IB World Religions SL — All Flashcards

One that names religion's content — for example E B Tylor's "belief in spiritual beings". Its weakness is that it excludes traditions with no creator god.

One that names what religion does — for example Durkheim's account of beliefs and practices uniting followers into one moral community. Its weakness is that it includes far too much.

One that treats religion as a family of shared features rather than a single test — Ninian Smart's seven dimensions. No tradition has to show all seven.

Ritual, narrative, experiential, doctrinal, ethical, social and institutional, material.

Rudolf Otto's term for what adherents describe as an encounter with something wholly other: mysterium tremendum et fascinans — overwhelming and deeply attractive at once.

Ineffable, noetic, transient, passive.

Because it does not teach a creator god, so a definition built on belief in gods or spirits leaves it outside — a result almost every scholar rejects.

Whichever definition is chosen decides which traditions count, so the choice is itself a claim about what religion is.

Attribution. Ask "who holds this?" before every sentence about a belief, and name them.

An account of a practice given in the community's own categories and for the community's own reasons — the insider's account.

An account given in categories brought from outside the community — social structure, gender, ritual theory. It is analysis, and should be labelled as such.

Bracketing: setting your own verdict on whether a belief is true to one side while you describe what adherents hold and do.

Treating an adherent's own reason as a cover story for a 'real' cause. The tell is the word "really" — "it is really just a social device".

One adherent speaks for themselves, not for a tradition. The IA criteria ask you to consider an interviewee's authority and appropriateness to your question.

Evidence based, balanced and neutral, as opposed to stereotypical and biased — and it must not flatten the internal diversity of a tradition.

"Adherents describe this as…", "In Orthodox Judaism…", "Most Theravada Buddhists hold…", "An observer would also note…".

Reliability, accuracy and perspective — the guide names all three.

What a community sets apart and treats as not ordinary. The profane is everything everyday — the word carries no judgement about worth.

A narrative that carries a community's understanding of origins, order and purpose. It says nothing about whether the events described happened.

A patterned action whose form is part of its meaning — repeated because the repetition matters, not out of empty habit.

A symbol participates in what it points to; adherents often treat the symbol and what it signifies as inseparable, rather than as label and thing.

Transcendent: beyond and outside the created world. Immanent: present and at work within it. Many traditions hold both of the same God.

All-powerful, all-knowing and all-good.

Using a human word of God in a related and greater sense rather than the ordinary one — Aquinas's answer to the problem that all our words come from the created world.

The negative or apophatic way: describing the divine only by saying what it is not. It appears in Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Hindu thought.

One God; many deities; one ultimate reality of which all is an expression; and traditions whose goal is not union with a creator God.

Sanatana dharma — the eternal teaching.

Shruti ("heard") is held to be revealed — the Vedas and Upanishads, the highest authority. Smriti ("remembered") was composed by named sages — the Mahabharata with the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, the Laws of Manu.

The self or soul. In Advaita Vedanta it is held to be identical with Brahman; other schools hold it to be real but distinct and dependent on God.

The endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth in which Hindus hold the atman to be caught.

A law by which actions carry consequences that shape future lives — not a verdict handed down by a judge. The guide adds that bad karma is held to corrupt the universe, not only the person acting.

Liberation: release from samsara and from the consequences of karma.

Jnana yoga — knowledge, through study and realisation. Bhakti yoga — devotion to a personal God. Karma yoga — right action without attachment to its results.

Duty as shaped by social category (varna and jati) and by stage of life — the classical framework within which dharma is fulfilled.

Whether the atman is identical with Brahman. Shankara's Advaita Vedanta says it is; Ramanuja and Madhva hold otherwise.

Vaishnava (Vishnu and his avatars), Shaiva (Shiva), Shakta (the Goddess), Smarta (several deities as forms of one reality).

Theravada (Pali Canon), Mahayana (Sanskrit sutras), Vajrayana (Mahayana scriptures plus the tantras).

The first mark of existence. "Suffering" is the usual rendering; "unsatisfactoriness" is better — nothing within samsara stays, so nothing within it can finally satisfy.

Craving or thirst: wanting things to be other than they are, and wanting what is passing to stay.

Anicca (change), dukkha (unsatisfactoriness), anatta (no permanent self).

The claim that there is no permanent self behind experience — a person is five changing skandhas. It is the sharpest difference from Hindu accounts, which hold that an atman travels through samsara.

Buddha, dhamma/dharma and sangha — what a Buddhist takes refuge in.

There is dukkha; its cause is craving; it can cease; and there is a path to that cessation — the Noble Eightfold Path.

Wisdom (right view, right intention); ethical conduct or sila (right speech, action, livelihood); mental discipline or bhavana (right effort, mindfulness, concentration).

To refrain from harming living beings, from taking what is not given, from sexual misconduct, from false speech, and from drink and drugs that cloud the mind.

In Mahayana Buddhism, one who seeks enlightenment for the sake of all beings rather than for themselves alone.

Nirvana is not a place and not a reward given by anyone. The word carries the sense of blowing out: what is extinguished is craving.

The first of the ten human Gurus of Sikhism, born in 1469 in the Punjab.

One who takes away darkness — spiritual ignorance — and brings light, spiritual understanding.

Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru, ended it and installed the scripture as the Guru — the Guru Granth Sahib, which Sikhs consult for all spiritual matters.

The symbol standing at the opening of the Guru Granth Sahib, representing God as one.

God as one and formless.

The divine spark or light Sikhs hold to be within every person.

Maya is the delusion that what is passing is what matters. Haumai is ego-centredness — living as though the self were the centre.

Kam (lust), lobh (covetousness), moh (attachment), krodh (anger), ahankar (pride).

Manmukh is the follower of the ego; gurmukh is God-centred, living by the Gurus' teachings and reached through God's grace.

Nam japna (continual meditation on God's name), kirat karni (earning an honest living), vand chhakna (sharing one's earnings with those in need).

Altruistic service to God and to humanity, regardless of birth or gender.

The realm of truth, where Sikhs hold God to be present — the last of five khands. Sikhs hold that a person may progress by effort but enters it through gurprasad, God's grace.

The free communal meal served in a gurdwara, open to anyone regardless of background.

The agreement Jews hold God made with Abraham, with Moses and with the Jewish people — the Jewish expression of monotheism, and the source of the mitzvot.

The five books of Moses, held to be revealed. The oral Torah is teaching Jews hold was given to Moses but not written down, later set out in the Mishnah and the Talmud.

The bad and good inclinations. Jews hold that free will is a constant choice between them; the bad inclination is to be directed, not destroyed.

Because Jews hold that human beings are created in God's image with free will, and remain able to choose throughout life.

Repentance — literally, turning. Rabbinic teaching adds that a wrong done to another person must be put right with that person; God does not forgive it on their behalf.

That Judaism emphasizes observance in this life rather than elaborating on the hereafter, while still expecting a Messianic Age in this world and Olam Ha-Ba, the world to come.

Repair of the universe — the thought that human action is part of how the world is put right.

Being the House of Israel or Chosen People; obeying all the mitzvot of the covenant revealed in the Torah; living according to the Shema.

"Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one" — recited morning and evening. Its words are placed in the mezuzah on the doorpost and in tefillin.

Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox: all mitzvot bind. Conservative: halakhah binds but develops. Reform and Liberal: the ethical mitzvot bind, ritual ones may be modified or set aside.

As chosen for responsibility — to keep the covenant — rather than as a claim to superiority. It is also why Judaism does not seek converts.

The three-fold nature of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit — described by Christians as a Christian expression of monotheism.

The Christian claim that Jesus is God incarnate — God become human.

A separation from God that human beings are born into, expressed through the story of Adam and Eve and the Fall. Christians hold that God provided a means of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Heaven (eternal union with God), purgatory (a staging post — Roman Catholic teaching, rejected by most Protestant churches), and hell (separation from God).

God's love for humanity and the means to salvation — salvation is held to be God's act, not a human achievement.

Jesus Christ as redeemer through his death on the cross.

Reconciliation between God and humanity through Christ.

Catholic and Orthodox churches describe a sacrament as the actual presence of God working through the sign and count seven. Most Protestant churches describe it as an outward sign of a blessing given by God and keep two.

Believing in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit; believing in Jesus Christ as Saviour; living by the teachings of Jesus; participating in the sacraments, as appropriate to the denomination.

Judaism holds free will is a standing choice between two inclinations, with no inherited separation from God. Christianity holds the separation is real and inherited, and closed from God's side through Christ.

Because the hope is tied to Christ's own rising from the dead; the creeds say "the resurrection of the body", and the wording is deliberate.

Islam means submission to the will of God; a muslim is one who submits.

The oneness of God — the Islamic expression of monotheism. Its opposite is shirk, associating anything with God, which Muslim teaching treats as the gravest error.

As messenger, not author. Muslims hold the Qur'an to be the literal speech of God, revealed in Arabic.

That humans must strive to submit to God's will, because without divine guidance they are likely to stray from the path of prescribed and prohibited actions God has set out.

Struggle — primarily the moral struggle to live as God directs. Muslim scholars distinguish it from the legal doctrine governing armed conflict, which is hedged with conditions. "Holy war" is not a defensible translation.

