OCR A Level Religious Studies H573

Complete Specification — A/A* Master Notes

A rule:* Every essay page should contain: precise scholar → argument → reasoning → example → objection → response → evaluative judgement.

Assessment

H573/01 — Philosophy of Religion

• 2 hours
• 120 marks
• 33.3%

H573/02 — Religion and Ethics

• 2 hours
• 120 marks
• 33.3%

H573/03–07 — Developments in Religious Thought

• 2 hours
• 120 marks
• 33.3%

Choose one:

• 03 Christianity
• 04 Islam
• 05 Judaism
• 06 Buddhism
• 07 Hinduism

COMPONENT 01 — PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

Ancient Philosophical Influences

Plato

Theory of Forms

The world of appearances is:

• changing;
• imperfect;
• temporary.

The Forms are:

• eternal;
• perfect;
• immutable;
• intelligible.

Highest Form: Form of the Good.

Analogy of the Cave

Prisoners mistake shadows for reality.

Represents:

• ignorance;
• philosophical enlightenment;
• distinction between appearance and reality.

A* evaluation: Plato explains universals and objective value, but critics question whether a separate realm of Forms is necessary.

Aristotle

Rejects separate Forms.

Four Causes

• material;
• formal;
• efficient;
• final.

Example: statue

• material = bronze
• formal = shape
• efficient = sculptor
• final = purpose.

Prime Mover

Everything moves from potentiality to actuality.

An infinite regress of movers is rejected.

Prime Mover:

• pure actuality;
• unmoved;
• final cause;
• object of desire/thought.

A*: Aristotle's Prime Mover is not straightforwardly the personal God of classical Christianity.

Soul, Mind and Body

Plato — Dualism

Soul is distinct from body and capable of existing independently.

Body can distract soul from truth.

Aristotle

Soul is the form of the body.

More integrated than Platonic substance dualism.

Descartes

Mind: thinking, non-extended substance.

Body: extended physical substance.

Cogito:

thinking establishes existence of thinking self.

Problem: interaction between non-physical mind and physical body.

Materialism

Mental states depend on physical brain.

Dawkins-style materialism

Human persons can be explained biologically without immortal soul.

Evaluation: materialism fits neuroscience but faces questions about consciousness and personal identity.

Arguments for God's Existence

Teleological Argument

Aquinas' Fifth Way

Natural objects appear directed toward ends.

Non-intelligent things require intelligent direction.

Paley

Watchmaker analogy.

Order, complexity and purpose imply designer.

Hume

Challenges:

• weak analogy;
• imperfect world;
• multiple designers possible;
• cannot infer infinite/perfect God.

Darwin

Natural selection explains biological adaptation without direct design.

A*: Evolution attacks a specific biological-design inference, not every possible fine-tuning argument.

Cosmological Argument

Aquinas

First Way: motion.

Second: efficient causation.

Third: contingency.

All seek a foundational explanation.

Russell

Universe may be a brute fact.

Hume

Question applying causal reasoning beyond observed experience.

A*: Even if a necessary cause exists, further argument is needed to identify it with the God of religion.

Ontological Argument

Anselm

God: that than which nothing greater can be conceived.

If God existed only in mind, a greater being existing in reality could be conceived.

Therefore God exists necessarily.

Gaunilo

Perfect island objection.

Descartes

Existence belongs to supremely perfect being.

Kant

Existence is not a real predicate.

A*: central issue is whether necessary existence can be derived analytically from a concept.

Religious Experience

Mystical

Associated with union with divine/ultimate reality.

William James

Features:

• ineffability;
• noetic quality;
• transiency;
• passivity.

Numinous — Otto

Encounter with: mysterium tremendum et fascinans.

Conversion

Sudden or gradual transformation of belief/life.

Corporate Experience

Shared religious experience.

Swinburne

Principle of Credulity

Normally trust apparent experiences unless reason not to.

Principle of Testimony

Normally trust sincere reports of others.

Challenges:

• hallucination;
• drugs;
• psychology;
• conflicting religions.

