commands, natural facts about pleasure and pain, and self-evident non-natural values. The Euthyphro dilemma, Moore's open-question argument and disagreements between intuitions put each under pressure. We will explain and compare Divi...
3.1.2 - Conditions of moral responsibilityA harmful outcome does not by itself make someone blameworthy: responsibility depends on whether the act was genuinely theirs and whether they understood its moral meaning. Aristotle's discussion of voluntary action in Nicomachean Ethics Book III sharpens the distinction between agency, compulsio...
3.1.2 - Libertarianism, hard determinism and compatibilismIf every choice has prior causes, can anyone still deserve praise or blame? Libertarian agent-causation, illustrated by Roderick Chisholm, protects the possibility of choosing otherwise; hard determinism denies ultimate freedom; David Hume's compatibilism identifies freedom with acting from one's...
3.1.2 - Moral responsibility, reward and punishmentPunishment may look backward to what an offender deserves or forward to deterrence, protection and rehabilitation. Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics links voluntary action with praise, blame, honours and punishments, raising a basic fairness test: was the person responsible? You will explain how fre...
3.1.2 - Conscience: religious and non-religious ideasIs conscience God's inward witness, an act of practical reason, a governing faculty or internalised social authority? Augustine, Aquinas and Butler give distinct religious accounts, while Freud's superego and Kohlberg's developmental psychology offer non-religious explanations. You will explain h...
3.1.2 - Conscience applied: lies, promises and adulteryA lie may protect someone, a promise may become impossible, and adultery may be rationalised by desire; conscience must turn general moral claims into decisions within such cases. Aquinas treats conscience as practical judgement, Butler as a superior reflective authority, and Freud as the supereg...
3.1.2 - The value of conscience as a moral guideA powerful inner conviction can preserve integrity, but it can also be mistaken, badly formed or inherited from prejudice. Aquinas links conscience to practical reason, Butler to a superior reflective faculty, and Freud to the superego. Their contrasting accounts will help us explain how conscien...
3.1.2 - Bentham and Kant: key ideas about moral decision makingImagine a false promise that prevents immediate pain but undermines trust. Bentham asks which outcome maximises utility through the hedonic calculus; Kant asks whether the maxim can be universalised and whether persons are treated as ends. You will explain their consequentialist and deontological...
3.1.2 - Bentham, Kant and religious moral decision makingBentham can echo religious compassion by reducing suffering, while Kant can echo religious duty through universal law and human dignity. Yet utility is not divine command, and Kantian autonomy is not obedience to revelation. Using Bentham's Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation...
Component 2, option 2A: Buddhism (7062/2A)
Section A: Study of Buddhism
3.2.1 - The BuddhaWhy does one life carry such different kinds of authority? Theravada Buddhism presents Gautama Buddha as the awakened teacher whose renunciation, meditation and insight model the path. The Mahayana Lotus Sutra, especially the burning-house parable, interprets his teaching through skilful means. Y...
3.2.1 - Dukkha and pessimismDukkha means more than obvious pain: it names the instability and unsatisfactoriness of conditioned life. Through the Four Noble Truths and the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, you will examine why craving makes even pleasant experience insecure. The central debate is whether this diagnosis makes Bud...
3.2.1 - The Pali CanonCan a scripture remain authoritative when it was orally transmitted before being written down? The Pali Canon, or Tipitaka, preserves the Vinaya, Suttas and Abhidhamma for Theravada Buddhists. You will explore its connection to Gautama Buddha, assess debates over historical accuracy, and see how...
3.2.1 - Theravada, Mahayana and TrikayaBuddhist traditions do not all understand "the Buddha" in the same way. Theravada foregrounds Gautama as the historical awakened teacher, while Mahayana presents a broader vision of Buddhahood through the Trikaya: nirmanakaya, sambhogakaya and dharmakaya. You will distinguish these three bodies a...
3.2.1 - Anicca and emptinessEverything conditioned changes, but Mahayana Buddhism pushes that insight beyond simple impermanence. You will begin with anicca as a mark of existence and a reason to loosen attachment, then trace its development into sunyata, the emptiness of independent essence. You will test whether emptiness...
3.2.1 - NirvanaNirvana is Buddhism's final liberation, yet it cannot be pictured as an ordinary place or object. You will distinguish Nirvana attained during life from what is said after an enlightened person's death, then examine Nagasena's analogies in the 80th dilemma of the Questions of King Milinda. Can sc...
3.2.1 - The meaning and purpose of lifeShould a Buddhist seek a better rebirth, personal Nirvana, or awakening for all beings? A favourable rebirth can support further practice, but liberation from samsara remains the final goal. You will set the Theravada arhat beside the Mahayana bodhisattva and evaluate whether these ideals compete...
3.2.1 - Anatta (no-self)If there is no permanent self, what exactly is a person? The teaching of anatta analyses human existence through the five aggregates: form, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness. Nagasena's chariot analogy in the Questions of King Milinda then shows how a useful identity can ex...
3.2.1 - SamsaraSamsara links birth, death and rebirth through karma, but Buddhists disagree about how literally its realms should be understood. You will examine the wheel of becoming as cosmology, metaphor and psychology, before considering Tibetan belief in the 14th Dalai Lama as an expression of Avalokitesva...
3.2.1 - Good conductBuddhist morality begins not only with what someone does, but with the intention shaping the act. Through kamma, kusala and akusala, you will explore how wholesome and unwholesome choices form character and future experience. This raises a difficult question: if habits and past conditions influen...
3.2.1 - Five precepts and six perfectionsTwo influential Buddhist ethical frameworks train conduct in different ways. The Five Precepts restrain killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech and intoxication, while the Mahayana six perfections cultivate generosity, morality, patience, effort, meditation and wisdom along the bodhisa...
3.2.1 - AhimsaAhimsa demands non-harm, but applying it is rarely simple. Buddhist views on embryos and abortion, animal treatment, war and weapons of mass destruction can pull the first precept, compassion, intention and consequences in different directions. You will work through these conflicts and evaluate w...
3.2.1 - The SanghaIn Thailand, the monastic Sangha depends upon lay support while offering teaching, ritual leadership and opportunities to make merit. That reciprocal relationship is changing under modern social and economic pressures. You will examine traditional monastic life, new public roles in the twenty-fir...
3.2.1 - Devotion and its purposesBowls of flowers, chanting and Buddha images can look like worship of a god, yet Buddhist devotion has different purposes. You will compare Theravada and Mahayana practices, examine how images focus memory and aspiration, and trace how making and sharing merit connects laypeople with the Sangha a...
3.2.1 - MeditationMeditation is a discipline on the Noble Eightfold Path, not merely a technique for feeling calm. Using right effort, mindfulness and concentration, you will examine how practice develops insight and supports liberation. Modern therapeutic mindfulness then raises a live dispute: can meditation be...
3.2.1 - Gender and sexuality in Thailand: history and societyModern Thai debates about gender and sexuality did not emerge in a vacuum. Tourism after the 1980s intensified contact with Western lifestyles, while changing work and family roles and secular rights for women challenged older religious expectations. You will trace how these historical pressures...
3.2.1 - Revival of the Theravada order of nunsReviving Theravada bhikkhuni ordination required more than agreeing that women should become nuns. The Vinaya traditionally demands participation from valid female and male ordination lineages, yet the female lineage was believed to have died out. You will reconstruct the arguments around the lat...
3.2.1 - Female ordination and the role of womenThe revival of Theravada nuns did not end the dispute over women's authority. Dhammananda's ordination and reform work, alongside the international Sakyadhita organisation, challenge restrictions grounded in lineage, Vinaya and inherited social roles. You will compare their strategies and assess...
3.2.1 - Celibacy, marriage, same-sex and transgender mattersBuddhist sexual ethics changes sharply between monastic renunciation and lay life. Celibacy is required by the Vinaya for monks and nuns, while marriage and relationships are commonly assessed through the third precept, intention, fidelity and non-harm. You will compare Buddhist responses to same...
3.2.1 - Science and Buddhism: influence and responseScience values public evidence, testing and revision; Buddhism is often presented as unusually compatible with those habits. The Kalama Sutta, Buddhist modernism and discoveries in modern cosmology, neuroscience and biotechnology complicate that easy agreement. You will examine why science has in...
3.2.1 - Karma, miracles and scientific challengeCan karma and miracles survive scientific explanation? Karma, understood as intentional moral causation, is not identical to a testable physical law, yet rebirth and consequences across lives invite evidential challenge. Buddhist miracle traditions face similar pressure from natural explanations...
3.2.1 - The value of scienceThe Buddha sometimes refused speculative questions that did not lead towards liberation, but modern Buddhist thinkers have actively engaged science. You will examine the poisoned-arrow teaching, claims of parallels with quantum physics, and contrasting emphases in Thich Nhat Hanh and the 14th Dal...
3.2.1 - Buddhist responses to genetic engineeringGenetic engineering can relieve disease, alter embryos, modify crops or intensify human control over life. Buddhist responses draw on dukkha, compassion, ahimsa, intention and interdependence rather than a simple ban on technology. You will compare cautious support for therapeutic uses with objec...
3.2.1 - Secularisation in the British contextIn modern Britain, religion no longer holds an uncontested place as the source of truth or morality. Secularisation can relocate Buddhism to private choice, while militant atheism dismisses religious belief as irrational. You will examine how these pressures affect Buddhist authority, practice an...
3.2.1 - Buddhist responses to materialistic secular valuesDoes Buddhism condemn wealth, or only attachment to it? Teachings on tanha, dukkha and impermanence expose the insecurity of possessions, while monastic renunciation offers a radical alternative to consumer culture. Lay Buddhists, however, may earn and use wealth responsibly. You will compare the...
3.2.1 - Traditional and new forms of BuddhismBritish Buddhism includes both deliberate preservation and creative reinvention. Amaravati and the Forest Tradition maintain monastic discipline and lineage, while Triratna and Secular Buddhism reshape practice for modern seekers. You will compare what each retains, changes and leaves behind, the...
