Entry requirements: Normally a first or second-class Honours degree or professional experience in the area of study
Full-time: 1 year
Part-time: 2 years
This programme is delivered at: Winchester or by distance learning
Programme Leader: Professor Neil Messer
Telephone +44 (0) 1962 826428
Email Neil.Messer@winchester.ac.uk
If English is not your first language: IELTS 6.5 (including 6.5 in academic writing) or a TOEFL score of 575 (paper-based) or 232 (computer-based) or equivalent
Start dates: September and January Application process: UKPASS (full-time applicants only) or Direct Entry Application Form (part-time applicants only)
The programme offers broad-based advanced study and research training focusing on religion, theology and ethics in contemporary societies. Students use a range of academic disciplines and approaches to reflect critically on religious traditions, their theologies and practices in the complex social and political contexts of the contemporary world. Students are encouraged to engage in depth with religious and theological traditions, through careful critical work on significant texts, thinkers, movements and practices.
Students study core modules in religion and ethics, contemporary religions and/or the practice of theology and research methods, plus a range of optional modules on topics such as theology and politics, religion and globalisation, bioethics and interreligious dialogue. The course concludes with a supervised research project on a subject of your choice. The range of core and optional modules allows students to either balance the religious studies and Christian theology elements of the programme, or to follow a path that focuses mostly on one or the other.
• The Practice of Contemporary Christian Theology
• Religion in the Contemporary West
• Theology, Religion and Ethics
• Research Methods and Skills
• Christian Theology and Bioethics
• The Church and Politics
• Faith and the City
• Death in World Religions
• Death in the Christian Tradition
• Introduction to Orthodox Theology
• Orthodoxy in the Modern World
• Religion and Globalisation
For distance learning students, course materials and resources will be made available online through the University’s Learning Network. You will receive tutorial support electronically, for example by email or Wimba (interactive virtual classroom). On-campus delivery is through lectures and seminars supported by online resources on the Virtual Learning Environment.
Students undertake a supervised research project leading to a 15,000 to 20,000-word dissertation.
The programme is particularly suitable for continuing professional development of religious education teachers, clergy and leaders of faith communities, pastoral workers and others whose professional lives demand a high-level understanding of this subject area. It is also ideal preparation for a research degree (MPhil or PhD) and the first steps of an academic career in theology and religious studies.