Ubridge is designed to deliver self-paced, gap learning courses, for ambitious students entering university.

See courses currently available below. New courses added regularly. Bespoke course development on demand.

Philosophy

Ancient Greek Philosophy

Plato
• Understanding of Reality
• Theory of the Forms
• The Cave
• The Divided Line

Aristotle
• Understanding of Reality
• The Four Causes
• The Prime Mover

Life Death and Beyond

• Dualism
• Monism
• Arguments for the Soul; Plato, Descartes
• Aristotle and Aquinas
• Body Soul relationship
• Materialism/Naturalism/Physicalism
• Near Death Experiences
• Life After Death
• Different Christian views about the afterlife (Resurrection, Judgement, Heaven, Hell, Salvation, Purgatory, Election, Predestination, Universalism)

Arguments for God’s Existence

• Cosmological Arguments
• Teleological Arguments
• Ontological Arguments
• Moral Argument

Religious Experience

• Visions
• Corporate experiences
• Conversion experiences
• William James
• Richard Swinburne
• Psychological, Physiological and Scientific Objections
• Philosophical Objections

The Problem of Evil and Suffering

• The logical problem of evil
• The evidential problem of evil
• The Theodicy of St Augustine
• John Hick’s Irenaean Theodicy

The Nature of God

• Monotheism
• Different models of God (Biblical, Classical, Process)
• The divine attributes: creator, omnipotence, omniscience, omnibenevolent etc.
• God as personal vs God as transcendent
• The Trinity – God revealed in Jesus

Guest speaker: Professor Keith Ward

Religious Language Classical

• Aquinas’ Analogical understandings (attribution & proportion)
• Via Negativa
• The Apophatic Tradition
• Symbol and metaphor

Religious Language 20^th Century Influences

• Wittgenstein ‘Language Games’
• A J Ayer: The Verification Principle
• Anthony Flew: The Falsification Principle
• R M Hare: Blick
• John Hick’s responses

Miracles

• Different understandings of ‘miracle’
• Aquinas
• David Hume and Maurice Wiles

Normative Ethics

Natural Law

• Primary and Secondary precepts
• Prudence
• The Principle of Double effect

Guest speaker: Dr. Andrew Pinsent

Situation Ethics

• Four Working Principles / Assumptions
• Six Propositions
• Conscience
• Faith
• Agape

Kantian Ethics

• The enlightenment
• Categorical Imperative (3 forms)
• Duty

Utilitarianism

• Jeremy Bentham’s principle of Utility
• Hedonic Calculus
• The greater good.
• John Stuart Mill Act vs Rule Utilitarianism
• Peter Singer & Preference Utilitarianism
• Comparison of Bentham and Kant

Virtue Theory

• Eudaimonia – flourishing and happiness
• The Function Argument
• Reasoning well
• How to be virtuous

Applied Ethics

Euthanasia

• Definitions
• The Law in the United Kingdom
• Sanctity of Life
• Autonomy
• Application of Ethical Theories

Business Ethics

• Adam Smith – Invisible Hand
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Globalisation, whistle-blowing
• Application of Ethical Theories

Sexual Ethics

• Pre-marital and extramarital sex, homosexuality
• Developing views in secular society on sexual ethics
• Application of ethical theories
• Different Christian views

Animal Ethics

• The moral status of animals
• Sentience, ability to suffer
• Use of animals in farming and for science and medicine
• Blood sports
• Application of ethical theories
• Different Christian views

Capital Punishment

• John Stuart Mill
• Abolitionism
• The issues – is it murder?
• Christian views

Environmental Ethics

• Gaia Hypothesis
• Deep and shallow ecology; intrinsic & instrumental value
• Application of ethical theories
• Different Christian views including dominion, stewardship, Principle of Plenitude & eco-theology

War ethics

• Development of Just War theory including Ius ad bellum & Ius in bello
• International Law
• Nuclear weapons
• Chemical weapons
• Biological weapons
• Application of ethical theories
• Different Christian views including pacifism, sanctity of life, and principle of double effect

Ethics

Conscience

• Definitions
• Christian views
• Non-religious views

Meta Ethics

• Divine Command Theory
• Naturalism e.g. Utilitarianism
• Non-naturalism, Intuitionism

Divine Command Theory

• Justification by faith / works
• Predestination
• Sanctity of life
• Application to ethics of war (see unit on war)
• Application to environmental ethics (see unit on environmental ethics)

Freewill and Moral Responsibility

• Free will definitions
• Libertarianism
• Hard determinism
• Compatibilism
• Theological Determinism
• Application to reward and punishment

Dialogues

The dialogue between Philosophy and Christianity

The dialogue between Ethics and Christianity

Developments in Christian Thought

Sources of Wisdom and Authority

• Natural and revealed theology
• Church Authority
• Authority of Conscience
• Authority of Bible
• Human Reason
• The person of Jesus

• Religious Experience
• Tradition
• Fideism & Natural Theology – John Polkinghorne

Guest speaker: Professor Tom Greggs

Augustine and Human Nature

• Human nature as fallen
• Original Sin
• Freewill and Predestination
• Grace

Sources and Expressions of Religious Identity

• Baptism
• Holy communion (mass)
• The mission of the Church

Gender and Sexuality

• Historical and social factors which have influenced Christian thinking
• Debates about female ordination
• A Comparison of Daphne Hampson and Rosemary Ruether’s approaches
• Different Christian views about celibacy, marriage, homosexuality and transgender issues
• Mary Daly

Guest speaker: Professor Daphne Hampson

Christianity and Science

• Atheism and the narrative of warfare
• Stephen Gould – Non-overlapping Magisteria
• Alister McGrath – Theory of Complementarity
• God of gaps
• Darwinian and Neo Darwinian evolution
• The Big Bang
• John Polkinghorne
• Different Christian responses to the issues raised by genetic engineering

Secularisation

• Secularisation – theory or ideology?
• Secularisation as ideology – liberal, political, critical.
• Militant Atheism
• Individualisation of religion to the personal sphere
• Christianity and public life
• Post secularism and religious resurgence. Fresh expressions. The Scriptural Reasoning movement.
• Roman Catholic response to secularisation – Vatican 2
• Christian Responses to wealth
• Marx & Liberation Theology – A preferential option for the poor; orthodoxy and orthopraxis

Pluralism

• Migration, multiculturalism & religious diversity. Interfaith dialogue
• John Hick’s Pluralistic hypothesis, (exclusivism, inclusivism, pluralism).
• Tolerance
• Diversity within Christianity & different views including ecumenism.