Religious Studies

Course summary

Philosophy Learners will study: • Ancient philosophical influences: Plato and Aristotle • The nature of the soul, mind and body • Arguments about the existence or nonexistence of God • The nature and impact of religious experience • The challenge for religious belief of the problem of evil • Ideas about the nature of God • Issues in religious language. Religious (Christian) Thought: Learners will study: • Insights: Augustine’s teaching on human nature; death and the afterlife. • Foundations: knowledge of God’s existence; the person of Jesus Christ • Living: moral principles and action • Development: religious pluralism • Society: gender • Challenges: secularisation; Liberation Theology and Marx. Ethics: Learners will study: • Normative ethical theories: Natural Law, Kantian Ethics, Utilitarianism and Situation Ethics • The application of ethical theory to two contemporary issues of importance: Euthanasia and Business • Ethical language and thought • Debates surrounding the significant idea of conscience • Sexual ethics and the influence on ethical thought of developments in religious beliefs