How has the Christian tradition evolved/changed/diversified over 2000 years?

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Your Christianity assignment asks you to consider the six videos on pages 58–60. After studying the videos, you are asked to write a response to the question, “How has the Christian tradition evolved/changed/diversified over 2000 years?” You have a great deal of latitude in responding to this question, so you may use evidence drawn from history, theology, spirituality and/or practice as depicted in the videos. You can document specific points by footnoting the title of the video and the time mark from where you’ve taken your information. Responses should be 1500-2000 words.

 Discuss the views of different faith traditions in understanding the meaning of the narrative of the binding of Isaac.

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Discuss the views of different faith traditions in understanding the meaning of the narrative of the binding of Isaac. A three to four page review.

Focusing on a crucial choice made by your character, explain how their chosen course of action reveals and/or alters who they are going forward.

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10/08/2020

Instructor

For this assignment, please focus on a single character from one of our readings so far (Genesis, The Odyssey or Antigone). Then compose a brief essay using one of the templates* below.

Templates:

  1. Based on one or two key speeches made by your chosen character, analyze that person’s primary motivation. What do they really want? This will work best if you suspect the character is motivated by something more than what they reveal to others, or even to themselves.
  2. Focusing on a crucial choice made by your character, explain how their chosen course of action reveals and/or alters who they are going forward.
  3. Antigone and the fall of humanity in Genesis can both be considered tragedies. Explain the hamartia, or tragic flaw/error, that triggers the catastrophe for one of the protagonists involved. Traditionally, a hamartia is inseparable from the tragic character’s strengths, so we can admire them somewhat even as they fall into ruin.

*If you would like to use another template of your own devising, please check with me by email first.

Technical Requirements:

  • _Write 700-1000 words (about two to three double-spaced pages), not including the Works Cited Page.
  • _Quote from the literary text regularly in support of your assertions.
  • _Integrate at least one scholarly research source beyond the literary text, citing it in MLA format and providing a full entry on a Works Cited Page at the end of the essay.

 

Describe at least one component and the meaning it has. Overall, what is the place of the Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah in Judaism?

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Choose one of the following topics to make your initial post of about 150-200 words. 1. Passover: Visit the link to the Passover Seder at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siBHlU-8qUI&feature=related. Describe at least two of the components of the Seder and the meaning they have. Overall, what is the meaning of Passover? What event(s) does it relate to? 2. Bar Mitzvah / Bat Mitzvah: Visit the links on Bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs. Describe at least one component and the meaning it has. Overall, what is the place of the Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah in Judaism? This link takes you to a short documentary on the Passover Seder and its meaning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siBHlU-8qUI&feature=related 3. Key Events: We have read that the identity of a religion is often tied to events in its history, development, and mythology. What are some key events in the formation of Judaism? Describe at least one event, as well as what it has meant for the history of the religion. Some examples to consider are the lives of the Patriarchs, the exodus from Egypt, or experiences of exile in Babylon, though you can certainly find other examples in the textbook.

What might cause some people to be reluctant to engaging in “feeling the Holy Spirit”?

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:  What can Christian leaders do to improve the understanding?

: What might cause some people to be reluctant to engaging in “feeling the Holy Spirit”?

: How might celebrating the Holy Spirit deter people from participating in the event?

: How might Christian influence people to pursue engaging in this event?

Compare and contrast Zen and the rise of Japanese militarism and the Tibetan struggle with the People’s Republic of China in terms of the role of the Buddhist religion in those conflicts

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RELG 3120                       BUDDHISM @ WAR

FINAL Essay Paper Topics

Your Final Paper for this course should respond to one of the following. You should also design it to represent an in-depth engagement with particular issues raised in this course as reflected in these topics, as well as indicating you are conversant with the course’s overall subject-matter. The requirements are as follows:

            A final term Paper, typed, double-spaced and 2000-3000 words [= c.7 to 10 pages] plus Bibliography, with ALL uses of outside sources clearly referenced, giving page numbers immediately after each use. It is due NO LATER THAN Monday October 19th, MMXX.

Should you wish to do your own topic, you MUST discuss it with me in advance (I’m also very happy to discuss any of the topics below with you). In addition, you should consider the topics given here carefully, as a guide to the kinds of things I am looking for from our course.

In particular, you should seek to relate specific examples, and the details thereof, to general principles that we have taken up in the course of the course. Your paper may focus on specific examples of Buddhism in conflicts, or it may evaluate more general principles, but in either case you should relate principles to examples and vice versa. Choose economical examples (compact, detailed, digestible) to address the general points you seek to make.

Assuming you choose one of the following topics, clearly indicate on your title page which topic you’re responding to, and give your paper an informative title that indicates how you are refining the topic to your specific subject or interests. Similarly, if you do your own topic, give it an interesting title that conveys the theme(s) of your paper.

DO NOT FAIL to include a proper full bibliography of all works read or viewed — anything that has informed you on your chosen topic.

DO NOT FAIL to CHECK OVER your paper BEFORE you email it to me – then you’ll see if you have indeed forgotten the Biblio!

