People who agree about everything else

Two people belong to the same church. They have read the same scriptures, they attend the same services, and they agree about almost everything. They disagree completely about whether someone who has divorced should be able to marry again in church. ⚠️ THE USUAL EXPLANATION IS THAT ONE OF THEM IS MORE RELIGIOUS THAN THE OTHER, OR LESS MODERN. NEITHER IS USUALLY TRUE, AND NEITHER WILL EARN YOU ANY MARKS. Here is what is actually going on, and it is the idea this whole module runs on. They are not disagreeing about the facts. Both know what their tradition has taught. They are disagreeing about what has the FINAL SAY when several good sources point in different directions. One gives the greatest weight to the plain words of scripture. The other gives it to the teaching of the church as it has developed. A third person might give it to their own conscience, formed by prayer. A fourth to what compassion in this particular case seems to require. ⚠️ ALL FOUR ARE ARGUING AS BELIEVERS. WHAT SEPARATES THEM IS NOT HOW MUCH THEY BELIEVE BUT WHAT THEY TREAT AS THE FINAL AUTHORITY. Once you can hear that, two useful things follow. You stop being surprised that a religion contains disagreement, which is just what living traditions are like. ⚠️ AND YOU CAN FOLLOW AN ARGUMENT IN A TRADITION YOU HAVE ONLY JUST STARTED STUDYING, because the shape of the disagreement carries across even when the content does not. That matters a great deal on this course, and step 5 explains why.

Five places an answer can come from

When a religious question is contested, these are the places people look. Most traditions use all five; what differs, between traditions and within them, is which one wins when they conflict.

Match each argument to what it appeals to

"The text says what it says, and it has not stopped meaning that because the century changed."
"Our community has considered this question for a very long time, and its settled teaching should carry more weight than any one reading."
"I have thought and prayed about this at length, and I cannot in good faith reach the conclusion I am being offered."
"Look at what each option would actually do to the people involved, and choose the one that causes least harm."
"Whatever the official position says, this is what most people in our congregation now actually do and accept."

SCRIPTURE, because the appeal is to the authority of the sacred text itself
TRADITION, because the appeal is to the accumulated teaching of the community over time
CONSCIENCE, because the appeal is to the speaker's own formed moral judgement
REASON, because the appeal is to argument and to the consequences of each option
COMMUNITY CONSENSUS, because the appeal is to what the believing community has come to accept in practice

What are they actually disagreeing about

Two members of the same religious community disagree about whether contraception is acceptable. Both can quote the same teachings accurately and both say they are trying to be faithful. What is the most useful thing to say about their disagreement?

They are weighting the sources of authority differently: what one treats as decisive, the other treats as one consideration among several
One of them must be less committed to the religion than the other
One of them has misunderstood the teachings
The disagreement is simply between an old view and a modern one

The three places you have to ask

Component 1 expects you to draw on BOTH religions you study and on non-religious views. You study Christianity, plus ONE world faith your centre chose from Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism. So the same question has to be put in three places, and only the first is the same for everyone.

True about this theme

Select the TWO statements that are true.

Showing disagreement within a religion is part of what is assessed, not just disagreement between religions
Non-religious views are a distinct position with their own reasoning, rather than simply the absence of a religious one
Each religion has one official answer to each issue, which is the one to learn
Every candidate on this route studies the same second religion

How to revise a topic like this without misrepresenting anyone

Two habits are worth more than any list of views you could memorise, and both are about accuracy. ⚠️ FIRST: STATE A POSITION SO THAT SOMEONE WHO HOLDS IT WOULD RECOGNISE IT. That is the honest test and it is also the examiner's test. If a believer would read your sentence and say "that is not why we think that", it is not an accurate answer, however confidently it is written. Which means writing the REASON, not just the position. Not "Catholics are against it" but "the Catholic Church teaches that, because it holds X". The reason is where the understanding shows. ⚠️ AND USE THE HEDGES, BECAUSE THEY ARE ACCURATE RATHER THAN TIMID. "Many", "most", "some", "traditionally", "the official teaching is". A sentence beginning "Christians believe" is almost always overstating, and an examiner reading "many Christians hold, although others argue" can see you know the tradition is not uniform. The hedge is not weakness, it is precision. SECOND: BUILD YOUR REVISION AROUND ISSUES, NOT AROUND RELIGIONS. Take one issue at a time, and for each one collect: what Christianity says and why, what your second religion says and why, what a non-religious view says and why, and where each of those three disagrees INTERNALLY. ⚠️ THAT LAST COLUMN IS THE ONE STUDENTS LEAVE EMPTY, AND IT IS HALF THE ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVE. Your second religion is the part no general resource can fill in for you, because centres choose different ones. Get it from your own lessons, and ask the same questions of it that you ask of Christianity. Then, when you come to write an evaluation, you will have the material ready. Constructing that evaluation is its own skill, and it has its own module.

