The A Level specification contains three components which include a wide range of topics for consideration, including an in-depth and broad study of one of the six major world religions, philosophy of religion, and ethics and religion. The course consists of three separate areas of study: Component 1: A Study of Religion: Philosophy of Religion: This component includes the study of the following content: • Philosophical issues and questions raised by religion and belief including at least three contrasting arguments about the existence or non-existence of God, gods, or ultimate reality. • The nature and influence of religious experience. • Challenges to religious belief such as the problems of evil and suffering. • Philosophical language and thought through significant concepts and the works of key thinkers, illustrated in issues or debates in the philosophy of religion. • How views of religious language have changed over time; the challenges posed by the verification/ falsification debate and language games theory over whether religious language should be viewed cognitively or non-cognitively; and a consideration of at least two different views about religious teachings being understood symbolically and analogically. • A comparison of the significant ideas presented in works of at least two key scholars selected from the field of the philosophy of religion, and developments in the way these ideas are applied to issues in religion and belief. • How the philosophy of religion has, over time, influenced and been influenced by developments in religious beliefs and practices, ethics, or textual interpretation. Component 2: Ethics This component includes the study of the following content: • Ethical language and thought through significant concepts and the works of key thinkers, illustrated in issues or debates in religion and ethics. • Three normative ethical theories such as deontological, teleological, or character-based ethics (at least two of which must be religious approaches). • The application of ethical theory to two personal, societal, or global issues of importance, including religious ethical perspectives. • How ethical language in the modern era has changed over time; including a study of meta-ethical theories and significant ideas in religious and moral thought such as free will, conscience, or authority. • A comparison of the significant ideas presented in the works of at least two key scholars selected from the field of religion and ethics, and developments in the way these ideas are applied to significant issues in religion and belief. • How the study of ethics has, over time, influenced and been influenced by developments in religious beliefs and practices, the philosophy of religion, and/or textual interpretation. Component 3: Christianity • Religious beliefs, values, and teachings, in their interconnections and as they vary historically and in the contemporary world, including those linked to the nature and the existence of God, gods, or ultimate reality, the role of the community of believers, key moral principles, beliefs about the self, death, and afterlife, beliefs about the meaning and purpose of life. • Sources of wisdom and authority including, where appropriate, scripture and/or sacred texts and how they are used and treated, by key religious figures and/or teachers and their teachings. • Practices that shape and express religious identity, including the diversity of practice within a tradition. • Significant social and historical developments in theology or religious thought including the challenges of secularisation, science, responses to pluralism and diversity within traditions, migration, the changing roles of men and women, feminist and liberationist approaches. • A comparison of the significant ideas presented in the works of at least two key scholars selected from the field of religion and belief. • Two themes related to the relationship between religion and society, for example, the relationship between religious and other forms of identity; religion, equality, and discrimination; religious freedom; the political and social influence of religious institutions; religious tolerance, respect, and recognition and the ways that religious traditions view other religions and non-religious worldviews and their truth claims. • How developments in beliefs and practices have, over time, influenced and been influenced by developments in philosophical, and ethical, studies of religion and/or by textual interpretation.