AQA GCSE Religious Studies key terms

The day when Allah judges everyone according to how they have lived.

The Buddhist teaching that things and experiences arise in dependence on causes and supporting conditions, rather than existing independently. Also called dependent origination or paticcasamupada.

Discouraging an attack by making an opponent fear the consequences, such as retaliation.

The Buddha’s teachings; also the truth about existence that he realised and the path of practice based on that truth.

A Buddhist collection of verses containing teachings attributed to the Buddha.

The reduction or removal of weapons; nuclear disarmament concerns reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons.

Teaching a child appropriate behaviour, boundaries and responsibility.

In just war theory, distinguishing between combatants and non-combatants so that innocent civilians are not deliberately targeted.

God’s assessment of a person’s deeds, associated with accountability, reward and punishment.

The legal ending of a marriage.

Suffering or unsatisfactoriness, including pain, the loss of temporary pleasures and the inability of changing experiences to provide lasting satisfaction.

Awakening to the truth about existence, overcoming ignorance and attaining liberation from suffering.

A relationship in which both partners have equal importance and share decisions and responsibilities.

A Latin phrase meaning ‘out of nothing’: the belief that God created without using pre-existing material.

A family including relatives beyond parents and their children, such as grandparents, aunts and uncles. They do not necessarily live together.

Holding extreme views with intolerance towards other viewpoints; some forms support violence to achieve their aims.

Trust in God and commitment to Jesus Christ, rather than simply knowing that Christian beliefs exist.

Bringing someone up with knowledge of a religion’s beliefs, values and practices.

Remaining loyal to a partner and keeping the commitment to an exclusive relationship.

Adam and Eve’s first disobedience to God and the resulting loss of harmony between humanity and God.

A group of people related by blood, marriage or adoption.

Deciding whether and when to have children, how many to have and how to space pregnancies.

Five voluntary Buddhist ethical commitments: to refrain from taking life, taking what is not given, misusing the senses, speaking falsehoods and taking intoxicants that cloud the mind.

Pardoning someone for wrongdoing, showing mercy and letting go of resentment towards them.

The physical aspect of a person, including the body and its sense organs.

The Buddha’s four central teachings about suffering, its causes, its cessation and the path leading to its cessation.

The encounters with an old man, a sick person, a dead body and a holy man that prompted Siddhartha Gautama to seek a spiritual solution to suffering.