One issue, and why the views inside it differ

Take marriage and divorce, and watch the disagreement form. Start with what is widely shared. Across the major religious traditions, marriage is generally treated as more than a private arrangement between two people. It is commonly understood as a commitment made before the community, and often before God, and as something intended to last. ⚠️ THAT MUCH IS BROADLY COMMON GROUND, and noticing it is worth marks, because similarities are assessed alongside differences. Now the question that divides. If a marriage has genuinely broken down, what follows? Where someone starts from the sacred texts and reads them as directly binding, the commitment tends to be treated as not dissoluble, and divorce is regarded as something that should not happen even where the law permits it. Where someone starts from the developed teaching of their community, there may be established procedures for particular cases, and the answer depends on how those procedures are understood and applied. Where someone starts from the situation of the people involved, the reasoning tends to run through compassion: a marriage that has become harmful is doing none of the things the commitment was for. ⚠️ NOTICE WHAT HAS AND HAS NOT HAPPENED. NOBODY HAS ABANDONED THEIR RELIGION. NOBODY HAS DENIED THAT MARRIAGE MATTERS. They have arrived at different places because they gave the final say to different things. And a non-religious view enters the same way. A Humanist would generally argue from the wellbeing of the people involved and from consequences, which is why it often lands near the third position while reaching it by a different route. ⚠️ THAT DISTINCTION, SAME CONCLUSION BUT DIFFERENT REASONING, IS EXACTLY THE KIND OF OBSERVATION THAT SEPARATES A STRONG ANSWER FROM A LIST. ⚠️ THE SAME PATTERN RUNS THROUGH EVERY ISSUE IN THIS THEME. Cohabitation, the roles of the family, gender equality, sexual relationships and contraception all divide along the same lines, and the specific teachings of the religions you study are what you bring from your own course.

Order the questions to ask of any tradition

A reliable order for working out what a religion you are just beginning to study holds about a relationships issue.

Ask what this tradition takes the PURPOSE of marriage, family or sexual relationships to be
Ask which sources it treats as authoritative, and which of them tends to win when they conflict
Ask what its most widely held position on the issue is, and what reason is given for it
Ask who within the tradition disagrees, and which source of authority they are appealing to instead
Ask how a non-religious view would reason about the same issue, and whether it lands anywhere near

The relationships run

Five questions on how these disagreements work. Three lives.

Spot the true relationships and belief facts

Tap the TWO statements that are true.

Disagreement within a religious tradition usually reflects different weightings of authority rather than different levels of commitment
Non-religious views are a distinct position with their own reasoning, not simply the absence of a religious view
Each religion has one official answer per issue, and that is the one to learn
Words such as "many" and "some" should be avoided, because they make an answer look uncertain

Complete the sources of authority facts

An argument that appeals to the authority of the sacred text itself is appealing to _____. One that appeals to the accumulated teaching of a religious community over time is appealing to _____. One that appeals to a person's own formed moral judgement is appealing to _____. One that appeals to argument, evidence and the consequences of each option is appealing to _____.

scripture tradition conscience reason community consensus revelation ritual pilgrimage

Build an accurately stated view

Assemble a sentence that states a religious position the way an examiner, and a believer, would both recognise.

Three answers to improve

Three pieces of student writing. Each answer has to carry the reasoning, not just the verdict.

A student writes: "Christians think couples should not live together before marriage." What is the main problem?
Asked for a non-religious view on family life, a student writes: "Non-religious people do not really have a view, they just do what they want." How should this be corrected?
A student has revised Christianity and Humanism thoroughly for this theme but has almost nothing on their second religion. What is the most useful advice?

Explain why one religion contains several views

A classmate is frustrated that their textbook keeps saying "some believers think this, others think that". They want to know the single right answer for each religion so they can learn it. Write them an explanation.

Explain why a single religion can contain genuinely different positions on a relationships issue, using the idea of sources of authority
Name at least three of those sources and say what an argument appealing to each would sound like
Explain why stating a position without the reason behind it does not show understanding
Explain why non-religious views such as Humanism are a distinct position rather than the absence of one
Finish by explaining what your classmate should actually do about the second religion their centre studies, and why no general revision guide can do it for them

Issues of Relationships

Use it, the way the marks are given

What you'll cover