Religious Studies Key Words

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  • Created by: KateStoc
  • Created on: 06-08-18 14:22
Act Utiltarian
Weighs up what to do at each individual occasion
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Active Euthanasia
A deliberate action performed by a third party to kill a person, e.g lethal injection. Illegal in the UK
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Aetion
An explanatory factor, a reason or cause for something.
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Agape love
Unconditional love, the only ethical norm in situation ethics.
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Analogy
A comparison between one thing and another in an attempt to clarify meaning.
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Antinomian ethics
Do not recognise the role of law in morality ('nomos' is greek for 'Law')
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A Posteriori arguments
Arguments which draw conclusion based on observation through experience.
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A Priori arguments
Arguments which draw conclusions through the use of reason.
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Autonomy and the right to die
The idea that human freedom should extent to decide the time and manner of death.
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Beatific Vision
A face-to-face encounter with God.
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Bible/Scripture
The collection or canon of books in the Bible which contain the revelations of God.
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Capitalism
An economic system based on the private ownership of how things are made and sold, in which business compete freely with each other to make profit.
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Caritas
'generous love', a love of others and of the virtues; the Latin equivalent of the Greek word 'agape'
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Categorical imperative
An unconditional moral obligation that is always binding irrespective of a person's inclination or purpose.
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Category Error
A problem of language that arises when things are talked about as if they belong to one category when in fact they belong to another.
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Cheap grace
Grace that is offered freely, but is received without any change in the recipient, and ultimately is false as it does not save.
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Church tradition
The traditions of how Christian life in community works, in worship, practical moral life and prayer, and the teaching and reflection of the Church handed down across time.
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Concordia
Human Friendship
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Concupiscience
Uncontrollable desire for physical pleasures and material things
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Conscience
The term 'conscience' may variously be used to refer to a faculty within us, a process of moral reasoning, insights from God or it may be understood in a psychological way. Fletcher described it as function rather than a faculty.
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Consciousness
Awareness or perception.
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Consequentionalism
Ethical theories that see morality as driven by the consequences, rather than actions or character of those concerned.
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Consumerism
A set of social beliefs that put a high value on acquiring material things
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Contingent
Depending on other things.
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Conversion Experience
An experience which produces a radical change in someone's belief system
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Corporate Religious Experience
Religious experiences which happen to a group of people 'as a body'
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Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
A sense that businesses have wider responsibilities than simply to their shareholders, including the communities they live and work in and to the environment.
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Cosmological
To do with the universe
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Costly Grace
Grace followed by obedience to God's command and discipleship.
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Cupiditas
'Selfish love', a love of worldly things and selfish desires.
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Deontological
From the Latin for 'duty', ethics focused on the intrinsic rightness and wrongness of actions.
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Dignity
The worth or quality of life, which can be linked to sancity or freedom.
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Discipleship
Following the life, example and teaching of Jesus.
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Disembodied Existance
Existing without a physical body.
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Dualism
The belief that reality can be divided into two distinct parts, such as good and evil, or physical and non-physical.
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Duty
Duties are created by the moral law, to follow it is our duty. The word 'Deontological' means duty-based.
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Ecclesia
Heavenly society, in contrast with earthly society.
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Election (In theological sense)
Predestination, chosen by God for Heaven or Hell
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Empiricism
A way of knowing that relies on the five senses.
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Empiricist
Someone who thinks that the primary source of knowledge is experience gained through the five senses.
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Epistemic Distance
A distance in knowledge and understanding between humans and God.
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Ethics
Moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or the conducting of an activity.
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Eudaimonia
Living well, as an ultimate end in life which all other actions should lead towards.
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Extrinsically Good
Good defined with refrence to the end rather than good in and of itself. Fletcher argued that only love was intrinsically good.
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Faith
Voluntary commitment to a belief without the need for complete evidence to support it.
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The Fall
The biblical event on which Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command and ate the free from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden; also used to refer to the imperfect state of humanity.
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Forms
A name Plato gave to ideal concepts.
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Free Will
The ability to make independent choices between real options.
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Good Will
A person of good will is a person who makes decisions according to the moral law.
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Globalisation
The integration of economies, industries, markets, cultures and policymaking around the world.