Janna, paradise, for the faithful through obedience to God's will; jahannam, hell, through disobedience.

The scriptures, angels, jinns, and akhira — life after death.

Shahadah (testimony of faith), salat (ritual prayer), zakat (almsgiving), sawm (the Ramadan fast), hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).

The practice of the Prophet Muhammad, together with the Hadith — his divinely inspired sayings. With the Qur'an it is the basis of Islamic teaching and law.

Sunni authority rests with the Qur'an, the Sunna and the consensus of the ulama, with four main schools of law; Shi'a authority also rests with the imams, held to be divinely guided, with the Ja'fari school and additional Hadith collections.

Because of tawhid, the oneness of God: representing God, or associating anything with God, is avoided. The Prophet Muhammad is not depicted.

Intention — required for an act of worship to count.

The Way — described in Taoist teaching as the source everything flows out of and returns to, as how things move when nothing forces them, and as our own original nature.

That the Tao is our original nature and nothing is evil, but that things are out of balance because human beings departed from the Way — civilization having tried to improve on nature, producing conflict and chaos.

We are already there, but have to realise it by becoming fully in accord with the Tao. Everything flows out of Tao and returns to Tao.

The invariable law of nature by which everything returns to a balanced state.

Non-action — usually explained as acting without forcing, in accord with how things already move. The guide phrases it as not interfering.

Yin is described as female, dark and receptive; yang as male, bright and assertive. They are complementary rather than good and evil, and balance between them is the aim.

The life force, which Taoist practice seeks to release.

A contemplative life in nature; taking no action; balancing yin with yang; reconciling opposites at a higher or intuitive level; releasing ch'i.

The central Taoist text, attributed to Laozi. It opens by saying that the Tao which can be spoken is not the eternal Tao.

Philosophical Taoism is concerned with living in accord with the Way; religious Taoism has temples, priests, deities and ritual. Both are part of the tradition.

The twenty-fourth tirthankara or "ford-maker". Jains do not describe him as founding the tradition, but as the most recent teacher of something without beginning.

Jiva is the soul, held to be pure and knowing by nature; ajiva is the world of matter, the non-living, in which the jiva becomes entangled.

Jains describe it as a fine material substance drawn to the soul by action, which weighs the jiva down within ajiva — not only as a law connecting action to consequence.

That humans are caught in samsara — the endless cycle of life, death and rebirth — characterised by ignorance and suffering, with the jiva weighed down within ajiva by collected karma.

Liberation of the jiva from the ajiva: the soul freed of karmic matter and remaining in its own nature.

A pure, omniscient consciousness, attained when the karma obscuring knowledge is destroyed. One who attains it is a kevalin.

Ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truthfulness), asteya (not taking what is not given), brahmacharya (chastity), aparigraha (non-attachment to possessions).

The five mahavratas are taken in full by ascetics; lay Jains take them in limited form, the anuvratas, within a set of twelve vows. The guide phrases this the other way round.

Vegetarianism and for many the avoidance of root vegetables; avoiding occupations that involve harm; among some monastics, sweeping the path ahead or wearing a cloth over the mouth.

Because if karma is a substance weighing the soul down, ahimsa and the vows can only stop new karma arriving. Fasting and bodily austerity shed what is already there.

Digambara ("sky-clad") monks renounce clothing, hold that a woman must be reborn as a man to attain liberation, and hold the original scriptures lost. Svetambara ("white-clad") monastics wear white, hold that women can attain liberation, and preserve a canon.

Baha'is hold that each child is born pure and holy, and that human beings were created with immortal souls and a dual nature: an animalistic and selfish side, and a spiritual side with reason.

The Manifestation of God for this age in Baha'i teaching, whose writings are the central Baha'i scripture. The Bab is regarded as his herald.

In Baha'i teaching, one through whom God's message is revealed to an age.

The Baha'i teaching that God has sent a succession of Manifestations, each teaching what humanity was ready to receive at the time. It must always be attributed to Baha'is.

As states, not places. Paradise is a state of perfection in harmony with God's will; hell a state of imperfection, far removed from God and in conflict with his will.

Acknowledging the oneness of God and the unity of the Manifestations; developing our divine attributes, including reason, and being involved in God's plan for humanity; aligning our lives with the teachings, laws and obligations revealed by Baha'u'llah.

Because Baha'is describe it as an independent revelation given through Baha'u'llah for this age. The unity of religion is a claim about God's plan, not a blending of practices.

The elected international governing body of the Baha'i Faith, which has no clergy.

The equality of women and men, universal education, and the elimination of extremes of wealth and poverty — all following from the oneness of humanity.

On the spiritual side of the dual nature, as one of the divine attributes to be developed. Baha'is often express this as the harmony of science and religion.

A lifetime rite that marks and sanctifies a stage of life. Hindu tradition describes sixteen; few families perform all of them.

Birth, naming a child, upanayana (the sacred thread ceremony), marriage, retirement, and death and cremation.

Brahmacharya (study of the Vedas), grihastha (married householder), vanaprastha (retirement), sannyasa (renunciation).

An image in which a deity is held to be present — not a representation the worshipper looks at.

Seeing the deity and being seen by the deity: Hindus describe worship before a murti as a mutual seeing.

The lamp ceremony: a lamp is circled before the murti with bells, conch or drum and bhajans, devotional songs.

Food offered to the deity and then shared among worshippers as blessed — receiving back what was given.

A personal deity chosen for devotion from among many, which is why two orthodox Hindu households may worship quite differently.

Pilgrimage — to sacred rivers, shrines and the kumbha-melas, the great bathing fairs. It is undertaken rather than obligatory.

Ritual purification with water, with which worship usually begins.

Community work, often undertaken at an ashram. The guide names it alongside pilgrimage.

Holi, Vaisakhi, Navaratri, Dasara and Divali — with regional, family and caste variations in all of them.

The calendar is luni-solar: months follow the moon and an extra month is added periodically to keep the year in step with the seasons.

Nine nights devoted to the Goddess in her forms. It is observed very differently across India — as fasting and worship, as garba dancing, or as displays of figures.

The same day marks Rama's defeat of Ravana in much of the north and Durga's victory in parts of the east and south.

Domestic puja is very often led by women, and there are major female deities and female gurus leading modern movements.

Samskaras exist for both sexes but with more emphasis on males, and upanayana has traditionally been for boys of the higher varnas.

Brahmins (priests and teachers), kshatriyas (rulers and warriors), vaishyas (merchants and farmers), shudras (servants and labourers).

Varna is the classical fourfold ordering discussed in the texts; jati is the far more numerous actual birth community a person belongs to.

Because it means "oppressed" and is the name the communities historically treated as untouchable use of themselves. "Untouchable" names a treatment, not a people.

As controversial within Hindu society, illegal as a form of discrimination, but in its own words "none-the-less habitual".

Shruti is "heard" — revealed, the Vedas and Upanishads, the highest authority. Smriti is "remembered" — composed by named sages: the Mahabharata with the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, the Laws of Manu.

For ritual purposes — hymns, formulae and instructions for sacrifice.

As written by the sages, as a kind of wisdom literature. They turn from ritual towards atman, Brahman and liberation.

Within the Mahabharata, and therefore among the smriti texts. It teaches the three yogas as means to moksha.

Nyaya and Vaishesika, Samkya and Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta.

One of nine sects founded by gurus, each with its own interpretation, practice and line of teachers.

Rig Veda X 108 and selections from the Atharva Veda; the Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya and Svetasvatara Upanishads; the Bhagavad Gita; and the Laws of Manu.

It splits. Shruti is Sanskrit and its exact sound is preserved in recitation; many smriti texts were written in local languages and travel without loss of standing.

Because it is recited, performed, televised and retold. Most Hindus know the Ramayana intimately and the Rig Veda not at all.

"The end of the Vedas" — it takes the Upanishads as its ground.

That it is built on right practice and conformity to tradition and duty rather than on correct belief. Sanatana dharma has no creed.

Saguna conceives God as personal, with form and qualities; nirguna as non-personal and without form. Both are at home in the tradition, often in one person.

Brahma, responsible for creation; Vishnu, for the preservation of creation; Shiva, for destruction.

An incarnation of a god or God. The concept belongs chiefly to Vishnu, notably as Krishna and Rama.

Divine feminine creative power, worshipped in its own right. All male gods also have female consorts who sustain the sanatana dharma.

Advaita Vedanta (Shankara): one, and separation is maya. Vishishtadvaita (Ramanuja): distinct but wholly dependent. Dvaita (Madhva): permanently distinct.

As liberation, and as union or intimacy with God, or freedom from samsara — depending on schools of thought. It deliberately does not settle which.

The qualities of the created world — the strands out of which what is experienced is woven.

The ego or body, from which the atman is to be released in attaining moksha.

Because many Hindus describe the deities as forms of one reality, closer to monism, while others worship a personal deity as God. Say what is held and by whom.

As the layering of beliefs and practices in India over thousands of years — original teachings probably Dravidian, layered over by Aryan migration — noting that few original Aryan gods are now significant.

