Christian Theology at Ampleforth
The department teaches an ambitious and demanding academic programme, which involves public examinations in Years 11, 12 and 13.
The main responsibility of the department is to communicate a knowledge, understanding and critical awareness of Catholic Christian faith. Moral and spiritual formation and the personal journey of faith are implicit in this undertaking. The communication, however, of a committed and lively faith is not restricted to the department of Christian Theology; it is a whole School undertaking. In particular the spiritual and moral development of the students is a concern of the housemasters, and of those staff who assist in the boarding houses. Many of the teaching staff of the department are either housemasters or tutors in the houses, but other housemasters and those who are in a position to affect the students' spiritual development do not have a formal connection with the work of the department. There are many informal contacts, explicitly or implicitly helpful to faith and moral development, between students, members of the monastic community and committed lay members of the teaching staff.
In the first year in the School (Year 9) there is an introductory course on Christ, Prayer and the Church. This lays the foundation for subsequent study.
In Years 10 and 11 all students study for GCSE (AQA specification A). This course looks at the Gospel of Mark in paper 1 and in paper 2 at the sacramental and ethical teaching of the Roman Catholic Church and its relevance for life today.
In Year 12 most students opt for the new AS in Religious Studies (AQA). Those who do not opt for the AS study a second GCSE in philosophy of religion and ethics (OCR specification B short course). Whatever the public examination taken, all students study the philosophy of religion at some level. For 16 and 17 year olds, philosophy provides a new form of analytical thought and introduces a currently popular area of study, in which religious belief faces the critical challenge of agnosticism and atheism. An attempt is made both to allow open debate and to show that religious belief has certain lines of rational support today.
In Year 13, many students opt for the A2 course in Religious Studies . In addition, all students study a non-examination Theology course, which includes modern moral dilemmas, and issues in personal and social life: the Upper Sixth Christian Living course.