3.2.1 - Engaged Buddhism: contribution to societyEngaged Buddhism argues that wisdom and compassion must confront social suffering, not remain confined to private practice. Thich Nhat Hanh's School of Youth for Social Service and Sri Lanka's Sarvodaya movement turn non-violence, interdependence and karuna into relief and community action. You w...
3.2.1 - Stephen Batchelor and David BrazierStephen Batchelor and David Brazier offer sharply different answers to what Buddhism is becoming in a secular age. Batchelor's secular Dharma foregrounds practice without traditional metaphysics; Brazier recovers Buddhism's devotional and religious roots. You will compare their views of faith, co...
3.2.1 - Migration, diversity and religious pluralismMigration has made British Buddhism both multicultural and internally diverse: heritage communities, converts and different lineages share a secular legal setting. You will trace this development, examine freedom of religion under European law, and explore how religious pluralism reshapes Buddhis...
3.2.1 - Contrasting Buddhist traditionsIs "Buddhism" one religion or a label covering traditions with little in common? By comparing Theravada with Pure Land Buddhism, you will test differences in scripture, practice, authority and the path to liberation. Shared commitments such as the Buddha, Dhamma and release from suffering may uni...
3.2.1 - Ashoka, Nichiren Buddhism and pluralismAshoka's Edict 12 urges restraint in praising one's own religion and condemning others, yet Buddhist pluralism does not require treating every claim as equally true. You will compare Ashoka's ethic of respectful dialogue with diversity inside Buddhism and the firmer truth claims of Nichiren Buddh...
3.2.1 - Buddhism and freedom of religious expressionFreedom of religious expression protects worship, teaching, dress and public disagreement, but no expression is harmless simply because it is religious. Buddhist ethics brings Ashoka's Edict 12, right speech, compassion and non-harming into debates over offence, protest and restriction. You will...
Section B: Dialogue with philosophy of religion
3.2.1 - Dialogue with philosophy: ultimate realityBuddhist ultimate reality is not a creator God. It is approached through Nirvana, anicca, Mahayana emptiness and different accounts of Buddhahood, each of which raises philosophical problems about reason, meaning and coherence. Nagasena's analogies in the Questions of King Milinda test whether la...
3.2.1 - Dialogue with philosophy: self, death and afterlifeHow can rebirth and moral responsibility make sense if Buddhism denies a permanent soul? The Anattalakkhana Sutta, Nagasena's chariot analogy and dependent continuity offer different resources for explaining the person across life and death. You will test anatta, karma, samsara and Nirvana agains...
3.2.1 - Dialogue with philosophy: sources of wisdom and authorityWhy should a Buddhist trust the Buddha, Dhamma, Pali Canon or Sangha? Their authority rests on awakening, preserved teaching, communal interpretation and practical transformation rather than divine command. The Kalama Sutta and Mahayana skilful means complicate simple obedience. You will examine...
3.2.1 - Dialogue with philosophy: religious experienceCould a transformed state of awareness count as knowledge? Gautama Buddha's awakening, insight meditation and experiences of Nirvana ground Buddhist claims to religious experience without requiring contact with a creator God. Using the Kalama Sutta, testimony and Swinburne's principles of creduli...
3.2.1 - Dialogue with philosophy: science and religious discourseScientific discourse tests claims through public evidence and causal explanation; Buddhist discourse asks whether teachings reduce ignorance, craving and suffering. The Kalama Sutta, dependent arising and meditation research create real points of contact, while rebirth, karma, cosmology and mirac...
3.2.1 - Dialogue with philosophy: truth claims of other religionsRespect for other religions does not mean that their claims about God, soul or salvation fit Buddhist teaching. The Kalama Sutta and poisoned-arrow discourse offer practical tests of truth, while skilful means opens space for inclusivist or pluralist readings. You will compare exclusivism, inclus...
3.2.1 - Dialogue with philosophy: miraclesBuddhist miracle stories range from psychic powers and telepathy to the transformative "miracle of instruction" in the Kevatta Sutta. Hume's critique of testimony and Wiles' challenge to divine intervention do not apply equally to each. You will compare literal, symbolic and devotional readings,...
Section C: Dialogue with ethical studies
3.2.1 - Dialogue with ethics: Kant and deontological approachesKant asks whether a maxim can become universal law and whether rational persons are treated as ends; Buddhism asks whether intention, non-harming and compassion support liberation. The Five Precepts and AN 6.63 create genuine overlap with duty ethics, but they are training principles shaped by ka...
3.2.1 - Dialogue with ethics: Bentham's consequentialismBentham measures moral choices by their effects on pleasure and pain, while Buddhism seeks the reduction of dukkha within a path shaped by intention, karma and wisdom. The felicific calculus can reinforce compassion and ahimsa, yet it may ignore precepts, mental roots and liberation. You will dec...
3.2.1 - Dialogue with ethics: virtue and character-based ethicsAristotle's virtue ethics asks what kind of person repeated choices create; Buddhist practice likewise cultivates kusala states, the Five Precepts and the six perfections. Practical wisdom, habituation and moral exemplars make the comparison powerful. Through Damien Keown, the arhat and the bodhi...
3.2.1 - Dialogue with ethics: classifying Buddhist ethicsIs Buddhist ethics best described as duty, goal, consequence or character? The Five Precepts, Noble Eightfold Path, AN 6.63 and Dhammapada 183 supply evidence for all four readings. Damien Keown's virtue interpretation and Charles Goodman's consequentialism sharpen the disagreement. You will test...
3.2.1 - Dialogue with ethics: human life and death issuesEmbryo research, cloning, designer babies, abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide and capital punishment force Buddhist non-harming into difficult cases. The first precept, karuna, intention, karma and rebirth can support protection of life while pulling against compassionate relief of suffering....
3.2.1 - Dialogue with ethics: animal life and death issuesAnimals experience fear and dukkha, but Buddhist communities do not always draw the same practical line from that fact. The first precept, Dhammapada 129-132 and the Jivaka Sutta inform debates over meat and intensive farming, scientific procedures, cloning, blood sports and animal organ transpla...
3.2.1 - Dialogue with ethics: theft and lyingThe second and fourth precepts place theft and lying at the heart of Buddhist moral training. SN 55.7, MN 61 and the Noble Eightfold Path connect taking what is not given and false speech with intention, harm, trust and character. You will compare these restraints with Kant, Bentham and virtue et...
3.2.1 - Dialogue with ethics: marriage, same-sex and transgenderMarriage is a lay commitment rather than a Buddhist sacrament, and the third precept judges sexual conduct through fidelity, consent and harm. The Sigalovada Sutta, anatta, compassion and the Vinaya then open contrasting perspectives on same-sex relationships and transgender inclusion. You will e...
3.2.1 - Dialogue with ethics: genetic engineeringGene therapy may reduce dukkha; embryo editing, enhancement and genetically modified animals may instead deepen harm, inequality or craving. Buddhist reasoning brings karuna, ahimsa, intention and dependent origination into dialogue with Kant, Bentham and virtue ethics. You will distinguish somat...
3.2.1 - Dialogue with ethics: wealthWealth can support a household, the Sangha and generous action, yet it can also intensify tanha, exploitation and false security. The Noble Eightfold Path, Vanijja Sutta, Sigalovada Sutta and dana connect how money is earned with how it is used. You will examine right livelihood, poverty and ineq...
3.2.1 - Dialogue with ethics: tolerance and religious freedomTolerance permits disagreement; freedom of religious expression protects worship, teaching and public practice, but neither removes responsibility for harm. Ashoka's Edict 12, the Kalama Sutta, right speech, metta and karuna support open inquiry while condemning hatred and coercion. You will comp...
3.2.1 - Dialogue with ethics: freedom, responsibility, conscienceIf every action is conditioned and there is no permanent self, in what sense can anyone be responsible? AN 6.63 links karma to intention, while dependent arising and the Noble Eightfold Path present agency as trainable rather than uncaused. You will compare libertarianism, hard determinism and co...
3.2.1 - Dialogue with ethics: impact on Buddhist ethical viewsEthical study can strengthen Buddhist conclusions, expose inconsistencies or change how ancient sources are applied to modern problems. Kant, Bentham and Aristotle illuminate precepts, suffering and character, but none captures karma, anatta or liberation completely. You will trace their impact a...
Component 2, option 2B: Christianity (7062/2B)
Section A: Study of Christianity
3.2.2 - The BibleHow can a text be God-given and unmistakably human? Christians answer that question through different accounts of biblical inspiration, from conservative evangelical confidence in Scripture as the final written norm to readings shaped by tradition, reason and historical criticism. Each account ch...
3.2.2 - The ChurchWhen Scripture and Church teaching seem to pull apart, which should govern Christian belief? Protestant sola scriptura places the Bible above every ecclesial authority, while Catholic Christianity reads Sacred Scripture within Sacred Tradition under the Magisterium. Comparing these models correct...
3.2.2 - The authority of JesusJesus tells his followers to resist retaliation and love their enemies in Matthew 5:38-48, but why must anyone obey such radical demands? The answer depends on whether his authority is God's own authority or the persuasive authority of an exceptional human teacher. Connecting Christology with dis...
3.2.2 - Christian MonotheismChristianity worships one God, yet names Father, Son and Holy Spirit and calls Jesus the Son of God. Monotheism, omnipotence, creation, transcendence and the Trinity must therefore fit within one account of divine identity. John 10:30 and 1 Corinthians 8:6 provide key sources for explaining that...
3.2.2 - God as Personal, God as Father and God as LoveCalling God Father, King or loving person makes relationship and prayer intelligible, but it can also make the transcendent God sound human and male. The Lord's Prayer, Galatians 4 and 1 John 4 help distinguish metaphor from literal description, while Christian feminist criticism exposes the powe...
3.2.2 - The concept of God in process theologyProcess theology replaces an all-controlling creator with a God who participates in an unfinished, relational world. Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne distinguish persuasive from coercive power, explaining why God is described as neither omnipotent nor creator in the classical sense....