The Vedas, the Brahmins, the Upanishads and the gurus.

Domestic worship, which is where most Hindu worship happens and which is very often led by women.

Nyaya and Vaishesika (logic and categories); Samkya and Yoga (consciousness and matter, with Patanjali); Mimamsa and Vedanta (Vedic ritual, and the Upanishads).

Samkya, Yoga and Vedanta — their influence in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita.

Bhakti yoga (devotion), jnana yoga (knowledge) and karma yoga (ethical action) — three sufficient means to moksha.

Roughly, the boundary of the orthodox schools — it distinguishes the darshanas from traditions that grew alongside Hinduism, such as Buddhism and Jainism.

Because authority is distributed and nothing can rule between readings, so a new reading becomes a sampradaya rather than a schism.

The tantric tradition, and Samkya's influence on Buddhism and Jainism — the subcontinent's schools developed in conversation with each other.

A Brahmin's comes by birth into the priestly varna and belongs to a group; a guru's comes by recognition as a teacher and is personal, earned in each generation.

Pilgrimage and festivals as group experience; the role of the guru; ashrams; meditation; and yoga.

If liberation is realisation (Shankara's Advaita), meditation is the characteristic experience; if it is nearness to a personal God (Ramanuja), devotion is. The schools disagree about what a religious life feels like.

Transmission person to person: a living teacher gives one student one worked-out reading, applied to their life, which no text can do alone.

A community of study, meditation and seva — community work — usually formed around a guru.

A path to moksha — jnana, bhakti or karma yoga — and also the disciplines associated with the Yoga darshana and Patanjali. Not an exercise class.

That it is not possible or necessary. It then names ISKCON, a modern missionary-type organization, and the Arya Samaj, which worked to restore Vedic religion.

Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Narayan and Sri Ramakrishna — for developments in Hinduism and its relations with other religions.

The traditional roles of women in worship and the home; the changing status of women in modern India and the diaspora; and female deities in scripture and festivals as role models, plus female gurus.

Because the guide itself names the changing status of women in modern India and in the diaspora, so the balance is currently moving.

Fulfilling one's role and duties as determined by caste — the varnashramadharma.

A person's own duty — what is theirs to do, shaped by varna, jati and stage of life. The first question in Hindu ethics is whose duty this is.

Dharma (religious and moral duty), artha (prosperity and the means of life), kama (pleasure). Moksha stands beyond all three.

That wealth and pleasure appear as objectives rather than concessions — placed inside the religious life and pursued within dharma.

To learn and recite the Vedas; to give puja to the gods; and to have a son, who traditionally performs the funeral rites.

Because it names a son specifically, resting on the tradition that a son performs the funeral rites, and Hindus debate it in view of its social consequences.

Sva-dharma, the texts (especially the Gita and the Laws of Manu), ahimsa as a cross-tradition principle, and the judgement of a guru and community.

Righteous war in defence of the sanatana dharma, defended in the Bhagavad Gita — the qualification that shows ahimsa functions as a weighty principle rather than an absolute.

Grihastha, the householder stage — which is part of why marriage is the central samskara for most Hindus.

Many Hindus are vegetarian, strongly associated with ahimsa and with Brahmin practice, though diet varies sharply by region, jati and community.

Controversial within Hindu society in India; illegal there as a form of discrimination but nonetheless habitual; in conflict with more egalitarian notions among Hindus in Western environments; and closely related to ideas of purity.

The treatment and worth of sentient creatures (ahimsa), diet, fasting, vegetarianism, protection of the weak, killing, suicide, euthanasia, abortion, sexual misconduct, and transgression of one's varnashramadharma.

Righteous war in defence of the sanatana dharma, defended in the Bhagavad Gita — the clearest qualification of ahimsa in the tradition.

Protection of the weak — an ethic of duty that asks for something as well as forbidding something.

Name the principle in the tradition's terms; apply it and show it pulling both ways; say who holds what; conclude on a degree.

Because there is no central authority to hold one position, and Hindu opinion and practice on most of these issues are genuinely divided.

B R Ambedkar, whose Dalit critique was far more radical and who shaped the constitutional abolition of untouchability in India.

The Buddha's teachings and the practices he laid down, especially for monks in the Vinaya. Later variations emerged in different schools.

The monastic rule laid down for the sangha. Buddhist ritual grew out of it, which is why the rites entering the sangha are the fullest.

Recitation of the Three Jewels, following the Five Precepts, puja (daily devotion), meditation, pilgrimage, funeral rites and punya/punna merit-transfer ceremonies.

Birth and marriage ceremonies. The absence shows that Buddhist ritual grew out of a monastic rule rather than out of household life.

Merit — accumulated by lay Buddhists through giving, keeping the precepts and attending festivals, and transferable, above all to the dead.

Veneration: living the Five Precepts, reciting the Three Jewels, puja, and following the Noble Eightfold Path.

The monks meditate, but most Buddhists do not — they venerate the Buddha.

A choreographed symbolic hand position, used to assist meditation and shown on Buddha statues.

Mudras, thangkas (Tibetan religious cloth paintings) and mandalas (sand paintings and diagrams). Also the Tibetan wheel of life.

Pabbajja is initiation into the sangha, often as a novice for a short period; upasampada is full ordination as a bhikkhu, from which the Vinaya governs the whole of life.

Wesak (Vaisakhi), Asala, Kathina, Vassa, Obon Matsuri in Japan, and a Mahayana New Year festival in spring.

In Theravada practice, the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death — all on one full-moon day in May.

The Buddha's conception, renunciation and first sermon — the setting in motion of the dhamma.

Vassa is the three-month rain retreat during which monastics stay in one place; Kathina is the giving of robes to monks at its close, one of the largest merit-making occasions of the year.

Homage to the dead, kept in Japan. It shows Buddhism taking the shape of the culture it entered — ancestor observance woven into a Mahayana setting.

Bhikkhus (monks) are traditionally ranked above bhikkhunis (nuns), and change is occurring in contemporary modern society.

A lay community of both genders and female bodhisattvas, the Taras; and humans seen as exemplifying both feminine and masculine principles, so given identical meditation exercises.

That females have an essential role in rituals involving sex, understood within the tradition as leading to liberation through the union of wisdom and compassion.

Individual meditation at home or collectively at a temple; festivals involve puja at home and attendance at a temple. Pilgrimage is present in both Theravada and Mahayana.

The Pali Canon — the Theravada scriptures. The name means "three baskets": the Vinaya, Sutta and Abhidhamma Pitakas.

Vinaya Pitaka — the monastic rule. Sutta Pitaka — the discourses, containing the Dhammapada. Abhidhamma Pitaka — systematic analysis of mind and experience.

The Dhammapada.

Prajnaparamita literature including the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra; the Sukhavati Sutras; and the Lotus Sutra, which describes the Pure Lands in which the Buddhas reside.

Oral transmission from the Buddha to the five arahants and from them to the monastic order — authority by lineage, not by revelation.

They accept that the arhats recited the Pali Canon, but hold that other scriptures are attributed to the bodhisattvas and that all of them are the words of the Buddha.

That Pali and Sanskrit represent different interpretations — Pali with Theravada, Sanskrit with Mahayana.

dukkha/duhkha, tanha/trishna, anicca/anitya, anatta/anatman, nibbana/nirvana. Also dhamma/dharma, kamma/karma, arahant/arhat, panna/prajna, bodhisatta/bodhisattva.

Samsara, maya, sangha, karuna, sila, bhavana and upaya — the guide notes that where only one word is given, the spelling is the same in both.

Shastras and agamas for Mahayana; the tantras for Vajrayana.

Buddha (the enlightened one), dhamma/dharma (the teachings, and the truth) and sangha (the community — monastic and lay). A Buddhist takes refuge in them.

Because the teaching is held to need a community to carry it — which is also why the Vinaya stands first in the Pali Canon.

Existence is unsatisfactory; its cause is craving; if the cause is removed the effect ceases; and a method for removing it exists — the Noble Eightfold Path.

Because it avoids both indulgence and extreme self-denial.

Nothing stays (anicca), so clinging sets a person up for loss (dukkha), and there is no unchanging self that the loss happens to (anatta).

The five aggregates a person is composed of — form, sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness. Nothing sits behind them.

It explains how one state gives rise to the next, so a process can continue across lives without any permanent self travelling — Buddhism's answer to the objection anatta invites.

Ignorance, desire and aversion.

The bodhisattva — attainment of nirvana not for oneself but Buddhahood for the sake of others — with Avalokiteshvara, Amitabha, Manjushri and the Taras named, and Buddhas in other realms.

Thirty-one planes of existence within three realms. All of them are inside samsara, so a heavenly rebirth is a better turn of the wheel rather than an escape from it.

In the dhamma, in the monastic sangha, in texts whose standing rests on transmission, and in Vajrayana Buddhism in a system of lamas. There is no pope and no binding council.

Lay people aim for punya, merit, to ensure a good rebirth; monks aim for nirvana. In Mahayana all can aim for nirvana and the higher goal of Buddhahood.

