HSC Studies of Religion Question Thread

[elysepopplewell]

Hi Elyse!
I downloaded your St Paul notes! Can you please clarify these points:

Gained many converts to Christianity through his new teaching - Particularly, in the Greek-speaking world. The cosmopolitan nature of Hellenic regions meant that the people were open to new ideas. In his Epistles, Paul invited them to move away from Jewish habits or at least become welcoming of non-Jews.
Paul Hellenised Christianity - This gave it the wide appeal it has today (please explain what 'hellenised' means!)
Thanks & I hope you're enjoying study abroad!

Hey ajajaj
The Hellenic period covers the time between the death of Alexander the Great and the emergence of the Roman Empire. Much of Europe was "Hellenic" at the time when Paul was making his move through the globe, meaning it was following a lot of Greek doctrines. Depending on where you were, it was either pagan or Jewish, I believe (I'm raking my brain for this part...this is Year 11 content that kind of flows through). This article (if you Function+F "Paul" you'll find the bits where he is mentioned) gives a really good and easy outline of it all.

Basically, there were doctrines in the Hellenistic world that were a direct threat to Christianity, like the idea that there is no higher being than humans. The hellenistic world couldn't be easily defeated, of course, because it was so far spread. So Paul had to make Christianity accessible to people in Hellenistic worlds. Sometimes this was not a difficult task because Hellenistic cultures often had conflicting doctrines at play anyway, so with cracks in your own philosophy, you can be susceptible to other ideals. Christianity also preached equality, or this is the way Paul framed it, so that is a very appealing aspect of Christianity to people living in Hellenistic poverty. Paul was a very, very smart man. He used the culture of each community he spoke to in order to make Christianity more appealing. Very clever! So in my notes I wrote he hellenised Christianity, but I more or less mean, he presented Christianity in hellenistic ways, by addressing the problems of Hellenistic society with Christian answers. Hopefully this makes sense! You don't need to know the whole context of the first part, it's just difficult to explain without that
Here is a link to Wikipedia if you'd like to read more.

[sageziman]

Hiii
Is there anywhere i can find a Jewish Bioethics essay of Band 6 level in order to see a scaffold of how to approach writing the essay?

[elysepopplewell]

Hiii
Is there anywhere i can find a Jewish Bioethics essay of Band 6 level in order to see a scaffold of how to approach writing the essay?

Hey sageziman, I'm sorry I can't find exactly what you're looking for. A past HSC student has uploaded their Jewish bioethics notes, though. They are about 12 pages long and you can download them for free here. Sorry I can't locate exactly what you're after! Hopefully this gives you a hand still

[Mary_a]

Hey Mary,
I haven't studied Holocaust or Liberation theory, but I might be able to offer some pointers for your notes and approaching the ideology. In this section of the syllabus, you need to be looking at the contribution to the DEVELOPMENT and the EXPRESSION of the religious tradition. So when you approach the ideology, you should be looking at the main tenants of the ideology so that you can, at least, "describe" the ideology to me in a few sentences if I asked you. Basically, you just need to understand the basics of it all. Then when you get deeper and start looking at specific events, speakers, and how the ideology progressed within context, you can start looking at things in terms of development and expression. So, these aren't always clear cut and often contribute to each other, but try to think of it like this:
-Contribution to the expression of a religion is a contribution to the way it is acted out and spoken about. Ultimately, the way it is expressed.
-Contribution to the development of a religion is a contribution to the spread or nature of the religion - did the spread of this ideology lead to an increased accessibility of the religion? Did it lead to more adherents? Did the community become stronger during this time?

Often, they are connected. But for the purpose of clarity in your notes, I would try to divide them.

Remember, ideologies are products of context. Consider carefully what gave rise to the ideology and how the ideology manifested itself in the religion's development and expression. What changed because of the ideology - essentially. What changes were caused?

So, even though the ideology may be an obscure study choice, you'll still follow the same study plan/syllabus as everyone else. So once you understand the basics of the ideology, you just need to slide it into the study scaffold of DEVELOPMENT and EXPRESSION in order to respond to the syllabus' requests!

Thank you so much! This was really helpful, I really appreciate it!

Mary

[Mary_a]

Hey,

I was just wondering (half yearlies are coming up pretty soon!) what's the best way to approach an sor2 exam in terms of study and then actually receiving the paper? I'm always really nervous around exam time.

