Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion

This fascinating course enables you to combine the study of world religions with philosophy, ethics, history, literature, languages, sociology and classics. It explores contemporary and historic thought, culture and texts.

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Overview

A relentless pursuit

The study of theology and religion is increasingly important in a world where religious belief is a driving force behind social and political events.

Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion is a broad and demanding degree that addresses fundamental questions through a range of religious traditions and philosophical standpoints. Encompassing the history, practice and thought of the major world religions of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism, the course develops your understanding of the significance of religion and its cultural contexts.

You have considerable freedom to create a varied programme of study by exploring a diverse range of topics. Alternatively, you can follow a particular pathway if you wish to specialise in a specific area of interest.

World class resources

Cambridge is an excellent place to study religion – offering access to the latest research and historic resources in the Faculty, College and University libraries. For example, the University Library holds the Codex Bezae (an important early version of the Gospel) and the Genizah collection (a globally significant source for medieval Judaism).

Our outstanding teaching is delivered by world experts in a variety of faith traditions and in the study of religion, religious practice, and philosophy of religion.

Additional course costs

There are no compulsory course costs for Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion. Some students may want to buy a book to help with their chosen scriptural language and a Bible or Bible translation, usually available for around £20. Full course details are available on the Faculty of Divinity website and if you have any queries about resources/materials, please contact the Faculty (see fact file, right).

Changing course

To be able to change course, you need the agreement of your College that any change is in your educational interests, and you must have the necessary background in the subject to which you wish to change – in some cases you may be required to undertake some catch-up work or take up the new course from the start/an earlier year. If you think you may wish to change course, we encourage you to contact a College admissions office for advice. You should also consider if/how changing course may affect any financial support arrangements.

As well as the full three-year course, it's possible to study one or two years of Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion, either before or after one or two years of another subject, such as English; Philosophy; Classics; History; Human, Social, and Political Sciences; Law; Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; and History of Art.

Excellent career prospects

Our course equips students with significant transferable skills that are highly valued in a wide range of professions. Around 40% of our students continue to further study in theology or related disciplines, teacher training or law conversion courses. Other recent graduates have gone on to positions such as equity broker for an investment bank, marketing campaign executive, personal assistant to the head of a philanthropic foundation, and assistant private secretary in the Civil Service.

Advanced Diploma

The Faculty offers a one-year diploma for those who haven’t studied religion at undergraduate level but have a degree in another subject. Contact the Faculty Office (see fact file, right) for more information.

This course was formerly known as Theology and Religious Studies.

Course Outline

Course outline

Teaching is provided through lectures, classes and supervisions. You can expect up to nine hours of classes and lectures each week (including six for non-language papers and three for languages), as well as a weekly supervision.

Assessment is mainly by three-hour written examinations, but some papers are assessed by coursework.

Year 1 (Part I)

You take five papers designed to give you a broad introduction to the concepts, knowledge and skills required in the main areas of study.

There are two compulsory subjects:

one scriptural language (studied from scratch, no prior knowledge is expected) – Hebrew, New Testament Greek, Qur’anic Arabic or Sanskrit
a paper in biblical studies, either David: Israel’s Greatest Hero? or Jesus and the Origins of the Gospel (you can take the other in place of one of the choices below)

Plus three other papers from a choice of five, currently:

Christianity and the Transformation of Culture – the study of processes of conversion and Christianization in the late Roman world
The Question of God – exploring some of the major themes of Christian theology
Understanding Contemporary Religion – an introduction to the sociological study of religion
World Religions in Comparative Perspective – looking at the history, beliefs and practices of the main world religions and the problems of comparing them
Philosophy of Religion and Ethics – introducing key questions in philosophy of religion and religion and ethics, ranging from antiquity to contemporary controversies

Year 2 (Part IIA)

This builds on the knowledge and skills acquired in Part I. You may wish to continue to study any of the four scriptural languages at a higher level, or you can drop the study of languages at this stage.

A wide choice of options is available, enabling you to develop a course suited to your own interests. You choose four papers out of 17, currently including:

Introduction to Islam
Ethics and Faith
Philosophy of Religion: God, Freedom and the Soul
Great Theologians
Life and Thought of Religious Hinduism and of Buddhism
Christianity in Late Antiquity
Religious Themes in Literature

You can also choose to take the Part IA Logic paper from the Philosophy course.

Year 3 (Part IIB)

In your final year, you choose four from a wide range of Special Subjects and interdisciplinary papers (topics may vary), such as:

Religious Experience: Mesmerism, Spiritualism and Psychical Research
God, Metaphysics and the Modern Challenge
Jews, Christians and Muslims Before and After Muhammad
New Testament Christology
Political Theology
Judaism and Western Philosophy

You can choose to write a dissertation of 10,000 words in your third year instead of one paper.

For further information about studying Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion at the University of Cambridge see the Faculty of Divinity website.

Entry Requirements

Typical offers require

A Level: A*AA
IB: 40-42 points, with 776 at Higher Level

For other qualifications, see our main Entrance requirements pages.

Course requirements

No specific subjects required by any Colleges.