Theravada — "the Way of the Elders", the original form. Mahayana — "the Great Vehicle". Vajrayana — "the Diamond Vehicle".

Ch'an Buddhism in China, and Zen and Pure Land Buddhism in Japan.

Devotion to Amitabha Buddha and the aspiration to rebirth in his Pure Land. It is the most devotional Buddhist form and the least dependent on monastic practice.

Direct insight through meditation, emphasised over textual study — striking in a tradition where scriptural knowledge is elsewhere prized.

Theravada: Siddhartha Gotama, the historical Buddha. Mahayana: the historical Buddha and prominent bodhisattvas.

Because if doctrine can come from bodhisattvas too, the canon can grow, new practices can be authorised, and Buddhahood can be held open to everyone. Every Mahayana distinctive follows from it.

The spread of Buddhism and adaptations in the West — which tend to foreground meditation and downplay the monastic and merit structures that carry Buddhism in Asia.

Theravada: all boys spend some time in a monastery, and monastic life is the ideal. Mahayana: daily puja and service to monks. Vajrayana: learning from lamas.

That the monks meditate but most Buddhists do not — they venerate the Buddha.

Mental discipline, or meditation as formal training. One of the guide's key Buddhist concepts, and chiefly monastic.

As realising that all is maya, practising non-attachment, and moving towards nirvana — a turn within a life rather than a change of membership.

The Taras. The guide also names Avalokiteshvara, Amitabha and Manjushri among prominent bodhisattvas.

That in Theravada tradition the Buddha is described as male in previous lives, and that women are sometimes presented negatively in scripture — with reproduction linked to samsara and sexuality to desire.

That change is occurring in contemporary modern society — full bhikkhuni ordination has been restored by some Theravada communities and contested by others.

Ch'an and Zen centre meditation over textual study; Pure Land centres devotion to Amitabha. Two offshoots of one branch at opposite ends.

Ethical conduct — one of the three divisions of the Noble Eightfold Path, covering right speech, right action and right livelihood.

To refrain from harming living beings, from taking what is not given, from sexual misconduct, from false speech, and from drink and drugs that cloud the mind.

Because Buddhism has no lawgiver. They are training rules a person takes on, and breaking one has a kammic rather than a judicial consequence.

Action leading to a state of rebirth. The guide names its role in ethical action and intention specifically.

Because kamma is generated by the state of mind behind an act, so two people performing the same outward act can incur different kammic consequences.

Five training rules undertaken by lay Buddhists, against hundreds of detailed rules governing monastics — and the guide notes Theravada and Mahayana vinaya differ.

Bad kamma, and for the gravest offences expulsion from the monastery.

Skilfulness, or skill in means — adapting a teaching or action to what a particular person can receive. It explains the Buddha teaching different things to different audiences.

In Tibetan Buddhism, as an Avalokiteshvara — the bodhisattva of compassion. His authority is moral rather than legislative.

Sila (ethical conduct) supports bhavana (mental discipline), which supports panna (wisdom), which makes right conduct easier. They form one system, not three departments.

Karuna — compassion for all — and ahimsa, non-violence, which it singles out from the Five Precepts.

Because compassion without wisdom is held to misfire. "Compassion guided by wisdom" is the tradition's own formula.

The Five Precepts — especially ahimsa — and the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path.

No. There is no Buddhist equivalent of dharma yuddha or Christian just-war theory; the first Precept admits no exception.

Because kamma turns on intention, so violence damages the mind that performs it regardless of the cause — an argument unavailable to a tradition that locates wrongdoing only in outcomes.

Receiving bad kamma, and being expelled from the monastery — one automatic and impersonal, one a community decision.

Attempts to reclaim Tibet from China — where the Dalai Lama's non-violent position has been contested by younger Tibetans.

That Siddhartha Gotama abolished the caste system, and that little is said on the role or treatment of women. Both, in the same breath.

Recorded honestly, with the Buddhists who criticise it on Buddhist grounds named — neither idealising the tradition nor condemning it.

The status and role accorded to the human gurus, to the Guru Granth Sahib, and to the Khalsa.

The Guru Granth Sahib is opened at random and the first letter of the first word on the page gives the first letter of the child's name — so the scripture chooses it.

Initiation into the Khalsa panth. The guide says it is opted for by some Sikhs — it is not required of all, and a person raised Sikh is already a Sikh.

The four rounds a couple walk around the Guru Granth Sahib during anand karaj, the Sikh marriage ceremony, as its verses are sung.

The body is washed, dressed in the five Ks, prayers are said and the body cremated. Monuments over the dead are prohibited. An Akhand Path usually follows.

A continuous reading of the whole Guru Granth Sahib, taking about forty-eight hours. Shaj panth is the same reading spread over several days; sukhmani path is continual reading of the Sukhmani Sahib.

Diwan (reading from the Guru Granth Sahib), katha (talks explaining a passage or Sikh history), kirtan (meditative singing of God's Word), and Ardas (the standing prayer). Karah prashad is shared afterwards.

Installing the Guru Granth Sahib before dawn, and resting it at night — because it is treated as a living Guru rather than as a book about the Gurus.

No. Sikhs make a special effort to attend the gurdwara one day a week depending on the country they live in — in Britain, probably a Sunday.

Any place where the Guru Granth Sahib is installed. The building takes its identity from the scripture.

A mela is a fair or gathering — Vaisakhi is the chief one. A gurpurb commemorates a Guru's birth, death or martyrdom.

New Year's Eve, and the anniversary of the Khalsa being realized on Earth — celebrated with special services and a nagar kirtan, a procession of the Guru Granth Sahib.

For the release from captivity of Guru Hargobind. Hindus and Jains keep the same days for their own reasons.

Those of Guru Arjan and Guru Tegh Bahadur. Guru Tegh Bahadur is remembered as having died defending the religious freedom of Hindus.

Kesh (uncut hair), kangha (a comb), kara (a steel bracelet), kachhera (a cotton undergarment), kirpan (a sword).

A Sikh's duty to protect the weak and vulnerable. From kirpa, meaning grace, and ana, meaning honour.

The equality of birth and gender — and consequently the Rahit Maryada states that all roles in the gurdwara may be practised by anyone, including granthi and kirtan. Sikh first names are gender-free.

"The degree to which this is manifest in practice", and elsewhere that caste and gender issues do arise.

The free communal meal open to anyone at all, eaten seated together. In the setting where the Gurus taught, sitting together made caste distinction at the meal impossible rather than merely discouraged.

Altruistic service to God and humanity, regardless of birth or gender — performed by everyone including the wealthy, which is what stops it being charity done to people.

Sangat is the Sikh community at a local gurdwara; panth is the worldwide Sikh community.

The Primary Collection — the divine words uttered by the first five Gurus, together with some writings of Hindu bhagats and Muslim Pirs.

Guru Gobind Singh added the divine words uttered by Guru Tegh Bahadur, then installed the resulting book as his successor, ending the line of human Gurus.

The divinely revealed words of God, uttered by the ten human Gurus who were chosen by God for that purpose.

Because the authority lay in the words rather than in the men who spoke them — so the book that holds the words holds the authority.

"Life evidences" — four books of stories about the life of Guru Nanak. Revered and widely told, but not part of the Guru Granth Sahib.

The Collection of the Tenth Guru, associated with Guru Gobind Singh. Some compositions are used in daily prayer and in the amrit ceremony, and its authorship and standing are debated among Sikhs.

The Guru Granth Sahib is always read from the Gurmukhi text in the gurdwara, and translations are available in several languages — sometimes a translation is read after the Gurmukhi passage.

Because Sikhism is not exclusivist: it holds that God may be found in other faiths, and the Adi Granth includes Hindu bhagats and Muslim Pirs.

A random opening of the Guru Granth Sahib to obtain God's guidance — one of the ways Guru Gobind Singh told Sikhs to consult it.

Muslims hold the Qur'an to be the literal speech of God in Arabic, so a translation is only a translation. Sikh practice reads from Gurmukhi in the gurdwara and also translates the passage.

The "seed mantra" — the opening words of the Guru Granth Sahib, understood to be a summary of the whole scripture.

One God (ik onkar), formless (nirguna), the Creator (Akal Purukh), without fear or enmity, beyond birth and death, self-existent, and known through grace.

In the Guru Granth Sahib, which is understood as the living presence of God among God's people.

The divine spark within a person. It passes to another living being unless mukti has been achieved, in which case it enters the sach khand.

Five stages: dharam khand (duty), gian khand (knowledge), saram khand (effort), karam khand (grace) and sach khand (truth). A person may reach the third by practice; grace carries them beyond.

God's will, in accordance with which everything happens. The guide says Sikhs nevertheless have a responsibility to practise nam japna, kirat karni and vand ke chakna and to be gurmukh.

Haumai, ego-centredness, and maya, delusion. Doing the three duties is how a Sikh conquers them.

The Sikh code of conduct, written over twenty years by a committee of spiritual and knowledgeable Sikhs and published in the twentieth century. The concept dates from Guru Gobind Singh's time.

God the Creator — the Timeless Being. The universe and everything that happens in it accords with God's hukam.

Either during a person's lifetime or at death — and only through gurprasad, God's grace.