A*: a natural explanation of the mechanism does not automatically disprove a religious interpretation.

Problem of Evil

Logical Problem

How can evil coexist with an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent God?

Evidential Problem

Quantity/intensity of apparently pointless suffering counts against God's existence.

Augustine

Evil is privation of good.

God created everything good.

Moral evil: misuse of free will.

Natural evil: traditionally connected to disorder following Fall.

Strength: protects divine goodness.

Problems:

• evolutionary history;
• inherited consequences;
• why create possibility of catastrophic fall?

Irenaeus / Hick

Humans created immature and develop morally.

World is a vale of soul-making.

Epistemic distance protects genuine freedom.

Strength: explains why challenge can have purpose.

Problem: extreme suffering can destroy rather than improve character.

Nature or Attributes of God

Omnipotence

God is all-powerful.

Questions:

• can God do logically impossible?
• can God limit own power?

Omniscience

God knows all truths.

Issue: divine foreknowledge vs human free will.

Omnibenevolence

Perfect goodness.

Problem of evil directly challenges this.

Eternity

Boethius

God possesses whole of life simultaneously: eternal present.

This may reconcile foreknowledge with freedom because God does not know future events before they occur.

Everlasting view

God exists through temporal succession.

Religious Language

Apophatic / Via Negativa

Speak about God by saying what God is not.

Strength: preserves transcendence.

Weakness: may provide too little positive content.

Analogy — Aquinas

God-language is neither:

• univocal;
• entirely equivocal.

Analogical language communicates partial similarity.

Symbol — Tillich

Symbols participate in reality to which they point and open deeper levels of meaning.

Weakness: symbolic claims may become difficult to evaluate for truth.

Verification — Ayer

Logical positivism: meaningful claims are analytic or empirically verifiable.

Religious metaphysical claims challenged.

Hick — Eschatological Verification

Some claims may be verifiable after death.

Falsification — Flew

Believers may refuse to allow any evidence to count against God-claims.

Hare — Bliks

Religious beliefs may function as fundamental ways of seeing.

Mitchell

Faith can remain rational despite contrary evidence if there are grounds for trust.

COMPONENT 02 — RELIGION AND ETHICS

Natural Law — Aquinas

Human beings have telos grounded in divine order.

Four Tiers

• eternal law;
• divine law;
• natural law;
• human law.

Primary Precepts

• preserve life;
• reproduce;
• educate offspring;
• live in society;
• worship God.

Secondary precepts derive from them.

Real vs Apparent Goods

Real good fulfils human telos.

Double Effect

Bad effect can be tolerated if:

• act good/neutral;
• bad effect not intended;
• good not achieved through bad;
• proportionate reason.

Evaluation: objective and coherent, but depends on fixed account of human nature.

Situation Ethics — Fletcher

Only absolute: agape.

Four Working Principles

• pragmatism;
• relativism;
• positivism;
• personalism.

Central claim: rules are guidelines; loving outcome takes priority.

Strength: flexible and person-centred.

Weakness: subjective and difficult to predict consequences.

Kantian Ethics

Good Will

Only thing good without qualification.

Duty

Moral worth comes from acting from duty.

Categorical Imperative

Universal Law

Act only on maxims that could be universalised.

Humanity Formula

Treat persons as ends, never merely means.

Strength: protects dignity.

Weakness: can be rigid when duties conflict.

Utilitarianism

Bentham

Act utilitarianism.

Greatest happiness principle.

Hedonic calculus:

• intensity;
• duration;
• certainty;
• propinquity;
• fecundity;
• purity;
• extent.

Mill

Higher and lower pleasures.

Rule-based tendencies and liberty.

Strength: focus on welfare.

Weakness: may sacrifice minority rights.

Applied Ethics

OCR applies theories to contemporary issues.

Euthanasia

Arguments supporting:

• autonomy;
• compassion;
• relief of suffering.

Against:

• sanctity of life;
• slippery slope;
• vulnerable persons;
• medical role.

