Features of Jesus' Miracles Mnemonic

I like to create short mnemonics around the topics I'm teaching. I tend to find that they really help students retain information, and avoid missing out chunks of important material when writing essays. A quick test on a mnemonic is also a ready-made starter task! 

In our Year 12 class, we're currently studying miracles as part of our New Testament module, and this is a little mnemonic I've come up with to help remember seven key features of Jesus' miracles.

The features, and the explanations below, are adapted from Gwynn ap Gwilym's WJEC textbook:

Command - Jesus performs some miracles with only a verbal command. This is the case with nature miracles, but also elsewhere, e.g. the possessed man in Capernaum synagogue. 
Only where there is faith - Faith is a common feature of the miracle stories, while both Mark (6:5) and Matthew (13:58) tell us Jesus performed few miracles in his home town because people did not believe in him.
At a distance - Jesus does not need to be present to perform a miracle, for example, the healing of the centurion's servant.
Touch - Jesus is able to perform miracles by touch, such as healing the ear of the high priest's servant.
Pity for suffering - The miracles demonstrate Jesus' compassion for suffering humanity. Healing miracles are good examples of this, as is the feeding of the 4,000, where Jesus says he has compassion for the hungry crowd.
Evidence not always accepted - Those who did not believe in Jesus attribute the miracles to Satan, e.g. the teachers of the Law in Mark 3:20-30.
Glorify God - The purpose of Jesus' miracles is to bring glory not to Jesus, but to God. For example, when the widow of Nain's son is resurrected, the people glorify God.

I've also created a PowerPoint slide that can be dropped into revision lessons (if you're a teacher).

I'd say that if you could remember these seven features, and support each with examples, you would be well on your way to getting a good grade in 30 mark AS question. That said, I'd be interested to know whether you think the list is a good one, or whether any features should be added or removed?

The Complete Incomplete PowerPoint on Life, Death, and Beyond

I've been gradually putting together this PowerPoint for the AQA's synoptic unit on Life, Death and Beyond.

It's still not complete: One of the four topics is missing and I've not quite had chance to add in some extra notes I've got in other places, but students studying the unit might find it useful for revision ahead of their exam on Thursday.

Good luck!

Dawkins: Sex, Death and the Meaning of Life on 4oD

In my Year 13 A level class, we're currently studying the AQA synoptic unit on Life, Death and Beyond.

4oD is showing Richard Dawkins' series Sex, Death, and the Meaning of Life, which is useful for thinking about atheist responses to ultimate questions. Dawkins is always watchable, even if his tendency to cherry pick his evidence occasionally becomes annoying. The series is available free on 4oD, though you have to register first. Each episode is worth watching if you are studying or teaching the synoptic unit.

Episode 1 considers why we should act morally if there is no God watching us.

Episode 2 explores what science can tell us about death.

Episode 3 asks if there is a purpose to life in a Universe governed by the blind forces of nature.

Life After Death Revision Checklist

Photo credit sxc.hu/fanginhoon

I've put together a revision checklist/topic self assessment for the AQA unit on Body, Soul, and Personal Identity. You can download it from Google Docs here.

If you're revising for your GCSEs or A levels right now (and if you're following these tips on how to get an A, then you should be!), using checklists can help you identify the areas you need to target in your revision, and avoid the temptation to simply go over the parts of a topic you're already most comfortable with.

I've put together checklists for most of the AQA GCSE and A level syllabuses for RS. If you'd like any others for particular topics, then please post a comment below.

Life, Death and Beyond - Draft Scheme of Work

I've put together a rough draft of a scheme of work for the AQA A2 synoptic unit on Life, Death, and Beyond, which I'm teaching for the first time this year. It's something of a hybrid, using the AQA Spec, a WJEC textbook, and a template scheme I nabbed from OCR!

If you teach the synoptic unit, then like me you might find the lack of resources and schemes of work a bit of a headache. Any suggestions on how to improve the SOW (or extra resources to include) would be much appreciated! You can download the scheme of work from here.

