Religion and Theology

A synthesis essay requires you to bring together various sources such as the textbook, discussion boards, course articles, the Bible, and other sources to answer questions. Your essays require analysis and historical facts. Do not just go to an internet site and regurgitate information. The prompts are based on major discussions from the first half of the course. Because it is understood that you will use the textbook, material from the textbook does not need to be cited. Paraphrase material from the textbook. The essays require analysis, so do not just paraphrase whole passages from the textbook. If you use information from the course links or articles please cite your sources. These links may provide you with specific examples to illustrate major ideas from the textbook. If you use information from the discussion boards please cite the sources provided by the poster unless they cite the textbook. The discussion boards will be open during the week the exam is posted. Each essay must be written in formal, standard English. Please proofread your essays before submitting them to Safe Assign. In a discussion board, language can be more informal because participants are formulating their thoughts. The midterm essays require careful, planned out responses. Please be careful to cite any outside sources to avoid plagiarism. Cite web-based sources by inserting live links in your essays. Each essay should be written in five paragraphs each with an introduction, three main body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Illustrate general statements with specific historical examples. Each essay must range from 700 to 750 words in length. Please do not exceed the world limit. SUBMIT BOTH ESSAYS IN ONE DOCUMENT. DO BOTH ESSAYS. Essay One: Explain the process by which the New Testament was formed. How was it written? Describe the process by which the books that comprise the New Testament were chosen by the early church. Essay Two: Write an essay on the significance of ONE of the following early Christians: Augustine, Jerome or Benedict of Nursia. Use the textbook and other resources but do not just re-write online material. Offer your opinion as to why the person is important in addition to the opinions of your sou

answer these questions -A major problem with how God is seen and understood is whether and how God can be all good, all knowing, and all powerful, yet grant us free will and allow bad things to happen. If God is omniscient, it would seem that free will could not be possible, because we could not make our own choices if God already knows what is going to happen and what we are going to choose. The same goes for letting bad things happen. If God is all good, why and how can bad things happen?

Religious Literacy Signature Assignment Guidelines

FOUR one page essay Each question will cover an aspect of what we have discussed over the course of this semester and should be answered in a 1 page (double-spaced) essay response. Your final exam should consist of four double spaced pages, in one document, with the question you are answering at the top of each page.  Be sure to specify which question you are answering in each essay at the top of your one-page answer.                                  One Page for EACH QUESTION 4 Questions listed below 1.Excluding the action of doing something, provide 4 examples of how the sin nature has affected us as human beings created in the image of God. 2.Summarize the story of the Bible in terms of humanity’s relationship with God. 3.Knowing that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23),” which of the following descriptions do you feel you most closely fit with: the unbeliever, the sinning believer, or the persistently sinning believer (Ryrie, pp/ 266-267). What are you going to do about it? How has this course helped you to grow in your understanding of God? In your personal faith journey? 4.This is a three-part question. Please answer ALL of the questions (a,b,c) below if you choose to respond to this essay question: a. What is the significance of belief when doing theology? Provide at least 1 example. b. What role does experience play when doing theology. Provide at least 1 example. c. What role does Scripture play when doing theology. Provide at least 1 example.

Topic: Toward an Understanding of Administration in Ministry   This course requires that you write a 6–8-page research paper. One might ask, “What is Toward an Understanding of Administration in Ministry?” When a minister is a pastor/teacher and he allows Scripture to control his ministry, he becomes an effective administrator for people to follow. Therefore, this paper should be written in a manner that demonstrates your understanding of how a minister should administer his ministry so that people are able to come to know and love God, and allow Him to be their Master and Redeemer. Furthermore, this paper should follow the guidelines that are listed below. Ask yourself each of the following below questions to ensure you fulfill all requirements.   Introduction 1.         What is the topic you are going to address? 2.         Is there a clear thesis statement? 3.         Does the introduction provide a clear overview of the paper’s contents?   Content 1.         Are the issues raised in the topic properly treated? 2.         Are there differing viewpoints considered, analyzed, and treated within your paper? 3.         Do you analyze the topic thoroughly and logically? 4.         Is your paper written with clear and concise content? 5.         Is your paper written substantively with good development of ideas and concepts? 6.         Do the assertions that you make in your paper have clear support (sources)? 7.         Does your paper flow? 8.         Is your word choice clear and concise without any ambiguity? 9.         Is your paper organization strong and focused? 10.   Did you use proper headings? 11.   Are the transitions between your paragraphs and sections clear? 12.   Are your sentences written with fluency—coherent, unified, and varied? 13.   Are your sentences structured properly—complete, clear, and concise? 14.   Is your punctuation correct? 15.   Did you double space your paper? 16.   Did you use Times New Roman as your font? Did you use 12 point as your font size?   Materials & Style 1.         Did you incorporate 5 scholarly sources? 2.         Are materials properly cited and quoted? Are quotes relevant to the study? Is your paper properly formatted following Turabian guidelines? Are the entries in the bibliography and footnotes properly formatted? Is your paper without spelling and grammatical errors?  Does your paper reflect an appropriate collegiate-level of vocabulary?

