Postgraduate Divinity 2024-2025

This course examines the account of creation in the biblical book of Genesis in order to explore the theological account of human moral action it offers. By exploring different movements of the creation story, the course lays out the basic structure of Christian moral theology. The aim is to develop a theological approach to the fundamentals of Christian ethics, clarifying its relevance for issues of sexuality and procreation, economics, work, governance, health, animals and the environment. The course offers a broad theoretical framework for thinking about the whole scope of ethical questions in contemporary society. 

This course allows a student to do in-depth study in a specific area in Divinity or Religious Studies agreed upon with his or her supervisor and approved by the Head of School. It may be offered in conjunction with the student sitting in on level 4 lectures relating to the subject material. 

This course allows a student to do in-depth study in a specific area agreed upon with a student-selected staff member in Divinity and Religious Studies.

This course engages at length and in depth with the classic topics of God, Christ, and salvation in the Christian theological tradition, aiming to foster critical reflection on the scope and coherence of Christian teachings as well as on the defining concerns and conventions of Christian systematic theology, and to cultivate in students the interpretative and analytical skills required for advanced work in the discipline. In this course, students will engage intensively with one or more major texts from the Christian doctrinal tradition, with a particular focus on modern and contemporary sources.

This course will engage a significant area of debate in New Testament Studies by means of close and sustained evaluation of a particular work, or by a thematically arranged series of discussions. This will allow students to develop awareness of the major questions currently dominating the discipline and their backdrop in scholarship, thus helping students to identify ongoing challenges and prospects for future inquiry. The topic under consideration will vary in each delivery of the course.

This course offers students the opportunity to explore in depth important thinkers and locales in early Christianity. It will critically analyse the contexts, settings, causes, key figures and sources, and the resultant trajectories of particular historical ecclesiastical phenomena. Of note, alongside this will be the theological concerns at stake and the influence of given movements on wider Christian thought and practice.

This course will introduce students to the literature and practices of Spiritual Formation within the Christian tradition.

Spiritual Formation involves the transformation of the whole person to the character of Jesus Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit within the Christian community.

15,000 word dissertation written on a topic related to the student's taught Master's programme and agreed to by the supervisor and the programme co-ordinator.

This course will introduce students to a number of major thinkers in the area of Theological Ethics. Its focus will be on reading and discussing texts by prominent figures who are of ongoing significance.  Moreover, this course will include figures from different theological and confessional backgrounds (Catholic, Reformed, Lutheran, non-Conformist, etc.), and explore whether and how their theological commitments connect with practical stances and approaches (i.e. on issues of war and peace, sexual ethics, bioethics, etc.)

This course allows a student to do in-depth study in a specific area in Divinity or Religious Studies agreed upon with his or her supervisor and approved by the Head of School. It may be offered in conjunction with the student sitting in on level 4 lectures relating to the subject material. 

This course allows a student to do in-depth study in a specific area agreed upon with a student-selected staff member in Divinity and Religious Studies.

This course engages at length and in pdeth with the classic topics of Spirit, church and world in the Christian theological tradition, aiming to foster critical reflection on the scope and coherence of Christian teaching as well as on the defining concerns and conventions of Christian systematic theology, and to cultivate in students the interpretative and analytical skills required for advanced work in the discipline. In this course, students will engage intensively with one or more major texts from the Christian doctrinal tradition, with a particular focus on modern and contemporary sources. 

From both Jewish and Christian theological perspectives, the Old Testament can be viewed as a record of human and divine interventions into matters of fundamental conceptual importance. What does it mean to confess and worship the One? How do we imagine God? How do we see the world as his creation? What is justice and what is love – both human and divine? Familiarized with relevant contexts and trained in disciplinary tools, in this course you will explore such questions in their timelessness.

This course will examine various ways that Israel’s Scriptures were used and transmitted by other ancient religious texts - Jewish and/or Christian - around the turn of common era. In doing so, this course will engage areas of scholarly debate, such as ancient interpretative practices, conceptions of ""intertextuality," dynamics of conventionality and innovation, and the linguistic contexts of developing traditions. The particular topic of the course will vary year on year.

15,000 word dissertation written on a topic related to the student's taught Master's programme and agreed to by the supervisor and the programme co-ordinator.