Category: Religious studies

Please respond to the following questions in 150 – 250 words:
Have you ever wondered where the Bible comes from?
How do you believe archaeology and canonicity work together in terms of our understanding of the origin, trustworthiness, and understanding of the Old Testament?
What, if anything, about the process of the development of the Old Testament bothers you? How does the information shared in this unit help you deal with those concerns?
What are some of the common misconceptions about archaeology and the Bible and the canonization and the Bible that exist and you have had to interact with? How might this unit help in correcting some of those misconceptions?

A 3 page paper on the major thesis of the book. Who are the specific ‘winners’ and specific ‘losers’ and why? How is this book helpful in our understanding of American Religious Traditions? It is very important that you purchase and use the text for the first paper. It is essential to understanding the entire course. You do not have to read the book word for word. That is difficult in any academic setting. Read for the thesis and examples and read so that you can write your paper on what the specific assignment calls for. I, also, need to see page numbers from the text in your paper. Example: (p.12) I do not need author names, year of publication and title–just the page #. Short, pithy quotes from the text creatively show page numbers. the deadline is 11:00pm MST

n this assignment, you will demonstrate your understanding of the Christian worldview, including the main topics you have covered up to this point. You will summarize and analyze the essential elements of the gospel (nature of God, nature of humanity, nature of Jesus, and restoration) and reflect on implications for the Christian worldview.
Write a 1,500-2,000-word essay using at least four resources. The four resources need to include at least two course resources (textbook, topic overviews, the Bible) and at least two other sources from the GCU Library to support your points. Remember, the Bible counts as one resource regardless of how many times you use it or how many verses you cite.

From your reading in the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), the assigned reading in Strauss (chapters 7-10), and the course videos, discuss the purpose and major themes of the four gospels. In addition, please reflect on how your study of the gospels can and should influence your life and your ministry.
Requirements: Times New Roman, 12 point font, double-spaced, Chicago or Turabian format with footnotes, 5-6 pages; please make sure to interact with and cite Scripture, Strauss, and the course videos

After the selection of one of the assigned Biblical passages (see below), the student is to identify the message of the biblical author in consultation with Biblical commentaries, dictionaries, and journal articles. After the completion of your research, make a claim (a thesis statement) in the first brief paragraph (do not merely describe your passage). Construct the body of paper so that your claim (thesis statement) above is proven or demonstrated. Consider using the two or three “big ideas” of the claim above to structure the body of the paper logically, using transition and summary statements between effectively. In a brief concluding paragraph, the student should then suggest how the message of the biblical author is to be applied today. Neither a title page or a bibliography are required. Double-space your paper with footnotes and page numbers according to the conventions of The Chicago Manual of Style (abbreviated by Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers, 9th ed. [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018]. Use three peer-reviewed resources of the last generation of scholarship (25-30 years) exclusively. or commentary series and monographs, see some of the top recommendations of http://bestcommentaries.com/Links to an external site. . Do not use contemporary devotional books or the works of Matthew Henry, John Wesley, John Calvin or other important figures of Church History (they are treated in your courses in Church History).
For scholarly journals, use ATLA Religion Database, which can be navigated to via RU Library Database http://libguides.regent.edu/databases?hs=aLinks to an external site. Some of the leading scholarly journals in Old Testament//Hebrew Bible scholarship are the following: Biblica, Biblical Interpretation, Bulletin for Biblical Research, Biblische Zeitschrift, Journal of Biblical Literature, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Oudtestamentische studien, Tyndale Bulletin, Vetus Testamentum, and Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft.
For word/concept studies and related lexical matters, consult the following:
Willem VanGemeren, ed., New International Dictionary of OT Theology and Exegesis, 5 vols. (Zondervan, 1997)
Ernst Jenni et al. eds., Theological Lexicon of the OT, 3 vols. (Hendrickson, 1997)
G. Johannes Botterweck, eds. et al., Theological Dictionary of the OT, 15 vols. (Eerdmans, 1974-2006)
Strong’s Concordance (1890) and Vine’s Dictionary (1940) are neither contemporary nor peer-reviewed resources. Do not use Hebrew or Greek unless you are trained in them.

