ii

Exam board specification map iv

Introduction vi

Topic checker x

Topic checker answers xvi

Central beliefs

The nature of God and the Trinity 2

The Bible 4

Jesus 6

The Ten Commandments 8

The Sermon on the Mount 10

The problem of evil 12

History and Christian life

The church – history 14

Christian denominations 16

Ecumenism 18

The church – buildings and features 20

Pilgrimage 22

Prayer 24

Sacraments

Baptism 26

The Eucharist 28

Confi rmation 30 Funerals 32

Life after death 34

Holy days

The Christian year 36

Advent and Christmas 38

Lent, Holy Week and Easter 40

Ascension and Pentecost 42

Contents

iii

Wealth and poverty

Care for the poor 44

Christian aid organisations 46

Christian attitudes to money and wealth 48

Medical ethics

The sanctity of life 50

Contraception (birth control) 52

Fertility treatment and embryo research 54

Abortion 56

Euthanasia 58

The hospice movement 60

War, peace and justice

War 62

Human rights 64

Capital punishment 66

Pacifi sm 68

Prejudice 70

The fi ght against racism 72

Family, relationships and gender

Family 74

Gender 76

Marriage and divorce 78

Global issues

The environment 80

Science and religion 82

Religion and the media 84

Exam questions and model answers 86

Complete the facts 96

Answers to practice questions 100

Key terms 107

Last-minute learner 109

Contents

2

Christians are monotheists, which means that they believe there is only one God.

Christians believe that this one God has three different ‘persons’ or ‘natures’: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. These three persons together are known as the Trinity.

The nature of God and the Trinity

A What is the Trinity?

The Trinity is the way in which Christians describe God and can understand what God is.

The God of Christianity has three ‘persons’ or ‘natures’. These three are different but they are all part of the same God.

Christians say that the idea of the Trinity is found in the Bible where God is described in different ways. The Creeds of the Christian Church, such as the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, describe the Trinity.

key fact>> The Trinity is the idea that there are three persons who are all God, not three Gods.

The three persons of the Trinity:

God the Father is seen as the creator of the universe. The title Father is also used as a way of showing human dependence on God in a close and loving relationship.

God the Son is Jesus. Christians believe that Jesus was God in human form and not just an ordinary man. Christians also believe that the death and resurrection of Jesus made it possible for them to have salvation.

God the Holy Spirit is the way in which God lives in the hearts and lives of believers. Christians believe that, after the Ascension (see p.43), God sent the Holy Spirit to comfort and guide people.

Christians believe that Jesus was a human being but he was also God.

is

no

t is

no

t

i s not

God

is

i s

is

Father Son

HolySpirit

>> practice questions1 What do Christians mean by the Trinity?

2 Explain why some people believe that God should be thought of as a mother as well as a father.

3 Which attribute of God do you think is the most important? Give reasons for your view.

3

The nature of God and the Trinity

B The nature of God

Christians believe that God has several attributes:

Omnibenevolence – God is all good

Omnipotence – God is all powerful

Omnipresence – God is present everywhere at the same time

Omniscience – God knows everything

Transcendence – God is outside of time and space

Immanence – God is in everything.

• Christians also believe that God will judge everyone at the end of time and that God created the universe for a purpose.

• Sometimes people talk about God as being impersonal and mysterious. God is then seen as a sort of force for good. On other occasions people see God as very personal, like a friend who is concerned about your needs and feelings.

• The Alpha and Omega symbol is a name used for God in the Book of Revelation:

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. (Revelation 21:6).

• Alpha and Omega are the fi rst and last letters of the classical Greek alphabet.

C Alternative ideas about God

In recent years, people have begun to refer to God as a mother as well as a father. Traditionally, God has been seen as a man but the Bible says that God created human beings in his image and therefore many women have said that God should be thought of as female as well as male.

4

The Bible is the most important and holy book in Christianity.

Christians believe that the Bible is the revealed ‘Word of God’, and one of the ways in which God communicates to humanity.

Christians try to understand the teachings of the Bible and to put them into practice in their daily lives.

The Bible

A What is the Bible?

• The Christian scriptures which contain the Old Testament and the New Testament, are called the Bible.

• The Old Testament contains 39 books which together make up the whole of the Jewish Bible – the Tenakh. Jews refer to the fi rst fi ve books of their scriptures – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy – as the Torah (law). They believe that these books were given directly to Moses by God.

• The New Testament is the collected writings of some of the fi rst Christians. The New Testament contains teachings about the life and death of Jesus, and about what it means to be a Christian. The 27 individual books of the New Testament were probably written in the fi rst hundred years after the death of Jesus, but were not brought together until 367CE.

B What do Christians believe about the Bible?

• Christians believe that the Bible is a sacred text and is the revealed ‘Word of God’: revealed by God to humans. However, they may disagree about the literal truth of what it says.

• Some Christians believe that the Bible is literally true and that everything in the Bible happened in exactly the way that it is described. They believe that if scientists or historians have a different understanding of the world, it is the Bible which is right and people who are wrong, because they think that people make mistakes but God never does.

• These Christians are often called ‘fundamentalists’ or ‘creationists’. They might have diffi culties when passages in the Bible seem to be contradicted by modern evidence.

• Other Christians believe that parts of the Bible are not literally true, but are true in other ways, perhaps as stories that teach important things about life. They may also believe that, sometimes, the Bible displays an understanding of the world that is outdated now.

key fact>> Christians believe that the Bible is the Word of God. Some people believe every word of the Bible is the literal truth while others believe that it has to be interpreted because it can sometimes be out-of-date.

>> practice questions1 What do Christians believe about the Bible?

2 Explain what is meant by the Old and New Testaments.

5

The Bible

C The Old and the New Testament

Old Testament• Jesus was a Jew, as were his followers.

For this reason, the Old Testament is very important to Christians and Jews.

• It contains history, law, poetry and prophecy.

• One of its major themes is the relationship between God and humanity. The prophets wrote about the coming of a Messiah, who would bring peace to the earth.

• Isaiah wrote about a Servant of God who would suffer for the people’s sins. Christians believe that this servant was Jesus.

New Testament• The fi rst four books are the Gospels of

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Gospels mean ‘good news’ The Gospels are about the main events in the life of Jesus.

• The next book is the Acts of the Apostles.

• There are 21 books which are called the Epistles, or letters.

• The fi nal book of the New Testament is the Apocalypse or Book of Revelation and it is a book of prophecy about what will happen during the last days of the world.

Many Christians read some of the Bible every day. They use it as a guide when making important decisions and as a comfort in diffi cult times. Christians use the Bible as a tool for worship during church services.

The Bible is in two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament, and it is the New Testament which is about Jesus and his teachings.