Description
In this section of the course, we have explored the C&E theme of Crisis and Response in relation to religion, using Christianity as our case study. We have considered how religion can be a powerful response to help one get through a crisis, and how religion can itself be a source of crisis. Choose one of the prompts and write a persuasive essay addressing this tension within religion.
Requirements of this Assignment:
–This is to be a persuasive essay; you must develop and defend a critical opinion.
–A critical opinion is one that is informed and supported by logic and evidence.
–This assignment is not asking you to do a close reading of the text or to explain a theory using textual support. However, you must use the texts and topics from this section [see below] in crafting your response. They can be used to provide examples, or arguments, or theories that will help you write a detailed essay.
–Your essay must start with a clear Thesis Statement. This will set out just what you will be discussing and what position you will be defending.
A. One of the major functions of religion is to provide a sense of connection to something larger than one’s self—a community, a church, a spiritual reality (e.g. God). This connection and sense of identity can be a powerful source of comfort, and resilience, in the face of crisis. However, we have also seen how this very aspect of religion can also generate conflict and crisis. Using examples taken from the topics covered in this section, develop a position on this topic: Do you believe that, overall, religion is a valuable source of response to crisis? If so, what are we to think of the conflicts that religion can generate? Does this make religion dangerous, as Lucretius argued? If so, what about all those people who find consolation in religion?
B.One of the issues we have covered in our discussions on Christianity is the role of women. We have considered three case studies—Mary Magdalene, Heloise, Tama Gracia—in which religion played a significant role in the life of a woman in times of crisis. Do you think that in these cases religion served as a valuable response to crisis, or was religion somehow implicit in the crises these women faced? Choose two of the women listed to make your argument.
C. Throughout the semester, in one form or another, we have been considering the problem of evil as a source of crisis. For the purposes of this essay, “evil” is the reality of suffering and death as unavoidable crises facing all humans (not the formal problem of evil, i.e. God’s responsibility for allowing evil). For many, religion is prime mode of response in terms of understanding evil and in enduring it. Others have argued that religion contributes to human suffering, and the proper response is to critique or reject religion. What do you think? This is, in the terms of our course, a debate between Augustine and Lucretius, and so you must use these thinkers in developing your argument.