Essay One -  Phil/RelS 202 Early Christianity - Spring 2011 - 100 Points

Requirements:

1. Your essay should be word-processed, double-spaced, one-inch to one and one-half inch margins. It should be spell-checked and grammar checked. Pages Numbered. Font no smaller than 12 point.

2. Your essay should have a cover page  with your name, date, Phil/RelS 303, and prompt pasted from assignment.

3. Number each paragraph.  Bold your thesis.  After the end of the essay, attach an OUTLINE of the essay with the thesis clearly stated and at minimum a line for each paragraph.

4. Each essay should be approximately three to five pages long (not including the cover page, outline, and Works Consulted page).

5. You must include a Works Consulted/Cited Page.  Any sources you consult must be included in your Works Consulted/Bibliography and cited in-text or in footnotes/endnotes. CAREFUL AND CORRECT CITATION IS REQUIRED. WHEN IN DOUBT, CITE. Remember that simply paraphrasing or changing every third word is not OK. Quote and cite or radically summarize and cite. Use quotation marks when quoting or indent if quote is five lines or longer. Guessing at where your information comes from is not OK. Use page numbers in your in-text citations, footnotes or endnotes. Book or journal titles are italicized or underlined.  You may consult Citation for Biblical Studies for information related to citing biblical studies sources. I prefer Turabian (Chicago), MLA, or SBL(Society of Biblical Literature) citation styles.

6.  I will grade the essays for both form and content.  Click here for the Grading Rubric.  This is a checklist I will use in grading the essay.  Defining key terms, using examples to illustrate, referring to relevant biblical passages, pointing out alternative points of view and responding to objections often improve essays.    Remember that evaluation includes both strengths and weaknesses.

Note: Information on setting the grammar checker in WordPerfect and MS Word is HERE  Information on Roadmaps and Transitions for Essays

Choose ONE of the following prompts:

1.  Discuss the ancient Mediterranean honor/shame model and show how it can be used to illumine a passage from 1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians, or Galatians.  (Note:  Barr discusses the model on pages 34-39 and you can find a helpful discussion online:  Halvor Moxnes, "Honor and Shame" in Social Sciences and the New Testament.  Ed. Richard L. Rohrbaugh.  (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003) 19-40.

2.  Show how understanding several elements of a first century apocalyptic worldview helps us to interpret the likely meaning for first century audiences of at least two passages from two different Pauline letters we have read.  Be sure to explain what an apocalyptic worldview entails.

3.  Pick one of the key elements in the Pauline letter form (such as the salutation/opening, the thanksgiving, the ethical instructions (exhortation/parenesis) section, etc.).  Describe its function and show the role it plays in two of the letters we have read (1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians, Galatians).  You should consult Barr, 4th ed., p. 82 and the outline by Just at http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/NT_Letters.htm for the list of the elements of the Pauline letter form.

4.  Why and how does Paul treat the Spirit and freedom differently in Galatians and I Corinthians?  Discuss at least two specific passages from each letter in your essay.  (Note the contrast Barr draws on p. 127).

5.  Margaret Mitchell has suggested that Paul shapes 1 Corinthians with a "rhetoric of concord"  (Barr, p. 140).  Discuss two passages from chapters 1-4 and chapters 11-14 that indicate problems of factionalism (breaking up into groups) and how Paul uses rhetoric such as a simile, metaphor, analogy, appeal to authority, or other form of persuasion to urge concord or unity.  Given your analysis, do you find Mitchell's idea that 1 Corinthians is shaped by a rhetoric of concord convincing.

6.  Paul frequently uses passages from the Jewish Bible (Old Testament) in his letters.  How does he use references to Genesis and the figures of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar in Galatians 3-4?  What case is he making?  Be sure to read Genesis 15-17, and 21 in the New Oxford Annotated before writing this question.  Note:  Traditionally, circumcision marked one as a member of the covenant people.

7.  Wild Card. Write your own prompt, but have it approved by the instructor.  Be sure the topic is narrow enough to cover in about three to five pages.