Judaism: God and Ultimate Reality | AQA A-Level Religious Studies (7062)
Judaism: God and Ultimate Reality
- 76 questions
- 6 subtopics
- Component 2: Judaism, one religion of five
- Component 2
Judaism: how ultimate reality is understood and described.
Part of Component 2, sat only by students who take Judaism as their chosen religion.
Sample questions from Judaism: God and Ultimate Reality
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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God as Personal and Anthropomorphism
Why is Genesis 3:8 a difficulty for Jewish theology?
Show the answer
It pictures God walking and being avoided, which implies a body and a limited location and so conflicts with God's incorporeality. -
God as Personal and Anthropomorphism
Give one argument in favour of retaining anthropomorphic language.
Show the answer
It makes God approachable and expresses relationship in a way that abstract description cannot. -
God as King, Father and Gendered Language
Why do some Jews object to exclusively male language about God?
Show the answer
They argue that it implies God is male, which Judaism denies, and that it leaves women's experience marginal in worship. -
God as King, Father and Gendered Language
Give one argument for keeping the traditional male titles.
Show the answer
They are the language of scripture and of centuries of liturgy, and altering them cuts worshippers off from the tradition they have inherited. -
Buber: I-It and I-Thou
Explain what Buber means by the I-It relation.
Show the answer
A way of relating in which the other is treated as an object to be used, described, classified or experienced. -
Buber: I-It and I-Thou
What name does Buber give to God?
Show the answer
The 'Eternal Thou'. -
Buber on Meeting the Eternal Thou
Which Jewish movement most shaped Buber's thinking?
Show the answer
Hasidism, whose tales he collected and retold, with its stress on encountering God in ordinary life. -
Buber on Meeting the Eternal Thou
Give one philosophical criticism of the Eternal Thou.
Show the answer
Because an encounter cannot be tested or described, there is no way to distinguish a real meeting with God from a powerful subjective feeling.
The 6 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| God as Personal and Anthropomorphism | Recall questions on God as personal and anthropomorphism in the Tenakh, literal and Maimonidean readings of Genesis 3:8, the case for and against such language, and why the covenant needs a personal God. | 13 |
| God as King, Father and Gendered Language | Recall questions on God as King and Father and the prayer joining them, objections to exclusively male language, the Shekhinah and Genesis 1:27, and Maimonides' principle that such language is figurative. | 12 |
| Buber: I-It and I-Thou | Recall questions on who Buber was, his central work and its date, and the distinction between the I-It and I-Thou relations. | 8 |
| Buber on Meeting the Eternal Thou | Recall questions on how God is encountered, why God cannot be proved or described, what meeting means and why an I-Thou moment cannot be sustained. | 15 |
| Monotheism and the Shema | Recall questions on the definition of monotheism, the declaration stating God's oneness, what that oneness means and what God's eternity involves. | 11 |
| Maimonides' Thirteen Principles | Recall questions on who Maimonides was, where he set out the Principles, why he drew them up and what the first of them states. | 17 |
How the guide is worked
Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.
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Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
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Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.
Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.
Nearby topics
AQA A-Level Religious Studies Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 3,683 questions with their answers.