Theme A: Religion, relationships and families — AQA GCSE Religious Studies B

Theme A: Religion, relationships and families examines fundamental ethical, theological, and societal questions regarding human relationships. It covers religious teachings on sex, contraception, marriage, cohabitation, divorce, the nature and purpose of families, and gender roles within both the home and wider society.

Studying this unit allows students to evaluate how traditional scriptural injunctions interact with changing 21st-century British norms, legal frameworks, and diverse philosophical attitudes. It forms a central component of Paper 2 in AQA Religious Studies B, testing both precise conceptual knowledge and analytical evaluation.

• →Sacrament vs Contract: The Catholic belief in marriage as an indissoluble, holy sacrament instituted by God compared to Protestant and Islamic views of marriage as a sacred covenant or legal contract.
• →Procreative vs Unitive: The distinction between the procreative purpose of sex (creating new life, Genesis 1:28) and the unitive purpose (fostering lifelong emotional and spiritual intimacy between partners).
• →Complementarianism vs Egalitarianism: The divide between complementarianism (the theological idea that men and women have distinct, God-ordained biological and social roles) and egalitarianism (equal leadership, spiritual authority, and domestic parity based on Galatians 3:28).
• →Sanctity of Marriage and Covenant: The theological conviction that marital vows represent a binding promise made before God, informing strict religious boundaries surrounding adultery, divorce, and pre-marital sex.

• Defines marital as sexual love given within marriage between a husband and wife.
• Explains unitive as the sexual love that expresses and deepens the bond between the couple.
• Explains procreative as sexual love being open to the creation of new life.
• States that Catholic teaching holds these three features together and should not be separated.

• 💡Check each option against all three words, marital, unitive and procreative, rather than just one.
• 💡Reject options that separate the unitive from the procreative purpose.
• 💡Use the exact terms from the statement so the chosen option matches Catholic teaching precisely.
• 💡Distinguish clearly between denominations (Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Orthodox) rather than writing vague statements like 'Christians believe'.
• 💡Memorize short, accurate scriptural references (e.g., Genesis 1:27, Matthew 19:6, Galatians 3:28, Surah 4:1) that apply across multiple sub-topics like gender, sexuality, and marriage.
• 💡For 12-mark evaluation questions, always include a justified conclusion that explicitly weighs which argument is logically or theologically more convincing, rather than just summarizing both sides.

• Treats unitive and procreative as alternatives; keep the point that Catholic teaching holds both together.
• Describes procreative as meaning every act must produce a child; keep the point that it means being open to life.
• Places sexual love outside marriage as equally acceptable; keep the point that Catholic teaching locates it within marriage.
• Assuming all Christians reject artificial contraception; in reality, the Church of England approved the use of artificial contraception in the 1930 Lambeth Conference to enable responsible family planning.
• Believing that Islam prohibits all divorce; while considered undesirable ('the most detestable of lawful things before Allah'), divorce (Talaq) is explicitly accommodated in the Qur'an as a last resort.
• Thinking that living together before marriage (cohabitation) is universally accepted by modern religions; Roman Catholicism and conservative Islam both reject cohabitation because sexual relations must strictly occur within marriage.

1. 1Week 1 (Days 1-2): Master terminology and make comparative flashcards for religious attitudes towards sexuality (heterosexual, homosexual, pre-marital, and cohabitation).
2. 2Week 1 (Days 3-4): Revise marriage ceremonies, vows, divorce, and remarriage across Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam.
3. 3Week 2 (Days 1-2): Examine the nature of the family, polygamy, single-parent families, and gender roles (complementarian vs egalitarian arguments).
4. 4Week 2 (Days 3-4): Practice 4-mark, 5-mark, and 12-mark past paper questions under timed conditions, self-assessing against official AQA mark schemes.

• 📋1-mark multiple choice questions testing factual definitions (e.g., 'Which term describes having more than one wife at the same time?').
• 📋2-mark and 4-mark questions asking to 'Give two...' or 'Explain two contrasting beliefs...' requiring clear, distinct points.
• 📋5-mark questions requiring explanation of two beliefs with an explicit reference to scripture or sacred writing.
• 📋12-mark evaluative essays requiring balanced arguments for and against a provocative statement, supported by religious reasoning and leading to a reasoned conclusion.