Essay Three Prompts  -

Don't forget to define key terms, use examples to support and illustrate (including textual examples where relevant), and discuss likely alternatives or respond to objections!

Requirements: 

1. Your essay should be word-processed, double-spaced, one-inch to one and one-half inch margins. It should be spell-checked. Pages Numbered.

6. Your essay should define any key terms used, use examples to illustrate and support your argument where appropriate, and discuss likely alternatives or respond to objections.

Choose One of the following questions/prompts:   

1. Douglas Burton-Christie’s thesis comes out clearly in the first few sentences of his article, "Early Christianity":

The early Christian tradition expresses a profound ambivalence regarding the natural world. On the one hand, it affirms continuously the goodness and spiritual significance of the natural world, an affirmation rooted in two central convictions—that the world as created by God is good and that the Incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ has transfigured all created matter. On the other hand, the early Christian tradition expresses genuine suspicion regarding the dangers of the wrong kind of attachment to the things of this world. At times, this suspicion expressed itself as a fear of, even a revulsion toward material reality, toward embodied existence, toward the cosmos as a whole. However there were also times when this suspicion of the world was understood in broader, more symbolic terms, a way of articulating the need to resist values believed to be antithetical to the Gospel. Much early Christian theological reflection, as well as the liturgical and spiritual life of the community, was affected by this deep-seated sense of ambivalence toward the living world. (1)

What is the key evidence in support of this thesis? Is it persuasive?

2. From what you know about Christianity in this early period (perhaps through Phil 320 Ancient) is Burton-Christie’s analysis convincing? If we assume that Burton-Christie is correct about early Christian ambivalence towards nature, how might this affect modern Christian views on the environment?  (Note Peterson makes similar claims on pp. 240-242).

3. Creation and incarnation are among the Christian concepts that many of the authors we read deployed. Pick two of the readings and discuss their analysis/use of one of these concepts.

4. Compare and contrast the view of stewardship in Bentley and Ehrenfeld with that of Dewitt or with the concepts of stewardship described by Peterson (pp. 252-58).

5.  Stealing a question from Chris Thaete, How are Peterson’s conclusions similar to Lynn White’s? How are they different?  And, what do you make of the similarities and differences?

6.  Why does McFague adopt the subject-subject model?  What role does it playing in answering her question, "Why should Christians love nature?"

7  Peterson and Sideris both mention the importance of science for Christian ecological theology.  Pick one of these authors and explain the role they think science either could or should play.

8.  Show how the dialectic between transcendence and immanence shapes Christian views of nature according to two of the authors we read.

9.  Why has dualism played such an important role in Christian views of nature according to Peterson?   Could this tension be productive for an environmental ethic?

10.  Which of Kearn's categories do you think McFague most closely resembles?  Why?  Be sure to cite specific passages from McFague in support of your categorization.

11.  In our class discussion, many of you seemed intrigued by Sideris's references to the buffalo caught in the ice, the bears on the island, and the goats moved and killed to save plants.  What are these examples meant to illustrate?  Why did you find the references so intriguing (or do you think others found them intriguing if you didn't)?

12.  Outline why Sideris believes a modified version of the Land Ethic and Gustafson's theological ethics should be preferred to other options.  Should we be persuaded?  Why or why not/

13.   Argument analysis. Pick a main conclusion of any of the authors we read for the  section of the course focusing on Christianity. Charitably, show how the author reached this conclusion (presuppositions, reasons, etc.) and offer an assessment of the argument.

14.  ***Wild Card. Topic of your choice, but get approval of instructor first.

Writing Help

Your textbook - Bedau, Hugo.  Thinking and Writing About Philosophy. 2nd ed. Boston:  Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002.

Jim Pryor of Princeton has a website with some plain words about writing a philosophy paper. It can be found at http://www.princeton.edu/~jimpryor/general/writing.html

J. Cruz of Williams College takes one through the process of an imaginary student writing a paper on "the parallel between the parts of the just soul and parts of a just city" in Plato’s Republic. This is found at a section of his website entitled "Writing papers for introductory moral philosophy courses" located at http://www.williams.edu/philosophy/fourth_layer/faculty_pages/jcruz/moraltutor/index.html

"Philosophy Bootcamp" on my website has many links useful for writing philosophy papers and essays including a Citation FAQ.

Visit the UI Writing Center - The Writing Center is located in Room 323 on the third floor of the Idaho Commons. Tutors help students with writing projects. For more information, the URL is http://www.class.uidaho.edu/english/WritingCenter/