Religious Studies

Course summary

Religious Studies is a multi-disciplinary and academically rigorous course providing students with the inspiring opportunity contained within to critically examine the principles and claims of three equally-weighted components: • Philosophy of Religion • Ethics • New Testament Studies The course is full of engaging combinations and contrasts between the realms of the secular and the religious, and ancient and modern! Philosophy of Religion asks fundamental questions about life after death, religious experience and the challenge posed to Theism by the likes of Dawkins, Freud and Marx. In New Testament Studies students explore the influences of Hellenism and the Roman Occupation on first century Palestine and also fast forward through time to examine the influence post-Enlightenment thinking has had on academic scholarship concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Ethics, we examine the strengths and weaknesses of classical theories such as Utilitarianism and Virtue Ethics, and then apply these theories to ethical issues such as war and peace, medical and sexual ethics, the environment and equality.