This research paper involves a careful study of a particular passage from one of the Synoptic Gospels. You will choose a passage that occurs in more than one Gospel, so that you can do a redaction analysis. For example, you could do a comparison of Jesus' teaching on divorce and remarriage in Mark 10:1-12, Matthew 19:1-12, and Luke 16:18. You could also look at 1 Corinthians 7 to see how Paul uses Jesus' words to address the very different situation in Corinth, but your focus will be on the Gospel passages. First you will study each Gospel account to see how Matthew, Mark, and Luke use the story in their larger narratives. Then you will compare the accounts, explaining how they differ and offering your thesis of why they differ in the ways they do. After you finish your analysis, you will move into the "So what?" part of your paper, explaining the significance of what you have discovered for the church's teachings on divorce in contemporary society. In this section you will defend your view of what you believe our teaching on divorce should be, and as you do so you must explain your approach in light of the passages from Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
This is a formal paper, and therefore you need to use footnotes and bibliography. For directions on how to compose footnotes and bibliographic entries, see my instructions under how to write an exegesis paper at the following web address: http://home.messiah.edu/~mcosby/bil273exeg.htm. These directions give the proper form, and you need to follow them exactly.
Parable Interpretation
You may also choose to do an in depth analysis of a particular parable. For this project you will select a parable that you find particularly interesting and read what a number of authors say about its meaning. You will try to understand the historical and cultural background information that helps modern readers to understand the impact of the parable for those who lived in Jesus' time. You will also try to understand what its setting in Matthew, Mark or Luke contributes to its meaning. In other words, how has the Gospel author already interpreted the parable by the way he places it in his larger narrative setting? Talk with Prof. Cosby about which parable you desire to study before you begin your research. Get some advice about the parable and what researching it will involve. This is a formal paper, and therefore you need to use footnotes and bibliography. For directions on how to compose footnotes and bibliographic entries, see my instructions under how to write an exegesis paper at the following web address: http://home.messiah.edu/~mcosby/bil273exeg.htm. These directions give the proper form, and you need to follow them exactly.
Videos play an important role in modern society, and developing your skills in interpreting and critiquing them will play an increasingly important part in Christian life and ministry. Movie directors, like authors, shape their depictions of their characters by what they choose to show and what they choose to omit. Those who have made movies about Jesus present different portraits of him, depending on the director's theological beliefs, moral commitments, denominational affiliation (or lack thereof), understanding of the nature of the Gospel accounts, beliefs about the historical Jesus (miraculous or non miraculous, etc.), and which Gospel stories he or she chooses to include or omit..
In this project, you must carefully analyze how two movies from different time periods or different theological perspectives present the story of Jesus. This project will involve painstaking analysis of how each movie develops its director's vision of Jesus and through what means it does so. You must evaluate how responsibly the directors have used the Gospel accounts of Jesus to produce their portraits of the Lord, as well as explain which Gospel or Gospels were primarily used in these productions. You will also evaluate the credibility of these portraits of Jesus, critiquing the director's vision and explaining the value or lack thereof of the movie for various audiences. The skills you develop in completing this project should better equip you to dialogue with the meanings presented in movies, T.V. programs, political advertisements, etc. that you watch, making you into a wiser consumer of video images.
Novels about Jesus differ widely in their authors' visions of what Jesus was like. Some deal responsibly with the Gospel accounts; most do not. Few novels are written by people skilled in Gospel interpretation, and most readers lack the skills to critique fictional accounts of Jesus. Consequently we have the blind leading the blind.
In this project, you will analyze a novel about Jesus in order to determine what portrait of Jesus it presents, which Gospel (if any) it primarily uses for its depiction of Jesus, how responsibly it deals with Gospel material, what seems to be the author's intent in writing (what indications are there of what he or she seeks to accomplish?), and what techniques the author primarily uses to present this particular portrait of Jesus. You also need to explain what value you believe the book has; or if you believe it is destructive, explain why. What makes it useful or harmful in today's society, and who would most benefit or be damaged by reading it? Why?
Students who are artists may choose to do their own artistic depictions of Jesus rather than critiquing the work of others. In this demanding and rewarding project, you will carefully portray Jesus as he is presented in each of the three Synoptic Gospels. Thus, you will produce three original works of art, each delving into the image of Jesus that emerges from a particular Gospel. How you use symbolism is up to you, but your art must symbolically reveal each Gospel's vision of Jesus. Because I am not able to critique art adequately, you must arrange with an art professor to grade the quality of your work. But I need to be able to evaluate what you do symbolically in your portraits of Jesus, so you must provide a written description of each piece (not just a title, but an explanation). They must show care in your attempts to integrate what you have learned from the Gospels into creative expressions of art. Your grade will be based on the combined evaluations of the art professor and my own.
If you have a creative idea of a project that integrates careful reading
of the Synoptic Gospels with another endeavor that I have not listed, you
may approach me with your idea. If it fulfills the goals of the class
and involves work that you are excited about pursuing, I will give permission
for you to do it. You must bring a written summary of the project
and defend its credibility as an assignment before I will agree to it.