Program Overview

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Philosophy and Theology

Gain an understanding of what it is to be human by exploring the big questions concerning human life, religion and the universe.

Start Dates

• September 2026
• September 2025

Degree Type

BA

Course Length

3 years full-time

Location

Durham City

UCAS Code

VV56

Typical Offers

• A Level: AAA
• BTEC: DDD
• International Baccalaureate: 37

Course Details

Studying Philosophy and Theology allows you to confront and study the big questions concerning human life – questions such as ‘What does a flourishing human life look like?’ and ‘What do people believe about the world and their place in it?’ With numerous areas of overlap, these complementary disciplines are particularly suitable to study alongside each other.

The philosophy element of your degree will equip you with the skills needed to think carefully and deeply about what matters in a good life, and how individual happiness is related to friendships, relationships, family, society, the political system and culture. At Durham, you will also follow one of the widest-ranging philosophy degrees in the country equipping you with expertise in Anglo-American analytical philosophy and continental philosophy.

Within the theology modules, you will study how human beings have always had, and always will have worldviews and fundamental beliefs about the Universe, and their role in it. This part of the human condition will be studied from a range of methodological and disciplinary perspectives. You can also apply to add a placement year or a year abroad to your degree, increasing the course from three years to four.

Philosophy is a new subject for many students, so in your first year you will follow a range of introductory courses, introducing the fundamental philosophical subject areas. You will also take a number of comparable introductory modules in theology.

In your second year, you will further increase your knowledge by taking two core modules in philosophy and theology. You will also have a wide selection of optional modules to choose from for both subjects.

The third year includes a dissertation that allows a deep, independently driven, exploration of a topic of your choice.

Course Structure

Year 1 Modules

Core Modules:

• Ethics and Values: provides a structured introduction to moral philosophy, including applied ethics, by exploring key moral concepts and showing how they influence moral practices and theories.
• Knowledge and Reality: introduces philosophical problems in epistemology (the study of knowledge), and metaphysics (the study of reality and ourselves).
• Reading Philosophy: gives you an understanding of the issues of interpretation and comprehension through a detailed study of four thematically related texts.
• Introduction to Christian Theology: will equip you with a comprehensive map of the major figures, ideas and debates which function as a minimal context for intelligent work in Christian theology.
• Introduction to the Bible: Texts, History, Culture: introduces important passages and themes in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and New Testament.

Optional Modules:

• New Testament Greek
• God and Evil
• God and the Good: Philosophy of Religion and Ethics
• Islam Observed: Ethnographic Accounts of Muslim Practice
• Worldview, Faith and Identity
• Introduction to the History of Christianity

Year 2 Modules

Core Modules:

• Philosophy of Religion: enables you to acquire an understanding of philosophical issues raised in religion including, for example, arguments for the existence of God, the problem of evil, and the relation between reason and faith.
• Atheism, Belief and the Edge of Reason: introduces key philosophical thinkers from the early modern period to the present and allows you to develop a capacity for philosophical analysis that is theologically sensitive.

Optional Modules:

• Philosophy of Mind
• Language, Logic and Reality
• Early Modern Philosophy
• Moral Theory
• Creation and New Creation: Imaging God
• Science and Theology: Exploring the Interface
• Early Christian Doctrine: Trinity and Christology
• Topics in Christian Ethics

Year 3 Modules

Core Modules:

• Dissertation: The final year includes a dissertation on a philosophy or theology topic of your choice in which you research a topic in depth and present your findings and conclusions.

Optional Modules:

• Applied Ethics
• Issues in Contemporary Ethics
• Metaphysics
• Issues in Old Testament Studies
• The New Testament and Christian Ethics
• Religion and Film
• Emotion and Identity in Religion

Learning

You will learn through a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials, informal but scheduled one-to-one support, and self-directed learning, such as research, reading and writing.

Assessment

Modules are assessed by essays, some by an end-of-year examination and some by a combination of the two.

Entry Requirements

• A level offer: AAA
• Contextual offer: BBB
• BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma/OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma: DDD
• IB Diploma score: 37 to include 666 in higher level subjects.

Fees and Funding

The fees for this academic year have not been confirmed yet.

Career Opportunities

Philosophy

Philosophical training will equip you with a range of theoretical and transferable skills, including critical thinking, problem solving, communication, project management, presenting and researching, that will be of value to employers across a range of industries.

Theology and Religion

Our degrees are designed to give you a strong and broad foundation of subject-specific knowledge as well as transferable skills and personal qualities developed during your studies: thinking clearly, writing well, presenting arguments, analysing texts, assessing evidence, solving problems, pursuing and organising research.

Department Information

Philosophy

Gain a deeper understanding of this complex world and change your outlook on life with this ancient and fascinating intellectual discipline. Philosophy at Durham covers many of the profound and important questions that arise in all areas of human life.

Theology and Religion

Durham is a place of self-discovery where ‘belief’ and ‘beliefs’ are taken seriously. Join us to explore religious thought, practice and scripture in a world-leading Department of Theology and Religion.

Rankings

• 7th The Complete University Guide 2025 (Philosophy)
• 8th The Guardian University Guide 2025 (Philosophy)
• Top 40 The QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025 (Philosophy)
• 6th in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025 (Theology and Religion)
• 2nd in The Guardian University Guide 2025 (Theology and Religion)
• 2nd in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025 (Theology and Religion)