3.2.2 - The meaning and purpose of lifeIs life's highest purpose worship, preparation for judgement, or transforming the world? Christian teaching links glorifying God and personal relationship, accountability before Christ, and bringing about God's kingdom on earth. Using 1 Corinthians 10:31 and Matthew 25, these aims can be compared...
3.2.2 - ResurrectionResurrection raises a demanding identity question: what survives death, and in what sense is the raised person the same person? The soul, spiritual resurrection and Augustine's resurrection of the flesh offer different answers, guided by Paul's contrast between perishable and imperishable life in...
3.2.2 - Judgement, heaven, hell and purgatoryAre heaven and hell places, relationships with God, or images of human fulfilment and alienation? Physical, spiritual and psychological readings produce different accounts of judgement, heaven, hell and Catholic purgatory, with Matthew 25 and Revelation 21 anchoring the debate. Process thought's...
3.2.2 - Good conductIf people are saved by grace through faith, why should good conduct matter? Paul, James, Ephesians and Matthew 25 frame a dispute over justification by faith, justification by works and the moral effects of predestination. Protestant and Catholic emphases help test two reductions: that good deeds...
3.2.2 - Sanctity of lifeCalling human life sacred sounds clear until an embryo, an unborn child or wartime threat forces competing duties into view. Genesis 1, Psalm 139, the imago Dei and love of neighbour ground Christian protection of life. Their application varies at life's beginning, while just war criteria face an...
3.2.2 - Dominion and stewardshipDoes biblical dominion license mastery of animals, or appoint humanity to accountable care? Genesis 1 and Psalm 8 place humans distinctively within creation, while stewardship insists that creation still belongs to God. Animal use, environmental responsibility and modern climate and ecological kn...
3.2.2 - BaptismShould baptism welcome a child into grace before conscious belief, or follow a believer's personal commitment to Christ? Catholic sacramental theology connects infant baptism with initiation, original sin and the Church's faith; Baptists defend believer's baptism as an enacted confession. The dis...
3.2.2 - Holy CommunionAt the Last Supper, Jesus identifies bread and wine with his body, blood and new covenant in Luke 22:17-20. Catholic Mass treats the Eucharist as sacramental participation in Christ's sacrifice and presence, whereas Baptist Communion is an ordinance of remembrance and proclamation. Comparing prac...
3.2.2 - The mission of the ChurchChristian mission has moved far beyond a one-way picture of Western missionaries carrying faith overseas. The history runs from early twentieth-century evangelism through missio Dei and Vatican II's Ad Gentes to holistic or integral mission, where proclamation, justice, reconciliation and service...
3.2.2 - Historical and social context for gender and sexualityHow did a passage such as 1 Timothy 2:8-15 cease to settle Christian debates about women's roles for many readers? Nineteenth-century biblical criticism exposed questions of authorship and context, while changing social roles and secular legal rights challenged inherited assumptions. Following th...
3.2.2 - Female ordination in the Church of EnglandThe Church of England began ordaining women as priests in 1994, but that decision did not end the theological dispute. Arguments from scripture, tradition, representation and vocation shaped both the 1994 settlement and the later admission of women as bishops. Tracing that history leads to the co...
3.2.2 - Daphne Hampson and Rosemary Radford Ruether on patriarchyDaphne Hampson and Rosemary Radford Ruether agree that Christianity is deeply patriarchal, then take sharply different paths. Hampson judges a historically revealed faith irredeemably sexist; Ruether seeks reform through an androgynous Christ and the provocative claim that female nature may be mo...
3.2.2 - Celibacy, marriage, same-sex and transgender mattersChristian practices of celibacy and marriage sit alongside fierce disagreements over same-sex relationships and transgender lives. Jesus in Matthew 19, Paul in 1 Corinthians 7, church tradition, reason, conscience and pastoral experience are weighed differently by Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Q...
3.2.2 - Science's influence and Christian responsesScientific habits of evidence and reason can unsettle Christian authority, but discoveries can also deepen theology and create new moral responsibilities. Evolution, cosmology and genetic technology provide concrete pressure points, while Ian Barbour's conflict, independence, dialogue and integra...
3.2.2 - God of the gaps, evolution and Big BangDarwinian evolution and Big Bang cosmology explain origins without treating God as a scientific cause, so do they displace Christian creation? Exposing the fragility of a God-of-the-gaps argument leads into nineteenth-century responses to Darwin and the contrast between contemporary creationist r...
3.2.2 - Science compatibility and John PolkinghornePhysicist-priest John Polkinghorne refuses to make science and Christianity rivals for the same explanatory territory. His complementary approach rejects a God of the gaps, treats the intelligibility of nature as theologically suggestive, and lets scientific discovery inform creation theology. Th...
3.2.2 - Christian responses to genetic engineeringGene editing can heal disease, alter embryos, affect future generations and intensify inequality; Christian principles therefore pull in more than one direction. Qualified support for therapy meets caution about germline intervention and enhancement, drawing on creation, imago Dei, sanctity of li...
3.2.2 - Secularisation in the British contextSecularisation in Britain challenges more than church attendance: it contests Christianity as a public source of truth and morality. John 14:6 and Matthew 22 express claims that meet pressures from privatised religion and militant atheism's charge of irrationality. Distinguishing these challenges...
3.2.2 - Wealth, possessions and materialismIf consumer culture measures worth by money, possessions and visible success, how should Christians answer? New Testament warnings about wealth support simplicity, vows of poverty and communities such as the Bruderhof; stewardship permits responsible ownership, while prosperity theology and liber...
3.2.2 - McGrath, Collicutt McGrath and DawkinsRichard Dawkins presents religious faith as irrational in The God Delusion; Alister McGrath and Joanna Collicutt McGrath answer him in The Dawkins Delusion? Their objections target caricature, scientific reductionism and the alleged conflict between faith and reason. The central evaluation is whe...
3.2.2 - Fresh Expressions and House Church movementWhen inherited parish forms no longer reach much of secular Britain, must church look different? Fresh Expressions grew from the 2004 Mission-shaped Church report, while the House Church movement drew on charismatic, participatory models from the 1960s and 1970s. Their origins and ecclesiology ra...
3.2.2 - Social relevance and liberationist approachesCan Christianity remain socially relevant by siding publicly with people who are poor or oppressed? Jesus' ministry, biblical justice and love of neighbour feed liberation theology's Latin American challenge to unequal structures as well as direct service to immediate need. Distinguishing charity...
3.2.2 - Migration, diversity and religious pluralismMigration has made British Christianity part of a visibly multifaith society in which law protects belief and non-belief alike. Religious diversity, Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and pluralism within a secular state form the setting for changes in Christian mission, identi...
3.2.2 - Christian attitudes to other faithsIf Jesus is the only way to the Father in John 14:6, can people beyond explicit Christian faith be saved? Christian exclusivism answers differently from Karl Rahner's inclusivist idea of anonymous Christians, while relations among Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant denominations pose a related bou...
3.2.2 - Pluralism with reference to John HickJohn Hick's salvific pluralism relocates Christianity within a larger religious universe: the Real, not any one tradition, stands at the centre. His Copernican revolution proposes that major faiths can mediate transformation from self-centredness to Reality-centredness. Its consequences for inter...
3.2.2 - Christianity and freedom of religious expressionFreedom of religion protects more than private belief; it includes worship, dress, preaching, service and public moral witness. Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Nadia Eweida's cross case show why expression can conflict with employers, safety and others' rights. Christian...
Section B: Dialogue with philosophy of religion
3.2.2 - Dialogue with philosophy: GodCan Christian claims about one creator, the Trinity and divine love survive philosophical examination without becoming meaningless or contradictory? Reason, religious language, coherence and the distinction between believing that doctrines are true and believing in God relationally provide four t...
3.2.2 - Dialogue with philosophy: self, death and the afterlifeChristian hope joins soul, bodily resurrection, judgement and life with God, but philosophy presses hard on personal identity after death. Descartes' dualism, body-soul dependence and the problem of continuing existence test whether afterlife claims are reasonable, meaningful and coherent. A furt...
3.2.2 - Dialogue with philosophy: sources of wisdom and authorityWhy should the Bible, the Church or Jesus have authority over belief and life? Each source makes claims that philosophy can test for rational support, meaningfulness and consistency, while different audiences may not recognise the same authority. Comparing Scripture, tradition and Christ's person...
3.2.2 - Dialogue with philosophy: religious experienceAn encounter with God may transform a believer while remaining difficult for anyone else to verify. Paul's visions and conversion sit alongside Otto's numinous, James's mystical experience, Stace's union and Swinburne's principles of credulity and testimony. Their ideas sharpen questions of reaso...
3.2.2 - Dialogue with philosophy: science and religious discourseScience and Christianity do not simply offer rival answers; they may operate as different discourses with different methods, meanings and audiences. Ian Barbour's relationship models and John Polkinghorne's compatibility approach test Christian claims about creation, Scripture and divine action a...
3.2.2 - Philosophy and other religions' truth claimsChristianity and other religions make claims about God, salvation and revelation that sometimes overlap and sometimes conflict. John 14:6, exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism show how reason, meaning and internal coherence pull Christian responses in different directions. The key judgement is...
3.2.2 - Dialogue with philosophy: miraclesChristian miracles function as signs of Jesus' identity and God's kingdom, yet extraordinary events invite philosophical suspicion. Hume challenges the rational force of testimony, while Maurice Wiles questions whether selective divine intervention coheres with God's goodness. Comparing insider a...
Section C: Dialogue with ethical studies
3.2.2 - Kant and Christian moral dutyKant grounds morality in rational duty, universal law and respect for persons, whereas Christian obedience is shaped by God, Jesus, agape and revealed authority. The categorical imperative can reinforce commandments, dignity and impartiality, yet rigid duty may conflict with grace, mercy or excep...
