Religious Studies

AS and A Level


The AS course covers two main areas, the Philo­sophy of Reli­gion and East­ern Reli­gion.

Philo­sophy of Religion

The Philo­sophy of reli­gion could be said to begin with Socrates (470-399 BC) regarded by many as the “father of philo­sophy.”  He was condemned to death and executed because many people thought that he was trying to under­mine belief in God.

Many people have sugges­ted that science was the “new reli­gion” of the 19th century.  It seemed to be address­ing many of the ques­tions that reli­gion had formerly tried to answer.  It is inter­est­ing that innov­at­ors of science such as Darwin and Galileo were often condemned for the same reas­ons as Socrates, and yet their ideas have since also been recog­nised and widely accep­ted.  It could be said that philo­sophy is the “new reli­gion” of the 21st century because it enables each person to exam­ine what they have been told and what they exper­i­ence and to reach their own conclu­sions.  What was seen at threat­en­ing and anti-religion to the contem­por­ar­ies of Socrates is now seen as an excit­ing way of open­ing our minds to a new way of think­ing which brings new light into all that we learn and experience.

Some of the topics covered in this module are:
Does God exist?
Can God be exper­i­enced?
How can believ­ers account for the exist­ence of suffer­ing and evil?
Is there life after death?
How can moral stand­ards be applied?

East­ern Religions

The second element of the course is an in-depth study of one of the East­ern reli­gions, namely Buddhism.  Students felt that they would like to look at tradi­tions outside the West and which would give a perspect­ive differ­ent from that of Juda­ism and Chris­tian­ity which are the focus of GCSE Reli­gious Stud­ies.  GCSE students will already be famil­iar with the basic elements of these reli­gions and at A level there are oppor­tun­it­ies to explore their chal­len­ging ideas in far more depth and detail.  Concepts such as karma, atma, nirvana and moksha can be re-visited and examined with the help of ancient and contem­por­ary schol­ars from the Buddhist tradi­tions.  Trying to trans­late such concepts is fraught with diffi­culties because, in order to be true to the actual mean­ing of the ideas, one must estab­lish the context and culture in which they arose.  This is what we attempt to do in study­ing East­ern reli­gions at A level – rather than condense these ideas into a Western/Christian frame­work, we try to look at them as part of a completely differ­ent way of look­ing at the world.  Like the study of Philo­sophy, this should enable us to gain a whole new way of thinking.

In the words of Quaker Faith and Prac­tice:
“Are you open to new light, from whatever source it may come?”

If you are, then A level Reli­gious Stud­ies could be just the course for you!

Specific­a­tion: OCR Reli­gious Stud­ies AS H172  A H572
Click here to down­load the current specific­a­tion for this A level course.

Assess­ment:

AS Level
G571: AS Philo­sophy of Reli­gion
Candid­ates are required to answer two two-part essay ques­tions from a choice of four. 50% of the total AS marks. 1.5 h writ­ten paper. 70 marks

G576: AS Buddhism
Origins of Buddhism and certain key beliefs and prac­tices.
Candid­ates are required to answer two two-part essay ques­tions from a choice of four. 50% of the total AS marks. 1.5 h writ­ten paper.  70 marks

For A2:
AS Units as above, G571& 6, each being 25% of the total Advanced GCE marks - plus:

G581: A2 Philo­sophy of Reli­gion
Themes in philo­sophy of reli­gion relat­ing to author­ity, language and life and death.
Candid­ates are required to answer two open essay style ques­tions from a choice of four. 25% of the l A level marks. 1.5 h writ­ten paper. 70 marks

G586: A2 Buddhism
Themes relat­ing to author­ity and truth, life and death and exper­i­ence.
Candid­ates are required to answer two open essay style ques­tions from a choice of four. 25% of the A level marks. 1.5 h writ­ten paper. 70 marks