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Grace (in theological terms)
God's free and undeserved love for humanity, epitomise in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
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Grace of God
God's unconditional and undeserved gifts.
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Hedonic Calculus
The system for calculating the amount of pain or pleasure generated.
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Hedonistic
Pleasure-driven
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Hypostatic Union
A belief that Christ is both fully God and fully human, indivisible, two natures united in one person.
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Hypothetical Imperative
A moral obligation that applies only if one desires the implied goal.
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Immediate Revelation
Where someone is give direct knowledge of God.
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Incarnation
God born as human being, in Jesus Christ
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Inconsistent Triad
The omnibenevolence and omnipotence of God, and the existence of evil in the world, are said to be mutually incompatible.
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Involuntary Euthanasia
Where a person is killed against their wishes, for example when disabled people were killed by Nazi doctors.
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Justice
Justice ordinarily refers to notions of fair distribution of benefits for all. Fletcher specifically sees justice as a kind of tough love; love applied to the world.
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Kingdom of Ends
An imagined future in which all people act in accordance to the moral law, the categorical imperative.
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Legalistic Ethics
Law-based moral decision-making.
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Liberator
A general term for someone who frees people/ a group.
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Limited Election
A view that God only chose a small number of people for heaven.
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Logical fallacy
Reasoning that has a flaw in its structure.
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Materialism
The belief that only physical matter exists, and that the mind can be explained in physical terms as chemical activity in the brain.
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Maxims
Another word for moral rules, determined by reason.
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Mediate Revelation
Where someone gains knowledge of God in a secondary, non-direct way.
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Messiah
In Christianity the word is associated with Jesus Christ, who is believed to be the son of God and the Saviour. In Judaism the word is associated with individuals who rose up against oppression, the people of Israel.
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Moral Evil
The evil done and suffering caused by deliberate misuse of human free will.
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Moral Law
Binding moral obligations.
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Mystical Experience
Experiences of God or the supernatural which go beyond everyday sense experience.
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Natural Evil
Evil and suffering caused by non-human agencies.
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Natural Law
A Deontological theory based on behaviour that accords with given laws or moral rules (e.g given by God) that exist independently of human societies and systems.
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Natural Theology
Drawing conclusions about the nature and activity of God by using reason and observing the world.
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Naturalistic Explanation
An explanation referring to natural rather than supernatural causes.
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Necessary existance
Existence which does not depend on anything else.
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Neoplatonism
Philosophical thinking arising from the ideas of Plato.
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Neurophysiology
An area of science which studies the brain and nervous system.
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Non-voluntary Euthanasia
This applies when a person is unable to express their wish to die but there are reasonable grounds for ending their life painlessly, for example if a person cannot communicate but is in extreme pain.
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Non Treatment Decision (Sometimes called Passive Euthanasia)
The decision medical professionals make to withhold or withdraw medical treatment or life support that is keeping a person alive because they are not going to get better, or because the person asks them to.
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Numinous Experience
An indescribable experience which invokes feelings of awe, worship and fascination.
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Omnibenevolent
All-good and all-loving.
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Omnipotent
All-powerful.
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Omniscient
All-knowing.
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Original Sin
A state of wrongdoing in which people are born (according to some Christians) because of the sin of Adam and Eve.
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Palliative Care
End-of-life care to make the person's remaining moments of life as comfortable as possible.
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Parable
A story told to highlight a moral message.
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Parousia
Used in Christianity to refer to the Second Coming of Christ
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Particular Judgement
Judgement for each person at the point of death.
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Passion
Jesus' sufferings at the end of his life.
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Personalism
Ethics centred on people, rather than laws or objects.
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Personhood
The quality of human life that makes it worthy - usually linked to certain higher capacities.
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Posivitism
Proposed something as true or good without demonstrating it. Fletcher posits love as good.
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Practical Reason
The tool which makes moral decisions.
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Pragmatism
Acting, in moral situations, in a way that is practical, rather than purely ideologically.
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Predicate
A term which describes a distinctive characteristic of something.
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Primary Precept
The most important rules in life: to protect life, to reproduce, to live in community, to educate and to believe in God.
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Prime Mover
Aristotle's concept of the ultimate cause of movement and change in the universe.
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Principle of Credulity
Swinburne's principle that we should usually believe what our senses are perceiving.
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Principle of Sufficient Reason
The principle that everything must have a reason to explain.
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Principle of Testimony