3.2.2 - Bentham and Christian ethicsBentham asks which action maximises pleasure and minimises pain; Christianity asks what faithfulness to God and love of neighbour require. The principle of utility and felicific calculus meet sanctity of life, Jesus' authority and human dignity, producing agreements over welfare but conflicts ove...
3.2.2 - Virtue ethics and Christian characterAristotle's virtue ethics focuses on the character formed by repeated choices, a concern that resonates with Christian discipleship, the Beatitudes and the fruit of the Spirit. Yet grace, imitation of Christ and love of the vulnerable reshape both the source and goal of virtue. Evaluation asks wh...
3.2.2 - Classifying Christian ethicsIs Christian ethics best classified by duties, purposes, consequences or character? The Decalogue and Sermon on the Mount create a deontological pull; God's kingdom and judgement introduce ends and outcomes; imitation of Christ and the fruit of the Spirit emphasise formation. Testing each label a...
3.2.2 - Christian responses to human life and deathQuestions about embryos, cloning, designer babies, abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide and capital punishment place Christian sanctity of life under sustained ethical pressure. Creation, imago Dei, stewardship, compassion and justice can support firm boundaries yet lead Christians to different...
3.2.2 - Christian responses to animal life and deathUsing animals for food, intensive farming, experiments, cloning, blood sports and transplant organs tests the meaning of Christian dominion and stewardship. Creation theology and human distinctiveness meet arguments from suffering, moral status, rights and utility. Their dialogue shows where Chri...
3.2.2 - Christian responses to theft and lyingIs stealing food in extreme need really theft, and can a protective lie be loving? Exodus 20, Ephesians 4, Zacchaeus and Aquinas establish Christian duties of property, truth and restoration, while Fletcher's situation ethics and Aristotle's virtue ethics probe hard cases. Rule, agape and charact...
3.2.2 - Marriage, same-sex relationships and transgender mattersMarriage, same-sex relationships and transgender matters expose deep disagreements over creation, embodiment, covenant, equality and pastoral care. Genesis, Mark 10, church tradition and contemporary experience receive different authority across Christian communities, while duty, consequences, di...
3.2.2 - Ethics and Christian genetic engineeringGenetic therapy can look like Christian healing, while germline editing, embryo selection and enhancement can threaten sanctity, consent and justice. Creation, imago Dei, stewardship and love of neighbour enter dialogue with consequences, autonomy, risk and obligations to future people. The compa...
3.2.2 - Christian responses to wealthWealth can sustain families, work and generosity, yet Jesus repeatedly warns that possessions can master their owners. Biblical teaching on the rich, Acts' shared life and Christian stewardship are tested through Aquinas on property, consequentialism, virtue ethics and liberation theology. Compar...
3.2.2 - Tolerance and freedom of religious expressionTolerance protects people precisely when their convictions differ, but freedom of religious expression cannot be unlimited. Jesus' love of enemies, human dignity and conscience meet Article 9, the contrasting Eweida and Chaplin cases, and Kantian, Benthamite and virtue-based tests. The challenge...
3.2.2 - Free will, responsibility and conscienceChristian moral responsibility depends on meaningful freedom, yet sin, grace and predestination complicate how freely anyone chooses. Conscience adds another difficulty: is it God's voice, moral knowledge or fallible practical judgement? Aquinas and diverse Christian accounts of freedom face ethi...
3.2.2 - Ethical studies and Christian viewsEthical study can challenge Christian rules, support Christian concern for persons, or reshape how believers read their own authorities. Kant, Bentham and virtue ethics revisit life and death, animals, theft, sexuality, genetics, wealth and religious freedom. Comparing their influence on Christia...
Component 2, option 2C: Hinduism (7062/2C)
Section A: Study of Hinduism
3.2.3 - The VedasWhy can texts heard and preserved as sacred sound remain authoritative even when many Hindus encounter them only indirectly? You will examine the Vedas as shruti, their ritual use, the Upanishads' philosophical turn, and the Purusha Sukta's account of varna, before weighing foundational authority...
3.2.3 - The smrti textsRemembered tradition carries a different authority from heard revelation. The Ramayana presents Rama's dharma through epic narrative, the Bhagavad Gita turns Arjuna's crisis and Krishna's teaching into spiritual guidance, and the Manusmrti codifies social and moral duties. You will compare how th...
3.2.3 - Gurus and Swami SivanandaA guru's authority may rest on scriptural knowledge, lineage, realised insight and the trust of disciples, but modern influence also raises questions about accountability. Through Swami Sivananda, the Divine Life Society and his synthesis of yoga, devotion, knowledge and service, you will explore...
3.2.3 - God and gods in the Rig VedaThe Rig Veda speaks to many devas such as Agni, Indra and Varuna, yet it also gestures toward one reality named in different ways. Its hymns to Hiranyagarbha and the mysterious origins of the cosmos complicate any simple label of polytheism or monotheism. You will consider why this ancient plural...
3.2.3 - The Trimurti and avatarsBrahma creates, Vishnu preserves and Shiva destroys or transforms, but the Trimurti is not simply three unrelated gods. Their relation to Brahman opens the question of unity within divine plurality, while Vishnu's avatars Rama and Krishna show the divine entering history to restore dharma. You wi...
3.2.3 - Nirguna and Saguna BrahmanCan ultimate reality be beyond every quality and still be approached as a personal God? Nirguna Brahman resists description, while Saguna Brahman permits worship, relationship and divine attributes. Kena Upanishad 1:3-8 sharpens the paradox by presenting Brahman as the source behind perception. Y...
3.2.3 - Four aims of life and mokshaHindu accounts of a purposeful life hold together dharma, artha, kama and moksha rather than reducing fulfilment to a single aim. Their balance changes with circumstance and spiritual outlook, while Advaita, Vishishtadvaita and Dvaita disagree about what liberation finally is. You will consider w...
3.2.3 - Atman, body and BrahmanIs the true self identical with Brahman, distinct from matter, or best understood through disciplined control of body and mind? The chariot parable in Katha Upanishad 3 maps the senses, intellect and atman, while Advaita Vedanta and Samkhya offer sharply different metaphysics. You will compare no...
3.2.3 - SamsaraSamsara makes death one stage in a continuing cycle rather than a final end. Sanchita, prarabdha and kriyamana karma explain how action shapes rebirth across different realms and forms of life. You will trace the moral logic of reincarnation, its connection to the jiva, and the claim that shared...
3.2.3 - Good conductGood conduct in Hinduism concerns not only what is done but how and why it is done. In Bhagavad Gita 3, Krishna teaches Arjuna to act without attachment to reward, turning duty into karma yoga. You will explore how selfless effort affects karma, moral character and liberation, then test whether d...
3.2.3 - DharmaDharma can name universal moral order and the duties attached to a person's class and stage of life. Sanatana dharma and Varnashrama dharma therefore sometimes reinforce one another and sometimes pull apart. Using Rama and Arjuna as narrative examples, you will examine whether role-specific oblig...
3.2.3 - AhimsaAhimsa reaches beyond refusing physical violence: it shapes intention, speech, diet, politics and care for vulnerable life. Its application becomes difficult in disputes about embryos, animals, war and weapons of mass destruction, where duties may conflict. Gandhi's satyagraha presents non-violen...
3.2.3 - The paths of YogaYoga offers several disciplines for transforming the self: karma through action, bhakti through devotion, jnana through knowledge and raja through meditation. The gunas help explain why different temperaments may favour different paths, yet Hindu practice often combines them. You will explore whe...
3.2.3 - Bhakti YogaBhakti turns love of the divine into embodied practice. Through darshan, a worshipper both sees and is seen by sacred presence; through puja, offerings, light, food and prayer express devotion; and pilgrimage to the Ganges joins place, purification and community. You will examine why these practi...
3.2.3 - The changing role of ashramsAshrams once centred strongly on seclusion, disciplined study and guru-led spiritual formation, yet modern retreat centres also serve pilgrims, international students and local communities. Comparing Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhanwantari Ashram in Kerala with Skanda Vale in Wales, you will trace wha...
3.2.3 - Gender and sexuality: historical and social contextHindu thinking about gender and sexuality has developed amid colonial rule, missionary criticism, western education and changing family and working lives. British imperial power helped reshape law and public debate, while secular governments extended women's rights in marriage, inheritance and ci...
3.2.3 - Women's role and status: Ram Mohan RoyDebates about Hindu women's roles arise from competing texts, customs and interpretations of dharma, not from a single religious verdict. In nineteenth-century Bengal, Ram Mohan Roy opposed sati, argued for women's inheritance rights and helped found the Brahmo Samaj. You will assess whether his...
3.2.3 - The work of the Manushi organisation in modern IndiaManushi connects feminist argument with journalism, legal advocacy and the testimony of women facing violence, poverty and discriminatory custom in modern India. Its journal, trust and Sangathan illuminate different forms of activism without claiming to speak for all Hindus. You will examine how...
3.2.3 - Marriage, divorce, celibacy, same-sex and transgenderHindu views on intimacy and gender are shaped by life stage, dharma, textual authority and changing law. Brahmacharya can mean disciplined celibacy, vivaha marks marriage as a samskara, and sources from the Manusmrti to the Kama Sutra support contrasting judgements on same-sex relationships. Trit...
3.2.3 - Science's influence on Hinduism and Hindu responsesScientific methods privilege publicly testable evidence and reason, while Hindu traditions also appeal to scripture, experience, philosophy and spiritual practice. Encounters with cosmology, evolution, medicine and biotechnology can provoke rejection, reinterpretation or claims of compatibility....
3.2.3 - Evolution, Big Bang and ISKCONISKCON begins from Krishna as the ultimate source of life and the cosmos, so Darwinian evolution and Big Bang cosmology are not neutral explanations within its Gaudiya Vaishnava worldview. You will compare Prabhupada's critique of materialist science with Hindu cyclical creation accounts and more...
3.2.3 - Science compatibility and RadhakrishnanRadhakrishnan presented Hinduism as an experiential and rational religion whose claims could coexist with scientific enquiry. A different compatibility argument says that modern discoveries were already revealed in the Vedas. You will distinguish these two routes, exploring whether flexible Vedan...
