Advanced Diploma in the Great Books of Western Civilisation and Islamic Philosophy and Theology
(AdvDipGb)
THE DIPLOMA BEGAN on Saturday May 2nd LATE ENTRY OPEN until Monday 1st June
A unique and rigorous philosophical and theological eduction.
BT Academy’s new Diploma in the Great Books, offers a uniquely integrated path through the great philosophical and theological works of both Islam and the West. It is designed for those who wish to read the Great Books in the spirit in which they were written: as living works of reason and revelation, studied closely, historically, and in conversation across civilizations.
Entry is selective, open to successful graduates of our AdvDipTh, or alternatively to those with a solid background in philosophy, theology, or Islamic studies, whether academic or traditional. The programme is designed to accommodate those in full-time study or work.
The Diploma consists of two complementary courses taken together over two terms (26 weeks): Metaphysics and Logic — Hasan Spiker; Great Texts of the Western Tradition — Paul Williams. Together they form a continuous intellectual arc: from the discovery of metaphysics as the first science and its unfolding in the Islamic and classical traditions, to the rise of Western theology and modern criticism that shaped the secular understanding of the world.
-
Start Date
Saturday 2nd May 2026
Duration
1 academic year
(2 terms, 26 weeks)
-
Entry is selective, open to successful graduates of our AdvDipTh Level 1, or alternatively to those with a solid background in philosophy, theology, or Islamic studies, whether academic or traditional. The programme is designed to accommodate those in full-time study or work. The admissions interview with our lead instructors, Paul Williams and Hasan Spiker, represents our most effective means of appraising applicants' suitability for the diploma, and applicants of all ages and backgrounds will be considered for entry without prejudice.
-
£ 2300 / $2900 per term (2 terms)
-
Application Process: Online application form. Selected candidates will be invited to interview with Paul Williams and Hasan Spiker. Successful candidates will subsequently be informed of their place at BT Academy.
Application Deadline: Monday 27th April, 2026
We recommend that you apply early.
THE TWO COMPULSORY COURSES THAT TOGETHER MAKE UP THE GREAT BOOKS DIPLOMA:
Metaphysics, Modernity, and Logic
Lead instructor: Hasan Spiker
Term 1
Sample of syllabus (10 of 26 weeks)
Week 1 — Prolepsis: Thomas Carlyle and the Age of Mechanism
Required reading: Thomas Carlyle, Signs of the Times
Suggested reading: John Stuart Mill, The Spirit of the Age
Week 2 The Last Battle for the Soul of Western Man
Required reading: John Stuart Mill, Bentham and Coleridge
Week 3 Plotinus: Nature as Dreaming Soul
Required reading: Plotinus, Enneads III.8
Week 4 — Plato: Knowledge, Participation, and the Soul
Phaedo, Theaetetus
Week 5 — Aristotle: Abstraction and the Blank Slate
Posterior Analytics, De Anima
Week 6 — Plotinus: Virtues, Beauty, and Dialectic
On Virtues (I.2), On Dialectic (I.3), On Beauty (I.6)
Week 7 — Proclus and Dionysius: The Deduction of Hierarchy
Elements of Theology; Celestial Hierarchy
Week 8 — Avicenna: First Philosophy
Metaphysics; Posterior Analytics
Week 9 — Suhrawardi and Ibn Arabi: Light and Theophany
The Philosophy of Illumination; The Ringstones of Wisdom
Week 10 — On the Summas of al-Ghazāli and Aquinas
De Veritate; Revival of the Religious Sciences
Week 11 — C.S Lewis and the Medieval Worldview
The Discarded Image
Week 12— From Ockham to Bacon and Descartes
Scriptum in librum primum Sententiarum; New Organon; Discourse on Method
Weekly seminars are paired with individual tutorials, encouraging students to pursue ideas beyond the text and to form a disciplined grasp of argument. Short reflection pieces are submitted across the two terms, and each course culminates in a final integrative essay.
Great Texts of the
Western Tradition
Learning and Assessment: Weekly close-reading seminars with one-to-one tutorials.
Sample of 10 weeks (out of 26 in total):
Week 1 — Paul: Law & Grace
All of the Letter to the Galatians. Plus Shabbir Akhtar: The New Testament in Muslim Eyes, pp. 1-13. Both required reading. Acts 21 - suggested reading.
Week 2 — Augustine: Conversion & Self
Confessions. All of Book II of the Chadwick translation - required reading. Book VIII (p. 144 to end of the chapter, p. 154), where his famous conversion unfolds - suggested reading.
Week 3 — Boethius: Providence & Fate
The Consolation of Philosophy. All of Book II - required reading. Book III - suggested reading.
Week 4 — Anselm: Faith & Reason
Proslogion. Chapters 1–5 - required reading. Chapters 15 to 18 - suggested reading.
Week 5 — Chaucer: Experience & Authority
Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath’s Prologue (entire) + The Tale - required reading.
Week 6 — Dante: Cosmic Order
The Divine Comedy. Inferno - Cantos I–V required reading. Cantos I–XI - suggested reading.
Week 7 — Machiavelli: Political Realism
The Prince. chapters 15–18 - required reading. Chapters 1–11 + 15–18 - suggested reading.
Week 8 — Luther: Reformation
Freedom of a Christian. Opening section (the two theses) + central argument on faith vs. works — the paradox: “a Christian is a perfectly free lord… and a perfectly dutiful servant.” - required reading. Whole treatise - suggested reading.
Week 9 — Milton: Fall & Freedom
Paradise Lost. Book I - required reading. Books I–II - suggested reading.
Week 10 — Bunyan: Inner Salvation
The Pilgrim’s Progress. Part I — from the beginning to the House Beautiful - required reading.
Part I from Vanity Fair to the Celestial City - suggested reading.
Paul Williams