Philosophy, Ethics & Theology Curriculum Map
Statement of Intent
TBC
Year 12 Curriculum Map
OCR Religious Studies A Level
Philosophy of Religion
Ethics
Philosophy of Religion
Plato’s Forms and Cave analogy. Aristotle’s four causes, teleology, and the Prime Mover.
Plato’s dualism, Aristotle’s monism, and Descartes’ substance dualism versus materialist rejections of the soul.
Ethics
Natural Law: Aquinas’ four tiers of law, telos, and primary precepts based on reason and divine revelation.
Situation Ethics Fletcher’s agape-centered theory, applying four working principles and six propositions to creative moral decision-making.
Philosophy of Religion
Ethics
Philosophy of Religion
Aquinas and Paley’s teleological argument. Aquinas’ cosmological argument and Hume’s criticisms, evolution, and logical fallacies.
Anselm’s ontological argument, Kant’s predicate critique, Gaunilo’s island, and logical fallacies.
Ethics
Kant’s categorical imperative, duty, three formulations, and the postulates of freedom, immortality, and God.
Utilitarianism: utility, the hedonic calculus, and Bentham’s act utilitarianism versus Mill’s rule-based approach for pleasure.
Philosophy of Religion
Ethics
Philosophy of Religion
Religious Experience: William James’ mystical and conversion theories, psychological perspectives, and the validity of personal testimony.
The Problem of Evil: Logical and evidential evil through Augustine’s Fall and Hick’s Irenaean “soul-making” theodicy justifications.
Ethics
Euthanasia; Contrasting sanctity and quality of life regarding voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia in terminal or vegetative cases.
Business Ethics: Analyse corporate social responsibility, whistle-blowing, globalization, and the principle that good ethics is good business.
Developments in Christian Thought
Augustine’s Teaching on Human Nature The Fall’s impact on relationships, Original Sin’s corruption of the will, and God’s grace.
Knowledge of God’s Existence Innate natural knowledge via reason and creation
Revealed knowledge through grace, scripture, and Christ.
Death and the Afterlife: Heaven, hell, and purgatory as places, states, or symbols, Election and the Parable of the Sheep and Goats.
Developments in Christian Thought
The Person of Jesus Christ Jesus’ authority as Son of God, wisdom teacher, and liberator through miracles and parables.
Christian Moral Principles: The Bible, Church authority, reason, and agape as competing or combined sources for ethics.
Developments in Christian Thought
Christian Moral Action: Bonhoeffer’s views on civil disobedience, “costly grace,” and the Church’s duty against state corruption.
Year 13 Curriculum Map
Philosophy of Religion
Ethics
Philosophy of Religion
The Nature of God: Divine omnipotence, omniscience, and benevolence through Boethius, Anselm, and Swinburne regarding eternity and free will.
Religious Language: apophatic, cataphatic, and symbolic approaches, including Aquinas’s analogies and Tillich’s theory of religious symbols.
Ethics
Meta-ethical Theories: naturalism’s factual properties, intuitionism’s self-evident truths, and emotivism’s expressions of approval or disapproval.
Conscience:Contrast Aquinas’s theological ratio and synderesis with Freud’s psychological id, ego, and super-ego models.
Philosophy of Religion
Ethics
Philosophy of Religion
Ayer’s verification principle, Wittgenstein’s language games, and the Flew-Hare-Mitchell falsification symposium regarding religious meaning.
Ethics
Sexual Ethics: Apply Natural Law, Situation Ethics, Kant, and Utilitarianism to debates on premarital, extramarital, and homosexual relationships.
Developments in Christian Thought
Religious Pluralism and Theology: Evaluation of exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism regarding whether Christianity is the sole or one of many paths.
Religious Pluralism and Society: Analyse multi-faith developments, inter-faith dialogue, scriptural reasoning, and Christian responses like Redemptoris Missio and Sharing the Gospel.
Gender and Society: Analyse Christian responses to secular gender roles, motherhood, and family types using Ephesians and Mulieris Dignitatem.
Gender and Theology: analyse Ruether’s “Jesus as Wisdom” and Daly’s “Unholy Trinity” to challenge patriarchal views of God.
Developments in Christian Thought
The Challenge of Secularism
Freud and Dawkins’s views on religious illusion Secularist arguments for excluding Christianity from public life.
Liberation Theology and Marx: Marxist alienation and exploitation to address social sin, prioritizing orthopraxis and the preferential option.
Summer
Revision Plan / Exams