Theology

Lower School

Theology is compulsory for all pupils in the IVth and LVth forms. All pupils will sit a short course GCSE at the end of their LVth year. During their two years pupils will study six topics following the AQA Christianity and Life syllabus. These topics include: Believing in God, Wealth and Poverty, Matters of Life and Death, Marriage and Family Life, Social Harmony and Religion and the Media. This course provides an excellent contemporary basis to study some of the fundamental questions of human existence: Does God exist? What is the purpose of Life? How do we know what is right or wrong? How should we treat other people?

Sixth Form

Socrates said that “the unexamined life is not worth living” and pupils who choose to study Theology at AS and A Level will be treated to an academic journey that will inspire and enthuse the most unquestioning student to rethink their own philosophical mindsets. We follow OCR’s Philosophy and Ethics syllabus: four modules, two of Ethics and two of Philosophy of Religion. During their AS Philosophy course they will look at the ancient influences on Philosophy including Plato and Aristotle; the various proofs for the existence of God; and the challenges to the existence of God, including the problem of evil and the various social and physiological challenges. For the A2 course the questions are broader and take in the issues of life after death, religious language and religious experience.

For the ethics modules, pupils will evaluate the idea of what is right and wrong, looking at approaches in which this question has been answered: utilitarianism, moral relativism, absolutism and even Kantian imperatives. These approaches are then applied to contemporary issues that arise in medical research, such as genetic manipulation, decisions in war and peace, sexual ethics and business ethics. For the A2 modules pupils will be required to study meta-ethics, virtue ethics, the question of the conscience and free will and determinism.

This course provides an opportunity to engage with modern and ancient philosophers and to apply them to relevant modern-day situations. It allows pupils to develop their own personal moral thought and philosophy while retaining an academic edge that will develop a pupil’s evaluative, analytical and argumentative abilities.