Edexcel GCSE Religious Studies A key terms

A performance in which actors use speech, movement and actions to represent characters and events. Christian drama communicates biblical stories and religious beliefs.

Personal supplication: calling upon Allah for help, guidance or other needs.

Suffering or unsatisfactoriness, including the inability of changing experiences to provide lasting satisfaction.

A Hindu philosophical tradition which teaches that individual souls and God remain distinct.

The Christian festival celebrating Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

A gathering of Catholic bishops from across the world, with the Pope, to discuss and authoritatively teach on matters affecting the whole Church.

The movement towards greater unity and cooperation between Christian churches and denominations.

A sign that brings about the spiritual effect it signifies, rather than merely representing it.

Something that brings about an effect, rather than merely describing its purpose or what it is made from.

The belief that men and women have equal worth and should share authority, with family responsibilities determined by needs and abilities rather than fixed by sex.

Eight interconnected practices of wisdom, ethical conduct and mental training that lead towards the ending of suffering and nibbana.

Another form of the name Elijah: an Old Testament prophet whose return was expected before the coming of the Messiah.

Understanding another person's feelings and experience, including their suffering.

Evidence obtained through observation or experiment.

An official letter from the Pope used to teach and guide the Church.

Awakening to the truth about existence and becoming free from ignorance and craving.

Protecting the natural world from damage, including caring for animals, plants, water and the places where living things depend on one another.

A letter; in the New Testament, a letter offering Christian communities or individuals teaching and guidance.

The equal inherent worth of every person. Catholic teaching holds that men and women have this dignity because both are created in the image of God.

Having the same human worth and dignity; Christians disagree over whether this always requires identical religious roles.

Christian beliefs about death, life after death and the end of the world.

Existing without beginning or end. Christians believe God is eternal and therefore was not created.

Life with God that endures beyond death; in Mark 10:30, Jesus promises it ‘in the age to come’.

A judgement about what is morally right or wrong and how a person should act.

The Christian celebration using bread and wine that recalls Jesus’ Last Supper and his saving death; also called Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper.

Prayerful worship of Christ really present in the consecrated Eucharist.

Deliberately ending another person’s life to relieve suffering.