Consult the Guru Granth Sahib for all spiritual matters, and consult the Khalsa for temporal matters.

Differently by different Sikhs: some take it to mean the SGPC, others the management committee of their own local gurdwara.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, based in Amritsar, which manages all gurdwaras in Punjab and surrounding states under Indian secular law, and which published the Rahit Maryada.

A priesthood and jurists. The line of human gurus bequeathed authority to the Guru Granth Sahib instead.

One who reads the Guru Granth Sahib — a role the Rahit Maryada opens to anyone, with no sacramental function that depends on who performs it.

Holy men and women, named by the guide among the sources of authority. They are recognised for spiritual standing rather than appointed to office.

Khalsa Sikhs have taken amrit and keep the five Ks and the Rahit Maryada; sahajdhari Sikhs follow the Gurus' teaching without initiation, and in many communities are the majority.

A convert movement made up mostly of North American and some European Sikhs — notable because Sikhism does not encourage conversion.

Because it imports a Christian shape. Sikhs form one panth with variation inside it, all holding the same Guru Granth Sahib as Guru.

Worship both in the home and the gurdwara, and the practice of nam japna, kirat karni and vand ke chakna during the day.

Because the three duties are meant to be carried through ordinary working life. Every devout Sikh should meditate on God's name throughout the day, not at set hours apart from it.

Meditation on God's name, or on God's entire being and personality. The guide says every devout Sikh should practise it throughout the day.

On Sikh teaching God is nirguna, one and formless, so there is nothing to picture — but a name can be remembered. The practice is the one a formless God makes available.

Because Sikhism is not exclusivist and does not deny the validity of other faiths. The guide notes 3HO, a mostly North American and European convert movement, as the exception.

Cutting the hair, using tobacco, committing adultery, and eating halal meat.

A Khalsa Sikh who breaks a kurahit admits the fault before the Panj Piare at an amrit ceremony and is given a tankah, a penance. Taking amrit a second time is possible if the Panj Piare are assured of true penitence.

A second time is possible if the Panj Piare are assured the person is truly penitent. The guide says it would be most unusual for a Sikh to take amrit more than twice.

Sikhs believe in equality of humanity regardless of birth, gender or religion, but caste and gender issues do arise. Both halves, in one sentence.

There is no systematic manual of ethical practice and laws governing all Sikhs; these are to be discerned by meditating upon the Guru Granth Sahib.

It acts as a manual for Sikh behaviour, covering the organization of gurdwaras and rites of passage. Khalsa Sikhs promise to obey it in their daily lives.

The equality of humanity, the divine creation of the world, and behaving honestly in daily life.

Schools of law and a class of jurists. Sikhism has no priesthood or jurists, and directs Sikhs to the scripture for spiritual matters and to the Khalsa for temporal ones.

Because Khalsa Sikhs promise to obey it, so its authority over an individual rests on an undertaking they made — which is why breaking a kurahit is dealt with before the Panj Piare.

The guide calls them an outward expression of some ethical beliefs — most clearly the kirpan, from kirpa (grace) and ana (honour), symbolising the duty to protect the weak and vulnerable.

A random opening of the Guru Granth Sahib, taken as God's guidance — one of the ways Guru Gobind Singh told Sikhs to consult it.

The cost is that a new question may receive several Sikh answers; the gain is that no mechanism exists by which a ruling could harden into something the scripture would not support.

An outward expression of some ethical beliefs — most clearly the kirpan, from kirpa (grace) and ana (honour), symbolising a Sikh's duty to protect the weak and vulnerable.

Righteous war theory, developed by Guru Gobind Singh to LIMIT both when war is permitted and conduct during war. Its purpose is restraint.

Hinduism: dharma yuddha in the Bhagavad Gita. Christianity: just-war theory. Sikhism: dharam yudh, framed as a limit. Buddhism: no equivalent at all.

He is remembered as having died defending the religious freedom of Hindus rather than Sikhs — showing what protection of the vulnerable means, and connecting to the teaching that God may be found in other faiths.

The five Ks worn; langar, where everyone eats the same food seated together; sewa, performed by everyone; kirat karni, honest earning; and vand ke chakna, sharing what is earned.

That Sikhs believe in equality of humanity regardless of birth, gender or religion, but caste and gender issues do arise — and it asks about the degree to which the teaching is manifest.

The teaching at full strength; the gap the guide itself names; and the fact that Sikhs are the ones pointing at the gap, citing the Guru Granth Sahib against the practice.

A symbol can be worn without the conduct it stands for, and they are worn by initiated Khalsa Sikhs — so they describe a committed core rather than the whole panth.

The covenant Jews understand to have been made between God and Abraham, Moses and the Jewish people. Most Jewish rites are either a sign of it or an obligation under it.

A sign of being Jewish, the seal of the covenant, and a sign of obedience to God. Performed at eight days old.

A boy participates in the synagogue service as religiously adult, usually reading the Torah portion, and takes on all the obligations of the Torah. The error is calling the ceremony the bar mitzvah — he is.

The ketubah, the marriage contract according to the Law of Moses, and the get, the divorce contract required before an Orthodox Jew may remarry in a synagogue.

Hevra kadisha, the group preparing the body; shiva, the seven-day period after the funeral; a longer mourning period and stone-setting within the first year. Cremation is not permitted in Orthodox Judaism.

Shaharit (morning), minhah (afternoon) and ma'ariv (evening).

A blessing — a type of Jewish prayer in which God is blessed. The Kiddush, recited over wine at the beginning of a festival, is one.

Prayers for home and synagogue, including the Shema, Amidah and Alenu. Different movements within Judaism have different prayer books.

The food laws are ritual, and are seen as obligations by the Orthodox to express being set apart as a holy people.

Kippah or yarmulkah, mezuzah on the doorpost, tallit, tefillin, the spice box marking Shabbat's separation, and Shabbat candles.

Pesach (Passover), Weeks or Shavuot (Pentecost), and Sukkot (Tabernacles).

Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and repentance. Fasting expresses repentance.

History, religiously interpreted — so most festivals, weekly and annual, seek to recreate the Jewish experience.

Because the festival recreates the experience rather than commemorating it; those present are counted among the ones brought out.

Orthodoxy and Ultra-Orthodoxy. The rest hold that the ethical mitzvot are binding and that ritual mitzvot may be modified or abandoned if they do not serve their original purpose.

Because they are exempt from positive time-based mitzvot, notably communal prayer at set times, and a person not bound by an obligation cannot discharge it for others.

Sexual equality, so a girl becomes bat mitzvah and participates in the synagogue ceremony as religiously adult, usually reading the Torah portion; women can become rabbis and cantors.

Orthodoxy: Hebrew, except a vernacular prayer for the head of state. Reform: about half Hebrew, half vernacular. Liberal: tends to be more vernacular. All siddurim print Hebrew with translation opposite.

Cultural influences in nineteenth-century Germany; the Jewish enlightenment led some to reject belief in God's giving the entire Torah, written and oral, to Moses on Sinai.

Music differing between Ashkenazi and Sephardi cultural origins, arising from different migrations.

Divinely inspired written Torah — the five books of Moses — and oral Torah, held to be God's explanation of the written Torah, passed to Moses but not written down.

A collection of the oral law, compiled by the second century AD.

By containing debates between rabbis, and theological, philosophical and ethical works — so it preserves disagreement rather than resolving it.

Halakhah is Jewish law in the Talmud, from rabbinical debate on the Torah's legal material. Aggadah deals with ethics and moral values, including narrative on exemplary figures.

Torah first, then Nevi'im, then Ketuvim — oral transmission first, then committed to writing.

The development of the biblical principle of compensation behind "an eye for an eye" through rabbinic discussion in the Talmud.

The text with rabbinic commentary by Rashi and the law code by Maimonides printed around it.

Hebrew for the Bible, regarded as the sacred language; Aramaic for the Talmud; the vernacular translation printed opposite the Hebrew in every siddur.

Through law codes and responsa, a continuing process of rabbinic interpretation — though in Orthodoxy always going back to first principles.

Prayers relating to the state of Israel, the Holocaust and modern concerns.

Because the emphasis of Judaism is on obedience to the Torah rather than subscribing to a set of beliefs — yet key beliefs are important.

The oneness of God in the Shema; the holiness of God and the choosing of Israel as a holy people; the love of God and the human response; the justice of God as King and Creator.

Deuteronomy 6: 4–9; 11: 13–21; Numbers 15: 37–41.

The covenant between God and Abraham, Moses and the Jewish people. Jewish monotheism is expressed through a relationship rather than as an abstract claim about number.

A formal statement of Jewish faith, expressed in the Yigdal in the synagogue service.

On Jewish teaching God is the sole creator, gives human beings free will and requires their cooperation, struggling between good and bad inclinations, to produce a world of peace and justice for all.

The reparation of the universe — the human task of completing an unfinished world, listed by the guide under cosmology rather than ethics.

A fundamentally new age, coming after the Messianic Age of peace and justice for humankind. Judaism emphasizes observance in this life rather than elaborating on the hereafter.

That an individual Messiah, a human being anointed by God, will usher in the Messianic Age.