Swinburne's principle that we should usually trust that other people are telling us the truth.
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Principle of Utility/Greatest Happiness
the idea that the choice that brings about the greatest good for the greatest number is the right choice.
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Privatio Boni
A phrase used by Augustine to mean an absence of goodness.
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Protestantism
A form of Christianity which rejects the authority of the Catholic Church and places greater emphasis on the Bible and personal faith.
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Purgatory
A place where people go, temporarily, after death to be cleansed of sin before they are fit to live with God.
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Qualitative
Focused on quality (what kind of things).
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Quality of life
A way of weighing the extrinsic experience of life that affects or justifies whether or not it is worth continuing life.
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Quantitative
Focused on quantity (how many/big).
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Rabbi
A Jewish teacher, often associated with having followers.
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Rationalist
Someone who thinks that the primary source of knowledge is reason.
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Redeemed (in theological terms)
'Saved' from sin by the sacrifice of Christ.
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Redemption
The action of saving or being saved from evil, sin or error.
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Reductive materialism (Identity Theory)
The view that mental events are identical to physical occurrences in the brain.
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Relativism
The rejection of absolute moral standards, such as laws or rights. Good and bad are relative to an individual or a community or, in Fletcher's case, to love.
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Resurrection
Living on after death in a glorified physical form in a new realm.
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Revelation (in theological terms)
'uncovering', this is when God chooses to let himself be known.
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Rule Utilitarian
Weighs up what to do in principle in all occasions of certain kind.
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Sacred Tradition
The idea that the revelation of Jesus Christ is communicated in two ways. In addition to Scripture, it is communicated through the apostolic and authoritative teaching of Church councils and the Pope.
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Sanctity of Life
The idea that life is intrinsically scared or has such worth that it is not considered within the power of a human being.
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Sceptic
someone who will not accept what others say without questioning and challenging.
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Scepticism
A questioning approach which does not take assumptions for granted.
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Secondary Precepts
The laws which follow from primary precepts.
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Shareholders
A person who has invested money in a business in return for a share of the profits.
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Sin
Disobeying the will and commands of God.
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Situational Ethics
Ethics focused on the situation, rather than fixed rules.
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Socratic Method
The method of philosophical reasoning which involves critical questioning.
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Solidarity
An altruistic commitment to stand alongside and be with those less fortunates, the oppressed, those who suffer.
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Son of God
A term for Jesus that emphasises he is God incarnated, one of three persons of the Trinity.
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Soul
Often, but not always, understood to be the non-physical essence of a person.
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Stakeholder
A person wo is affected by or involved in some form of relationship with a business.
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Substance
A subject which has different properties attributed to it.
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Substance Dualism
The belief that the mind and the body both exist as two distinct and separate realities.
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Summum Bonum
The highest, most supreme good.
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Synderesis
To follow the good and avoid the evil, the rule which all precepts follow.
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Teleological
Looking to the end results (telos) in order to draw a conclusions about what is right or wrong.
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Teleological Ethics
Moral goodness is determined by the end or result
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Telos
The end, or purpose, of something.
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Theist
Someone who believes in God or gods.
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Theodicy
An attempt to justify God in the face of evil in the world.
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Transcendent
Being beyond this world and outside the realms of ordinary experience.
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Universalism
The view that all people will be saved.
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Unlimited Election
The view that all people are called to salvation but only a few will be saved.
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Voluntary Euthanasia
This applies when a person's life is ended painlessly at their own request.
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Whistle-blowing
When an employee discloses wrongdoing to the employer or the public.
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Will
The part of human nature that makes free choice.
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Wisdom Literature
A genre of writing from the ancient world, teaching about wisdom and virtue. In the Bible, books such a Proverbs and Job are classified as wisdom literature.
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Word
From the Greek 'Logos', another name for the second person of the Trinity, used at the beginning of John's Gospel to describe the incarnation which existed from the beginning, of one substance with and equal to God the Father.
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Zealot
A member of the Jewish political/military movement that fought against Rome in the first century AD.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

A deliberate action performed by a third party to kill a person, e.g lethal injection. Illegal in the UK

Back

Active Euthanasia

Card 3

Front

An explanatory factor, a reason or cause for something.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

Unconditional love, the only ethical norm in situation ethics.

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

A comparison between one thing and another in an attempt to clarify meaning.

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
View more cards

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