Studying God

This first volume in the series Challenging Knowledge in RE explores some of the substantive knowledge encountered in RE around the idea of God. It looks to increase students’ disciplinary knowledge too, employing different ways of studying God through theology and psychology.

With the help of experts in those fields, students can be introduced to the disciplines of theology and psychology, and how they might be used to investigate God. A selection of questions and methods are explored so that students can be encouraged to carry out their own investigations and to evaluate the methods and answers.

Resources, available in the book and online, provide information and exercises for: investigating Christian ideas about God as love, examining what Christians and Muslims learn about God from sacred texts, using psychology to explore what people think God is like, and exploring whether beliefs about God can predict behaviour. Example results support the exercises with responses of some young people on their ideas of God, and how different groups of religious and non-religious people in various countries view their relationship with God.