It’s one of the oldest degrees on offer in the world, but from next September undergraduate theology students at Oxford University will no longer have to study Christianity beyond the first year of their degree. Instead they will be able to focus on “Feminist Approaches” or “Buddhism in Space and Time,” should they so choose. The university says it is making the change in response to demand from students and tutors, who are increasingly interested in religions and theologies other than Christianity. Students will still have to study The Bible and the figure of Jesus in their first year, but in their second and third years will be free to completely avoid exploration of the Christian faith altogether, if they want to. Instead they will be able to opt for courses such as “Islam in the Classical Period”, “Mysticism” and “Feminist Approaches to Theology and Religion”. First year students will also be able to avoid learning classical Hebrew, Greek or Latin and will instead be able to study Qur’anic Arabic or Pali, a language native to the Indian subcontinent in which many early Buddhist texts are written. “We recognise that the people who come to study at Oxford come from