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Syllabus
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Unit 1: Sacred texts and religious writings
Topic 1: Sacred texts
Unit 1: Sacred texts and religious writings > Topic 1: Sacred texts
- Identify sacred texts and religious writings belonging to each religious tradition, including Torah, Nevim (Nevi’im) and Ketubim (TaNaK) (Judaism), Bible (Christianity), Qur’an (Koran) (Islam), Vedas and Upanishads (Hinduism), Pali canon (Buddhism), oral stories, the land, art and dance (Australian Aboriginal spiritualities, as distinct from Torres Strait Islander religion)
- Explain the origin and meaning of the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Australian Aboriginal spiritualities for the tradition, community and individuals
- Explain why and how some texts are recognised as ‘sacred’
- Demonstrate an understanding of how sacred texts inform ritual, moral codes and relationships
- Identify literary styles of written and oral expression in sacred texts and religious writings, including narratives and sacred myth, parable, miracle, poetry
- Differentiate between religious traditions through the ways individuals reverence, interpret and respond to sacred texts
- Analyse perspectives related to how sacred texts answer ultimate questions, e.g. 'Where do we come from?', 'What happens when we die?', 'Why are we here?', 'Why is there evil and suffering in the world?'
- Consider and organise information from sources on the influence of sacred texts within religion and religious traditions
- Evaluate and draw conclusions about the impact of sacred texts on people, society and culture
- Create responses that communicate ideas or arguments related to sacred texts.
Topic 2: Abrahamic traditions
Unit 1: Sacred texts and religious writings > Topic 2: Abrahamic traditions
- Identify the sacred texts of Judaism (TaNaK), Christianity (Bible) and Islam (Qur’an), and explain how God is revealed through these texts
- Describe similarities and differences in accounts, for example, of patriarchs, matriarchs, flood narratives or creation, in the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
- Explain the ways religious texts become authoritative within the Abrahamic traditions, including stages of development (lived, oral, written), authorship, canon
- Differentiate between and analyse the ways in which adherents within the Abrahamic traditions read, interpret and analyse sacred texts through contextual interpretation (Worlds of the Text), reader response approaches, e.g. feminist, liberationist, political, literalist interpretations and fundamentalist interpretations
- Consider and organise information from sources about the ways in which sacred texts and religious writings are interpreted in the Abrahamic traditions
- Evaluate and draw conclusions about the influence of sacred texts and religious writings belonging to the Abrahamic traditions on people, society and culture
- Create a response that communicates ideas or arguments related to sacred texts and religious writings.
Unit 2: Religion and ritual
Topic 1: Lifecycle rituals
Unit 2: Religion and ritual > Topic 1: Lifecycle rituals
- Describe the nature and purpose of religious lifecycle rituals
- Identify religious lifecycle rituals associated with Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Australian Aboriginal spiritualities, including initiation rites, rites of passage, rites of cleansing and healing
- Identify how religious lifecycle rituals emanate from the sacred texts and religious writings of various traditions
- Explain how core beliefs of religious traditions are manifested in lifecycle rituals
- Explain the ways lifecycle rituals flow from, and respond to, ultimate questions, e.g. 'What does it mean to be human?', 'How do lifecycle rituals help people make meaning?'
- Differentiate between the role of the ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ in a lifecycle ritual
- Analyse at least one religious lifecycle ritual by using and critiquing recognised theories of scholars including Arnold van Gennep, Victor Turner, Terence Lovat
- Analyse the way/s lifecycle rituals may have changed over time (e.g. Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah in Judaism) and provide reasons
- Consider and organise information from sources on the way lifecycle rituals may be influenced by cultural particularity and/or cultural diversity, e.g. Hindu–Indian weddings and Hindu–Malaysian weddings
- Evaluate and draw conclusions about the influence of culture and secularism on participation in religious lifecycle rituals
- Create a response that communicates ideas or arguments related to religious lifecycle rituals.
