A Guide to Writing Academic Essays in Religious Studies


Book Description

Scott Brown explains to undergraduates what they need to know about writing research essays pertaining to religion. Topics include theoretical and methodological assumptions, how to locate appropriate scholarly literature, types of research essays, developing a thesis, the essentials of essay form and content, and much more.




Nothing Begins with N


Book Description

The 16 essays in this book provide a theoretical underpinning for freewriting. Sheryl I. Fontaine opens the book with a description of the organization, purpose, and content of students’ 10-minute unfocused freewriting. Pat Belanoff discusses the relationship between skilled and unskilled student writers. Richard H. Haswell analyzes forms of freewriting. Lynn Hammond describes the focused freewriting strategies used in legal writing and in the analysis of poetry. Joy Marsella and Thomas L. Hilgers suggest ways of teaching freewriting as a heuristic. Diana George and Art Young show what teachers learned about the writing abilities of three engineering students through freewriting journals. Anne E. Mullin seeks to determine whether freewriting lives up to claims made for it. Barbara W. Cheshire assesses the efficacy of freewriting. James W. Pennebaker checks the short- and long-term effects of freewriting on students’ emotional lives. Ken Macrorie notes that freewriting means being freed to use certain powers. Peter Elbow shows how authors use freewriting. Robert Whitney tells "why I hate to freewrite." Karen Ferro considers her own freewriting, showing how it leads to a deeper self-understanding. Chris Anderson discusses the qualities in freewriting that we should maintain in revision. Burton Hatlen shows the parallels between writing projective verse and freewriting. Sheridan Blau describes the results of experiments with invisible writing.




Critical Terms for Religious Studies


Book Description

Following in the very successful tradition of Critical Terms for Literary Studies and Critical Terms for Art History, this book attempts to provide a revitalized, self-aware vocabulary with which this bewildering religious diversity can be accurately described and responsibly discussed. Leading scholars working in a variety of traditions demonstrate through their incisive discussions that even our most basic terms for understanding religion are not neutral but carry specific historical and conceptual freight.




The Branch


Book Description

The thesis of the book may be stated simply: it is an argument based upon the four prophetic texts of Jer 23:5; Zech 3:8; 6:12; and Isa 4:2 as a foundational pattern for the four Gospels. These four prophetic texts, it will be argued, mention a King Branch, a Servant Branch, a Man/Priest Branch, and a Lord God Branch. This study seeks to show how Matthew presents Jesus as the King Branch, Mark as the Servant Branch, Luke as the Priest/Man Branch, and John as the Lord God Branch. Consideration will also be given to explore the ramification of the four living Beings as described in Rev 4:6-7. Given the sum total of this sequence of literary facts, the conclusion of this book will raise a number of possible implications. One of these implications will offer the conclusion that the four evangelists could not have written their four Gospels solely on their own human unaided efforts.




Quality Research Papers


Book Description

This will be the fourth edition of a time-tested resource for students writing papers in the fields of religion and theology. It provides essential guidance for writing assignments typical in graduate programs in religion and has served as a standard textbook for seminary research courses. The fourth edition is updated to include information on Turabian 9th edition, SBL Handbook 2nd edition, new resource lists, and additional help with online resources and formatting issues. Most importantly, this new edition is revised from the perspective of information abundance rather than information scarcity. Today's research mindset has shifted from "find anything" and "be satisfied with anything" to "choose intentionally" reliable and credible sources. Quality Research Papers will guide students through an overabundance of online and library resources and help them craft excellent essays.




Writing Theology Well


Book Description

In its creative integration of the disciplines of writing, rhetoric, and theology, Writing Theology Well provides a standard text for theological educators engaged in the teaching and mentoring of writing across the theological curriculum. As a theological rhetoric, it will also encourage excellence in theological writing in the public domain by helping to equip students for their wider vocations as writers, preachers, and communicators in a variety of ministerial and professional contexts.




The Next Step in Studying Religion


Book Description

A collection of essays written specifically to help graduate students of Religious Studies and Theology in their quest to become professional scholars and professors. The biographical flavour of many of the essays will help the graduate student reader relate to the work of more experienced students of Religious Studies and Theology. This is indispensable reading for graduate students of religion (and cognate fields).




Splendide Mendax


Book Description

Scholars for centuries have regarded fakes and forgeries chiefly as an opportunity for exposing and denouncing deceit, rather than appreciating the creative activity necessary for such textual imposture. But should we not be more curious about what is spurious? Many of these long-neglected texts merit serious reappraisal, when considered as artifacts with a value beyond mere authenticity. We do not have to be fooled by a forgery to find it fascinating, when even the intention to deceive can remind us how easy it is to form beliefs about texts. The greater difficulty is that once beliefs have been formed by one text, it is impossible to approach the next without preconceptions potentially disastrous for scholarship. The exposure of fraud and the pursuit of truth may still be valid scholarly goals, but they implicitly demand that we confront the status of any text as a focal point for matters of belief and conviction. Many new and fruitful avenues of investigation open up when scholars consider forgery as a creative act rather than a crime. We invited authors to contribute work without imposing any restrictions beyond a willingness to consider new approaches to the subject of ancient fakes and forgeries. The result is this volume, in which our aim is to display some of the many possibilities available to scholarship when the forger is regarded as "splendide mendax" - splendidly untruthful.




How to Write a Theology Essay


Book Description

So, you've signed up for your theological studies; you've weathered the storm of those early weeks of language study; you've coped with your early forays into biblical exegesis; and you've been given a sketch of the history of the early church. There's been some spiritual highs and some frustrating lows. You can see perhaps just the beginnings of the benefits of the process of theological education creeping into your ministry - such precious minutes of it as you can grab, anyway. But sensing a deadline looming, you go to the relevant webpage on your seminary website and discover that a strange beast is lying in wait for you: the theology essay. How do you write a theology essay? The aim of this book is to tell you how. With humour and insight, Michael Jensen, who has taught theology for a number of years in the UK and Australia, explains not only what makes for a good theology essay but what makes for good theology. If you want to make the most of your theological education, then this book is for you. Michael Jensen (D. Phil, Oxon) teaches at Sydney's Moore Theological College and longs for his students to have a deep understanding of the knowledge of God. His previous books include Martyrdom and Identity: The Self on Trial (T&T Clark, 2010). He is married to Catherine and they have four children.




Recovering an Undomesticated Apostle


Book Description

Paul the apostle is usually imagined as a man of prestige and power – comfortably conversing with philosophers, seeking an audience with the emperor, and composing compelling letters for Christians throughout the Mediterranean. Yet this portrait of a safe and conventional figure at the origins of Christianity airbrushes out many strange things about him. This volume repositions Paul as a man at the periphery of power. Recovering an Undomesticated Apostle explores the ways that Paul has been “domesticated” in both popular and scholarly imagination. By isolating selected crises of the apostle’s life and legacy and examining the social and material dimensions of his world, these essays collectively chip away at the received image of his strength and status. The result is a series of glimpses of Paul that frame the apostle as surprisingly marginal and weak within Roman society. Published in honour of New Testament scholar Leif E. Vaage, Recovering an Undomesticated Apostle presents Paul as a man operating from a position of desperation, making virtue out of necessity as he attempted to claw his way up in the dog-eat-dog world of the ancient Mediterranean.