Edit: If you found this resource useful, you might also be interested in this not quite complete PowerPoint on Life, Death, and Beyond.

Body, Soul, and Personal Identity Revision Games

Photo credit sxc.hu / runrunrun

Owing to popular demand (i.e. one person), I've created some "Articulate" and Keyword Pairs revision games for the AQA A2 Body, Soul, and Personal Identity topic. The definitions are taken or adapted from the Jordan, Lockyer, and Tate official AQA textbook.

You can download the games from here if you have a TES account, or from here via Google Docs.

Free E-book: Religion and Science

Mel Thomspon has made his A-level Religion and Science textbook available online and free of charge here. Very kind of him, I'm sure you'll agree.

It includes chapters on the origins of the universe, evolution, free will, and miracles, besides others on the history of science and the scientific method.

Religion and Science sells for £70 on Amazon, so getting it for free is like me paying you £70 to read a book, right?

Mel's website is also worth a visit, and contains summary notes for a range of A-level topics.

H/T: The Facebook Campaign to Improve AQA Philosophy.

Russell-Copleston Debate Linked and Mapped

I've found this link to a public domain audio file of the famous debate between atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell and Catholic priest F.C. Copleston (who, as far as I know, is unique in the history of philosophy for having a name that sounds almost exactly like a non-league football team).

Like other links I've found, the portion of the debate we hear covers a discussion on the cosmological argument, focusing on contingency and necessity. From Copleston's comment at the end of the clip, it seems that they then went on to talk about religious experience. I'd be interested to know if a link of the full debate exists anywhere?

Below, I've also shared a mind map I drew of the some of the key points in the debate.

Asking students who they think "won" the radio debate is always an interesting exercise. I'd say that overall, my students have tended to think that Copleston shades it. Any views or comments on this point are welcome!

Philosophy Quotes You Should Know #1

Philosopher and atheist Bertrand Russell, after being asked what he would say if he died and was brought face to face with God in the afterlife:

"I shall say 'God, why did you make the evidence for your existence so unconvincing' "

Anselm's Ontological Argument Made Simple

It's that teaching the ontological argument time of year again. This is a little chart I use to try to make the logic and flow of the argument a bit easier to follow:

HT: C. Ransom

Michael Ruse on "Does Life Have a Purpose?"

This essay by philosopher of biology Michael Ruse examines the concept of purpose in biology, tracing its history from Aristotle to the present day. I particularly like his description of Aristotle's prime mover: "rather like some junior members of my family, this God spent Its time thinking mostly of Its own importance"

You can read the essay in full here, or download a kindle version here. HT: The Facebook Campaign to Improve AQA Philosophy group.

Ontological Argument Revision Games

I've been a bit busy with work and the nascent Duke of York's Triathlon Club recently, so I've not had a lot of time for blogging. Hopefully as school tails off for summer I'll get to post more regularly.

I've uploaded some key word revision games for the ontological argument, which also include some general vocabulary on philosophical reasoning (as these two are tied together in the AQA A2 course). As usual I've uploaded them as a pdf to Google or as Word document to the TES. You'll need a login for TES to download the Word file, but anyone should be able to access the pdf version.

Student Revision Videos and Blog

So the revision season is upon us. The Easter holidays seem months ago already, and for A level students, the few weeks until exams start will go by in a dizzying whirl of revision cards, double bubble maps, and last minute crammer sessions.

I thought I'd share these useful revision videos made by student Komilla Chadha. From the topics cover, I think Komilla must have studied the OCR RS syllabus, but the videos are also useful for other exam boards too, and over a wide range of topics in Philosophy and Ethics. There are also videos relevant to Law and Economics, if you're taking these subjects. 

Komilla also has this blog. It hasn't been updated recently (by the dates, I'd guess she took her A levels a couple of years ago), but some of the materials are well worth a look.

