Annette Y. Reed
REligion 212: Religions of the Western World, Section 3
Two Short Papers (20% of final grade)
Students will be required to submit two short papers (3-4 pages), dedicated to analyzing primary sources. You are free to choose any primary source from among the syllabus assignments (primary sources are marked by asterisks [*]; see also attached). Or, you may choose to analyze only a portion of an assigned text, in order to ensure a more focused reading. In addition, there are several primary sources that are quoted or discussed in length in the secondary readings and several primary sources listed under “Additional Resources” on the syllabus on the course website, which you may choose to write a paper about—as long as you first check it with me.
The two papers, however, must treat sources from two different religious traditions (i.e. Judaism and Christianity; or Judaism and Islam; or Christianity and Islam). Papers on texts from our Judaism section must be submitted by October 16 (please note revised due date); papers on texts from our Christianity section, by November 6; and papers on texts from our Islam section, by December 11.
PURPOSE OF THE PAPER ASSIGNMENT
The paper assignment is, above all, an exercise in exegesis--the close reading of primary sources. The broad scope of this course has meant that we most often describe important religious beliefs and practices from the outside and in generalized terms. I have assigned primary sources for each session, with the aim of providing you with the necessary complement to the generalized descriptions of religious beliefs, history, and practices in the lectures and textbook. By reading primary sources, we can strive to hear and understand the voices and words of believers from different times and places, who attempt to speak both to the communities of their time and to all those who would come after them. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to do this in a focused manner, by selecting a single text, by carefully analyzing the religious and literary choices that it makes, and by showing how this specific text related to the more general themes, trends, and concepts that our course has explored.
Practically speaking, this means that your paper should try to answer the following questions about the text that you choose:
v What is the text trying to say? How does the author articulate his/her beliefs in the language of his/her time, while simultaneously attempting to speak to eternal questions and eternal truths, as understood by his/her religious tradition and community?
v How does it go about saying it? For instance, does it state its message explicitly to reader, or does it provide the reader with an illustrative story, which s/he must contemplate in order to arrive at the message? Does it argue for a certain belief or practice, and if so, can you get a sense of whom it may be arguing against?
v What claims does it make of the reader in terms of religious practice and/or belief, and how do these claims relate to the broader themes that we’ve explored in the course? Why does the author think this message is relevant for his/her audience to hear? In addition, what assumptions does s/he take for granted?
Many of the primary texts that I have assigned are texts that interpret Scripture (whether the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, or the Koran). If you decide to choose one of these texts (marked in the list below by **), you should compare your text to the earlier text that it interprets (which are also noted in the list below, after “cf.”) and you should ask additional questions: How does this text interpret previous tradition? Does it read Scripture literally or does it attempt to discern the true meaning of Scripture in a different way? How does it use interpretation to root innovation in tradition, to connect the present and future to the past? How does it view Scripture, and how does it address the continued importance of Scripture for its time?
GUIDELINES
A. Your paper should have the following structure:
1. Introduction: A short paragraph describing your text and its broader context (e.g., what genre or type of text is it? To what era does it belong?).
2. Exegesis: A close reading of the text, which should be the majority of your paper. In most cases, you should describe the text (i.e. what it is trying to achieve and how it does this) following the order in which the text unfolds, in order to show its own progression. Feel free to quote liberally from the text itself, when needed—although you should most often try instead to restate what it is trying to say in your own words.
3. Conclusion: One or two paragraphs that make some conclusions about how your specific text relates to the broader themes that we have discussed in our course. In addition, if you would like to express your own opinions about the text and its message (or note the questions that you had difficulty resolving in your exegesis—which you should feel free to do, since many of the primary texts are indeed quite difficult!) , this is the place to do it. Another good approach (esp. for Scriptural passages) is to conclude your paper by saying something brief about the later influence of the text.
B. In order to engage in exegesis, you should try to set aside your own beliefs and opinions while reading and writing about your text. If you would like to express your own opinions, you should do this only after dealing with the text on its own terms and you should put such comments, not in the exegesis section of your paper, but in the Conclusion.
C. Remember that all texts have audiences; all authors write for the readers whom s/he imagines. This can be called the “intended audience” of the text. In many cases, however, texts are read and cherished by others, whom the authors might not have even imagined (e.g., Christian interpretations of originally Jewish texts, like the Hebrew Bible). Thus, the question of the “actual audience” of a text should be carefully distinguished from the question of the “intended audience” of a text. In this paper, you should concentrate on the “intended audience”—although the issue of its “actual audience” can be brought in, especially in your Conclusion.
D. Please make sure to spell-check your paper and to proofread it before turning it in! This is much more important than you might think. In addition, papers should be double-spaced and in a twelve-point font.