Philosophy
God created us for a relationship with him, as revealed in the Bible. However, it is also important to understand what others believe about relating to God so that Christians may find points of contact for meaningful communication: both for dialogue and evangelism. Students will analyse and appraise the world’s major religions so that they will “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (1 Peter 3:15) As we struggle for the answers we will become more “sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Course Objectives
Students will study a range of major world religions (ESLR: SCW) and cults and compare them (ESLR: ET) in written reflections with the teaching of Christianity and the Bible (ESLR: RUC, NLL). Students will make a public presentation (ESLR: DC) on one religion or cult which they have chosen from their own area of interest (ESLR: NLL) and then researched and written a paper on (DC).

Textbooks
Bible
One God/ Many Gods
More than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell
Eerdman’s Handbook to World Religions

Time Allotment
50 minutes per day, 4 days a week and attending weekly chapel

Course Content

  • Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism
  • Taoism, Confucianism, Shintoism
  • Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness
  • Atheism, Agnosticism, and Scepticism
  • Satanism and the Occult

Evaluation
The assessment for the course will be through several different forms:

  1. Weekly 250 word reflections – every week a topic will be assigned for students to reflect on biblically.
  2. Quarterly and Semester Tests.
  3. Research project – Research a religion or cult of the student’s choice, write a paper, make a public presentation