John Locke Essay Competition · 2026 questions
John Locke Theology Essay Questions
Theology is the least entered major category and one of the best odds in the competition for a student who can read philosophy of religion carefully. The judges are not asking what you believe; they are asking whether you can reason about belief.
The 2026 questions below are the official set. The 2027 questions are expected in late January 2027 and this page will carry them within 48 hours.
The 2026 Theology questions, one by one
Quoted verbatim from the John Locke Institute. For each: what the examiners are testing, where strong students lose marks, the argument lines that hold up over 2,000 words, and what to read before you write.
What it is really asking
Whether a causal account and a meaning account compete, or answer different questions. "Better explained" invites you to say what an explanation is for.
The trap
Assuming that a neural correlate debunks an experience. The judges know the genetic fallacy and will expect you to.
Lines of argument that can carry 2,000 words
- Two levels of explanation: neuroscience explains how the experience occurs, theology explains what it is of. They compete only if one claims completeness. Argue which does.
- The reliability argument (Alston, Swinburne): religious experience is prima facie evidence like perception, unless there is a defeater. Neuroscience supplies a candidate defeater; assess whether it succeeds.
- The naturalist reply (Persinger's "God helmet", temporal lobe epilepsy): if the experience can be induced, its usual cause need not be divine. Then the replication failures of Persinger's work become relevant evidence.
Read first
- Perceiving God, William Alston
- The Varieties of Religious Experience, William James (Lectures XVI and XVII on mysticism)
- Neurotheology: Are We Hardwired for God?, Andrew Newberg (and a critical review)
What the judges reward in Theology
The official criteria are knowledge and understanding, competent use of evidence, quality of argumentation, originality, structure, writing style and persuasive force. In this category that means:
- 1Philosophy of religion used with precision: epistemic peers, defeaters, self-authentication, the genetic fallacy.
- 2Evidence handled as evidence, including social-science data, rather than as ammunition.
- 3Engagement with more than one tradition where the question allows it.
- 4An argument that does not depend on the reader sharing the writer's beliefs.
A published winning essay in this category
"If you cannot persuade your intelligent, sympathetic friends to embrace your religious belief system, do you have enough reason to believe what you believe?"
Shivrav Sharma · Second Prize, Theology, 2023
The essay opens with Arjuna on the battlefield, then turns the question into a precise one from the epistemology of disagreement: are your friends your epistemic peers? It defines the term from Kelly, applies Christensen and Feldman against itself, and argues (with King) that peers are almost never found in religious disagreement. The move from a vague question to a technical one, with the literature to match, is the whole lesson.
Read the essay on the Institute's siteOur analysis of every essay the Institute has published is in Past winning essays, analysed.
How to prepare for the 2027 Theology questions before they are released
- 1
Read one philosophy-of-religion anthology chapter on religious experience and one on disagreement; the questions recur.
- 2
Keep your own beliefs out of the essay unless they are the evidence. The judges reward reasoning that a reader of any faith or none can follow.
- 3
For the correlation question, draw the causal diagram before writing a word.
- 4
Open with a concrete case (a text, a person, a study), as the 2023 essay opens with the Mahabharata.
John Locke Essay Competition prep for Theology
John Locke Basics
12 group sessions plus 6 hours of 1-on-1 mentorship, from question choice to a submission-ready draft. 38 of our 41 students were shortlisted in 2026.
Questions about the Theology category
No. The category is judged as philosophy of religion, and the 2023 second-prize essay argues from the epistemology of disagreement rather than from faith. What the judges reward is precise reasoning about belief, evidence and experience, using the technical literature, in a way that a reader of any faith or none can follow.
The other nine categories
John Locke guides
The complete guide
Eligibility, rules, dates, judging and prizes in one place.
John Locke Essay Competition prep
All four programmes, compared, with the 2026 results and the 2027 timeline.
Deadline and timeline 2027
Every date, confirmed or expected, on one page.
The interview after shortlisting
What the Institute says, what students report, how to prepare.
Past winning essays, analysed
The seven published prize essays, paragraph by paragraph.
Is it prestigious, and worth entering?
What a shortlist, commendation or prize is worth in admissions.
Free essay planner
Question deconstruction, argument map and self-audit sheet.
2027 dates and changes tracker
What is confirmed, what is expected, and every 2026 rule change.
The competition from Dubai and the UAE
How the calendar sits against UAE school terms and exam seasons.