As a challenge to this faith posed by the death of six million Jews — a question put to the tradition, to which Jewish thinkers have given profoundly different answers.

The Bible and the Talmud. They differ over which mitzvot bind and over who may interpret.

Orthodoxy and Ultra-Orthodoxy hold all ritual and ethical mitzvot binding. Conservative, Reform and Liberal Judaism hold the ethical mitzvot binding and allow ritual mitzvot to be modified or abandoned if they do not serve their original purpose.

Ultra-Orthodox, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Liberal.

Prophets, priests in temple times, and rabbis — a historical sequence, since the priesthood belonged to a temple that no longer stands.

The rabbinic court. A potential convert must appear before it, and it decides questions of status.

Interpretation continues through law codes and responsa, but in Orthodoxy it always goes back to first principles rather than treating later rulings as free-standing.

Only Orthodox authority is accepted there, and laws of status — birth, adoption, conversion, marriage, divorce — follow Orthodox tradition, so no non-religious or non-synagogue marriage is allowed for Jews in Israel.

Cultural influences in nineteenth-century Germany; the Jewish enlightenment led some to reject belief in God's giving the entire Torah, written and oral, to Moses on Sinai.

Because it contains debates between rabbis rather than settled verdicts, so each generation must decide — which is why continuing rabbinic interpretation is built into the tradition.

Emphasis on belonging to a holy people, set apart by the obligations of the covenant.

History, religiously interpreted — so most festivals, weekly and annual, seek to recreate the Jewish experience.

"God brought us out of Egypt" places those present inside the account rather than telling them about ancestors — recreation rather than commemoration.

Ashkenazi and Sephardi music arising from different migrations, world distribution, and the chanting of the Torah in Orthodox worship.

Mysticism and ecstatic expression, including dancing, within a tradition otherwise described through law and obligation — variety of experience inside one religion.

As questions of assimilation, with tensions in the USA well expressed in Chaim Potok's novel The Chosen and the film based on it.

Because Judaism is not a missionary religion and is not believed to be the only path to God; it is seen as important for Jews to stay Jewish and be a witness to the Gentile world.

A period of study, particularly demanding in Orthodoxy, and an appearance before the Beth Din. In theory a convert is then as much a Jew as someone born of a Jewish mother.

Because only Orthodox authority is accepted in Israel, where laws of status follow Orthodox tradition — so an experience question becomes an authority question.

The Torah — love of God in Deuteronomy 6: 4, love of neighbour in Leviticus 19: 18, and the Golden Rule.

All the mitzvot are either ritual or ethical; the guide notes a good mixture of both in the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.

All ethical mitzvot are binding in all traditions. Only the ritual mitzvot are disputed, and only where they no longer serve their original purpose.

On Jewish teaching God is forgiving, but cannot forgive a person on behalf of another if that person has not tried to make amends.

Repentance, literally a turning — a change of direction rather than regret. It is formalised in the prayers of penitence before and during the High Holy Days.

Through halakhah — rabbinical debate based on interpretation of the Torah's legal material — continued in law codes and responsa, in Orthodoxy always going back to first principles.

The biblical principle behind "an eye for an eye" developed through rabbinic discussion into a law of compensation — the text developed rather than applied literally.

It is the part of the Talmud dealing with ethics and moral values, including narrative material on exemplary figures — so character is taught by story as well as conduct by rule.

A wife who remains anchored because her husband will not grant a get. Jewish divorce proceeds by a contract granted by the husband, and a get is required before an Orthodox Jew may remarry in a synagogue.

Reform and Liberal Judaism, through different approaches to evolving laws, find a way round the difficulty; Orthodox authorities seek remedies within the halakhah. The disagreement is about method, not about whether it is a hardship.

The importance of Jewish marriage and keeping a Jewish home; Orthodoxy is intolerant of marrying out of the faith; and there is a need for Jewish children to perpetuate the religion.

That the commandment is "Thou shalt not commit murder" — so the ethical question becomes which killing counts as murder.

It leads to respectful death rituals, and there are variations on views about abortion and contraception in the different traditions.

As vital for kashrut, and as promoting rather than violating animal rights. The guide adds that the Hebrew Bible is sensitive to both animals and nature — the sabbatical year for the land is its example.

Zionism is Jews who support the Jewish homeland in Israel, with variations both there and in the worldwide Jewish community about how best to be faithful to Judaism and yet promote peace and justice for all.

As a question about Jewish ethical reasoning: report the range of Jewish views and the sources they argue from, and do not supply a political verdict, which is not what is asked.

An outward sign of a blessing given by God (Protestant), or the actual presence of God (Catholic and Orthodox).

Baptism, reconciliation, Eucharist or Communion, confirmation or chrismation, holy orders, marriage, and the anointing of the sick.

They acknowledge all seven sacraments but emphasize only a few or even none.

Anointment with holy oil to confirm entrance into the Christian Church — the Orthodox form of confirmation, administered with baptism.

Baptism or dedication of an infant, believer's baptism or Communion, confirmation, conversion, marriage, and funeral rites.

Eucharist, Mass or the Lord's Supper; non-liturgical worship; and charismatic worship.

Individual and family prayers, Bible reading, meditation, and fasting.

Pope or patriarch, bishop, priest, vicar, deacon, pastor, lay minister.

Because what fills a building expresses what a church believes — icons as windows rather than decoration, a crucifix rather than a plain cross, holy water, reliquaries and vestments.

Because where a rite is held to make God actually present, the conditions on who may administer it are far stricter than where the rite is an outward sign of a blessing.

Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Ordinary Time, with denominational variations.

Pentecost, Ascension and saints' days.

Because Christian time is organised as a repeating year that walks through one life, with named seasons covering the whole year rather than isolated feast days.

Two items: the issue of authority, and the ordination of women.

Roman Catholic and Orthodox teaching reserves priestly ordination to men, on sacramental and traditional grounds. Many Protestant churches ordain women, appealing to the priesthood of all believers and to women's leadership in the earliest churches.

Doctrinal, cultural and gender — and the doctrinal factor generates most of the differences the other two colour.

The guide lists it under statements of belief as interpreted physically or allegorically — so a shared festival carries a real difference of belief.

Forty days of fasting and self-examination preparing for Easter, during which the private worship the guide lists — prayer, Bible reading, meditation, fasting — is intensified.

Because it carries the showing of Christ to the magi in the West and the baptism of Jesus in the Eastern churches — a variation the guide flags rather than an inconsistency.

Old Testament prophecies of Jesus (Isaiah), foundational laws, the Ten Commandments, prophetic books, the four Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, the letters of Paul and others, and the Book of Revelation.

The establishment of the Canon — the process by which the Church settled which writings belonged.

Literalism, the Bible as the Word of God; biblical criticism, meaning exegesis and interpretation; and individual interpretation.

Papal encyclicals for Roman Catholics, and sermons and books. The Apocrypha is listed among the key texts and is included in some Bibles and not others.

The Old Testament originally in Aramaic and Hebrew; the New Testament in Greek, aimed at different audiences, and translated into the vernacular.

The King James version, the Jerome Bible, and contemporary versions.

Because if the Church settled which books are scripture, the Bible's authority and the Church's are connected — which Catholic and Orthodox teaching accepts as mutual, and churches holding to scripture alone answer differently.

Because the contents of the Bible are themselves a denominational difference: Roman Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include books most Protestant Bibles place separately or omit.

Variations according to denominations; the authority of the Canon and its importance for Christians; and its use in public worship and private devotion.

The Ten Commandments; Matthew 5, the Beatitudes and other teachings of Jesus; the two great commandments; the Lord's Prayer; the acts and teachings of Paul; and the Councils, the papal bulls and encyclicals.

The three-fold nature of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit — a Christian expression of monotheism.

The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed.

Incarnation is Jesus as God incarnate; Logos is the Word of God incarnate as Jesus Christ.

An act or acts of rebellion against the will of God — defined by relation to a will, which is why the remedy Christians describe is reconciliation.

Atonement is reconciliation between God and humanity through Christ; redemption is Jesus Christ as redeemer through his death on the cross; grace is God's love for humanity and the means to salvation through faith in Jesus.

The guide glosses salvation as all believers being saved and living in God's presence, and the Kingdom of God as both an earthly and heavenly closeness to God.

The second coming of Christ, apocalypse, judgment, hell and purgatory, heaven, and salvation or eternal life.

Biblical cosmogony in Genesis 1 and 2; creation by a loving and personal God who is immanent and transcendent; and creationism versus evolution.

As the resurrection, physical or allegorical interpretation, together with the Ascension — so a shared belief is held in more than one way.

Divine authority: God and Jesus; authority of foundational figures, prophets and saints; church hierarchy and the authority of the person in different denominations.

Because the ministers list — pope or patriarch, bishop, priest, vicar, deacon, pastor, lay minister — is the authority answer. Who may preside and who governs are the same question.

Mainstream (Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Methodist and so on), Fundamentalism, Charismatic, Pentecostal, and non-denominationalism.

Because mainstream names institutions while Charismatic, Pentecostal and Fundamentalism name ways of being Christian that cut across institutions — and non-denominationalism names having none.