Natural Law

Preservation of life weighs strongly against intentional euthanasia.

Situation Ethics

Could support euthanasia where agape requires ending intolerable suffering.

Utilitarianism

Depends on overall consequences.

Kant

Autonomy matters, but self-destruction raises issues around rational personhood and duty.

Business Ethics

Issues:

• profit;
• employees;
• consumers;
• environment;
• global labour;
• CSR.

Utilitarian

Choose policy maximising welfare.

Kantian

Do not exploit employees/consumers merely as means.

Natural Law

Business conduct should align with justice and human flourishing.

Real-world type example

Unsafe working conditions may lower cost but violate worker dignity and impose wider social harms.

Meta-Ethics

Naturalism

Moral facts can be connected to natural properties.

F.H. Bradley

Moral duty related to role in social organism.

Hume

Is–ought problem: cannot automatically derive moral obligation from descriptive fact.

Moore

Naturalistic fallacy. Goodness cannot simply be defined as a natural property.

Intuitionism

Prichard

Moral obligations apprehended intuitively.

Problem: conflicting intuitions.

Emotivism

Ayer

Moral claims express approval/disapproval.

“Stealing is wrong” ≈ emotional disapproval rather than factual proposition.

Stevenson

Moral language also seeks to influence attitudes.

Weakness: may understate rational ethical argument.

Conscience

Aquinas

Conscience: application of moral knowledge to action.

Synderesis: habitual grasp of basic moral principles.

Conscience can err through ignorance.

Freud

Conscience associated with superego.

Internalised parental/social authority.

Evaluation: Freud can explain guilt psychologically but may reduce moral experience to conditioning.

Sexual Ethics

Themes:

• premarital sex;
• extramarital sex;
• homosexuality;
• contraception.

Analyse through:

• Natural Law;
• Situation Ethics;
• Kant;
• Utilitarianism.

A*: do not assume every religious ethic gives identical conclusions; distinguish theory from denominational application.

COMPONENT 03–07 — DEVELOPMENTS IN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT

Christianity — H573/03

Religious Beliefs, Values and Teachings

Augustine on Human Nature

• original sin;
• fallen will;
• grace.

Death and Afterlife

• resurrection;
• heaven;
• hell;
• purgatory in Catholic thought;
• differing interpretations.

Knowledge of God

Natural/revealed theology debates.

Jesus Christ

Study:

• incarnation;
• Son of God;
• teacher of wisdom;
• liberator.

Bonhoeffer

Christ-centred ethics and costly discipleship.

Christian Moral Principles

• Bible;
• Church;
• reason;
• conscience;
• agape.

Religious Pluralism

Exclusivism

Christian revelation uniquely salvific.

Inclusivism

Christ may save those without explicit Christian faith.

Pluralism — Hick

Religions are culturally conditioned responses to the Real.

Criticism: may flatten distinctive religious truth claims.

Gender and Theology

Ruether

Critiques patriarchal theology.

Mary Daly

Radical feminist challenge to male-centred Christian structures.

Debates:

• ordination;
• language for God;
• family;
• equality.

Secularisation

Questions:

• has religion declined?
• has it changed rather than disappeared?

Evaluate:

• attendance;
• belief;
• public influence;
• individual spirituality.

Liberation Theology

Focus:

• poor/oppressed;
• structural injustice;
• praxis.

Marxist influence

Class analysis can be used without accepting atheistic materialism.

Criticism: risks politicising Christianity.

Islam — H573/04

Tawhid

Absolute unity of Allah.

Prophethood

Muhammad as final prophet.

Qur'an and Sunnah

Sources of authority.

Shari'ah

Derived through:

• Qur'an;
• Sunnah;
• scholarly reasoning/traditions.

Human Nature

Humans created with responsibility and capacity to submit to Allah.

Predestination and Freedom

Divine sovereignty vs human accountability.

Gender

Traditional and reformist interpretations.

Islam and State

Debates around:

• Shari'ah;
• secular government;
• political Islam.