Suggested Topics:   Choose 1 —& state which Topic you have chosen

  1. Apply some aspects of my interpretations of Religion in Political Conflict to one of the 3 cases we have studied in detail: the Sri Lankan civil war; Zen and the rise of Japanese militarism; or the Tibetan struggle with the People’s Republic of China. You may either indicate how you see my analysis illuminating the events and motivations involved; or ways in which my analysis is wanting, or needs refinement or modification in order better to analyze the situation as you perceive it.
  2. Apply Patrick Grant’s concept of ‘retrogressive inversion’ to a different example of Buddhism at war or in political conflict from the one he studies (Sri Lanka), in order to analyze the rationales and discourse involved in your example conflict.
  3. Compare and contrast Zen and the rise of Japanese militarism and the Tibetan struggle with the People’s Republic of China in terms of the role of the Buddhist religion in those conflicts, especially how Buddhists respond to their perceived adversaries in each case.
  4. Choose a different conflict that has included Buddhists in the struggle (e.g. recent events in Burma, or Pol Pot’s regime in Cambodia) and describe the similarities and differences you see between your case study and at least one of those we’ve studied in class as to how the Buddhist religion played a role in those conflicts. You will need first to do some detailed research into this example, and include some history and characterization of the conflict in your essay.
  5. Let us assume international politics from the 19th-century on involves applying methods to express power as a means to gain advantages for one’s own nation state relative to others. By examining one episode or situation in any of the three cases studied in detail in this class, show how the religion of Buddhism affected such an expression of power – either by contributing to it, providing the means, manipulating a population to participate, or alternatively, by discouraging or diverting such power-motivated national energies away from conflict or power politics. Yet another option could be that you see a way in which Buddhists could have played a constructive role, but for some reason (related to their religion, at least in part) they crucially failed to. Analyze your chosen instance in terms of the political forces at work, including the Buddhist religion. Be careful to write an introduction that clearly stipulates which of these various options you are choosing to think through, and how your chosen instance sets up your analysis of Buddhism in relation to political power.
  6. In my ms-book Chapter 3, pages 3f (in Files on Canvas), I propose four ‘degrees of recognizability’ by which religions may be perceived to influence or play a role in cultures and societies. Building on my analysis and examples there, closely analyze one of the 3 case studies from this course (or some aspect of them) to show how the Buddhist religion can be seen playing roles that have one (or more) of these ‘degrees of recognizability,’ so as to help explain that culture, and by extension its conflicted political situation, in light of this religious analysis.
  7. In light of my analysis of religion in political conflict, do you now consider that certain defining characteristics of Buddhism (e.g. the relationship between the religious professionals and common people, whether believers or not; Buddhism’s particular emphasis on nonviolent ideals; Buddhism’s distinctive metaphysics such as impermanence/anatta/sunyata-emptiness) cause it to create different dynamics in conflict situations from other religions – or not? Explain your answer in detail.
  8. Is there any one aspect of my analysis of Religion in Political Conflict that our examination of Buddhism at War has convinced you needs to be revised or rescinded? Explain in detail, with specific reference to cases we studied in this course.

Again – DO NOT FAIL to include a proper full bibliography of all works read or viewed — anything that has informed you on your chosen topic.

DO NOT FAIL to CHECK your Paper!

 

The essential difference between the writers of Puritan New England and those of the American Enlightenment is that the former believed that man was irrational and basically corrupt and the latter believed man rational and basically good.” Discuss.

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By this point in the course, we have studied two major “periods of time” (if we want to refer to them as such) in American Literature. We have studied the Puritans and the age of Enlightenment. Both of these “eras” are very important in identifying the American Identity. Choose one of the the topics below and address in extended essay form.
1. The essential difference between the writers of Puritan New England and those of the American Enlightenment is that the former believed that man was irrational and basically corrupt and the latter believed man rational and basically good.” Discuss. In your discussion, consider the works that you have read. How do we see these ideas reflected in the works of each period?
2. Americans are very proud to say that this country was founded on Christian principles. What’s interesting, however, is that many of the thinkers of the time of the formation of this United States as we know it were Deist, not Christian. In what five ways is Deism different from religions like Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, or Islam?
3. Discuss the following statement with reference and relevance to specific literary works: the Puritans were typological (remember your notes from the Puritan unit), the eighteenth-century writers were logical, but the early-nineteenth-century writers were analogical in their way of knowing and expressing what it means to be an American. What does this mean and how do we see it in the literature?
The essay must contain at least five well-developed paragraphs, including an introduction and a conclusion.
You must correctly cite the material using the Modern Language Association (MLA) format. This means using parenthetical documentation in the body of the essay and preparing an alphabetical list of Works Cited at the end of the essay. In addition, you must use proper MLA format including headings, pagination, etc.

Why is it important to be tolerate of other religions like Christianity Buddhism Judaism Hinduism

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The essay is supposed to be about Why is it important to be tolerate of other religions like Christianity Buddhism Judaism Hinduism

Talk about Atheism in America, the history, when it began, and how it ties into America today, as well as the discrimination in America against Atheists.

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Please talk about Atheism in America, the history, when it began, and how it ties into America today, as well as the discrimination in America against Atheists.

Cannot be biased, must be in a neutral tone with professional and advanced vocabulary. Please include all citations, at least 5!