A sacrament as the actual presence of God requires an ordained priesthood and conditions on who may preside. A sacrament as an outward sign allows a pastor or lay minister a congregation has called.

The clause about whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone or from the Father and the Son. It contributed to the division between Eastern and Western Christianity — a single word in a creed.

A doctrinal claim rather than a style: the gifts of the Holy Spirit are expected to be exercised now, in the gathering itself, which is why the guide lists charismatic worship as a form of public worship.

That a congregation need belong to no denomination — which is itself a position about where church authority sits rather than a doctrinal distinctive.

Marriage, family life, work, or consecrated religious life among clergy, monks and nuns.

Daily private devotions; communal prayer; service to others; stewardship, grace, evangelism and mysticism.

Experience of God in the Bible, history, nature, people, the Church and Jesus — marked by adult baptism.

Because a tradition that treats a job and a household as callings has decided that holiness is available in ordinary life — a point the Reformation churches pressed explicitly.

Meditation and contemplation, and writers on spirituality.

The ordination of women in various denominations, and women mystics.

That religious authority and office are not the same thing: in churches where women could not be ordained, some exercised great authority through recognised experience, and their writings were read by clergy.

Judaism discourages it and is not a missionary religion, since it is not held to be the only path to God. Christianity lists evangelism among its practices, holding that believers are saved through faith in Jesus.

The expectation that the Holy Spirit acts in the gathering itself — a doctrinal position about how God acts now, expressed as a form of service.

The authority of the Bible, the authority of the Church, ecumenism, and the role of conscience.

Because the guide's own ethics list includes questions no biblical writer could have anticipated — embryo research, genetic engineering, ethical banking — so principles must be applied rather than quoted.

As binding — a person is obliged to follow their conscience — and as needing to be formed by scripture, by the Church's teaching and by reflection.

Roman Catholic teaching develops through encyclicals; Orthodoxy through synods within a continuous tradition; Anglican churches weigh scripture, tradition and reason; Free churches decide congregationally.

Because the churches have issued common statements on poverty, peace and the environment more readily than they have resolved doctrine — so Christian ethics is less fragmented than Christian doctrine.

How core teachings are applied to a contemporary issue. It is hard because the guide's list includes embryo research and genetic engineering, which no scriptural text addresses directly.

By reporting what each church teaches and the reasoning it gives, attributed by name. The syllabus asks for the positions and the reasoning, not for a verdict.

The Ten Commandments, the two great commandments, Matthew 5 and the Beatitudes, and the other teachings of Jesus.

Pacifism and "just war" theory — both developed from the same Gospels.

It restricts. Its conditions — just cause, proper authority, last resort, proportionality, protection of non-combatants — limit when war is permitted and how it is conducted.

Christianity has pacifism and just war; Sikhism has dharam yudh, developed to limit war; Judaism regards war as legitimate because the commandment forbids murder; Buddhism has no doctrine of righteous war.

Euthanasia, embryo research, genetic engineering and abortion.

That creation is entrusted rather than owned, so caring for it is owed to God. The guide lists it under both religious experience and environmental ethics.

That Genesis has been read as granting humanity dominion over the earth, and that this reading encouraged exploitation. Christians answer that dominion means trusteeship, answerable to the owner.

Crime and punishment; focus on poverty; ethical banking and business practice; homosexuals in ministry and homosexual marriages; family law; church and state; and blasphemy laws.

Because they weight the four sources of ethical authority differently, and because a church deciding centrally binds everyone at once while a church deciding congregationally will contain a range of positions.

On poverty, peace and stewardship of the environment, where common ecumenical statements exist — more readily than they agree on doctrine.

The unique status of the Qur'an, the roles accorded to imams, jurists and women, and the teachings of different branches of Islamic tradition.

Shahadah (testimony of faith), salat (ritual prayer), zakat (alms-giving), sawm (fasting in Ramadan), and hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).

The adhan marks the time; wudu is the ablution; and niyya, the intention, without which the act is not the ritual.

Salat is the obligatory ritual prayer at set times. Du'a is an individual verbal prayer of supplication, which the guide lists among the voluntary acts of worship.

The percentage, the beneficiaries, how it is collected — and it notes extra charity on the occasion of festivals or ceremonies such as the birth of a child.

The ill, the travelling, the pregnant and nursing, the very young and the elderly. The guide asks who is exempt AND WHY, because the exemption shows the fast is not an endurance test.

Birth: naming ceremony, shahadah recited to the baby, hair cutting, circumcision. Marriage: engagement, dowry, zawaj. Death: cleansing of body, ritual dress, prayers, burial.

Du'a, individual verbal prayers of supplication; visits to shrines and tombs, which the guide notes are opposed by Wahhabis; and Sufi dhikr and dance.

It has an additional section, naming Ali as God's friend — which is where the difference between the branches begins.

Because prayer is offered towards Mecca, so a Muslim anywhere in the world needs to know the direction.

Id al-Fitr, the festival of breaking the fast; Id al-Adha, the festival of the sacrifice; and Mawlid al-Nabi, the Prophet Muhammad's birthday.

Ashura, the day of martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn; Id al-Ghadir, the festival of the Prophet Muhammad's final sermon; and the birthdays of Fatima and of the imams.

A calendar built around the family of the Prophet — so the doctrine of imamate is expressed through the shape of the year.

All Pillars, especially prayer — location, purity issues, dress, timing; hajj and gender; shrine visitation and gender; death rituals and gender; and separate male and female worship, with mosque attendance compulsory for men only.

That they are a means of communal identity — dietary law marking a community at every meal.

The communal and social implications of jum'a and hajj; the issue of identity and umma solidarity; halal and haram; and spiritual and mystical experience through ritual.

Because the month moves through the solar year, so the daylight hours fasted change from year to year — part of why the exemptions exist.

Visits to shrines and tombs, listed under popular religion and Shi'ism among the voluntary acts of worship.

The guide calls halal and haram a means of communal identity, and says the Jewish food laws express being set apart as a holy people — the same kind of law with two accounts of its purpose.

Literally the speech of God, written in Arabic. Its composition is divine origin and revelation, with the Prophet Muhammad as messenger not author.

Because the actual Arabic words are imbued with sacredness, which gives importance to the act of recitation. A Qur'an in another language is regarded solely as a translation.

That it was collated during the Prophet Muhammad's lifetime, or during Caliph 'Uthman.

Different contexts changed the emphasis of themes — the Day of Judgment in Meccan suras, and umma in Medinan suras.

The sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions — and, for Shias, the sayings of the imams. The guide's word for their standing is inspiration.

Authenticity and historicity of the main collections, and the existence of additional Shi'i Hadiths.

The science of interpretation or exegesis of the Qur'an. Commentary has to observe certain rules or conditions, for example as proposed by the exegete Dehlavi.

Islam: the Arabic words are God's speech, so a translation is solely a translation. Judaism: Hebrew is the sacred language, with the translation printed opposite. Christianity: translated into the vernacular from the start, with several versions.

Because the Qur'an commands practices such as salat without setting out how they are performed; the Sunna of the Prophet, transmitted through the Hadith, supplies that.

Shahadah, tawhid, akhirah and Yawm al-din — plus the statement that Islam is not only belief but also practice.

Tawhid is the oneness of Allah, an Islamic expression of monotheism. Shirk is polytheism — associating anything with God.

Iman is faith in God; islam is submission to the will of Allah; risalah is God's message as it was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.

Akhirah is life after death; Yawm al-din is Judgment Day. The guide asks for the Day of Judgment and its signs, and for the life to come with its reward and punishment.

Allah as Creator — creation in time, creation at once — and the purpose of creation: of the world, of humankind, of angels and of jinns.

Because shirk is associating anything with God, so God is not depicted — which is why calligraphy and inscription rather than images are the major religious art.

It is a statement of belief and the first Pillar at once — the same words functioning as doctrine and as ritual act, valid only when uttered with niyya.

Christianity recites formal creeds settled at councils; Judaism has few formal statements because the emphasis is on obedience to the Torah. Islam fuses both in a single declaration that is also an act.

Because a tradition that has a word for unbelief is not indifferent to belief — which counts against any claim that Islam is only about practice.

The Prophet Muhammad (Sunna of the Prophet), previous prophets, caliphs, imams in Shia and Sunni thought, qadis and muftis, Shaykhs and Pirs in Sufism, and other leaders.

Four Sunni — Maliki, Hanbali, Hanafi and Shafi'i — and the Shi'i school, the Ja'faris.

Because the schools are recognised methods rather than rival institutions: a Muslim follows one, and a question may be answered differently in another without either leaving Islam.

Mutakallimun (theologians), philosophers, and the different interpretations offered by Sufis and Shi'is.

Because in Sunnism it names the person who leads prayer, while in Shi'a thought the Imams are the line of authority descended from the Prophet's family. The guide lists imams in Shia and Sunni thought.

The ulama are the religious scholars; a qadi is a judge; a mufti gives a legal opinion. Authority here is earned by learning rather than conferred by ordination.

