Guidelines for Final, Individual Essay for CL/PHL/RST 350
Essay length: 3000-3500 words
Due:
Final Exam time - Thursday, December 9, 12:45 PM
Format:
Typed, double-spaced, standard referencing/footnoting, bibliography of all books,
periodical, web sites, etc. used
Topics/
Each person is to select a topic that she or he really wants to research, reflect and
write about, one that is
Purpose:
valuable for you and that you will be enthusiastic to explore. The essay is to be an
argument, not only a
summary or report, meaning that the essay is to have a purpose and is to give support and
reasons for what
is being proposed and what conclusions are expressed.
Below is a long list of possible topics from which you may select your topic, but
you may write on a topic
not on the list as long as you have the approval of one of the God-squad to do so.
1. Islamic God c/c with Christian God
2. Rational arguments for theism (analysis and evaluation)
3.
"
" "
atheism "
" "
4. Contemporary Physics (relativity, quantum & chaos theories) and God
5. Create a fictional debate: theist v. atheist
6. God and Innocent Suffering
7. Evolution and God
8. Anthropic Principle (in its various forms)
9. Holocaust and God
10. God in Western Art
11. God of Process Thought
12. Problem of the "Sacred" today
13. God and Social Theories
14. God in Modern Fiction or Drama, or in a specific novelist or playwright
15. Intellectual aspects of religious belief
16. God in religious fundamentalism today
17. God in science fiction
18. Ideas of God in American public life
19. Technology and God
20. Neo-Paganism and God
21. Christological debates of the 2nd - 5th centuries
22. The Puritan God
23. The psychology of ideas of God
24. T he myth of God
25. Postmodernism and God
26. Kierkegaard's concept of God
27. Religious existentialists and God in 20th century
28. God and religious pluralism/interreligious dialogue
29. Emmanuel LevinasGod and Philosophy
30. Paul Ricoeurs Religion, Atheism, Faith and other writings
31. Aristotles God in Metaphysics, Bk 12
32. Contemporary philosophers/philosophy and God (Plantinga, Swinburne, Alston,
Pojman, etc.)
33. New Age thought and God
34. Academia and God
Why not make this essay the best
one you have ever written. The best of the best essays are eligible for electronic
publication in the spring semester issue of Lotus, the journal of the department of religious studies at
Marshall. Thank you.
CL/PHL/RST
350 Syllabus | CL/PHL/RST
350 Schedule