3.2.3 - Hindu responses to genetic engineeringGenetic engineering can heal disease, alter inherited traits, modify crops or animals, and intensify human control over living systems. Hindu responses apply ahimsa, dharma, karma, compassion and the interconnectedness of life to technologies ancient texts never named. You will compare support fo...
3.2.3 - India, western values and reformersUnder British colonial rule, Hindu reformers faced missionary criticism, English education and new appeals to reason, rights and progress. Ram Mohan Roy drew on the Upanishads to present a rational, monotheistic and reforming Hinduism through the Brahmo Samaj; Dayananda Saraswati's Arya Samaj ins...
3.2.3 - Practical Vedanta and the Ramakrishna MissionVivekananda recast Advaita Vedanta as a demand for service: if atman is not separate from Brahman, helping another person becomes an encounter with the divine rather than mere charity. The Ramakrishna Mission expresses this Practical Vedanta through education, healthcare, disaster relief and supp...
3.2.3 - Secularisation in Britain and new forms of HinduismIn a secular Britain, religious claims compete with scientific, moral and non-religious authorities, while faith is often pushed into private life. Brahmo Samaj UK preserves a reform tradition through rational monotheism; ISKCON makes Krishna bhakti public through temples, chanting and transnatio...
3.2.3 - Hinduism in Britain: migration, diversity, pluralismMigration has made Hinduism a visible part of British public life, but language, region, deity, sampradaya and migration history prevent the community from speaking with one voice. Article 9 of the European Convention protects religious freedom within limits, while secular pluralism creates both...
3.2.3 - Vedanta as religionCould Vedanta be the underlying truth expressed partially by every faith and every Hindu tradition? Vivekananda and Radhakrishnan used this universalising claim to interpret religious diversity without treating difference as simple error. You will explore its Upanishadic foundations and inclusive...
3.2.3 - India, diaspora and sacred sitesFor many Hindus in diaspora, India remains sacred through pilgrimage landscapes, family memory, scripture and lineages rooted in places such as the Ganges and Varanasi. Yet temples and pilgrimage centres abroad gain sanctity through consecration, worship, community recognition and repeated practi...
3.2.3 - Freedom of religious expression and HindutvaFreedom of religious expression protects worship, teaching, dress, conversion and public criticism, yet plural societies must also decide when expression harms others. Hindu pluralist readings can defend wide freedom, while V. D. Savarkar's Hindutva frames Hindu identity as a civilisational and n...
3.2.3 - Indian secular context and Sangh ParivarIndia's constitutional secularism protects freedom of conscience while permitting limits for public order, morality and health; religion-specific personal laws complicate equal citizenship in marriage, divorce and inheritance. The Sangh Parivar answers these tensions through Hindutva and a cultur...
Section B: Dialogue with philosophy of religion
3.2.3 - Dialogue with philosophy: ultimate realityCan Brahman be a reasonable explanation of reality if nirguna Brahman lies beyond description and saguna Brahman appears in personal forms? Advaita, Vishishtadvaita, Dvaita and bhakti traditions answer differently, creating tensions between unity and plurality. You will test Hindu accounts of ult...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with philosophy: self, death and afterlifeIf atman survives bodily death, what makes it the same self across rebirth, and how can karma preserve responsibility without memory? Advaita, Samkhya and devotional traditions offer different accounts of self and moksha. You will use philosophical questions about personal identity, evidence, mea...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with philosophy: sources of wisdom and authorityHindu authority is layered: the Vedas are shruti, the Ramayana and Bhagavad Gita are smrti, and gurus interpret inherited traditions within living sampradayas. Philosophical enquiry asks when testimony is reasonable, how sacred language gains meaning, and whether diverse authorities can remain co...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with philosophy: religious experienceDarshan, bhakti, puja, meditation and non-dual insight can all be described as Hindu religious experience, though they make very different claims about deity, Brahman and the self. You will examine testimony, transformation and alternative natural explanations, asking who can understand the langu...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with philosophy: science and religious discourseScience seeks public justification through observation, prediction and repeatability; Hindu religious discourse also draws on Vedic authority, metaphysics, devotion and transformative practice. Evolution, Big Bang cosmology and claims about Brahman therefore need not function as rival statements...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with philosophy: truth claims of other religionsIf religions make incompatible claims about ultimate reality and liberation, can they all be true? Hindu resources such as Rig Veda 1.164.46, the Bhagavad Gita and modern Vedanta enter dialogue with John Hick's claim that traditions are culturally mediated responses to the Real, while some bhakti...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with philosophy: miraclesMiracle language in Hinduism may refer to avatars restoring dharma, divine presence in darshan, extraordinary events around gurus, or karmically significant occurrences. These do not fit neatly into a model of God occasionally violating natural law. You will test realist and symbolic interpretati...
Section C: Dialogue with ethical studies
3.2.3 - Dialogue with ethics: deontological approaches with KantDharma asks what duty sustains cosmic, social and personal order; Kant asks whether a maxim can be rationally universalised. That contrast places Varnashrama dharma, karma yoga, ahimsa and intention beside the categorical imperative and respect for persons. You will examine where these approaches...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with ethics: Bentham and consequencesBentham judges actions by their tendency to maximise pleasure and reduce pain, making consequences morally decisive. Hindu thought can share concern for welfare through ahimsa, compassion and lokasangraha, yet dharma, karma and moksha resist treating happiness as the only good. You will compare t...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with ethics: virtue and characterVirtue ethics asks what kind of person moral practice forms, making Aristotle's habituated virtues a natural partner for Hindu teachings on the gunas, yoga, karma and disciplined character. Ahimsa, self-control and devotion shape agents over time, but Hindu liberation is not identical to eudaimon...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with ethics: ethical theory classificationDoes Hindu ethics fit any single Western category? Dharma resembles deontological duty, karma highlights consequences, moksha supplies a teleological end, and yoga with the gunas forms character. Yet scriptures, social roles, devotion and internal diversity weave these features together. You will...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with ethics: human life and death issuesEmbryo research, cloning, designer babies and abortion test Hindu concern for developing life; euthanasia, assisted suicide and capital punishment bring compassion into conflict with non-harm and duty. You will place ahimsa, karma, dharma, samsara and the atman in dialogue with autonomy, conseque...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with ethics: animal life and death issuesAnimals share samsara and karmic significance with humans, giving ahimsa and compassion unusual force in debates about food, farming, research, cloning, organ use and sacrifice. Yet vegetarian practice varies, and reducing wider suffering may sometimes involve animal harm. You will bring Hindu re...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with ethics: theft and lyingAsteya condemns taking what is not rightly one's own, while satya treats truthful speech as a discipline that sustains trust and character. Dharma, karma, intention and ahimsa make both principles more than simple prohibitions, especially when theft relieves need or a lie prevents harm. You will...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with ethics: marriage, same-sex and transgenderMarriage can express grihastha duty, family continuity and religious partnership, while brahmacharya gives celibacy a distinct spiritual value. Same-sex relationships and transgender identities expose disagreements over Dharma Shastra, the Kama Sutra, Hindu narratives, non-harm and changing right...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with ethics: genetic engineeringEditing genes may relieve suffering through therapy, yet heritable changes, embryo research, animal modification and enhancement can also commodify life or impose irreversible harm. Hindu ethics brings ahimsa, karma, dharma, compassion and spiritual order into conversation with autonomy, utility,...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with ethics: wealthArtha recognises material prosperity as a legitimate human aim, but only under dharma and alongside the longer pursuit of moksha. Grihastha duties and dana can make wealth socially fruitful; aparigraha challenges hoarding, attachment and exploitation. You will evaluate how Hindus might judge earn...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with ethics: tolerance and religious freedomHindu pluralist sources can support tolerance, while ahimsa and dharma frame religious freedom as a question of non-harm, responsibility and social order. Rights protect worship and public expression, but no freedom is unlimited when coercion, incitement or discrimination follows. You will compar...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with ethics: freedom, responsibility, conscienceKarma links intention, action and consequence without reducing human life to fate, while the gunas, past action and social circumstances condition what can be chosen. Dharma directs freedom toward right conduct, and conscience becomes inner discernment tested by scripture, reason, gurus and commu...
3.2.3 - Dialogue with ethics: impact of ethical studiesKantian duty, Benthamite consequences and Aristotelian virtue each reveal something different about Hindu ethics, but they also press Hindu thinkers to restate dharma, karma, ahimsa, artha and moksha in new terms. Applied debates about life, wealth, science and freedom show that this influence is...
Component 2, option 2D: Islam (7062/2D)
Section A: Study of Islam
3.2.4 - The Qur’anWhy does the Qur'an possess unique authority for Muslims when every reading still requires interpretation? Its identity as kalam Allah, revelation delivered through Jibril, will be traced through oral transmission, the Uthmanic codex, Arabic recitation and respectful daily use. Translation and ta...
3.2.4 - The ProphetMuhammad is both the receiver of revelation and the pattern through which Muslims learn to live it. His title Khatam an-Nabiyyin establishes the finality of prophethood, while the Sunnah and hadith preserve contested knowledge of his example. Examining isnad, matn and Sunni, Shi'a, Ahmadi and Qur...
3.2.4 - ImamsAn imam may simply lead prayer, yet the Imams of Shi'a Islam make a much stronger claim to authority. Beginning with Ali and the Ahl al-Bayt, Twelver teaching presents them as divinely guided interpreters who preserve Muhammad's message without becoming prophets. Succession, infallibility, the hi...
3.2.4 - TawhidTawhid is more than the numerical claim that one God exists: Allah is unique, incomparable and the sole creator, sustainer and rightful object of worship. Qur'an 2:255, the Throne Verse, brings divine knowledge, power and transcendence together. Its teaching will illuminate why shirk is so seriou...
