Religious Studies

Course summary

In the first year of A level, you will study three areas; a world religion; Buddhism; the Philosophy of Religion and Ethics. The Buddhism topic covers the life of the Buddha, his teachings and the community of Buddhists including Buddhist monks and nuns. The Philosophy of Religion course includes arguments for the existence of God, Religious Experience and the problem of evil and suffering. The Ethics course includes Natural Law, Situation Ethics, Kantian Ethics and Utilitarianism and then applied ethics to two topics; euthanasia and Business ethics. In the second year of A level you will build on these three areas. For Buddhism, this includes Buddhism in China and Japan as well as Buddhism in the West. For the Philosophy of Religion course, this includes Religious Language and 20th century philosophy and for the Ethics, this includes Meta - ethical theories such as naturalism and intuitionism, conscience and sex ethics. All of this will add even greater breadth and depth to your studies.