ILR260: Final Paper
Overview
Due: Saturday, 11:59 p.m. PST, the Final Day of Class
Length Requirement: 1000 word minimum
Points: 500
Purpose
The most common assignment in college classes is the research paper. Research papers tend to fall into two categories—the argumentative and the informational. In this class, we will practice putting together a research paper that is more informational in nature. Its main goal is to practice assembling sources in a way that adequately explores a research question from various sides but does not (necessarily) take a strong stance on the “correct” answer. The paper can lean in certain directions if that is where the scholarly conversation leans, but it is not necessarily trying to persuade the audience of one specific point of view. The point of the paper is to assemble a scholarly conversation around a research question and then synthesize possible answers to the research question.
The ILR course itself takes you through the necessary steps to create this final paper.
In summary, the steps you will have gone through are as follows:
Identify and narrow a research question.
Find and evaluate sources.
Summarize sources in an annotated bibliography.
Write a rough draft.
Revise a rough draft and proofread.
Task
Compose a 1000-word essay in APA citation style (you may use MLA if you are an English major) that presents and then attempts to answer your research question.
You must use a minimum of five cited sources. Three must be from peer-reviewed academic journals. Popular sources, including magazine articles, newspapers, secondary scholarly summaries of topics, or government or institutional literature may be allowed if deemed appropriate as per the lessons on source evaluation and rhetorical needs of the paper.
Cite your sources on a standard format APA reference page. If you are an English major, MLA will be allowed with permission from instructor.
Submit your essay as a Word document, .pdf file, or a .rtf only. Please do not use Pages or any type of image file.
Topic
You will have the freedom to choose your own topic for this research essay. There are, however, some topics that are not allowed.
Any of the topics from ENG102. To remind you, the current topics from ENG102 are Bail Reform, Homework, Communication in Relationships, Ocean Pollution, The War in Ukraine, Homework (is it necessary), Nursing Burnout, and Self-Driving Cars. Under no circumstances may you choose one of these subjects.
Whatever subject you wrote on for ENG240.
Any paper you wrote for another class at NU or another university.
See a pattern? We want a new paper. It is important to note that the papers you wrote in ENG102 and ENG240 are argumentative in nature, so they would not fit this assignment anyway.
Important Note
Do not use generative AI programs (Chat GPT, Bard, Bing, Blenderbot, etc.) to write this paper. It will be considered academic dishonesty and the paper will receive a failing grade. We have software to detect use of AI programs to generate papers.
Criteria for Success
The paper will be scored according to the following rubric. (Uploaded)
PLEASE USE THE SOURCES AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ATTACHED

USE PLAIN AND SIMPLE ENGLISH!!
Do not use overly fancy language
CHOOSE A TOPIC
For our essay, choose a chapter or passage that we read for class from the Hebrew Bible, Dhammapada, New Testament, or Essential Koran to analyze.
Please don’t choose your chapter or passage randomly. Consider whether the chapter interests and inspires you. Is it inspiring based on your reading of the chapter, commentary you have read or looked up anew
this will be a four-paragraph academic essay
draft of a thesis statement (see below in REQUIREMENTS AND STRUCTURE)
an outline of the main points of your essay, which should map to the essay’s body paragraphs. Include a quotation you would use to prove each of your points.
list sources you may use as if listed on a Works Cited page
Your essay will be at least four paragraphs long (an intro paragraph, two body paragraphs, and an outro paragraph). This should be about two and a half pages in MLA Format (see CCSF Library and MLA Citation Resources) but in any case must be at least two full pages in length. Most of the value of the essay comes from the body paragraphs’ content and evidence, so long intros and outros with skimpy body paragraphs is not the way.
Include a thesis statement at the end of your intro paragraph and develop your thesis in unified body paragraphs.
The thesis should be specific and focus on the chapter you are choosing, not general points about the religion or even the whole work we are reading. It should map to the points in the body paragraphs. You may make some reference to other chapters of the work you chose, but the main point of each body paragraph (and thus the thesis) should be about your chapter or passage.
See SENSE OF AUDIENCE below for guidance on the introductory paragraph.
The subjects of your body paragraphs should form the main sub points in your Prewriting, which is due before the essay. They can, of course, change after you do your prewriting since it is meant to be a work in progress.
Each body paragraph should make a specific point in its topic sentence, which should generally be the first sentence of the body paragraph.
To develop your body paragraphs, use the guiding principles that we have been using for Discussions.
Your essay doesn’t need to discuss every point made in the chapter.
An effective thesis statement mapping to the two body paragraphs’ points might read something like this: “Chapter X focuses on practical advice for rulership and shows a distinct criticism of Confucian thought.” Remember that thesis statements make specific claims up front to then be proven later by the body paragraphs. They should not say something vague like “Chapter X has two interesting points as we will see below”.
All body paragraphs should have direct quotes in quotation marks to support the topic sentence’s point. Use in-text citations with the translator or author last name and the page number (if available) or chapter number should be used. Anything from the Hebrew Bible, Dhammapada, New Testament, or Essential Koran should be cited by chapter and verse. There’s no need to note which translation (like NIV or NKJ for New International Version or New King James version) because the translation you used will be listed on your Works Cited page.
ESSAY SOURCES and WORKS CITED PAGE
You must quote from at least one commentary (also known as a secondary source).
These are often already provided for you as part of the course’s reading, so you shouldn’t have to go looking for them. However, if you want to use another source, you may if it is a legitimate, academic source that make specific commentary on your chapter.
Light research sources which are legitimate such as Wikipedia or Britannica may be used to provide evidence of general points but do not count towards this requirement.
Avoid sources that offer ready-made essays or whose academic credentials are too low (eCheat, About.com, and BookRags are only a few examples).
Avoid opinionated or religiously inappropriate sources (such as Christian-based commentary about Jewish Biblical subjects).
If you’re writing about Islam, remember that certain websites pose as unbiased sources of information but are actually Islamophobic front for spreading anti-Islam propaganda, including The Religion of PeaceLinks to an external site. and WikiIslamLinks to an external site.. Take a look with your critical thinking hat on if you like, but avoid them completely in writing your essay.
For review of formatting the essay and how to do citations, see CCSF Library and MLA Citation Resources
APPROACH and SENSE OF AUDIENCE
Heed the maxim that “writing is rewriting”
Sense of audience is important in writing, especially in the intro paragraph.
Write for a general audience who needs you to give context to your writing, so introduce the and the chapter before your thesis statement. Imagine someone outside of this class is reading your essay. If you assume your instructor is your reader, you may be thinking, “Oh, he’s the teacher, he already knows all this” then your essay will be missing internal consistency.
Avoid “I” and “you” statements. Material that reads something like “Oh, I was considering writing about Chapter 3, but then I read some more and settled on Chapter 10” is fine for prewriting, but should be edited out in the revision process. State your positions as facts rather than using phrases like “I am not sure, but I think…” or “As you can see…”
avoid plagiarism and Artificial Intelligence tools. Penalties for either kind of academic honesty will stick — the instructor will not accept resubmissions of such work.