3.2.4 - Personal aspects of GodCalling Allah al-Rahman and al-Rahim, the Merciful and the Compassionate, makes divine relationship meaningful without making God human. Qur'anic references to Allah's hand and face sharpen that tension. Hanbali affirmation, Ash'ari interpretation and Mu'tazili emphasis on transcendence offer com...
3.2.4 - Aspects of the Sufi concept of GodSufi thought presses two claims together: Allah is incomparable and unknowable in Himself, yet creation can disclose divine presence. Through tanzih, tashbih, later readings of Ibn al-Arabi on wahdat al-wujud, fana, dhikr and Qur'an 24:35, the Verse of Light, this enquiry explores mystical nearne...
3.2.4 - Worship, moral test and afterlife preparationIf humans were created to worship Allah, does earthly life have value in itself or chiefly as preparation for Akhirah? Qur'an 51:56 presents worship as life's purpose, while Qur'an 67:2 describes life and death as a moral test. By widening ibadah beyond ritual, the discussion connects intention,...
3.2.4 - Al-QadrAllah's sovereignty seems to encompass every event, yet judgement assumes that human choices genuinely matter. Al-qadr therefore creates a theological puzzle about knowledge, power, freedom and responsibility. Mu'tazili appeals to divine justice, Ash'ari kasb, and the Shi'a concept of bada' provi...
3.2.4 - Akhirah (afterlife)Death does not end moral identity in Islamic belief: the ruh enters the mystery of Barzakh, resurrection restores the accountable person, and Allah's judgement leads to Jannah or Jahannam. Qur'an 47:15 supplies vivid imagery of reward and punishment. Literal, symbolic and soul-body interpretation...
3.2.4 - Good conductGood conduct in Islam joins outward action to inward formation. Akhlaq, adab, taqwa and the greater jihad show why obedience to Allah and Muhammad cannot be reduced to rule-following. At the same time, the distinction between Shari'ah and human fiqh, together with the five rulings from obligatory...
3.2.4 - Sanctity of lifeIf life is an amanah from Allah, its protection is powerful but not necessarily absolute. The sanctity of life will be applied to embryos, the unborn child and debates about ensoulment, before turning to lesser jihad as a duty of the Ummah. Prophetic warfare, non-combatant immunity, terrorism and...
3.2.4 - StewardshipHuman beings are neither owners of creation nor powerless observers within it. The Ummah's role as Khalifah makes environmental care and animal welfare an amanah under Allah, while mizan expresses the balance of creation. Qur'anic sources and changing knowledge about climate, pollution and intens...
3.2.4 - The concept of MuslimWho counts as Muslim when belief, practice, ancestry and community membership do not always align? Submission to Allah, the Shahadah and belonging to the Ummah establish shared Sunni and Shi'a foundations. Their different emphases on Sunnah, communal continuity, Ali and the Imamate then reveal wh...
3.2.4 - The Pillars of IslamThe Five Pillars turn submission to Allah into a repeated discipline of speech, body, time, wealth and pilgrimage. Their hadith-based Sunni framework will be connected to Shahadah, Salah, Zakah, Sawm and Hajj, with close attention to niyyah, daily and Jummah prayer, and Sunni-Shi'a differences. M...
3.2.4 - The mosqueA masjid is a place of prostration, but in Britain it can also become a school, welfare hub, civic voice and marker of public Muslim identity. The Prophet's mosque provides an early model, while London Central Mosque traces changing needs from worship to education and community work. Architecture...
3.2.4 - Gender and sexuality: historical influencesEmpire, post-war migration to Britain, secular law and changing social roles have altered the contexts in which Muslims discuss gender and sexuality. Qur'an, hadith and Shari'ah remain authoritative, but fiqh and lived practice show that interpretation is human and diverse. The resulting tension...
3.2.4 - Qasim Amin on the veilIn The Liberation of Women (1899), Qasim Amin argued that face-veiling and seclusion obstructed women's education, public participation and national progress. His Egyptian reform setting matters: “the veil” was never one universal practice. Qur'anic modesty, custom, colonial influence and other M...
3.2.4 - Women, Qur'an 4:34 and Amina WadudQur'an 4:34 concentrates a wider debate about authority, marriage and women's status into three disputed terms: qiwamah, nushuz and daraba. Amina Wadud's tawhidic hermeneutic reads responsibility without permanent male superiority and rejects interpretations that legitimise abuse. Classical, trad...
3.2.4 - Celibacy, marriage, same-sex and transgender mattersIslamic sexual ethics is commonly centred on nikah, yet contemporary Muslim lives raise questions that inherited categories do not settle simply. Celibacy and marriage, the Lut narratives and same-sex relationships, and transgender and intersex matters will be considered through Qur'an, hadith, f...
3.2.4 - Science's influence on Islam and Muslim responsesScientific evidence can revise explanations of nature, while Islam claims revelation supplies truth, purpose and moral guidance. Distinguishing methodological naturalism from philosophical materialism prevents that relationship becoming a simple conflict. Qur'anic reflection on creation, classica...
3.2.4 - Evolution, Big Bang and Muslim responsesThe Big Bang can appear compatible with creation, while Darwinian evolution puts sharper pressure on Adam, human uniqueness and moral responsibility. Qur'an 21:30 and passages about Adam receive literalist, harmonising and symbolic readings. Nidhal Guessoum, Shoaib Ahmed Malik and traditional obj...
3.2.4 - The importance of science in early Muslim thoughtThe Qur'an repeatedly invites reading, reasoning and attention to creation, giving ilm religious value without turning revelation into a laboratory manual. Translation, patronage and fields such as astronomy, medicine and mathematics show how early Muslim intellectual culture pursued knowledge. M...
3.2.4 - Muslim responses to genetic engineeringGenetic engineering can treat inherited disease, alter descendants or pursue enhancement, so no single ruling fits every use. Gene therapy and CRISPR will be distinguished from germline redesign through Muslim principles of preserving life, preventing harm, protecting lineage and respecting digni...
3.2.4 - Secularisation in the British contextSecularisation in Britain concerns religion's changing public authority, not the disappearance of every believer. It can replace revelation as a source of truth and morals, confine faith to private life, or present religion as irrational through militant atheism. Steve Bruce, Grace Davie and José...
3.2.4 - Materialistic secular valuesIslam can value lawful wealth while resisting consumerism, hoarding and possessions as measures of human worth; zakah and accountability recast wealth as a trust. Capital punishment creates a second confrontation with secular values. Tariq Ramadan's proposed moratorium and Sheikh Ahmad Ash-Sharab...
3.2.4 - Preserving Muslim identity: dressVisible dress can preserve Muslim identity in a secular public sphere, but it can also become a symbol defined by courts, schools or hostile observers. Hijab, khimar, jilbab and niqab involve different texts and levels of obligation. Qur'anic modesty, the Denbigh High School case, personal agency...
3.2.4 - Social relevance and liberationist approachesCan Islam answer secularisation by acting publicly against poverty and oppression? Tawhid, zakah and Qur'anic justice give liberationist approaches a religious foundation rather than mere social usefulness. Ali Shariati's appeal to Karbala and resistance, Farid Esack's anti-apartheid reading, and...
3.2.4 - Migration, diversity and religious pluralismPost-war migration created settled, long-established Muslim communities in Britain rather than a single migrant identity. South Asian, Arab, African, Turkish, Iranian, convert and other experiences complicate any simple picture of “British Islam.” The Ummah, citizenship, Article 9 religious freed...
3.2.4 - Exclusivism and Qur’an 3:85Qur'an 3:85 appears to ground exclusivism: Islam is final revelation and the path accepted by Allah. Yet “islam” can also mean submission, and the Qur'an speaks about the People of the Book and divine judgement. These tensions will clarify how doctrinal boundaries affect salvation claims and atti...
3.2.4 - Inclusivism and Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic faithsIslamic inclusivism affirms Islam as final truth while allowing that Allah's mercy may reach beyond formal membership of the Ummah. Qur'anic teaching on the People of the Book, Ibrahim's submission and fitrah provides resources for considering Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic faiths. The decisive disp...
3.2.4 - Freedom of religious expressionReligious freedom protects Muslims who pray, preach, dress and organise publicly, but it also protects critics, converts and people who leave Islam. Article 9, Qur'an 2:256 and da'wah provide legal and religious starting points. Blasphemy, offence, apostasy and public-order disputes will expose h...
Section B: Dialogue with philosophy of religion
3.2.4 - Dialogue with philosophy: GodCan tawhid be supported by reason, expressed meaningfully and kept coherent with Allah's power, mercy and transcendence? Qur'an 2:255 and Muslim kalam will meet Aquinas, Paley and Anselm, together with objections from Hume, Kant and Russell. Religious-language debates and faith as “belief in” or...
3.2.4 - Dialogue with philosophy: self, death and afterlifeBelief in Akhirah says the same morally responsible person survives death, passes through Barzakh and faces resurrection and judgement. Philosophy asks what that self is and how identity can continue when the body decays. The Islamic concepts of ruh, Jannah and Jahannam will be tested alongside C...
3.2.4 - Dialogue with philosophy: sources of wisdom and authorityThe Qur'an, Muhammad's Sunnah, hadith and the Shi'a Imams all claim authority through revelation, testimony or guided interpretation. Philosophy presses each claim: what evidence makes testimony reasonable, how can sacred language remain meaningful, and who resolves apparent tensions? Ijtihad sho...
3.2.4 - Dialogue with philosophy: religious experienceIslam gives religious experiences unequal authority: Muhammad's revelation founds communal belief, while Sufi dhikr, mystical awareness and dreams remain subject to Qur'an and tawhid. Otto, James and Stace help describe experience; Swinburne defends credulity and testimony; Freud supplies a natur...
3.2.4 - Dialogue with philosophy: science and religious discourseScientific discourse explains natural processes through evidence and revision; Islamic discourse speaks of Allah, revelation, signs and purpose. Their relationship depends on whether methodological naturalism becomes materialism and whether Qur'anic language is read as science, symbol or theology...
