My GCSE in Catholic RE was divided into two modules. The first module consisted of a detailed study of Mark’s Gospel, and the second was titled more ominously, Catholic Social Teaching. This mostly involved a valiant attempt on behalf of the religious staff to initiate us into “understanding” why we were not permitted to do pretty much anything fun we could think of. Our most infamous essay title ever involved explaining why contraception was a form of abortion. Prolife as I am, I nevertheless find that a virtually impossible argument to make, bearing in mind that this was ten years ago when the Morning After Pill was not really a concept which anyone was familiar with. But one of the things we covered in this course was Catholic feast days, and this obviously entailed a fair bit of time spent studying the feast of Easter; the most important festival in the whole calendar of the Church. One worksheet we were given really stood out for me; it listed alternative theories to the hypothesis that Jesus had risen from the dead. (more…)