Section 1 Ontological Argument classical: Anselm, Proslogion, The Fool, Gaunilo
Section 2 Ontological Argument Modern: Descartes, Kant, Bertrand Russel, David Hume
Section 3 Cosmological Argument Classical: Aquinas, Hume, Kant.
Section 4 Cosmological Argument contemporary: Leibniz, Russell & Copleston, Hume, Kant.
Section 5 Teleological Argument: David Hume, Analogy, Paley’s Watchmaker analogy
Section 6 Teleological Argument Contemporary: Behe, Intelligent Design, Anthony Flew, Wisdom’s parable of the Garden, John Stuart Mill.
Guest lecture Professor Tom Greggs, The ontological argument.
Approx. 30 hours of guided learning with 20 videos, lecture notes, original sources, 7 thought experiments, 6 multiple choice quizzes 1 guest lecture.
Section 1 The logical problem: David Hume, J L Mackie, The inconsistent triad, Stephen Fry, William Lane Craig.
Section 2 The relationship between the nature of God and the logical problem of evil. The Augustinian Theodicy and the nature of God. Evil a privation.
Section 3 The evidential problem of evil. John Stuart Mill, Dawkins, Fry. Hick’s Irenaean Theodicy.
Section 4 Gottfried Leibniz response. Can God permit evil to bring about good? Christian responses
Section 5 Augustine’s Theodicy. Evil a privation of good. Freewill defence
Section 6 Objections to Augustine – John Hick, Evil and the God of Love. The Freewill defence.
Section 7 John Hick’s Irenaean Theodicy (soul making), epistemic distance, eschatological verification.
Section 8 Evaluation of John Hick: Dewi Zephaniah Phillip
Approx. 20 hours of guided learning with 19 videos, lecture notes, original sources, 3 multiple choice quizzes
Unit includes: Swamp man challenge, Plato’s Dualism, Descartes and the Soul, Prince and Cobbler challenge, Split Brain by Derek Parfit, Dualism vs Materialism, Near Death Experiences, The ship of Theseus, Old Testament pictures of Life After Death, New Testament views of Life After Death including John’s Gospel, Process views of life after Death, Biblical views of Jesus’ resurrection, John Hick Replica Theory, Heaven, Hell Purgatory, Pascal’s Wager.
Approx. 25 hours of guided learning with 14 lessons, 21 videos, 3 podcasts, lecture notes, original sources, 12 multiple choice quizzes
Different understanding of ‘miracle’
Realist and anti-realist views
Violation of natural law or natural event
David Hume and Maurice Wiles
Guest speaker Dr Andrew Pinsent, University of Oxford – Miracles and God’s Action in the World.
Approx 15 hours of guided learning, part completed, Under Construction.
Unit includes: Individual experiences, Reliability questions, Corporeal Experiences, Visions, Rudolph Otto and the Numinous, Mysticism, William James, Group experiences, The day of Pentecost, The Toronto Blessing, Medjugorje, Fatima.
Challenges to Religious experiences: from science, from psychology, Michael Persinger, Huston Smith, Max Weber, Physiological challenges, Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, Michael Shermer Out of Body Experiment.
Approx. 35 hours of guided learning hours with 11 lessons, 37 videos, lecture notes, original sources, 3 podcasts, 9 multiple choice quizzes.
Section 1. Via Negativa, kataphatic vs apophatic, Maimonides
Section 2. Aquinas, Analogy of proportion, Analogy of Attribution.
Section 3. Symbol, Paul Tillich, Barth, Bultman.
Guest lecture. Julie Arliss Religious language introduction.
Approx 12 hours of guided learning with 9 videos, lecture notes, original sources, 2 podcasts, 3 multiple choice quizzes, 1 thought experiment. 1 guest lecture.
Section 1. Verification principle, Hume’s fork, Language and meaning, A J Ayer.
Section 2. Language Games. Wittgenstein and his followers.
Section 3. Falsificationism, Karl Popper, The Parable of the invisible gardener, Anthony Flew, the Oxford Debate.
Section 4. Bliks. RM Hare. Hare vs Flew.
Approx 12 hours of guided learning with 13 videos lecture notes, original sources 3 podcasts, 4 multiple choice quizzes.
