A Level Digest July 2024
A good book: Theology and Sexuality by Susannah Cornwall
Although this book is a few years old, it is still incredibly useful. Susannah is truly excellent in her understanding and coverage of this area. The whole book fits the sexual ethics unit if you are covering this in your A level either in the ethics section of the course or in the Christianity paper (if you are teaching this religion). Chapters cover sex and marriage, sex outside of marriage and same sex relationships as well as sexuality, sex and gender. I have also found that this book is very useful if you are teaching about Relationships and Families at GCSE too as it will substantially develop your knowledge and understanding of this area. Students can easily access it so it is good for a RS departmental library if you have one.
A good watch: Edward Cadbury lectures
Every year the Edward Cadbury lectures take place in Birmingham due to an endowment by the Cadbury family. These are held in person and are always on topics connected to Theology and Religious Studies. Some of the previous lectures are available on line to watch as they were videoed. There are some excellent ones on there that will extend your subject knowledge. These include those given by Dr William Lane Craig who looks at Divine aseity, the challenges of Platonism and the Kalam argument for God as well as one by Professor Mark Goodacre on how popular culture is affecting religion particularly beliefs surrounding whether or not Jesus was married to Mary. The link to explore these series of videos further can be found here: Videos – Cadbury Lectures – University of Birmingham
A good piece of research: The disturbing views of God and suffering in the book of Job, Bart Ehrman
If you teach the problem of evil at A level you may touch upon the story of Job in the bible. I have always found this to be a text that is difficult to explore in lessons but it is one I have always wanted to focus on due to the questions it raises. This podcast really helped me to situate and understand this much better. Bart Ehrman discusses how this was originally believed to be two stories that have been combined into one where the beginning and end are from one account and the middle narrative (which is the majority) is another. He also explains some of the meaning of words and events which will greatly enrich your teaching of this passage if you use it in your lessons. The link to listening to this on Spotify is: The Disturbing Views of God and Suffering in the Book of Job – Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman | Podcast on Spotify
A good listen: In our time, BBC Radio 4
Every year when I teach Religious Language in the A level students really struggle to understand the contributions of the Vienna Circle, the Falsification Symposium and Wittgenstein. I am therefore always on the lookout for what I could use to help them understand this further and also help me to develop my subject knowledge. I therefore really love the programmes that link to this on radio’s 4 In our Time. The first one is on Wittgenstein but there are also others that link to the Vienna Circle. I would recommend that you listen to these in order to develop your own background knowledge but also share these with your students if they want to explore this area further. The link to the one on Wittgenstein is: BBC Radio 4 – In Our Time, Wittgenstein and on the Logical Positivists it is: BBC Radio 4 – In Our Time, Logical Positivism I have also found this one to be useful as well: BBC Radio 4 – In Our Time, Ordinary Language Philosophy
Rachael Jackson-Royal is head of department of RE and is the exams and higher education officer on the NATRE executive.