I have already basically written the whole essay. I dont have sources though. All you need to do is add 3or 4 sources on the topic and incorporate them into the essay in MLA format. Please also provide a work cited sheetThere is also one source that IS REQUIRED FOR THE ESSAY. It is called Livingston’s Anatomy of the Sacred. If you need a pdf of the book I can try and provide one. Thank you

Throughout your studies in World Religions, you have been introduced to a variety of religious worldviews that are impacting some society and the marketplace in a variety of ways that can be both positive and negative for a community. The task for your Week #5 Project is to write a Current Affairs Worldview Essay that demonstrates the contemporary application of how and in what ways a particular religion impacts a society’s economy and marketplace today. You will want to research articles that clearly reference specific financial data including special financial studies and reports, profit/loss reports, Gross National Products (GNP), and financial percentages that are being generated for a particular locale as the result of a religion that we have or will study only in this class.
An example of a possible title for such an article might be this: (“Study Finds Islamic Sholat Reducing Saudi Arabia GNP”). Here, the specific locale is Saudi Arabia – the religion impacted is Islam – the issue is that the time Muslims spend in daily prayer (Sholat) results in a financial loss of production for time away reducing Saudi Arabia’s GNP by 2% annually. Your article should highlight clear financial data as opposed to generalizations. (Ex: in the above article it points out that lost production in Saudi Arabia resulted in a 2% loss to the Gross National Product (GNP) or a loss of 3 trillion US dollars over last year.)
If your article does not contain this type of information, you will want to locate another one that clearly reflects this type of information for your review.
The key to this assignment is to think outside of the box and use your critical thinking skills to practically apply the course materials on religion and transfer that thinking in such a way as to consider how religion might impact the economy. If you have trouble finding an article or resource, you can always “Contact a Librarian” from the APUS Trefry Library who will be able to assist you.
Note that this is not a research essay where you seek out a variety of resources to highlight your topic. Here, you are to focus on just one (1) single article and offer your review of it in terms of a summary of the content and your personal application of it for your study of world religions. (See the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Book Review Handout for detailed information and examples.) There should only be one (1) resource listed on your Works Cited page.
Your essay should include the following and should have a publication date of 5 years or less:
Seek out and read a Current Affairs article of interest that details a contemporary religious worldview from among those we will study in this class and the impact it is having on a particular marketplace and economy in society today.
These types of articles can be found in a variety of resources including the Online Library, our Course Guide, journals, newspapers, magazines, documentaries, news, and world financial reports, websites, and through online searches.
Pick just one (1) article and write a 2-3 page review and analysis of just that one article. Your review should be in the form of a literary review or a movie review encouraging your audience to either read or ignore it.
Provide all of the required bibliographical material and citations for locating the resource including a title, date of publication, publisher, website, and all retrieval information.
Your essay is best written in two parts:
Summarize the main content of the article written from a Third Person perspective.
Provide your personal analysis of the article from a First Person perspective including:
The main purpose why this author wrote the article?
What were the strengths and weaknesses of this article and why?
Evaluate the financial data and does it support the thesis.
How does the article relate to this course of study and a religious worldview impacting an economy?
Identify new insights gained from the article.
Offer your personal recommendation for the article and why?
Be sure to use good writing and mechanical techniques and include the use of academically approved Citation Formats with in-text citations and a resource page to identify your resource and avoid plagiarism.
You will need to upload your Current Affairs Worldview Essay as an attachment in the correct file for presentation and final grading by your instructor. It will automatically be reviewed by Turnitin.com for plagiarism and an Originality Report will be generated. Please be sure to review the Grading Rubric in advance so that you will have a good idea of the expectations for this Essay.