A level Religious Studies OCR

A level Religious Studies OCR

Easter Revision Course Dates 2024

• Week 1: Monday 25 March – Friday 29 March
• Week 2: Monday 1 April – Friday 5 April
• Week 3: Monday 8 April – Friday 12 April

(Good Friday is 29 March; Easter Monday is 1 April 2024)

Boards

OCR H573

Length of Course

5 full-day sessions

This course is board-specific for the OCR specification (H573) and is for A Level Year 13 students only.

Please note that the Developments in religious thought topic will be covered in relation to Christianity only.

The following topics will be covered:

Philosophy of religion

• Ancient philosophical influences
• The nature of the soul, mind and body
• Arguments about the existence or non-existence of God
• The challenge for religious belief of the problem of evil
• The nature and impact of religious experience
• The nature and attributes of God
• Religious language: Negative, Analogical or Symbolic
• Twentieth century perspectives and philosophical comparisons

Religion and ethics

• Normative ethical theories
• The application of ethical theory to two contemporary issues of importance
• Meta-ethical theories
• Conscience
• Sexual ethics

Developments in religious thought

• Religious beliefs, values and teachings, their interconnections and how they vary historically and in the contemporary world
• Section 1: Beliefs, teachings and ideas about human life, the world and ultimate reality (Augustine on human nature and Christian views on death and the afterlife)
• Section 2: Knowledge of God (Knowledge of God’s existence and the person of Jesus Christ)
• Section 3: Christian Moral Principles (The Bible, Church and reason as sources of wisdom and authority) & Christian Moral action (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
• Section 4: Developments in Christian Thought (Religious pluralism and theology, Religious pluralism and society)
• Section 5: The relationship between religion and society (Gender and society, Gender and theology
• Section 6: Challenges facing religious thought (Secularism, Liberation theology and Marx)