Topic 2: Calendrical rituals
Unit 2: Religion and ritual > Topic 2: Calendrical rituals
- Describe the nature and purpose of religious calendrical rituals
- Identify religious calendrical rituals in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Torres Strait Islander religion, including Yom Kippur, Rosh Ha-Shanah (Judaism), Easter (Christianity), Hajj (Islam), Divali (Hinduism), Dharma Day (Buddhism), Coming of the Light (Torres Strait Islander religion)
- Explain, using sacred texts and religious writings, the reasons for religious calendrical rituals occurring at a particular time of the week, month or year, or how they mark a period of time since a significant event, including Shabbat (Judaism), Pentecost (Christianity), Ramadan (Islam)
- Identify and differentiate between the motivation and purpose of pilgrimages in the calendars of different religious traditions
- Analyse at least one religious calendrical ritual by using and critiquing recognised theories of scholars, including: Arnold van Gennep, Victor Turner, Terence Lovat
- Consider and organise information from sources about participation in calendrical rituals in a religiously plural society
- Evaluate and draw conclusions about the influence of calendrical rituals in a religiously plural society
- Create a response that communicates ideas or arguments related to religious calendrical rituals.
Unit 3: Religious ethics
Topic 1: Social ethics
Unit 3: Religious ethics > Topic 1: Social ethics
- Describe the nature and purpose of religious ethics
- Identify ethical teachings in the sacred texts, religious writings and rituals of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism
- Explain ethical terminology used in decision-making, including normative ethics, descriptive ethics, natural law, personal ethics, social ethics
- Explain ethical theories used in decision-making, including deontological ethics (duty-based ethics), teleological ethics (situation ethics), virtue ethics, ethics of care, natural law theory
- Differentiate between the five major world religions through the ways religious beliefs and practices influence decision-making processes relating to a social–ethical issue
- Analyse and apply, from a religious perspective, two approaches to ethical decision-making, e.g. a multidimensional approach (Isaacs and Massey), pastoral spiral (Holland and Henriot)
- Analyse the influences of religious ethics on people, society and culture in response to at least one of the following social–ethical issues; asylum seekers, capital punishment, employment and work, environment, refugees, slavery, war
- Consider and organise information from sources on religious ethics and a social–ethical issue
- Evaluate and draw conclusions regarding religious ethical stances held by adherents on social–ethical issues
- Create an extended response that communicates ideas or arguments related to religious and social ethics.
Topic 2: Ethical relationships
Unit 3: Religious ethics > Topic 2: Ethical relationships
- Identify the way/s in which religious traditions inform personal ethics
- Explain a variety of responses from individuals, within and across religious traditions, to a range of ethical issues in contemporary society
- Investigate at least one of the following contemporary ethical issues; beginning and end of life, e.g. reproductive technologies, palliative care, body image, e.g. cosmetic enhancement, interpersonal conflict, e.g. domestic violence, non-consensual sexting, medical technologies, e.g. organ farming, genetic engineering, substance abuse, e.g. steroids in sport
- Analyse the selected contemporary ethical issue from the perspective of one of the five major world religions
- Consider and organise information from sources relating to the influence of religious ethics on people, society and culture
- Evaluate and draw conclusions about the extent to which religious ethics influence individual decision-making processes, responses to ethical issues within a religious tradition
- Create an extended response that communicates ideas or arguments in a research-based inquiry essay related to religious ethics.