3.2.4 - Dialogue with philosophy: truth claims of other religionsIslam's claims about Allah, the Qur'an and Muhammad's final prophethood conflict with rival religious claims in ways that social tolerance cannot resolve. Qur'an 3:85, the People of the Book and fitrah support exclusivist and inclusivist readings, while pluralism presses further. Verification, re...
3.2.4 - Dialogue with philosophy: miraclesIslamic miracle language begins with ayat, signs that include revelation and creation, not only violations of natural law. The Qur'an's inimitability and reports of prophetic mu'jiza will be set against Hume's challenge to testimony and Wiles's objection to selective intervention. Distinguishing...
Section C: Dialogue with ethical studies
3.2.4 - Dialogue with ethics: deontological approaches with KantKant and Islam both take duty seriously, but they ground obligation differently. The categorical imperative derives universalisability and respect for persons from practical reason, whereas Muslim duties arise through Allah, revelation, Shari'ah and prophetic example. Niyyah, moral accountability...
3.2.4 - Dialogue with ethics: Bentham's consequentialismBentham judges actions by their tendency to maximise pleasure and reduce pain, using the felicific calculus as a practical guide. Muslim ethics also considers welfare, mercy and harm through maslahah and maqasid, but places them within revelation and accountability to Allah. The comparison will t...
3.2.4 - Dialogue with ethics: virtue and character-based ethicsAristotle asks what virtues, habits and practical wisdom enable human flourishing; Islam asks what kind of person worship and obedience form before Allah. Akhlaq, adab, taqwa, niyyah and Muhammad's example create a rich character ethic alongside Shari'ah. Comparing eudaimonia with a God-directed...
3.2.4 - Dialogue with ethics: ethical theory classificationCalling Muslim ethics deontological captures Shari'ah duties but misses its purposes; calling it consequential captures maslahah but not revealed limits. Maqasid introduces teleology, while akhlaq, niyyah and prophetic example make character indispensable. By applying all four classifications, th...
3.2.4 - Dialogue with ethics: human life and death issuesIslamic teaching treats human life as an amanah from Allah, yet sanctity does not settle every decision about its beginning or end. Ensoulment and lineage shape responses to embryo research, cloning, designer babies and abortion; intention, necessity, mercy and justice guide debates about euthana...
3.2.4 - Dialogue with ethics: animal life and death issuesMuslim ethics permits some uses of animals while insisting that they are Allah's creatures and communities with moral significance. Food and intensive farming, scientific procedures, cloning, blood sports and animal organs for transplant raise distinct questions. Khalifah, ihsan, halal rules and...
3.2.4 - Dialogue with ethics: theft and lyingTheft violates property and social trust; lying violates sidq and amanah, yet poverty, necessity and protection from grave harm create difficult cases. Qur'anic rules, Shari'ah thresholds, repentance and restitution will be compared with Kantian duties, consequential reasoning and virtue ethics....
3.2.4 - Dialogue with ethics: marriage, same-sex and transgenderMarriage as nikah, same-sex relationships in light of the Lut narratives, and transgender or intersex questions engage different sources and cannot be collapsed into one answer. Qur'an, Sunnah, Shari'ah and fiqh shape the main traditional pattern, while Muslim diversity complicates it. Duty, auto...
3.2.4 - Dialogue with ethics: genetic engineeringGene editing may heal disease, enhance traits or alter the inheritance of descendants. Muslim responses distinguish therapeutic from non-therapeutic aims and somatic from germline intervention through maqasid, lineage, dignity, harm and accountability to Allah. Deontological limits, consequential...
3.2.4 - Dialogue with ethics: wealthWealth in Islam is lawful to earn but never morally neutral: ownership remains accountable to Allah and to people in need. Qur'anic warnings about hoarding, riba, zakah and voluntary sadaqah frame duties of acquisition and redistribution. Kant, Bentham, Natural Moral Law and virtue ethics will pr...
3.2.4 - Dialogue with ethics: tolerance and religious freedomTolerance permits disagreement without coercion; it does not require Muslims to treat every belief as equally true. Qur'anic non-compulsion, justice and da'wah support public religious life while concern for sacred things and the Ummah can motivate limits. Autonomy, harm, utility, virtue and publ...
3.2.4 - Dialogue with ethics: freedom, responsibility, conscienceMoral judgement seems to require freedom, yet al-qadr affirms Allah's knowledge and decree. Mu'tazili agency, Ash'ari kasb and Shi'a bada' provide different accounts of responsibility, while fitrah, taqwa and conscience describe inward guidance. Ethical debates about determinism, intention, capac...
3.2.4 - Dialogue with ethics: impact of ethical studiesEthical study can support, challenge or redirect Muslim reasoning without automatically displacing revelation. Kantian duty, Benthamite consequences and Aristotelian virtue expose different features of Shari'ah, maqasid, maslahah, intention and character across issues from life and death to wealt...
Component 2, option 2E: Judaism (7062/2E)
Section A: Study of Judaism
3.2.5 - The TenakhIs the Tenakh God's complete, unchangeable word, or a divinely inspired collection shaped by human authors and editors? Distinguishing Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim, and comparing Orthodox and Progressive approaches, reveals why beliefs about revelation determine how the text guides synagogue worshi...
3.2.5 - The Babylonian TalmudThe Babylonian Talmud records not a single voice but centuries of rabbinic argument around the Mishnah and Gemara. Its relationship to the Oral Torah explains why the Bavli can carry immense halakhic authority while preserving disagreement. The enquiry compares Orthodox, Conservative and Progress...
3.2.5 - RabbisRabbis lead, teach and interpret, but their authority does not operate identically across contemporary Judaism. The rabbinic chain from Torah and Talmud to semikhah and the Beth Din grounds decisions on conversion, divorce and kashrut. These cases reveal whether rabbinic authority depends chiefly...
3.2.5 - MonotheismJewish monotheism affirms more than the existence of one deity: the Shema declares a God who is eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, creator and ruler of all. Maimonides' Thirteen Principles sharpen these claims, while his negative theology warns against reducing God to human categories. Their cohere...
3.2.5 - God as personalHow can Jews speak of God as King or Father without implying that God is male or physically human? Genesis 3:8 portrays God walking in the garden, bringing the power and difficulty of biblical anthropomorphism into view. Comparing literal and metaphorical readings reveals how personal language su...
3.2.5 - Martin BuberMartin Buber distinguishes I-It encounters, in which others become objects, from I-Thou relationships marked by genuine presence. God is the Eternal Thou encountered through such personal relation rather than an object to be analysed. Tracing this theology through Jewish life sets up the question...
3.2.5 - The meaning and purpose of lifeJewish accounts of life's purpose pull together commanded obedience, messianic hope and tikkun olam, the repair of the world. A personal Messiah, a future Messianic Age and present ethical action do not always receive equal emphasis across Jewish traditions. Comparison asks whether faithful obser...
3.2.5 - Life after deathJewish teaching about death contains several strands rather than one detailed map of the afterlife. I Samuel 28:11-20 and She'ol suggest continued existence; Maimonides' Thirteen Principles affirm bodily resurrection; the Pittsburgh Platform stresses immortality of the soul. Together, these views...
3.2.5 - Reincarnation in some kabbalistic thinkingGilgul, the transmigration of souls, belongs to some Kabbalistic traditions rather than to a universal Jewish creed. From the Sefer ha-Bahir and Zohar to Isaac Luria and Sha'ar HaGilgulim, reincarnation becomes tied to mitzvot, repentance and tikkun. The central debate is whether repeated embodim...
3.2.5 - Good moral conductWhy obey a mitzvah when circumstances appear to demand an exception? Jewish moral conduct joins covenantal obedience to genuine human freedom, reasoning and responsibility. The principle of pikuach nefesh, preserving life, brings halakhic decision-making into focus, especially the tension between...
3.2.5 - The sanctity of lifeIf every human life is sacred, when may Jewish ethics permit intervention in pregnancy or participation in war? The teaching that humans bear the image of God and the principle of pikuach nefesh support protection of life, yet embryo status, self-defence and weapons of mass destruction create com...
3.2.5 - StewardshipStewardship gives human beings power within creation, but also makes that power answerable to God. Genesis, bal tashchit and tza'ar ba'alei chayim frame Jewish responsibilities towards land, resources and animals. Modern knowledge of pollution, consumption and climate change raises the possibilit...
3.2.5 - What it means to be a JewJewish identity can refer to ancestry, halakhic status, covenant, practice, culture or self-understanding, and those meanings do not always coincide. Maternal descent, conversion and circumcision mark communal belonging in different ways, while bar and bat mitzvah recognise religious responsibili...
3.2.5 - Jewish identity in daily life and worshipClothing, a kosher kitchen and Shabbat can make Jewish identity visible in ordinary time, while synagogue worship, Yom Kippur and Pesach locate the individual within a worshipping community and shared memory. These practices differ markedly across Orthodox, Masorti, Reform and Liberal settings, s...
3.2.5 - The changing role of the synagogueThe synagogue developed as Jewish communities learned to sustain worship, study and identity beyond the Jerusalem Temple, especially during and after the Babylonian Exile. Today it may serve as house of prayer, house of study, school, social centre and place of pastoral care. Tracing that develop...
3.2.5 - Gender and sexuality: social change and authorityJewish debates about gender and sexuality have been reshaped by women's changing social roles, civil rights and new ways of interpreting Torah and Halakhah. Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Liberal communities do not resolve the tension between inherited authority and equality in the same way....
3.2.5 - Ordination of women as rabbisSince the 1970s, women's ordination has become a test of how Jewish communities understand rabbinic authority, equality and Halakhah. Reform, Liberal and Masorti movements have admitted women to the rabbinate, while Orthodox responses range from rejection to new forms of female religious leadersh...
3.2.5 - Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, agunot and minyanOrthodox feminism asks whether women's fuller participation can be achieved through Halakhah rather than by abandoning it. The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance focuses this question through agunot, women trapped by get refusal, and debates over women's place in communal prayer and minyan. JOFA's...
