Religious Studies

Course summary

WHAT YOU WILL BE TAUGHT: Philosophy of Religion - Ancient philosophical influences - The nature of the soul, mind and body - Arguments about the Existence of God - The nature and impact of religious experience - The challenges for religious belief from the problem of evil - Ideas about the nature of God (A level only) - Religious Language: Negative, Analogical or Symbolic (A level only) - Religious Language: Twentieth Century Perspectives (A level only) Religion and Ethics - Normative Ethical Theories: natural law; situation ethics; Kantian ethics and; utilitarianism - Applied Ethics: euthanasia and business ethics - Ethical Language: Meta-ethics (A level only) - Conscience (A level only) - Applied ethics: sexual ethics (A level only) Developments in Christian Thought - Augustine’s teaching on human nature - Death and the afterlife - Knowledge of God’s existence - The person of Jesus - Christian moral principles & action - Society: Relationship to Religion (A level only) - Gender: Relationship to Religion (A level only) - Challenges: Secularization and Marxism (A level only)