Religious Studies A2

An Overview of the Course

 

 

Ethics module 2772 (A2)

 

Part ‘a’ and ‘b’            5 weeks = 25 lessons

 

Click here for lesson by lesson breakdown

 

 

Philosophy module 2771 (A2)

 

Part ‘c’             2 weeks  = 10 lessons

 

Part ‘a’ and ‘b’            7 weeks = 35 lessons

 

                        Click here for lesson by lesson breakdown

 

 

Ethics module 2772 (A2)

 

Parts ‘c’ and ‘d’        9 weeks = 45 lessons

 

                        Click here for lesson by lesson breakdown

 

 

Connections in Religious Studies  (Route A)

 

7 weeks = 35 lessons

 

                        Click here for lesson by lesson breakdown

 

 

Revision

 

5 weeks = 25 lessons

 

                       

 

 

Religious Ethics 2 (A2)

Module 2772 (5.13)

Parts ‘a’ & ‘b’

 

Free Will and Determinism

(Course taught in three lessons a week)

 

Lesson 1

Free Will and Determinism and libertarianism – general concepts

 

Lessons 2, 3 & 4

The views of ‘hard’ determinism

 

Lessons 5, 6 & 7

The views of ‘soft’ determinism

 

Lesson 8, 9 & 10

The views of libertarians

 

Lesson 11, 12, & 13

How Christianity contributes to debates about human free will and moral responsibility.

 

 

The Nature and Role of Conscience

(Course taught in two lessons a week)

 

Lesson 1

Introduction to Conscience

 

Lessons 2 & 3

Aquinas – the God-given conscience

 

Lessons 4 & 5

Joseph Butler – the innate conscience

 

Lessons 6 & 7

Sigmund Freud – the acquired conscience

 

Lessons 8, 9 & 10

John Newman and Jean Piaget – foundational kinds of knowledge are neither given innately nor directly derived from experience. The alternative to classical rationalism and empiricism.

 

 

 

Philosophy of Religion 2 (A2)

Module 2771 (5.12)

Parts ‘c’

 

 

Religious Language

(Course taught in three lessons a week)

 

Lesson 1

The problem of religious language

 

Lesson 2

An introduction to Logical Positivism

 

Lesson 3

The verification principle

 

Lesson 4

The verification principle continued

 

Lesson 5

The falsification principle

 

Lesson 6

The falsification principle continued

 

Religious Language

(Course taught in two lessons a week)

 

Lesson 1

The Via negativa

 

Lesson 2

Religious language as analogy

 

Lesson 3

Religious language as symbol

 

Lesson 4

Religious language as myth

 

 

 

 

 

Philosophy of Religion 2 (A2)

Module 2771 (5.12)

Part ‘a’

 

Body and Soul

(Course taught in two lessons a week)

 

Lesson 1

Plato’s writings on the body/soul distinction

 

Lesson 2

John Hick’s writings on the body/soul distinction

 

Lesson 3

Reductionism including views of Richard Dawkins

 

Lesson 4

Ryle’s and Descartes’ views on the body/soul distinction

 

Lesson 5

Resurrection as one view of life after death

 

Lesson 6

Rebirth

 

Lesson 7

The writings of Swinburne and Irenaeus

 

Lesson 8

Peter Vardy’s writings on rebirth and the problem of evil

 

Lesson 9

The nature of disembodied existence

 

Lesson 11

The Christian idea of heaven

 

Lesson 12

The Christian idea of heaven continued

 

Lesson 13

The Christian idea of hell

 

 

Lesson 14

The Christian idea of hell

 

Lesson 15

The Christian idea of hell continued

 

 

  

 

Philosophy of Religion 2 (A2)

Module 2771 (5.12)

Part ‘b’

 

Revelation

(Courses taught in three lessons a week)

 

Lesson 1 & 2

Religious Experience – a recap

 

Lesson 3

Categories of religious experience

 

Lesson 4

Visions and voices

 

Lesson 5

The numinous (Otto)

 

Lesson 6

Religious conversion

 

Lesson 7

Corporate religious experience (Case study: Toronto Blessing)

 

Miracles

 

Lesson 8

An introduction to miracles

 

Lesson 9

Defining miracles

 

Lessons 10 & 11

David Hume and miracles

 

Lesson 12

Aquinas and miracles

 

Lesson 13

Maurice Wiles and miracles

 

Lesson 14

The problem of evil and miracles

 

Revelation

 

Lesson 15

An introduction to revelation

 

Lesson 16

Divine inspiration – theological meaning

 

Lesson 17

Scripture as Word of God

 

Lesson 18

Scripture as containing the Word of God

 

Lesson 19

Scripture becoming the Word of God

 

Lesson 20

Textual exercise

 

Lesson 21

Summary

 

  

 

 

 

Religious Ethics 2 (A2)

Module 2772 (5.13)

Parts ‘cii’ & ‘d’

 

 

The Contribution of Christian ethics and other Ethical Theories to Practical Ethical Issues

(Course taught in three lessons a week)

 

Lessons 1 - 6

Environmental ethics

 

Lesson 7

Ethical theory applied to this issue

 

Lessons 8 and 9

Christian ethics applied to this issue

 

Lessons 10, 11 and 12

Christian ethics applied to the sanctity of life, abortion and euthanasia

 

Lessons 13 – 18

The ethics of sex and relationships

 

Lesson 19

Christian ethics applied to this issue

 

Lesson 20

Other ethical theory applied to this issue

 

 

  

 

Religious Ethics 2 (A2)

Module 2772 (5.13)

Part ‘ci’

 

The Nature of the Ethics of Christianity

(Course taught in two lessons a week)

 

 

Lesson 1

The Divine Command Theory

 

Lesson 2

The ethics of love

 

Lesson 3

Principle-based ethics

 

Lessons 4 & 5

Fulfilling God’s purpose

The relationship between God and man

The relationship between humankind

 

Lesson 6

Christian ethics as deontological and teleological

 

Lessons 7 & 8

Genetics, embryology, the right to a child and Christian ethics

 

  

 

 

Connections in Religious Studies (A2)

Module 2791 (5.22)

Route A

 

 

The conscience or sense of moral responsibility as possible evidence for the existence of God.

(Course taught in two lessons a week)

 

Lesson 1

Re-cap A2 idea of conscience

 

Lesson 2 & 3

C.S. Lewis and Friedrich Nietzsche

 

Lesson 4

Mind-mapping conscience-God

 

Lesson 5

Assessment

 

The concept of Free Will and Determinism in relation to the nature of an omniscient God

 

Lesson 1 - 3

Implications of an omniscient, timeless and spaceless God

 

Lesson 4

Mind-mapping around ‘omniscience’

 

Lesson 5

Assessment

 

 

 

 

 

 

The relation between Free Will and the Problem of Evil

(Course taught in three lessons a week)

 

Lesson 1

Re-cap the Problem of Evil and Free Will

 

Lesson 2

Leibniz – the two kinds of liberty

 

Lesson 3

Plantinga – emphasise the moral aspect of the free will defence

 

Lesson 4

Mind-maps

 

Lesson 5

Assessment

 

 

 

The implications for ethics of the theories of psychology and sociology

 

Lesson 1

Re-cap Psychology

 

Lesson 2

Mind map

 

Lesson 3

Recap Sociology

 

Lesson 4

Mind map

 

Lesson 5

Assessment

 

 

 

The relation between ethical language and religious language

 

Lesson 1

Re-cap Meta-ethics

 

Lesson 2

Re-cap Logical Positivism

 

Lesson 3

Mind map

 

Lesson 4

Assessment