All undergraduate admissions decisions are the responsibility of the Cambridge Colleges so check College websites for College-specific requirements. See also Entrance requirements and The Subject Matters for additional advice about general requirements for entry, qualifications and offers.

Admission assessment

All applicants for Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion are required to take a written assessment at interview, if interviewed.

Assessment format: Brief lecture followed by written response (60 minutes).

The Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion Admissions Assessment will take the form of a pre-recorded sample lecture lasting up to 20 minutes. You will then have the remaining 40 minutes to answer a set of comprehension questions. This will give you an opportunity to demonstrate how you have developed academically since you took your GCSEs. It will be skills-based, looking at your comprehension and writing skills, but will not assume any prior knowledge. It will provide valuable additional evidence of our applicants’ abilities and potential to succeed in the Cambridge course for which they have applied.

Submitted work

Applicants to the following Colleges are required to submit one or two School/college essays as examples of written work prior to interview. See individual College websites for further details.

Christ's
Clare
Corpus Christi
Downing
Emmanuel
Fitzwilliam
Girton
Gonville and Caius
Homerton
Hughes Hall
Jesus
King's
Lucy Cavendish
Magdalene
Murray Edwards
Newnham
Pembroke
Peterhouse
Queens'
Robinson
St Catharine's
St Edmund's
St John's
Selwyn
Sidney Sussex
Trinity
Trinity Hall
Wolfson

For further information about studying Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion at the University of Cambridge see the Faculty of Divinity website.

Resources

Find out more about Theology and Religious Studies at Cambridge

Faculty of Divinity - Explore Divinity in more detail on the faculty website.

What can I study? - A detailed guide to the Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion (TRPR) degree.

Introductory reading - Guidance on preparatory reading for applicants interested in Theology and Religious Studies.

Learning a Language - Read about what it’s like to learn a language from scratch in Divinity.

How do I apply? - Information about applying to study TRPR at Cambridge.

Meet Our Students - Read the views of some recent students in the Faculty of Divinity.

Alumni Profiles - Learn about the destinations of some recent Cambridge theology graduates.

Teaching and Assessment - How the course is taught and assessed at Cambridge and the support available.

50 Religious Treasures of Cambridge - An interactive resource introducing Key Stage 3 students to a range of artefacts and images associated with religion.

HE+ Resources - For 6th Form students who want to further their interest in the study of religion.

Unistats

Unistats Information

Contextual Information

Unistats allows you to compare information about individual courses at different higher education institutions. This can be a useful method of considering your options and what course may suit you best.

However, please note that superficially similar courses often have very different structures and objectives, and that the teaching, support and learning environment that best suits you can only be determined by identifying your own interests, needs, expectations and goals, and comparing them with detailed institution- and course-specific information.

We recommend that you look thoroughly at the course and University information contained on these webpages and consider coming to visit us on an Open Day, rather than relying solely on statistical comparison.

You may find the following notes helpful when considering information presented by Unistats.

Unistats relies on superficially similar courses being coded in the same way. Whilst this works on one level, it may lead to some anomalies. For example, Music courses and Music Technology courses can have exactly the same code despite being very different programmes with quite distinct educational and career outcomes.
Any course which combines several disciplines (as many courses at Cambridge do) tends to be compared nationally with courses in just one of those disciplines, and in such cases the Unistats comparison may not be an accurate or fair reflection of the reality of either. For example, you may find that when considering a degree which embraces a range of disciplines such as biology, physics, chemistry and geology (for instance, Natural Sciences at Cambridge), the comparison provided is with courses at other institutions that primarily focus on just one (or a smaller combination) of those subjects.You may therefore find that not all elements of the Cambridge degree are represented in the Unistats data.

Some contextual data linked from other surveys, such as the National Student Survey (NSS) or the Destination of Leavers in Higher Education (DLHE), may not be available or may be aggregated across several courses or several years due to small sample sizes. When using the data to inform your course choice, it is important to ensure you understand how it has been processed prior to its presentation. Unistats offers some explanatory information about how the contextual data is collated, and how it may be used, which you can view here: https://unistats.ac.uk/find-out-more/about-unistats/.

Unistats draws on national data to provide average salaries and employment/continuation data. Whilst starting salaries can be a useful measure, they do not give any sense of career trajectory or take account of the voluntary/low paid work that many graduates undertake initially in order to gain valuable experience necessary/advantageous for later career progression. Unistats is currently piloting use of the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data to demonstrate possible career progression; it is important to note that this is experimental and its use may be modified as it embeds.

The above list is not exhaustive and there may be other important factors that are relevant to the choices that you are making, but we hope that this will be a useful starting point to help you delve deeper than the face value of the Unistats data.

Undergraduate Study

Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion

Container

A relentless pursuit

World class resources

Additional course costs

Changing course

Excellent career prospects

Advanced Diploma

Course outline

Year 1 (Part I)

Year 2 (Part IIA)

Year 3 (Part IIB)

Typical offers require

Course requirements

Admission assessment

Submitted work

Find out more about Theology and Religious Studies at Cambridge

Unistats Information

Contextual Information

Course Film

Fact File

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Cambridge Admissions Office

About this site

Information for

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge