Religious Studies key terms

A central Jewish declaration of faith in one God, beginning ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one’, traditionally recited morning and night.

An ancient Jewish concept of a shadowy realm of the dead, sometimes understood as a waiting place before resurrection or judgement.

The seven Jewish wedding blessings, praising God and celebrating creation, marriage and the couple’s happiness.

Associating partners with Allah or worshipping anything other than Allah; it contradicts Tawhid and is considered the gravest sin in Islam.

The traditional seven-day period of intensive mourning following a Jewish burial.

The Holocaust: the Nazi genocide of Jews. The Hebrew word means catastrophe.

A person trained and qualified to carry out shechitah.

A ram's horn sounded during Jewish worship, notably as a call to repentance at Rosh Hashanah.

A place regarded as sacred because of its religious associations, often visited for prayer and devotion.

A harvesting tool with a curved blade and a short handle, used to cut ripe crops.

The founder of Buddhism, who left a sheltered life of luxury to seek an answer to suffering and became the Buddha.

A Jewish prayer book containing the prayers and their order for daily worship and other occasions.

A Buddhist discourse in which the Buddha teaches Sigala about reciprocal responsibilities in everyday relationships, including marriage and family life.

A remarkable act which points to divine power and confirms the message being proclaimed.

Disobedience to God’s will or law, which damages a person’s relationship with God.

The covenant between God and the Israelites at Mount Sinai, mediated by Moses, through which the people undertook to obey God’s commandments.

A name meaning ‘lion’, used by many Sikh men to express shared Sikh identity rather than inherited caste status.

A family in which one parent raises a child or children.

A person who sins, meaning that they act against God’s will. In this passage, ‘sinners’ also identifies people regarded by the critics as outside respectable religious society.

People regarded as disobeying God’s law or living in a morally unacceptable way. In Mark, the label also helps explain why some people were socially rejected.

An ethical approach which judges actions by what is most loving in the particular circumstances, rather than simply applying fixed rules.

The main Sunni beliefs: Allah, angels, holy books, prophets, the Day of Judgement and predestination.

Generosity, morality, patience, energy, meditation and wisdom: qualities cultivated on the Bodhisattva path.

Generosity, morality, patience, energy, meditation and wisdom: virtues cultivated in Mahayana Buddhism to develop compassion and understanding and attain buddhahood.

An aggregate, or constituent, of physical and mental experience. The five skandhas are form, sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness.

The five changing aggregates that make up a person: physical form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations or volition, and consciousness. Also spelt khandhas.

An ethical action motivated by qualities such as compassion, understanding or generosity, which tends towards happiness rather than suffering.