3.2.5 - Celibacy, marriage, same-sex and transgender mattersJewish teaching often celebrates marriage and family life, yet contemporary communities disagree sharply about celibacy, same-sex relationships and transgender identity. Torah, Halakhah, kavod habriyot and changing understandings of dignity pull arguments in different directions. Rachel Adler's c...
3.2.5 - How science influences Judaism and how Judaism respondsScientific habits of evidence and reason can unsettle inherited readings of scripture, but they can also deepen Jewish reflection on creation and stimulate new ethical questions. Examples from cosmology, evolution and genetic technology reveal responses ranging from conflict to independence and i...
3.2.5 - Maimonides on nature and the glory of GodFor Maimonides, studying the natural world can become an act of worship: contemplation of creation awakens love and awe of God. His Mishneh Torah links disciplined reasoning with religious devotion rather than treating science as a rival authority. This approach supports Jewish engagement with sc...
3.2.5 - Evolution, the Big Bang and Gerald SchroederJewish readings of Genesis face a double challenge from Darwinian evolution and Big Bang cosmology: how can creation express divine purpose without treating scripture as modern science? Gerald Schroeder brings relativity, cosmic time and rabbinic interpretation into a harmonising response. Its pe...
3.2.5 - Judaism and science: genetic engineeringGenetic engineering can heal disease and preserve life, yet the same power may enable enhancement, inequality or harmful interference with creation. Jewish reasoning brings pikuach nefesh, human dignity, stewardship and the prohibition of mixed kinds into the debate. Different Jewish responses dr...
3.2.5 - The challenge of secularisationSecularisation challenges Judaism when scientific or human reasoning replaces religion as a source of truth and morality, faith is confined to private life, and militant atheism portrays religion as irrational or socially dangerous. Its effects on belief, authority, communal identity and public p...
3.2.5 - GhettoismNehemiah 10:28-31 depicts separation as a means of preserving covenant identity, a strategy echoed in modern ghettoism. Yet insulation from secular society competes with assimilation and integration, each carrying different risks for practice, belonging and public participation. Distinguishing th...
3.2.5 - Wealth, possessions and materialistic secular valuesWealth can support family, learning and generosity, but materialistic secular values turn possessions into a measure of human worth. Torah and rabbinic teaching place ownership under divine obligation, while tzedakah treats giving as justice rather than optional charity. The resulting question is...
3.2.5 - Political Zionism and Religious ZionismPolitical Zionism and Religious Zionism can both support the State of Israel while grounding that support in very different claims. One emphasises human political action, security and national self-determination; the other reads return and statehood through Torah, covenant and redemption. Compari...
3.2.5 - Social relevance and liberationist approachesCan Judaism answer secularisation by showing that faith changes public life? Liberationist approaches connect prophetic justice, tzedakah and responsibility for the vulnerable with organised action against poverty and oppression. The Jewish Social Action Forum provides a concrete British example...
3.2.5 - Migration, diversity and religious pluralismMigration transformed Judaism in Britain, producing a community diverse in ancestry, observance and denomination within a wider multicultural society. European protections for freedom of religion create space for Jewish practice, while secular law and religious pluralism also reshape identity and...
3.2.5 - Pluralistic JudaismPluralistic Judaism treats disagreement among Jewish traditions as a reality to be engaged rather than erased. Recognition across Orthodox, Masorti, Reform and Liberal communities raises questions about authority, conversion, worship and shared identity; relations with other faiths extend them be...
3.2.5 - Chosen people and relationships with other faithsAt Sinai, chosenness binds Israel to covenant and responsibility, yet the idea can be misunderstood as a claim of ethnic or religious superiority. Jewish thinkers variously emphasise vocation, witness, distinct identity and universal moral concern. Torah sources and contrasting interpretations he...
3.2.5 - Judaism and freedom of religious expressionFreedom of religious expression protects practices such as Jewish dress, worship, dietary observance and Sabbath keeping, but no right operates without limits in a shared society. Jewish communities must negotiate secular law, equality, public safety and the rights of others. The difficult judgem...
3.2.5 - Maybaum and Rubenstein after the HolocaustAfter the Holocaust, can covenantal faith survive without explaining away catastrophic suffering? Ignatz Maybaum interprets the Shoah through churban, remnant and the suffering servant, whereas Richard Rubenstein speaks of the death of God and Covenant. Their opposition tests whether either theol...
Section B: Dialogue with philosophy of religion
3.2.5 - Dialogue with philosophy: GodJewish belief names God as one, creator and personal presence, yet each claim faces philosophical questions. The Shema and Maimonides support rational belief that, while biblical God-language and Buber's Eternal Thou foreground relational belief in. Reason, meaning and coherence therefore test wh...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with philosophy: self, death and afterlifeShe'ol, bodily resurrection, immortality of the soul and gilgul offer different Jewish accounts of what survives death. Philosophy presses them on evidence, personal identity, verification and divine justice: can such claims be meaningful or coherent if they cannot be tested now? The comparison p...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with philosophy: sources of wisdom and authorityThe Tenakh, Babylonian Talmud and rabbinic judgement can all guide Jewish life, but their authority rests on different relationships between revelation, interpretation and reason. Philosophical enquiry applies tests of meaning and coherence, while the distinction between "belief that" and "belief...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with philosophy: religious experienceSinai, prophecy and the continuing encounter with God through Torah and mitzvot give religious experience a central place in Jewish memory. Yet private or inherited testimony faces questions of evidence, interpretation and audience. Maimonides' caution about prophetic claims helps test whether su...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with philosophy: science and religious discourseScience explains through evidence, testable models and methodological naturalism; Jewish religious discourse also asks about creation, purpose and covenant. Maimonides can make reason a form of devotion, while Genesis and modern cosmology expose possible conflict between kinds of explanation. The...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with philosophy: truth claims of other religionsJudaism's covenantal truth claims meet rival claims from other religions within a plural society. Exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism each offer a different way to preserve conviction while recognising others, but each also alters how chosenness and revelation are understood. These three posit...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with philosophy: miraclesThe Exodus signs belong to Jewish memory, but can testimony to a miracle count as public evidence? Maimonides resists grounding faith merely in wonders, while Hume argues that reports of violated natural law are less credible than ordinary explanation. Their disagreement opens questions about whe...
Section C: Dialogue with ethical studies
3.2.5 - Dialogue with ethics: deontological approaches with KantJewish obedience to mitzvot and Halakhah resembles Kantian duty, but the resemblance has limits. Kant's categorical imperative grounds universal obligation in autonomous reason; Jewish commands arise within covenant, revelation and communal interpretation, with pikuach nefesh allowing exceptions...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with ethics: Bentham's consequentialismBentham asks which action maximises utility, whereas Jewish ethics weighs consequences within mitzvot, Halakhah and covenantal duties. Pikuach nefesh may justify setting aside commands to save life, yet sanctity, justice and neighbour-love resist reducing every choice to a welfare calculation. Ap...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with ethics: virtue and character-based ethicsVirtue ethics asks what kind of person one should become, shifting attention from isolated acts to character. Jewish practices of mitzvot, Halakhah and cultivating middot likewise form habits of justice, compassion and responsibility, but remain rooted in covenant and command. The comparison asks...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with ethics: ethical theory classificationDoes Jewish ethics fit any single philosophical category? Mitzvot and Halakhah appear deontological; pikuach nefesh attends to outcomes; covenant pursues purposes; cultivation of middot forms character. Concrete moral decisions will test deontological, teleological, consequential and character-ba...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with ethics: human life and death issuesJewish decisions about the beginning of life bring tzelem Elohim, the divine image, into tension with pikuach nefesh, the duty to preserve life. Embryo research, abortion, cloning and designer babies raise different questions about status, healing and harm; voluntary euthanasia, assisted suicide...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with ethics: animal life and death issuesUsing animals for food, intensive farming, experiments, cloning, blood sports or as sources of transplant organs raises competing claims about human need and non-human suffering. Jewish sources on stewardship and tza'ar ba'alei chayim meet consequence-based, duty-based and character ethics. Acros...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with ethics: theft and lyingTheft violates property and trust; lying can do the same, yet deception may sometimes protect peace or prevent harm. Torah prohibitions, Halakhah and Jewish teachings on honesty therefore meet duties, consequences and virtues in different ways. Difficult cases reveal whether either act is intrins...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with ethics: marriage, same-sex and transgenderMarriage, same-sex relationships and transgender identity expose deep disagreements about how Jewish ethics should balance Torah, Halakhah, covenant, human dignity and equality. Duty-based reasoning may defend inherited rules, while consequences and character focus attention on harm, inclusion an...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with ethics: genetic engineeringTherapeutic genetic engineering may fulfil pikuach nefesh by preventing disease, yet enhancement, unequal access and changes crossing species boundaries raise concerns about dignity, risk and kilayim. Jewish source reasoning meets duty, consequence and character-based ethics at each boundary. The...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with ethics: wealthJewish ethics neither condemns wealth itself nor allows ownership to escape obligation. Torah, Halakhah and tzedakah connect property with justice, dignity and care for the poor, while ethical theories ask about duty, utility and character. The debate considers whether voluntary generosity is eno...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with ethics: tolerance and religious freedomTolerance can protect disagreement without requiring approval, while freedom of religious expression gives belief a public form. Covenant and Halakhah support Jewish practice, but rights can conflict with harm prevention, equality and the freedom of others. Duty, consequences and virtue ethics he...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with ethics: freedom, responsibility, conscienceCommandments assume that choice matters, yet human decisions are shaped by desire, character, circumstance and communal authority. Torah, teshuvah and the yetzer hara connect free will with accountability, while conscience may illuminate or conflict with Halakhah. Comparison with hard determinism...
3.2.5 - Dialogue with ethics: impact of ethical studiesEthical studies do more than supply labels for Jewish positions: Kantian duty, utilitarian outcomes, virtue ethics and contemporary applied debates can expose tensions, sharpen arguments and sometimes reshape communal judgement. Jewish responses remain anchored in Torah, Halakhah, covenant and li...