Dead Men Tell No Tales (But They Might Send The Occasional Email)

BBC

I've been putting together a few resources for a GCSE unit of work I'm teaching next term immortality and the afterlife, and I remembered an interesting story the BBC ran a year or so ago. 

A few months after the death of Pennsylvania man Jack Fröse, some of his friends began to receive emails from the dead man's account that referred to private conversations, as well as events after Jack's death. You can watch a video about the story here.

OK, as evidence for life after death, it's not exactly compelling. Even a non-techie like me can work out a few more rational explanations for Jack's posthumous emails (e.g. giving his email password to another friend before his death).

Even so, the story shows some of the ways that the possibility of an afterlife can help people deal with the grieving process. It's also an interesting illustration of how ancient beliefs about immortality can be adapted and reinvented for the modern world.

Kevin Brown on Theodicies

In our lessons on atheism and post-modernism, my Year 12 class has been looking at reasons for the rise of atheism, and one of these is the problem of evil. Put simply, this is difficulty of reconciling the evil and suffering we see around us with the religious claim that an all-powerful, all-loving God exists: if such a God really did exist, wouldn't he act to prevent evil?

Kevin Brown of the blog Diglotting has written this useful post on different theodicies, or religious attempts to resolve the problem of evil.

Of particular interest for looking at modern responses the problem of evil, is his outline of Jürgen Moltmann's theodicy, which arose from Moltmann's experience of the suffering which occurred during World War 2 (Moltmann was a soldier in the German army). Brown writes: 

[I]nstead of focusing upon the traditional theodicy question of “Why does God allow evil”, Moltmann instead concentrates on a corollary: “Where is God in the midst of all this suffering?” He finds the answer in Jesus’ death cry: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15.34)...

Furthermore, in Moltmann’s theodicy, the cross is not just the suffering of the man Jesus, nor merely the ‘death of God’, but it is also death in God. God takes up suffering and death into himself and then overcomes it on Resurrection Sunday through the limitless divine life.

Dawkins: The Motion Picture

One of my fellow teachers pointed this out to me via the magic of facebook. Atheist Richard Dawkins is to feature in a new documentary film, The Unbelievers. 

According to the official site:

'The Unbelievers' follows renowned scientists Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss across the globe as they speak publicly about the importance of science and reason in the modern world - encouraging others to cast off antiquated religious and politically motivated approaches toward important current issues. 

The film includes interviews with celebrities and other influential people who support the work of these controversial speakers.

I can't find any details of a UK release date, but to whet your appetite, here's the trailer:

The Allegory of the Cave: Claymation Version

Below is a great claymation adaption of The Allegory of the Cave, the parable that Plato uses to convey his views on the human condition and the nature of reality. 

There are a few differences from the Plato's version, which you can read here.

Notes on Jung

Here are a couple of resources on Jung's views on religion, both courtesy of the Richmond Philosophy pages. The first is a Powerpoint introduction to Jung and his work, the second focuses on Jung's concept of individuation, and also some criticisms of Jung's work.

Also of interest, there's an In Our Time episode on Jung, available here. 

Religious Language Revision Games

I've uploaded a couple of word games you can use to revise your vocabulary for the Religious Language topic. If you find you have a few minutes in your busy half-term schedule of revising, writing essays, and in-depth background reading, why not give them a try?

The games are Key Word Pairs and Key Word Articulate. You can download them here, or if you have a TES account, from here.

You might also want to take a look at this post on the Via Negativa.

Enjoy your break!

Melyn Bragg vs. The Ontological Argument

Exciting news! This Thursday’s episode of In Our Time, Radio 4’s show on the history of ideas, will be covering the ontological argument. If, like me, you have a soft spot for Anselm’s attempt to prove God’s existence through a priori reasoning and for hearing clever people talking about stuff, then no doubt you’ll be drooling with anticipation already.

The link for the episode is here. It’s broadcast at 9.00 am and repeated at 9.30 pm, but every episode is archived, so you can listen (and re-listen) at your leisure.