Thank you so much,

Mary x

[jamonwindeyer]

Hey,

I was just wondering (half yearlies are coming up pretty soon!) what's the best way to approach an sor2 exam in terms of study and then actually receiving the paper? I'm always really nervous around exam time.

Thank you so much,

Mary x

Hey hey! I can't speak specifically for SOR2, I'll let Elyse tag in with some more specific help, but I thought these guides would be useful!

- 5 Mistakes SOR Students Make
- SOR Essay Tips
- How to Incorporate a Stimulus, this one will be really useful if you are struggling with adapting to the questions when the exam is put in front of you

I hope these help!

[elysepopplewell]

Hey,

I was just wondering (half yearlies are coming up pretty soon!) what's the best way to approach an sor2 exam in terms of study and then actually receiving the paper? I'm always really nervous around exam time.

Thank you so much,

Mary x

Hey Mary,
For SOR students, I always give the advice that the best way to study for the MC is by doing as many past multiple choice papers as possible - often questions are recycled and just presented a little differently. It's so quick to run through a sheet of multiple choice as well, and it means you're not sitting there rote learning. If possible, don't stop at just HSC papers, but snoop around the web for other papers from trials or half yearlies as well.

As for the rest - you just need to study in your preferred way. Knuckle down for memorising quotes or references, and make sure you can actively explain each idea. I think that orally responding to past questions isn't a bad idea here as well, because much of SOR is about being able to describe processes/rituals/significance, and then in the exam you'll be asked to be evaluative (unless it's a short answer and you mightn't). But you can only evaluate something that you actually understand the foundation of - so I think being able to orally dictate to someone the process of ethical application, for example, means that you can assure yourself you know the foundations, now you just need to use your mind in the exam to evaluate. Of course this mightn't be your thing and you might prefer just doing past papers, which is fine too! Do that! I just preferred to avoid going through past papers as much as possible because I thought it was tedious - but I know some people find it to be the best way to study

[Mary_a]

Hey hey! I can't speak specifically for SOR2, I'll let Elyse tag in with some more specific help, but I thought these guides would be useful!

- 5 Mistakes SOR Students Make
- SOR Essay Tips
- How to Incorporate a Stimulus, this one will be really useful if you are struggling with adapting to the questions when the exam is put in front of you

I hope these help!

Thanks Jamon, they were super useful

Mary x

[Mary_a]

Hey Mary,
For SOR students, I always give the advice that the best way to study for the MC is by doing as many past multiple choice papers as possible - often questions are recycled and just presented a little differently. It's so quick to run through a sheet of multiple choice as well, and it means you're not sitting there rote learning. If possible, don't stop at just HSC papers, but snoop around the web for other papers from trials or half yearlies as well.

As for the rest - you just need to study in your preferred way. Knuckle down for memorising quotes or references, and make sure you can actively explain each idea. I think that orally responding to past questions isn't a bad idea here as well, because much of SOR is about being able to describe processes/rituals/significance, and then in the exam you'll be asked to be evaluative (unless it's a short answer and you mightn't). But you can only evaluate something that you actually understand the foundation of - so I think being able to orally dictate to someone the process of ethical application, for example, means that you can assure yourself you know the foundations, now you just need to use your mind in the exam to evaluate. Of course this mightn't be your thing and you might prefer just doing past papers, which is fine too! Do that! I just preferred to avoid going through past papers as much as possible because I thought it was tedious - but I know some people find it to be the best way to study

Thanks Elyse, Multiple choice is always my weakness! I will definitely use this advice for my exam!

Mary x

[asd987]

Hi, how would I approach a question like this:
It has been often said very truly that religion is the thing that makes the ordinary person feel extraordinary. it is an equally important truth that religion is the thing that makes the extraordinary person feel ordinary. Assess to what extent this quote reflects the core teachings of Buddhism as a religious living system.

[elysepopplewell]

Hi, how would I approach a question like this:
It has been often said very truly that religion is the thing that makes the ordinary person feel extraordinary. it is an equally important truth that religion is the thing that makes the extraordinary person feel ordinary. Assess to what extent this quote reflects the core teachings of Buddhism as a religious living system.