Unit 4: Religion, rights and the nation–state
view_agenda query_statsTopic 1: Religion and the nation–state
view_agenda query_statsUnit 4: Religion, rights and the nation–state > Topic 1: Religion and the nation–state
- Describe and identify different types of religion–state relationships that may exist, including official separation of religion and the nation–state, e.g. USA, France, religious state, e.g. Saudi Arabia, Iran, secular state, e.g. Australia, state religion, e.g. Denmark, predominantly religion-less state, e.g. Democratic Peoples’ Republic of China
- Identify and explain the variety of relationships that exist between religions and nation–states Judaism — Israel
- Identify and explain the variety of relationships that exist between religions and nation–states Christianity — Malta (Roman Catholicism), Greece (Greek Orthodox), England (Church of England), Denmark (Church of Denmark), Norway (Evangelical Lutheran), Tonga (Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga)
- Identify and explain the variety of relationships that exist between religions and nation–states Islam — Pakistan, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia (Sunni Islam); Iran (Shi’a Islam); Yemen (mixed Sunni and Shi’a Islam)
- Identify and explain the variety of relationships that exist between religions and nation–states Hinduism — Nepal prior to 2006
- Identify and explain the variety of relationships that exist between religions and nation–states Buddhism — Cambodia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka (Theravada Buddhism); Bhutan (Vajrayana Buddhism)
- Identify and explain the variety of relationships that exist between religions and nation–states multi-religious — Indonesia (Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism)
- Analyse the ways religion has interacted with the nation–state through one example selected from Judaism in Europe before 1945
- Analyse the ways religion has interacted with the nation–state through one example selected from Hinduism in India pre- and post-independence (1947)
- Analyse the ways religion has interacted with the nation–state through one example selected from Buddhism in Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Tibet or Vietnam
- Analyse the ways religion has interacted with the nation–state through one example selected from Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Israel since 1948
- Analyse the ways religion has interacted with the nation–state through one example selected from Christianity — Roman Catholicism in Poland (especially in the 1980s), or Christianity in a Latin American country
- Analyse the ways religion has interacted with the nation–state through one example selected from Islam in Egypt, Indonesia, Iran or Turkey
- Analyse the ways religion has interacted with the nation–state through one example selected from Australian government legislation and the involvement of religious institutions regarding Australian Aboriginal peoples and spiritualities, Torres Strait Islander peoples and religion
- Consider and organise information from sources related to the interaction between religion, the nation–state and society
- Evaluate and draw conclusions about relationships between religion and the nation–state, and their impact on individuals, groups and society
- Create an extended response that communicates ideas or arguments in a research-based inquiry essay related to ways religion has interacted with the nation–state.
Topic 2: Religion and human rights
view_agenda query_statsUnit 4: Religion, rights and the nation–state > Topic 2: Religion and human rights
- Describe the concepts of rights, religious rights and human rights
- Identify the ways in which religions describe human life through sacred texts and religious writings of Judaism (Revelation; sin, repentance, free will; Divine and human justice; sanctity of life)
- Identify the ways in which religions describe human life through sacred texts and religious writings of Christianity (Revelation, Incarnation, Resurrection, Salvation, human dignity)
- Identify the ways in which religions describe human life through sacred texts and religious writings of Islam (revelation to the Prophet, predestination and the Greater Jihad)
- Identify the ways in which religions describe human life through sacred texts and religious writings of Hinduism (karma, samsara, moksha, reincarnation)
- Identify the ways in which religions describe human life through sacred texts and religious writings of Buddhism (reincarnation, karma, dharma, samsara and nirvana)
- Identify the ways in which religions describe human life through religious rituals of Judaism (birth and death)
- Identify the ways in which religions describe human life through religious rituals of Christianity (birth and death)
- Identify the ways in which religions describe human life through religious rituals of Islam (birth and death)
- Identify the ways in which religions describe human life through religious rituals of Hinduism (death)
- Identify the ways in which religions describe human life through religious rituals of Buddhism (death)
- Identify the ways in which religions describe human life through religious ethics of Judaism and Christianity (sacredness of human life)
- Identify the ways in which religions describe human life through religious ethics of Islam (submission to the will of Allah)
- Identify the ways in which religions describe human life through religious ethics of Hinduism (karmic consequences)
- Identify the ways in which religions describe human life through religious ethics of Buddhism (karmic consequences)
- Explain the way in which religious traditions inform understandings of human rights
- Differentiate between religious traditions through the ways in which human life is viewed - cyclical world view (Buddhism and Hinduism)
- Differentiate between religious traditions through the ways in which human life is viewed linear world view (Judaism, Christianity and Islam)
- Analyse religious perspectives on human rights and distinguish other perspectives on human rights informed by Universal declaration of human rights (1948), Study of discrimination in the matter of religious rights and practices (Krishnaswami Study 1960), United Nations resolutions such as the 1966 covenants on human rights and the Declaration on the elimination of all forms of intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief (1981), Cairo declaration on human rights in Islam (1990)
- Consider and organise information from sources regarding the influence of religion in shaping understandings of human life and perspectives on religious rights and human rights
- Evaluate and draw conclusions about the significance of religion and the extent to which it has an influence on society’s responses to religious and human rights issues, e.g. human trafficking, genocide
- Create responses that communicate ideas or arguments within sentences and short paragraphs on religion and human rights.