Religious Studies key terms

A way of living and challenging injustice that respects others and uses alternatives to violence and war.

Opposing injustice without using violence, for example through peaceful marches or boycotts.

Opposing injustice through methods that do not use physical violence, such as peaceful demonstrations or boycotts.

Opposing injustice through methods that do not use violence, such as peaceful protest or refusing to cooperate.

Euthanasia carried out when the person is unable to give consent, for example because they are unconscious.

Prophethood: belief that Allah chooses prophets to communicate his guidance to humanity.

Discouraging an attack by threatening retaliation with nuclear weapons.

A family consisting of two parents and their children.

A weapon that releases enormous energy through a nuclear reaction, causing destruction through blast, heat and radiation.

A religious duty that a believer is required to fulfil.

A person who has committed a crime.

An item presented at a shrine to express respect and gratitude, often also symbolising a Buddhist teaching.

Hebrew for ‘the world to come’; it can refer to the afterlife or a future messianic era.

The belief that God is all-loving and perfectly good.

Being wholly good and loving.

All-loving; perfectly good and loving towards all creation.

The quality of being all-powerful; religious believers may use this to explain God’s ability to create the universe.

All-powerful; able to do anything that is possible. Believers may interpret miracles as evidence of God’s power over nature.

Present everywhere, rather than confined to one location.

Knowing everything.

All-knowing; knowing everything, including people’s thoughts and the past, present and future.

A Jewish mourner in the period between a close relative's death and the funeral, responsible for arranging the funeral and traditionally exempt from positive religious obligations. Also written as onen.

The belief that there is only one God, not several gods.

The Sikh belief that all human beings belong to one human family, created by the same God and sharing equal worth.

The tradition of teachings explaining how to interpret and apply the written Torah, originally passed on orally.

The process of formally appointing someone to religious ministry, such as becoming a priest.

The fallen condition inherited by humanity as a result of the first human disobedience to God; Catholics believe baptism removes it.