The project can be on any a topic of your choice. This may include reading a book (scholarly, spiritual, historical or fictional) or viewing a movie with a religious theme and writing a reflection coupled with a modest amount of research or historical/critical reflection. It could be a review of a religious piece of art, a reflection on a visit to a worship space, monastery, shrine, reading room, mosque or temple. This may not be a place you regularly attend, have visited during a previous quarter, or an assignment you have done for some other course. Some suggestions have been provided in the Additional Internet Resources and Links for the Study of Religion/Local Worship Places tab. The project might also involve an account of your visit to a worship service (other than your own faith) coupled with some preliminary research, or an interview with a person of another faith. All projects must move beyond a mere summary of the experience or readings to an integration and dialogue of the material with course-related themes, questions or issues.  Please include some sort of bibliography with your work.

Researh paper on Christian Tevangelism as a modern popular religious practice. Talk about its origin, how it is practice, its impact on believers and non believers, the most prominent televangelists , its controversies, and its future in a constantly changing society. This are just some ideas of what to include in the paper, but feel free to add new ones that are pertinent to the topic. 

For the assignment, you are to read the article below and write a 4-7 page review of it. Your primary sources for the paper are the article and the Bible. You may use other sources if necessary, but web-sites are not to be used as sources. You should properly cite all quotations and provide a Works Cited page. Please use the Chicago-Turabian style of parenthetical references, and use proper spelling and punctuation. Procedure: Write a minimum four page (maximum 7 page) review of the article. Please include the following in your review: Give the full bibliographic information for the article in the TEXT of the paper. {Note: This does not have to be in a specific format.} Identify the target audience. Identify the thesis of the article. Summarize the development of the thesis. Evaluate the article, including how the arguments supported the thesis, whether the thesis was proven, and the overall importance of the article. Cite all quotations properly and include a Works Cited page.

The “Point” of the assignment: You have your choice of two films to watch (one available for free-free, while the other is free with amazon prime). These are two very different films in style, but both directly engage with socio-religious themes that significantly overlap. Write a response to the film that seems most interesting to you. Your response MUST engage some kind of sociological question, perspective, concept, or theory of the religious aspect of the film. Think about the movie sociologically. There are two overarching things you should do here: A) report what you think is sociologically interesting about certain situations in the film (or the film on the whole), and B) discuss why it is important and what we can learn from it. You may rely on some of the questions suggested below to inspire your observations, or you are welcome to engage your own questions and thoughts. Please do not slavishly follow and answer the questions offered below; feel free to write about what strikes you as most interesting and important sociological insights of the film. No need to cite anything, you should not be using outside sources. Here are the formatting guidelines for the paper- 1. These papers should be 300-400 words in length. 2. Use 1″ margins, 12 point font, Times New Roman, Double Spaced. 3. Follow normal writing conventions. This shouldn’t be a list of items but a well-written report. Be sure to check grammar and use spell check 4. Be sure to upload in word or rtf format. No .pages or pdf files (canvas doesn’t know what to do with them) —Romero (1989, Director’s Cut)—- Free on Amazon Prime Details: Drama, based on a true story. 102 minutes. Rated: PG-13 (for violence, this is not a light movie). In El Salvador, the new Catholic bishop speaks out against the death squads and the terror campaign the government is using in an attempt to crush the guerilla war that is being waged against them. This is seen as disloyalty and the number of priests attacked goes up and even churches are shut down by the government. Based on a true story, Romero was assassinated in March, 1980. Raul Julia, Richard Jordan. [Note: Romero is portrayed in this film as more prone to anger than he probably was in real life.] Possible Discussion Points (or your own) Q: What about religion motivates action, especially culturally unusual actions? Q: How in the film do politics/violence and religion relate to each other? Q: Why do religious people of the same faiths sometimes have or engage such different attitudes or actions? Q: What social processes are involved in the personal religious transformations of believers? Q: What potential does religion have to promote (or stop/slow) social change? -or- —Fiddler on the Roof (1971)— Free on Youtube Drama, family, musical. Story inspired by real events/situations in an Imperial Russian Jewish settlement in the very early 1900s. Rated G (this is a pretty light movie, but deals with serious socio-religious issues). 181 minutes. In pre-revolutionary Russia, a poor Jewish peasant must contend with supporting his family (and marrying off his three daughters, lol) while also trying to maintain his Jewish tradition under an anti-semitic Czar that would like to run his people out of town. Topol, Molly Picon. Possible Discussion Points (or your own) Q: What about religion motivates action, especially culturally unusual actions? Q: How does religion interact with ethnicity and other categories (like class or gender) to help construct collective identities? Q: How does the coming of modernity (e.g., technological and economic change) force religion and other human relations to reshape itself in new ways? Q: How is the experience of being Jewish portrayed, and do you think it was similar in Europe (Western and Eastern)? Do Jewish people face similar obstacles and prejudices today?

Begin to do some research on the topic. You can start with Wikipedia, etc., but ultimately scholarly sources are what are needed. A minimum of 3 such sources are needed. Read and collect information on the topic. Attend to what seems most important or interesting. As you do (3), think about what your reading and research shows—what it supports, or even proves. This will be your thesis, which will be clearly stated somewhere in the first paragraph of your essay.