Theology Personal Statement Example 5

To me, Theology is an important subject to study. One of the reasons is the great ignorance that surrounds this subject area. The news is a reminder of this: the arguments over some Muslims protesting at soldiers' repatriations at Wootton Bassett is an example.

Although the course has shown that these sorts of things will not be studied directly, I hope that by studying Theology, I will be able to understand religion in general - why people belong to a religion, and why it is still so important in so many people's lives when some religions originated some thousands of years ago.

Through studying Religious Studies at A-level, the most important quality that I have gained is the widening of my perceptions, particularly during the study of the different theories of the existence of God.

Aquinas' five ways of proving the existence of God, such as God being an unmoved mover and the first cause of the universe, is an example of the most famous of the theories and a theory that has altered my judgements especially; the existence of God, to some, could be proven empirically which until learning, I did not think was possible.

Additionally, I have learnt much from studying Plato & Aristotle and their influences on Christianity; Aristotle's idea of there being a Prime Mover and Plato's theory of there being two worlds, or heaven and Earth, have undoubtedly influenced the development of Christianity and I have taken great satisfaction in studying the links made between Aristotle and Plato and Christian beliefs.

As well as making links between different theologians and philosophers, this has enabled me to analyse and evaluate arguments due to there being such a wide range of views, even between fellow theologians such as Aquinas' disagreement with Anselm's ontological argument.

In addition to studying in college, I have found reading more widely around the subject area of Religious Studies to be very beneficial in this subject and the other subjects that I study.

An example of this would be my reading of Brave New World, which I found to be valuable when writing about whether we have free will or our decisions are determined by outside factors such as social conditioning, as demonstrated in Brave New World. I also read Plato's Republic in order to understand the background to his Analogy of the Cave which proved to be a challenging read due to its style of writing in the form of a dialogue.

Studying topics in my other subjects, such as the Communist control over Russia have been beneficial in developing my ideas in Religious Studies. For Politics, we study ideologies - this helps when discussing free will in Religious Studies. In addition, issues such as beliefs in society studied in Sociology tie in with studying religion in society. I therefore feel thoroughly prepared for studying a degree in Theology.

I do not belong to a particular religion but this only draws me to study the subject. I believe that this would not have happened without studying Religious Studies at A level. The group I studied with had the widest range of views I had ever been in company with and I had the pleasure of listening to people from Evangelical churches, for example, to those who wish to distance themselves from religion.

Outside of my studies, my principal interest is playing the guitar. I have played in several groups whilst at school and sixth form. These performances gave me much-needed confidence to perform.

It also taught me to work more effectively in groups with people that I did not know particularly well and to work independently to produce a group performance at a concert or end of term performance. As written, I do enjoy reading more widely, which in turn has helped me in the other subjects that I study.

I am looking forward to being given the opportunity to study at university, the challenges that will come with it and being able to discuss theological issues with other like-minded students and leaders within the field of Theology.