Includes Omnipotence, Benevolence, Omniscience, Eternity, Boethius and Freewill.
Approx. 20 hours of guided learning with 19 videos, lecture notes, original sources, 5 multiple choice quizzes, guest speaker.
Approx 15 hours of guided learning, part completed
Under Construction.
1. Foundations. Key terms. The enlightenment & influences on Kant. Maxims, deontology, duty, summum bonum, motive, categorial and hypothetical imperatives, kingdom of ends, autonomy of ethics.
2. Application. The metaphysics of morals. Universalisation. 3 forms of the Categorical Imperative with Kant’s examples and 6 practical applications, including the Crazy Axeman.
3. Evaluation. James Rachels, Pope John Paul II Louis Pojman. David Hume, Benjamin Constant, Peter Singer, Maria Von Herbert, Bernard Williams
Guest lecture Keith Ward, University of Oxford. Kantian Ethics.
Approx. 15 hours of guided learning with 8 videos, lecture notes, original sources, 3 podcasts, 2 thought experiments, 3 multiple choice quizzes, guest lecture.
1. Foundations. Key terms. Fletcher, St Paul, Agape, Conscience, John Robinson
2. Application. 6 propositions. 4 working principles. Fletchers examples. End of life decision making, Hiroshima, sex before marriage, adultery.
3. Evaluation. William James, William Temple, Rudolph Bultmann, Paul Tillich, Karl Barth, Bonhoeffer, Bishop John Robinson, Papal Encyclicals, Barclay, Macquarrie, John Kovach.
Approx. 15 hours of guided learning with 11 videos, lecture notes, original sources, 2 podcasts, 4 thought experiments, 3 multiple choice quizzes.
1. Foundations. Key terms. Epicurus. John Priestley. Bentham. Empiricism. Principle of Utility, hedonic calculus, quantitative/qualitative pleasure, Act & Rule Utilitarianism, Teleology, Consequentialism. John Stuart Mill.
2. Application. Act Utilitarianism, relative, consequentialist, egalitarian. Universalisation. Mill’s challenge. The harm principle. Social virtues, rules. Application to practical ethics including the drowning child by Peter Singer.
3. Evaluation. Robert Nozick, Philippa Foot, Bernard Williams, Louis Pojman, Lord chesterfield, Richard Brandt, Alasdair MacIntyre, Ruut Veenhoven.
Approx. 15 hours of guided learning with 16 videos, lecture notes, original sources, 5 podcasts, 5 thought experiments, 3 multiple choice quizzes.
Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics
Character-based ethics, purpose, function argument, eudaimonia, happiness,
Moral virtue, intellectual virtue, habit, doctrine of the mean. Excellence.
Application to practical ethics
Evaluation
Approx 15 hours of guided learning, part completed, Under Construction.
Core issues
Application of ethical theories
evaluation
Approx 15 hours of guided learning, part completed, Under Construction.
The rise of consumerism, globalisation
The wealth of nations – Adam Smith
Circles of interest – examples. Deep ecology, shallow ecology
Different approaches: anthropocentric, earth centred, theocentric
Application of ethical theories
Guest lecture: Peter Baron. Environmental economics. The sad slow death of life.
Approx 15 hours of guided learning, part completed, Under Construction.
1. Section 1. The nature of life. Sanctity of life. Religious origins. Human rights. Quality of life. Kevin Smith, Jack Kevorkian, Hans Kung, Gregory Pence, John Glover. Personhood. Autonomy. Dignity. Palliative care. Active Euthanasia, Voluntary euthanasia, non-voluntary euthanasia. The Utilitarian Doctor.
2. Section 1. The Nature of Consent. Active/passive euthanasia. Helga Kuhse. Legal perspectives. Tony Bland. Act and Omission. The law of Double Effect. Dr Roni Rosenberg. James Rachels. RC Church response to Rachels. Non-voluntary euthanasia. Liverpool Care Pathway. John Glover, Peter Singer, the Alkmaar case.
3. Section 3. Evaluation. Fletcher, Assisted suicide, Slippery Slope, Christian views. Case Studies. Diane Pretty, Betty Rolin, Daniel James, Tony Bland. Catholic Euthanasia Declaration and Catechism, House of Commons Report on Euthanasia, AC Grayling.