Pluralism

People of the Book, truth and salvation.

Islam and Contemporary Society

Identity, modernity, globalisation and secularism.

Judaism — H573/05

Covenant

Abrahamic and Mosaic covenant.

Torah

Central divine teaching.

Mitzvot

Commandments shape daily holiness.

God

Strict monotheism.

Human Nature

Moral responsibility and yetzer traditions.

Messiah

• personal Messiah;
• Messianic age;
• differing Orthodox/Reform views.

Holocaust Theology

Questions:

• divine providence;
• covenant;
• evil;
• suffering.

Zionism

Religious and secular forms.

Gender

Orthodox, Reform and Liberal differences.

Secular Jewish Identity

Religion can overlap with ethnicity, culture and peoplehood.

Buddhism — H573/06

Four Noble Truths

1. dukkha;
2. craving;
3. cessation;
4. path.

Three Marks

• anicca;
• anatta;
• dukkha.

Dependent Origination

Existence arises through conditions.

Nirvana

Liberation from craving/ignorance.

Theravada

Arhat ideal.

Mahayana

Bodhisattva ideal and emptiness.

Meditation

Samatha/vipassana and broader traditions.

Ethics

• Five Precepts;
• compassion;
• skilful action;
• intention.

Gender

Debates over ordination and status of women.

Buddhism and Science

Often seen as compatible due meditation/non-creator framework, but traditional cosmological/rebirth claims still raise questions.

Secular Buddhism

Retains practices while sometimes reducing supernatural commitments.

Hinduism — H573/07

Brahman

Ultimate reality.

Nirguna

Without attributes.

Saguna

With attributes/personal manifestation.

Atman

Self.

Karma

Moral causation.

Samsara

Cycle of rebirth.

Moksha

Liberation.

Dharma

Duty/order.

Paths to Liberation

• karma yoga;
• jnana yoga;
• bhakti yoga.

Bhagavad Gita

Key source for duty, devotion and liberation.

Caste / Varna

Traditional social framework and modern criticism.

Gender

Scriptural traditions, goddess theology and reform.

Hinduism and Modernity

• nationalism;
• globalisation;
• diaspora;
• pluralism.

OCR ESSAY TECHNIQUE

OCR essays reward knowledge and critical evaluation, not memorised scholar lists.

Introduction

• define issue;
• identify debate;
• give thesis.

Paragraph

Claim → Scholar → Explanation → Counterargument → Assessment

Example:

“Hick's soul-making theodicy gives evil a developmental role, which avoids Augustine's dependence on a historical Fall. However, its success is limited by horrendous suffering that appears to destroy rather than form character…”

Conclusion

Rank arguments.

Do not write:

“Both sides are equally strong.”

State:

• which side;
• why;
• under what assumptions.

SCHOLAR BANK

Philosophy:

• Plato
• Aristotle
• Aquinas
• Paley
• Hume
• Anselm
• Gaunilo
• Descartes
• Kant
• James
• Otto
• Swinburne
• Augustine
• Hick
• Boethius
• Tillich
• Ayer
• Flew
• Hare
• Mitchell

Ethics:

• Aquinas
• Fletcher
• Kant
• Bentham
• Mill
• Bradley
• Moore
• Hume
• Prichard
• Ayer
• Stevenson
• Freud

Christian thought:

• Augustine
• Bonhoeffer
• Hick
• Ruether
• Daly

COMMON OCR LOST MARKS

• scholar name-dropping;
• Plato and Aristotle treated as identical;
• cosmological and teleological arguments confused;
• evolution said to “disprove God”;
• logical and evidential evil conflated;
• Augustine and Hick blended;
• verification/falsification confused;
• Kant treated as consequentialist;
• Situation Ethics reduced to “do what feels loving”;
• Natural Law confused with laws of nature;
• utilitarianism discussed without consequences;
• conscience treated as automatically divine;
• component 03 religion presented as internally uniform;
• essay conclusion merely repeats points.