Modern Challenges
Final paper clarity - Read First
Just for clarification, this paper is completely about the modern challenges faced by the three religions we discussed in class, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. You need to pick one of the three religions as your focus. You are to write a short section on the similarities of the three religions, but only to highlight how these similarities contribute to the challenges. The majority of the paper is to highlight specific challenges in the selected focus religion, and how they are responding. In order for it to be a challenge, there needs to be two sides of the issue and so you need to state both sides.
You should have studied about issues and problems in your class in critical thinking (if you have not had the class yet, then the outline will help you). You are to use that knowledge to find two or three issues within one of these religions.
To make it even clearer, your outline could look like this:
Introduction
Similarities that contribute to the challenges
The Challenges and Responses of (the chosen religion).
I. Challenges within Christianity (or Judaism or Islam)
a. Issue 1 (for example, homosexuality, abortion, scientific theories that go against the Bible, church attendance, modern translations of the Bible).
1. Some believe that the stated issue is unacceptable in the church because...
2. Some believe that the stated issue is acceptable in the church because...
b. Issue 2
1. Some believe that the stated issue is unacceptable in the church because...
2. Some believe that the stated issue is acceptable in the church because...
c. Issue 3
1. Some believe that the stated issue is unacceptable in the church because...
2. Some believe that the stated issue is acceptable in the church because...
II. How Christianity is responding to the Challenges
a. Issue 1
b. Issue 2
c. Issue 3
III. How Christianity is responding to the issue of the role of women in the church
a. The conservative response
b. The liberal response
Conclusion
Examples of challenges for Judaism would include marrying outside of the faith, the view of the Mitzvot/traditions, Zionism, homosexuality.
Examples of challenges for Islam would include violence/terrorism/Jihad, Sharia law, treatment of women (which would be separate from the role of women in the religion).
Again, you must have a complete introduction that includes both a hook and a thesis. You also must have a complete conclusion that restates the main points and draws conclusions from the objectives. With a longer paper like this the introduction and conclusion should be a little longer as well, so that you draw all of the objectives into them and give clear organization to the paper both at its beginning and end.
The sooner you ask questions, the better chance I have of answering them!!!
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Final paper clarity - Read Second
Class, In a paper like you are writing for the final, you not only need to present both sides, but do so without a bias. I have many students who write their papers from the standpoint of a Christian and they state, "We believe..." in a way that includes the reader in their beliefs when the reader might have beliefs that are opposite of the writer. The same can be done from the opposite side of the argument. Your papers must present two sides of an issue from a neutral position. You can use words like, "traditionalists believe" or "Christians believe" or "Muslims believe" or "progressives believe" but it should never be "we believe" or "they believe". I think I have done a good job of modeling this for you throughout the class as I have given very few of my opinions, but stated things as, "traditional Christians believe" or "process theology teaches" or "Kaplan taught in Reconstructionist Judaism" for example.
There is some room in your conclusions for giving your views on the effectiveness of each side on how they present their arguments, but you must then state it as your opinion without assuming that the reader shares your opinion.
Lastly, remember that this is a paper presented to the University of Phoenix for a humanities class, not to a Christian University for a Bible class. You are supposed to quote the Bible to present one side of the issues if you choose Christianity as your focus religion, but you are not to assume that the Bible is the correct authority. You state that Christians assume that the Bible is the correct authority and that therefore, they think the proper response to society is...
Recently, I have had students put "Christianity's response to modern culture" (or something like that) into Google, which took them to a blog where a Christian is telling what Christians should do in response to society. They then present it as "what WE should do" because that is how the blog presented it. But you cannot assume that WE are all conservative Christians, even though the blogger has every right to do so. You must know your audience when writing a paper and your audience is the University of Phoenix, not a church Sunday School class. There is so much information online that it is important that you choose good information, not just what is the quickest and easiest to find. If you need help evaluating sources, please refer to the library page http://phoenix.libguides.com/evaluating_sources
Ask questions early!!! People who ask better questions write better papers!!!
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Final paper clarity - Read Third
As students ask questions about the paper, I try to pass on my answers to all. So here is more clarity, and I hope it helps. If you have already submitted your paper and need to change some things because of these notes of clarification, you may resubmit changes.
An issue is a problem that has differences of opinion on how the solution should be found. For instance, generally, a plumbing leak is a problem, not an issue. The solution is easily agreed upon; "Quick! Call the plumber!" There may be some instances where you or someone else thinks they can fix it without help, but still, just two options and generally you can come to an agreement.
An issue is where multiple options exist and people can be on polar extremes and are generally emotionally attached to their "side". There are generally also sub issues that get pulled in.
You may know all of this, but I am just making sure.
The best example for women's roles in the church (for example) is that, since traditionalist Christians believe that the Bible is the authority from God, and there are verses that say that women should be silent in the church and should not lead men (because Eve was deceived), then they believe that woman should not have the role of Pastor or teacher of men. On the other side, there are progressives who believe that since women have gained leadership in many other areas, and that many have trained and are wonderful teachers, then they should be able to have these roles in the church, so the Bible needs to be reinterpreted.
Similar issues can be seen in Islam and Orthodox Judaism regarding women's roles. You can interact with my paper that I posted in the learning activities about Muslim women and with other issues that are being discussed this week in preparation for the final paper.
The key to the paper is understanding that the common theme between the three religions is that they have one authoritative God who makes the rules, and they have an authoritative text that is not supposed to change. This is the first part of the paper, and getting that idea sets the tone for the rest of the paper. The Qur'an talks about Jihad, the Mitzvot says no intermarriage, the Bible calls homosexuality a sin. All of these create issues as these ancient texts meet the new moral standards of our 21 Century culture. Stating both sides shows why it is an issue, and then you can discuss how the religion of your choice is responding.
