OCR A Level Religious Studies (H573) Past Papers 2026

H573/01 — Philosophy of Religion

Duration: 2h

H573/02 — Religion and Ethics

Duration: 2h

H573/03 — Developments in Christian Thought (or chosen religion)

Duration: 2h

H573/04–07 — Developments in Religious Thought (choose one: Islam /04, Judaism /05, Buddhism /06, Hinduism /07)

Duration: 2h

H573/01 — William James: characteristics of mystical experience applied to specific examples

H573/01 June 2023: 'A notable proportion of responses did not address specifically James' views but wrote about religious experiences in a more general sense and showed little direct knowledge of James' views.' Weaker responses listed the four characteristics without applying them critically, or confused mystical experience with corporate religious experience that James does not discuss.

H573/01

H573/01 — Evidential problem of evil: distinguished from logical problem of evil

H573/01 June 2023: 'Students were able to outline the logical problem of evil coherently, but fewer students were able to adequately outline the evidential problem of evil clearly.' The evidential problem (Rowe, Draper) requires probability-based reasoning rather than logical contradiction, and this distinction was poorly understood.

H573/01

H573/01 — Descartes' mind-body dualism: specific arguments (divisibility, conceivability, hyperbolic doubt) vs general description

H573/01 June 2023: 'Some responses showed more knowledge of Plato and Aristotle rather than Descartes, and there was a tendency of some more general description of Plato's views beyond the soul in a way that did not support Descartes' views. There was some confusion between general viewpoints illustrating a superficial knowledge of Descartes.'

H573/01

H573/02 — Kant's third formulation (Kingdom of Ends) and the three postulates

H573/02 June 2023: 'The 3rd Formulation (Kingdom of Ends) was not covered as regularly and was on occasions misunderstood: several candidates conflating the idea with summum bonum or Kingdom of God.' H573/02 June 2024 confirmed: 'Kant's idea of duty is not a duty to God. Nor is his kingdom of ends the same thing as the Summum Bonum or the Kingdom of God.'

H573/02

H573/02 — Meta-ethics: intuitionism treated as gut instinct rather than as a metaphysical theory

H573/02 June 2024: 'Candidates occasionally struggled with intuitionism; some responses still understood it in a colloquial fashion, almost a "gut instinct" rather than as a metaphysical concept.' Intuitionism as a non-natural moral realism (Moore, Ross) — distinct from emotivism and naturalism — was commonly underexplained.

H573/02

H573/03 — Bonhoeffer's cheap and costly grace: nature of the distinction

H573/03 June 2023: 'A number of candidates tried to write too much about Bonhoeffer, exposing gaps in their understanding of cheap and costly grace, e.g. the misconception that they are two different types of grace that God gives.' The distinction is about the conditions under which grace is appropriated, not about two separate divine gifts.

H573/03

H573/03 — Anonymous Christians (Rahner): explored only at surface level, with insufficient attention to the theological motivation

H573/03 June 2023: 'Essays then tended to explore the three approaches to the theology of religions: exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism, usually in three equally sized paragraphs and sometimes with no further mention of anonymous Christians, until the conclusion.' Rahner's specific concern — reconciling divine benevolence with extra ecclesiam nulla salus — was rarely explored.

H573/03

H573/04–07 — Buddhist Pure Land comparison: Jōdo Shū vs Jōdo Shinshū distinctions on nembutsu, faith, and merit

H573/06 June 2024: 'Comparatively few candidates were actually able to give a detailed and accurate account of the actual differences between the two schools, and there was quite a bit of confusion.' A significant minority abandoned the comparison entirely and compared Pure Land to Zen Buddhism instead.

H573/04–07