Hey asd987! Personally, I'd love to get this as a HSC question! It is a bit unusual, because it doesn't specify if it wants you to discuss the practice, the person/ideology, or the ethics! It only specifies the core teachings. So, flick back to the preliminary syllabus for an idea about the principal teachings, and then think about how these are lived out in practice, person, and ethics. A religious living system is about being dynamic, useful to current adherents, coherent, and, well, living. The ethics, person, and practice, work together to create a religious living tradition. You need to take what you know about the three elements and fuse it with the core teachings, and build an argument based on the "religious living tradition."

As for incorporating the quote as a stimulus, have a read of this guide here! Let me know if you have any questions

[ajajaj]

Hey ajajaj
The Hellenic period covers the time between the death of Alexander the Great and the emergence of the Roman Empire. Much of Europe was "Hellenic" at the time when Paul was making his move through the globe, meaning it was following a lot of Greek doctrines. Depending on where you were, it was either pagan or Jewish, I believe (I'm raking my brain for this part...this is Year 11 content that kind of flows through). This article (if you Function+F "Paul" you'll find the bits where he is mentioned) gives a really good and easy outline of it all.

Basically, there were doctrines in the Hellenistic world that were a direct threat to Christianity, like the idea that there is no higher being than humans. The hellenistic world couldn't be easily defeated, of course, because it was so far spread. So Paul had to make Christianity accessible to people in Hellenistic worlds. Sometimes this was not a difficult task because Hellenistic cultures often had conflicting doctrines at play anyway, so with cracks in your own philosophy, you can be susceptible to other ideals. Christianity also preached equality, or this is the way Paul framed it, so that is a very appealing aspect of Christianity to people living in Hellenistic poverty. Paul was a very, very smart man. He used the culture of each community he spoke to in order to make Christianity more appealing. Very clever! So in my notes I wrote he hellenised Christianity, but I more or less mean, he presented Christianity in hellenistic ways, by addressing the problems of Hellenistic society with Christian answers. Hopefully this makes sense! You don't need to know the whole context of the first part, it's just difficult to explain without that
Here is a link to Wikipedia if you'd like to read more.

Thanks - I understand it much better now
Could you also please explain how do these two dotpoints differ (in relation to Paul):
- Explain the contribution to the development and expression of Christianity of ONE significant person OR school of thought, other than Jesus
- Analyse the impact of this person OR school of thought on Christianity

Could you study the same content but modify your response according to the dotpoint that's being asked?

[mjorfian]

Hiyaaa. So I just got my exam notification for SOR2, and thankfully, we were provided with the questions. I chose Judaism for the essay, and so it's going to be:

“...Therefore I command you, You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in the land.” Deuteronomy 15:11

With reference to the quotation, analyse how ONE significant practice (death and mourning) gives depth and meaning to the life of the individual AND the Jewish community.

However, I really quite suck at answering the question when it comes to SOR, simply because I'm terrible at structuring, and my teacher isn't helpful at all Would you mind please explaining to me how I would go about answering this? If you could also sort of outline how to do 1 body paragraph, I'd be set (and eternally grateful) , because I just need an example / guide sort of thing.

Thank you!

[elysepopplewell]

Thanks - I understand it much better now
Could you also please explain how do these two dotpoints differ (in relation to Paul):
- Explain the contribution to the development and expression of Christianity of ONE significant person OR school of thought, other than Jesus
- Analyse the impact of this person OR school of thought on Christianity

Could you study the same content but modify your response according to the dotpoint that's being asked?

Hey! These two dot points are extremely similar...as you make your notes for the first dot point you might accidentally cover the second dot point. For the first part, you're explaining, which is a step up from describing but borders on analysing. The analysing part comes in when you make calls about the ramifications of the actions, rather than just the actions themselves. So, I can explain Paul's missions across the world, but when I analyse, I talk about the way this caused a domino effect, it disrupted the geo-religious reality of the day, it was a catalyst for Christianity becoming the most widespread religion, it assisted with the quashing of common paganism, etc... So naturally you might talk about the two concurrently which is fine, but if you were asked to differentiate, this is how

[AFRO]

Hey, i was wondering if you cold help me with my essay question for Buddhism:
“it has been often said very truly that religion is the thing that makes the ordinary person feel extraordinary, it is an equally important truth that religion is the thing that makes the extraordinary person feel ordinary”
Assess to what extent this quote reflects the core teachings of Buddhism as a religious living system.