Religious Studies

Course details: Board and Specification: OCR H573

Year 11 to Year 12: transition to A level work in RS

RS will be familiar to you from GCSE, but at A level it is a subject that is more philosophical and ethical in its approach and also includes a more in-depth study of Christian Theology and its key historical developments and influence in the modern world. It requires detailed skills of explanation and analysis as well as the ability to argue a case with evidence e.g. reference to textual and scholarly sources. We would like you to watch the following short videos by Peter Baron on two religious ethical theories providing different frameworks for how to live a religiously moral life:

Natural Law

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv6M8nVi7ao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkqes07oN_4&t=6s

Kantian Ethics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDI1OoFZ-cQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pFaxdT5jAg

Utilitarianism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzhoIHcxx4o

Situation Ethics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxgkfJXWr-I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB0H-FuU4KI

Virtue Ethics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87rI39vvxn4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcEtXfVR8yc

Metaethics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G3cww1x-20

We would also like you to read the chapter via this link by Peter Cole on the nature and attributes of God and the following introduction to the importance/ person of Jesus within Christianity via this link.

Your responses

Either:

Explain which religious ethical theory set out in the videos is more convincing than the other. Give reasons for preferring the theory you have chosen, or explain why you do not find either convincing. 300 words.

Or:

Explain the paradox of the stone. How might a theist respond? 300 words.

And: Explain why the person of Jesus is central to the Christian faith with reference to the key Biblical Teachings? 500 words.