Approx. 15 hours of guided learning hours with 12 videos, lecture notes, original sources, case studies, 1 Thought experiment, 3 multiple choice quizzes.
Use of animals as food, intensive farming
Use of animals in scientific procedures cloning etc
Blood sports
Animals as a source of organs for transplants
Application of ethical theories
Core principles for decision making
Approx 15 hours of guided learning, part completed, Under Construction.
The history of just war tradition
Jus ad bellum
Jus in bello
Geneva convention, proportionality, discrimination, collateral damage
Principle of double effect
Nuclear weapons
Application of ethical theories
Approx 15 hours of guided learning, part completed, Under Construction.
1. Section 1. Classical religious approach, Augustine, St Paul, Aquinas’ approach. Ratio, synderesis, conscientia, vincible and invincible ignorance. Joseph Butler, Sir John Henry Newman, Different voices in the RC Church. Examples and case studies: Oscar Schindler, Rudolf Hoss, Adolf Eeichmann, James Keenan
2. Section 2. Freud and Conscience. The immature and mature conscience. Freud on religion. Other psychological views, Nietzsche, Eric Fromm, Jean Piaget, Kohlberb, Engler Carducci. Conscience and authority – Milgram.
Approx 8 hours of guided learning with 13 videos, lecture notes, original sources, 2 thought experiments, 4 podcasts, 2 multiple choice quizzes.
Guest lecture
Professor Keith Ward, University of Oxford
Meta ethics and Divine Command
Approx 4 hours of guided learning, part completed, Under Construction.
Unit includes: The Case for Determinism, The Case for Freewill, The case for Compatibilism
The case for incompatibilism, Boethius’ dilemma, Lady Philosophy’s response, Calvin and Predestination, St Augustine and Predestination.
Approx. 10 hours of guided learning including notes by Professor Keith Ward with 12 videos, notes, original sources, extracts, stimulus questions.
1. Naturalism. Absolutism, relativism, Vienna circle Hume’s law, Thought experiments: The fat man in the cave, Ring of Gyges. The Naturalistic fallacy. In support of naturalism: Pope Benedict XVI, FHBradley, Philippa Foot, Peter Kropotkin. Challenges against naturalism: Hume, Mackie, Hare, Moore.
2. Intuitionism. GE Moore. Good as a simple notion. Prichard’s intuitionism. Ross’ intuitionism. Prima facie duties.
3. Emotivism. Ayer ‘boo-hurrah’. Hume’s fork. Charles Leslie Stevenson. Challenging emotivism: Alasdair MacIntyre, James Rachels, Richard Brandt
2 Guest lectures. Professor Keith Ward, University of Oxford
Meta ethics and Divine Command
Meta ethics and GE Moore
Approx. 10 hours guided learning with 9 videos, lecture notes, original sources, 2 thought experiments, 2 multiple choice quizzes, 2 guest lectures.
1. Dialogue Ethical systems – core issues. Core dialogues within Christianity. Core dialogues between Christians and Utilitarians, Kantians, Sartre, Nietzsche Ayer Mackie. Dialogue between Christians and other religious frameworks.
2. Dialogue Conscience – core issues. Different views on the origin of conscience and the formation of conscience. Authority: Autonomy heteronomy, theonomy? Dialogue around different definitions of conscience. Dialogue within Christianity about conscience.
3. Dialogue life and death issues. What is distinctive about the Christian contribution to these debates? The value of human life, the value of animal life, the importance of justice and truth-telling, the importance of promise-keeping, respect for persons, respect for creation.
Guest lecturer, Professor John Swinton, University of Aberdeen. Assisted dying.
4. Dialogue Wealth and poverty. Jesus’ distinctive teaching and whether it is relevant today. Business ethics. Max Weber: Protestant work ethic. How to achieve a fair redistribution of wealth. Utilitarian views. The causes of poverty. Can only the wealthy afford to be ethical?
Guest lecturer, Dr Mike Laffin, University of Aberdeen. Are Christian ethics relevant in the modern world?
Approx. 16 hours of guided learning with 13 videos, course notes, 4 Multiple choice Quizzes, 2 Guest lectures.
