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Religious Studies A Level

Religious Studies at A Level challenges the student to consider the basic questions of our existence: Who am I? What is the purpose of life? Is there anything beyond? As such it goes far deeper than a school subject and helps to prepare the person for life in general.

The course in Year 12 consists of two units: one which explores the foundations for Philosophy of Religion and the foundations of Ethics and a second, entitled Investigations, where each student either selects a topic from a list of titles provided or may submit their own proposal for approval by the Chief Examiner. With the help of the teacher the student prepares a coursework essay based on her own research in this area.

In Year 13 for A2 there are a further two units. Developments, which expands on the AS Foundations Unit and includes the study of the further philosophical arguments for the existence of God such as religious experience, beliefs about life after death and religious language and ethical concepts and selected problems in ethics, and Implications which draws together topics studied in other sections of the course and examines the consequences of holding certain opinions, views or beliefs; how a particular belief or value could affect other people, either for good or ill and how other people's lives might be affected if a certain belief were widely held or if a certain value were widely applied.