BA Religion, Society and Culture

at Durham University

Year 1

Lays the foundations that are needed for higher study, providing core understandings and skills for the exploration of religion and culture.

Two compulsory religious practice modules are taken in the first year, as follows:
 

• Islam Observed

• Christianity in Context

at least two compulsory theory modules:
 

• Worldview, Faith and Identity

AND
 

• God and the Good: Philosophy of Religion and Ethics AND/OR

• God and Evil

and one or two modules from a large list of electives offered by the Department of Theology and Religion and from the departments of Anthropology and Sociology. Examples of modules available in recent years include:
 

• People and Cultures

• Societies in Transition

• Conceptualising Society

• Biblical Hebrew

• New Testament Greek

• Introduction to Christian Theology

• Reading Biblical Texts.

One of these optional modules may be taken in your second year.

Year 2

The second year builds upon the first allowing for deeper study of key themes, traditions and practices.

Candidates have to choose at least three modules from a list of electives that may include, for example:
 

• Death, Ritual and Belief

• Religion in Contemporary Britain

• Atheism, Belief, and the Edge of Reason

• Faith, Identity and Power in Latin America

• Sacred India: Land, Politics and Identity

• Topics in Christian Ethics

• Myth and Meaning: The Structural Analysis of Mythology

• Research Project and Colloquium in Theology and Religion

• Science and Theology: Exploring the Interface

• God and the Universe of Faiths

• Landscapes of Worship in Contemporary South Asian Religions.

They may choose to draw up to three modules from a further list of electives, examples of which might include:
 

• Cultures and Classifications

• Philosophy and the Christian Tradition 100–1300

• Self, Identity and Society

• The Making of Modern Christianity: Medieval and Reformation.

Year 3

In your final year, you will submit a double dissertation which allows you to explore in depth a topic of your choice which is of special interest to you. In the third year you will also take optional modules, selecting from a list of modules offered by the Department of Theology and Religion and from other departments.

Examples of optional modules include:
 

• Anthropology of Religious Controversy

• Religion and Film

• Religious Diversity in African Context

• Emotion and Identity in Religion

• The Postmodern God

• Christian Tradition and the Practice of Politics

• Faith and the Experience of War in the Christian World

• Religions in Sub-Saharan Africa

• Religion, Media and Popular Culture.

A level offer – AAB including a social science or humanities subject.

BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma/OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma – DDD and A levels as above.

Typical IB score 36 to include 665 in higher level subjects.

In addition to satisfying the University’s general entry requirements, please note:
 

• We welcome applications from those with other qualifications equivalent to our standard entry requirements and from mature students with non-standard qualifications or who may have had a break in their study. Please contact our Admissions Selectors.

• We are pleased to consider applications for deferred entry.

• If you are an international student who does not meet the requirements for direct entry to this degree, you may be eligible to take an International Foundation Year pathway programme at the Durham University International Study Centre

Science A levels

Applicants taking Science A levels that include a practical component will be required to take and pass this as a condition of entry. This applies only to applicants sitting A levels with an English examination board.

The tuition fees shown for students are for one complete academic year of full time study and are set according to the academic year of entry. Fees for subsequent years of your course may rise in line with an inflationary uplift as determined by the government.

Theology and Religion

Of those students who graduated:
 

• 80% are in paid employment or further study 15 months after graduation across all our programmes

Of those in employment:
 

• 91% are in high skilled employment

• With an average salary of £23,000.