As a mystical strand within both branches rather than a third branch — the guide lists Sufi interpretations under schools of thought and Shaykhs and Pirs under authority of the person.

Roman Catholicism has a teaching office that can define a question for all Catholics; Sikhism has no priesthood or jurists at all; Islam sits between, with an undisputed text and a scholarly class whose rulings bind those who accept them.

Jum'a (Friday prayer), sawm (fasting), du'a (individual verbal prayers of supplication), and hajj as a communal and personal experience.

The Sufi recitation or remembrance of the name of Allah — listed by the guide alongside Sufi dance and meditation.

That it is the collective experience of the re-enactment of the martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn — an event performed rather than remembered.

Because an account built only from the Pillars and the schools of law makes Islam sound like a legal system, and Sufi dhikr, dance and meditation show the same tradition pursuing direct awareness of God.

Visits to shrines and tombs, which it lists under popular religion and Shi'ism and notes are opposed by Wahhabis.

Studies on conversion using psychological, social, emotional and other approaches; percentages of converts; the issue of mixed marriages; and ethnic identity, naming the Nation of Islam and the Chinese Hui.

By declaring the shahadah with niyya, intention. No institution approves it and no period of study is required.

Judaism discourages it and is not a missionary religion; Christianity lists evangelism among its practices; Islam requires only the declaration with intention, and the guide asks for percentages of converts.

Prayer and pilgrimage, and first-hand accounts by women — including female mystics in Islam.

The Qur'an, the Hadith, the Sunnah, and the interpretation of the ulema.

Ethics — the guide's Theme 5 entry calls it moral conduct and moral principles.

Love for human beings, protection of the weak, and respect for elders.

Sharia is divine law; qanun is secular law. The guide's qanun examples are votes for women, education and commercial law; family law is its sharia example.

Marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance — the guide's own list.

Because five schools of law interpret the sources differently and each Muslim-majority state arranges sharia and qanun for itself. Name a school or a country, or describe the range.

It supplies worked examples: the practice of the Prophet Muhammad, transmitted through the Hadith, showing how the revelation was applied by the one who received it.

Islam has ulema, qadis, muftis and five schools of law. The guide says Sikhism has no priesthood and no jurists, and that ethics are discerned by meditating on the Guru Granth Sahib.

The key-concept gloss is struggle. The guide lists jihad as moral struggle under ethical practice, and jihad of the sword separately under transgression.

Start from the gloss, give both of the guide's entries with their placements, note that Muslim jurists developed conditions on the use of force, and say that the word's public use is disputed among Muslims.

Christianity has pacifism and just war; Judaism regards war as legitimate because the commandment forbids murder; Sikhism has dharam yudh, developed to limit war; Islam has jihad as moral struggle and jihad of the sword; Buddhism has no equivalent.

Love for human beings, protection of the weak, respect for elders; killing, suicide, marriage, polygamy, divorce, abortion, sexual conduct, dress, and jihad as moral struggle.

As modesty — the principle — and the issue of different types of veiling, such as the hijab, as the practices that express it.

Marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance. It is governed by sharia in many Muslim-majority states, while qanun covers commerce, education and public life.

Because a prohibition formulated centuries ago met a modern financial system, and jurists and bankers built instruments designed to satisfy it — religious law generating a new institution.

Christianity, which lists blasphemy laws under its Theme 5, and Islam, which lists blasphemy under its own — so a comparative answer is possible.

Nine questions, one per introductory tradition, in three sections matching the guide's three columns. Answer five, at least one from each section. 1 h 15 min, 45 marks, 30%.

1 Hinduism, 2 Buddhism, 3 Sikhism, 4 Judaism, 5 Christianity, 6 Islam, 7 Taoism, 8 Jainism, 9 Bahá'í Faith. The order never changes.

3 marks, AO1: knowledge and understanding of a key idea or concept associated with the passage. Bullet points are allowed.

6 marks from May 2017 (7 before), AO2: understanding and application of that idea in relation to the passage and the religion.

Part (a) against a question-specific markscheme. Part (b) against a question-specific markscheme plus the part (b) markbands, using a best-fit approach.

Roughly one minute reading the passage, four on part (a) and ten on part (b) — the marks are 3 and 6, so the time should follow.

The at-least-one-per-section rule is broken, and the extra question does not count. Section C cannot be avoided.

Explain, and only Explain. The amendments made the change so that candidates could reach the higher marks.

Application and analysis of knowledge and understanding — the guide's AO2 terms are Analyse, Distinguish and Explain.

Terminology (incorrect → mostly accurate → accurate throughout) and examples (vague → do not always support → effectively support).

That the response displays little understanding of the demands of the question and is descriptive in nature — so an accurate description alone lands there.

Attribute and name the concept; give the tradition's own reason; support it with one example that carries the point; tie it back to the passage.

About ten minutes, four or five carefully built sentences. It is 6 of the question's 9 marks.

It went from 7 marks to 6, making the paper total 45 rather than 50, and Explain became its only command term. The curriculum did not change.

Fourteen essay questions in two sections: two on each in-depth religion plus one open-ended question per section. Answer two, one from each section. 1 h 30 min, 30 marks, 45%.

Question 7 and question 14, answerable on any of that section's three religions. It requires specific examples contextualized by denomination, culture and geography; broad generalizations earn no credit.

Compare; compare and contrast; contrast; discuss; evaluate; examine; justify; to what extent.

Several sides presented with supporting evidence, then a balanced conclusion. It is the most common term on this paper.

An argument about how far the statement holds, both ways, closing on a degree supported by the evidence — not a simple yes or no.

Set up the question and define terms; build the strongest case with specific examples; give the other side its best run, usually from inside the tradition; conclude by answering, with a supported degree.

Forty-five minutes per essay — roughly five planning and forty writing — and start the second at the halfway mark whatever state the first is in.

Five levels, A–E, evenly spread over 15 marks per essay, from May 2017. Before that: six levels A–F over 20 marks.

Accurate terminology; an argument supported by the analysis; connections between beliefs, concepts, practices and teachings that are developed rather than identified; a developed evaluation.

Identified: you notice two things are related and say so. Developed: you show how the connection works and what follows from it. That is the 7–9 / 10–12 boundary.

A developed evaluation — weighing the argument itself, its limits and assumptions, as part of the argument. The 10–12 band has a partially developed evaluation.

The examiner finds the band the response most closely matches overall, compensating where it falls between two, rather than requiring every descriptor.

Changed: paper 1 part (b) 7→6 marks and total 50→45; paper 2 essays 20→15 and total 40→30; markbands A–F→A–E. Unchanged: the weightings (30/45/25), the IA, and the curriculum.

Superficial, anecdotal or common-sense — following a descriptive response with minimal knowledge and little relevant terminology.

An investigative study of an aspect of the religious experience, practice or belief of a group and/or individual adherents. 1,500–1,800 words, 30 marks, 25% of the grade, 20 teaching hours.

A visit to a sacred place, building or museum; a study of artefacts; attendance at an act of worship; an interview or interviews; or a study using a range of sources. Any religion at all.

A rationale and preliminary research (8), B plan for study (3), C summary of significant findings (6), D critical reflection and evaluation (10), E references and compliance with format (3).

A rationale for the topic; the focus formulated as a question; a range of sources outlined and justified; and supporting evidence selected and analysed, showing how it informs the study.

A clearly stated, narrowly focused research question; the scope and plan outlined; and the relationship between the question and the scope and plan identified.

It names who and where, and makes clear what evidence would count as an answer — narrow enough that one visit and a few interviews could settle something.

Titles, citations, references and appendices.

To say what that source can tell you about your particular research question — and what it cannot.

Choosing the study; preparing (preliminary research first); interviewing; recording what was said; and representing the tradition in the written analysis.

That their authority and appropriateness to the research project must be considered, and that they must not be misrepresented — for example by being quoted out of context.

Representation must be evidence based, balanced and neutral rather than stereotypical and biased, and generalizations that miss the internal diversity of a tradition are to be avoided.

Reliability, accuracy and perspective — the guide names all three.

Because the guide calls the IA an academic exercise requiring preliminary research, criterion A rewards it, and it stops an interview being spent on basics a book could supply.

Open rather than leading — asking what a practice means to the person rather than suggesting an answer — and prepared in advance so it can go in an appendix.

Identifying and outlining the significant findings from observation, interview and/or participation; explaining how they relate to the research question; and discussing the rationale and plan in relation to them.

Critical reflection on the findings against the research question; showing how the study deepens understanding of religious experience or belief; identifying misconceptions and inconsistencies resulting from the plan and materials; and judging how far the research succeeded, justifying future research.

No more than 1,800 words; a list of references in a consistent standard format, including interviews; and the prescribed format of the written analysis.

Assessment is based on the first 1,800 words, and the work is also penalised under criterion E. Work significantly below the range is likely to score low.

A diary reports what happened in order; findings report only what bears on the research question, identified as significant and with the reason given.

In proportion to the marks — roughly 450–500 on A, 150–200 on B, 350–400 on C, 600–650 on D. Criterion E costs no words.

Criterion D, critical reflection and evaluation: 10 of the 30 marks, a third of the internal assessment.