5. Dialogue Self Death Afterlife. The soul, the significance of death, the existence of an afterlife. Dialogue with Christian philosophers, dialogue with atheist philosophers. The question of religious language, Science and religion, proof and probability, plausibility issues. Dialogue internal to Christianity; different ideas about judgement, heaven, hell and resurrection. Different ideas about the relationship between faith and reason. Dialogue between Christianity and other religious views
Guest lecture: Sam Newington, University of Aberdeen. What is hell?
6. Dialogue Miracles. Dialogue between Christian philosophers and atheists, dialogue within Christianity. Issues arising from religious language, science and religion, religious experience, faith and reason. Dialogue over definition.
7. Dialogue Religious experience. Dialogue between Christian philosophers and atheists. Ontological questions, religious language, science and religion, proof and probability. Dialogue inside of Christianity: authenticity of claims, authority of claims, faith and reason dialogue, attributes of God. Dialogue with the claims of other faiths.
8. Dialogue between Christianity and other truth claims. Dialogue with atheism, post-modernism, relativism, claims regarding pluralism of truth claims, competing truth claims of science. Internal dialogue regarding the source of religious truth claims, methods of discernment, pluralism, exclusivism, inclusivism, and anonymous Christians.
Approx. 16 hours of guided learning with 4 videos, course notes, 4 multiple choice quizzes, 1 guest lecture.
Atheism and the narrative of warfare. Stephen Gould Non-overlapping magisterial
Aliser McGrath – Theory of Complementarity
God of Gaps, Darwinian and neo Darwinian evolution, The Big Bang, John Polkinghorne, Different Christian responses to the issues raised by genetic engineering.
Guest lectures: Dr Andrew Pinsent, University of Oxford Science and Religion.
Keith Ward, University of Oxford: Darwinian evolution
Approx. 30 hours of guided learning with 31 videos, lecture notes, original sources, 2 podcasts, activities, 11 multiple choice quizzes, 2 guest lectures.
This set of lessons will help you to understand how beliefs about God have changed over time. We will study the causes for changing ideas and evaluate the significance of similarities and differences in beliefs.
This section will take you from the earliest ideas in the Bible right through to modern ideas about God found, for example, in Liberation Theology and Process Thought.
Remember that exam questions may span more than one topic.
Christian ideas about God have influenced individuals, communities and societies for thousands of years, so a good grounding in this unit will help you to think outside of the box for great essay writing, but it will also help you understand the world in which you live.
Under Construction.
Baptism
Holy Communion (Mass)
The mission of the Church
Guest speaker
Dr Leon Van Ommen. University of Aberdeen. The Sacraments
Dr Leon Van Ommen. University of Aberdeen. Symbols and Practices in Christianity
Approx 6 hours of guided learning, part completed, Under Construction.
Gender and Society. Historical and social factors which have influenced Christian thinking
Debates about female ordination
Gender and Theology. A comparison of Daly, Hampson and Ruether’s approaches
Different views about celibacy, marriage, homosexuality and transgender issues
Guest Lectures: Professor Daphne Hampson, University of Oxford
Dr Lena Tiemeyer, University of Aberdeen.
Approx. 8 hours of guided learning, part completed, Under Construction.
Two guest lectures:
Professor Keith Ward, University of Oxford. The Pluralistic hypothesis.
Guest lecture. Professor Tom Greggs, University of Aberdeen. Religious Pluralism.
Approx 15 hours of guided learning, part completed, Under Construction.
Secularisation
Guest lecturers: AC Grayling and Tom Holland.
Approx 15 hours guided learning, part completed, Under Construction.
Different sources of authority in Christianity, and their relative importance for different Christians: Bible, Church, Martin Luther, Religious experience, Protestant Christianity, Evangelical Christianity, Fundamentalist Christianity. Different Christian views on the authority of conscience. Case study: Bonhoeffer.
Guest lectures:
Professor Tom Greggs, University of Aberdeen, Faith and Reason
Johannes Zachhuber, University of Oxford, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Professor Tom Greggs, University of Aberdeen, Christianity, Bonhoeffer and Pacifism
Approx. 30 hours of guided learning with 19 videos, course notes, 10 multiple choice quizzes, activities, 3 guest lectures.
