E-mail response topics

Using your own account, send an e-mail to myself and your discussion leader with your discussion section number as the subject, and your name and e-mail address as the message.

Week Two: Due Tuesday Sep. 4 before lecture via e-mail

Compose your response in a word processor (turning smart quotes off first) or a text editor, and then paste it in an e-mail. Write 350-400 words.

Choose one:

Before you think about these questions, first divorce yourself entirely from your personal belief system, whether it be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, or whatever. Do not present the teachings of any church or "scientism" as your response. Ponder each question as if you were approaching these texts for the first time.

1) Stories of creation often reveal a lot of information about the cultures in which they appear. What does the story of the creation and fall in Genesis 1-3 tell us about early Hebrew culture? For example: What does it say about the role of women? What is the meaning of the "fall"? What kind of god do we see in these stories, and what is his relationship to his creation?

2) Compare the flood story in Gilgamesh, (pp. 108-113) with the story in Genesis ch. 6-9. How similar are these two stories? What would you identify as some of the key differences? Are these accounts merely different versions of the same story, or are they distinct, separate stories?

3) Compare the creation and fall of Adam to the creation and civilizing of Enkidu (Gilgamesh, pp. 62-69). How similar are the two accounts? What are their key differences? What do they say about natural innocence and civilized experience?

Week Five: Due Tuesday Sept. 25 before lecture. Unless your discussion leader has instructed you otherwise, e-mail the response, but only to your discussion leader!

Compose your response in a word processor (turning smart quotes off first), and then paste it in an e-mail. Write at least one-and-a-half pages of text (about 400 words).

Choose only one:

1) Why does Athena intervene and help Odysseus and his family when she does? Why didn't she do it seven years earlier, when Odysseus was first cast upon Calypso's island? What is so crucial about the situation that she chooses to intervene at this time? If Odysseus is so important to her, why did she abandon him for so long? How much trust can we put in her explanations in Bk. 13? How reliable an ally is she for Odysseus?

2) Odysseus has a reputation for intelligence and resourceful cunning. How well does he demonstrate these qualities in his dealings with the Cyclops? What mistakes, if any, does he make? How significant are the repercussions of this episode?

3) How justified is the slaying of the suitors in Bk. 22? Is death a just punishment for what they have done, or is it too harsh? Do you think Eurymachus's offer of compensation (p. 441) would be a more appropriate way of dealing with the situation? What, if anthing, have the suitors done that merits death?

Week Ten: Due Tuesday October 30 before lecture via e-mail.

Compose your response in a word processor (turning smart quotes off first), and then paste it in an e-mail. Write at least one-and-a-half pages of text (400-500 words). Send the e-mail to your discussion leader only.

Choose only one:

1) Drawing on whichever of our texts you find useful, discuss their presentation of the relationship between human society and the natural world. Are they presented as a pair of opposites, or is there a continuity between the two? To what extent do these texts foreshadow, or even shape, the modern view of the natural world as a resource to be exploited to increase human wealth?

2) The Beatitudes, presented by Jesus in Matthew 5:3-10, are often viewed as the core of the Christian message. What would our society be like if all of these statements came true? How would this beatified society compare with the culture we live in today?

3) Jesus repeatedly preached a message of peace and forgiveness. Yet he also said, "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword." (Mt. 10:34; reread the entire passage, from v. 34 to 39). What did he mean by this saying? The teachings of Jesus are often compared to those of Socrates. What would Socrates have thought of this passage?

Week Twelve: Due Tuesday November 13 before lecture via e-mail.

Compose your response in a word processor (turning smart quotes off first), and then paste it in an e-mail. Write at least one-and-a-half pages of text (400-500 words). Send the e-mail to your discussion leader only.

Choose one:

1. In what ways is Islam similar to Christianity? How does it differ? How significant are these similarities and differences?

2. Leaving aside the issues of faith and the details of belief, what do you see as the impact of Christianity on Western culture? How has it shaped the world we live in today?

Week Thirteen: Due Tuesday November 20 before lecture via e-mail.

Compose your response in a word processor (turning smart quotes off first), and then paste it in an e-mail. Write at least one-and-a-half pages of text (400-500 words). Send the e-mail to your discussion leader only.

Choose one:

1. What continuities with the philosophy of Plato do we encounter in Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy?

2. Leave aside the real-world problems that would result if society adopted policies based on Boethius' claim that evil-doers are best punished by leaving them to pursue their evil designs. Consider only the theoretical implications of his view of the nature of evil. How convincing do you find his ideas? Where have we encountered similar views? How compatible is his view of evil with the teachings of Christianity?

Week Fourteen: Make-up Response Due Tuesday Nov. 27 before lecture via e-mail.

Anyone who has missed a response, or who has received a low grade on a response, may do a response this week to make up the missing assignment or to replace one with a low grade. If you have done the first four responses, and are satisfied with the grades you earned, you also have the option of doing this one as your fifth and final response instead of the week thirteen response.

Compose your response in a word processor (turning smart quotes off first), and then paste it in an e-mail. Write at least one-and-a-half pages of text (400-500 words). Send the e-mail to your discussion leader only.

1. Beowulf falls naturally into two parts: 1) the hero's fights against the Grendelkin in his youth, and 2) his final combat against the dragon when he is an old king. Some have argued that the poem is simply two separate stories stuck together. Do you agree with this view? What arguments would you present to support this claim? Alternatively, what arguments would you present in support of the unity and integrity of the poem as a whole? Are both parts needed?

2. Both Beowulf and Hrothgar sound like pious monotheists when they speak; Grendel, a very Germanic monster, is presented as a descendent of Cain. How important are such Christian elements in the poem? Are they merely a superficial attempt to make an inherited Germanic, heroic tale more acceptable to the Christian Anglo-Saxons? Or do these elements play a more essential role in the poem, contributing to its themes and significance?