REL 399 Final Topics

Topics for Final Paper, REL 399 Religion, Love, and Death - East & West

Due Wednesday, June 3, 2020 by 1:00 p.m.

Double-spaced, 5-9 pages, 1200-1800 words. (You may use parenthetical notation to indicate page numbers for textual references. BE SURE TO INCLUDE PAGE REFERENCES AND/OR DIRECT QUOTATIONS FROM THE READINGS.) ALTERNATIVELY, you can document your ideas by providing a bibliography at the end that includes quotations from the course materials for each entry and describe what parts of your paper they correspond to.
Be sure to write your Name, TOPIC NUMBER, and Title at the top of the page.
I encourage you to discuss these topics with one another.
I also strongly encourage you to read the essays on my Writing web pages, especially "Four Keys to Writing in the Humanities," "Paper Writing Guidelines," "Checklist for Papers," and "Writing: The Bridge between Consciousness and Unconsciousness."

Topics: CHOOSE ONE from below, either a topic from TYPE A, or a topic from TYPE B. ONLY DO ONE TOPIC.

TOPIC TYPE A: Select one of the following.

Topics

1. Being Asleep and Awakened Consciousness: Drawing on Rubin Carter's discussion of being asleep versus awakening to the oneness of all humanity and the cosmos, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this idea in relation to organized religion and individual spirituality. Are they mutual exclusive, complementary, or in creative tension? Use at least one other source from the course to illustrate your ideas.

2. Wounded Healer: Apply the idea of the "wounded healer" to at least two sources from the course, one of which must be from the last four weeks of the course. This idea, taken from Henri Ellenberger's Discovery of the Unconscious, is the concept that, in order to help heal others, one must have healed from one's own suffering or wounds that are similar or relateable to another's suffering. Discuss similarities and differences in the ways this might be applied to the sources/authors you have selected. These might include: Maura Soshin O'Halloran and Marsha Linehan, Michael Morton and Rubin Carter, Mary Crow Dog and Rubin Hurricane, or any other combination. As part of this discuss the role of human love, religion and spirituality, or both.

3. Radical Acceptance and Change: Apply the key concepts from Marsha Linehan's Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, "Radical Acceptance" and "Change," as they are illustrated by two of the stories from the course, including at least one source from the last four weeks of the syllabus. What is "radical acceptance"? How does one initiate change if one has to radically accept one's reality. How does one balance "radical acceptance" and "change"?

4. Deepening of Knowledge regarding Religion, Love, and Death: One way to think about how knowledge deepens is to trace a progression from intellectual (analytical, linear thinking), to intuitive (holistic, seeing the whole in the part), to affective (experiencing and idea, person, or event emotionally), to somatic (embodied knowledge). Identify key turning points in one of the main texts from the course for which this progression through intellectual, intuitive, affective, and somatic knowledge might be helpful in understanding the protagonist's story of religion, love, and death.

5. Key Turning Points Set to Music: Identify passages from that mark key turning points in the personal and spiritual development of one of the authors from the course (such as Maura O'Halloran, Rubin Carter, Marsha Linehan). Find a piece of music that you think resonates well with the progression of that person's life, and explain how setting key turning points in relation to the piece of music you have selected might help one understand their journey.

6. Dialogue between Maura Soshin O'Halloran and Marsha Linehan: Imagine that Maura and Marsha are living at the samean option to shift their ages somewhat to make this dialogue work for your idea about this paper. Create a series of letter correspondences in which they discuss themes of religion, love, and death. Show where they may be both similarities and differences in their views, as well as how they share resonances in their journeys.

7. A Tale of Religion, Love, and Death: Imagine that you are a war correspondent reporting from Afghanistan. You are injured by shrapnel and sent to a makeshift military hospital. There, you meet a wounded soldier and befriend him/her, and you become personally involved (interpret this however you like). Although he/she seems to be getting better, a week later, due to infection, things turn for the worse, and the soldier is on the verge of death. Write a letter to "your best friend" about your relationship with this soldier, as a tale of religion, love, and death. Weave quotations and page references from the readings into your "letter."

8. Influence of Course Readings: Describe how three of the readings from the course have changed or influenced your view of religion, love, and death. At least two of those sources must be from Week 7 onwards. BE SURE TO INCLUDE DIRECT QUOTATIONS FROM THE READINGS.

TOPIC TYPE B: Select only one of the following.

BASED ON YOUR FIRST THREE SHORT PAPERS: You will further develop your story. Use direct quotations or cite page references from the sources you use as described below. ALTERNATIVELY, add an Appendix to your final paper in the form of a bibliography plus quotations that show where the ideas in your final essay came from. For example, for each entry, you can a) provide a phrase or sentence describing the topic or idea included in your paper, b) then in the next line, cite the source (author, title), and finally c) a quotation from the text illustrating the descriptive phrase or sentence from a).

1. Reflections: Nested Stories: Add a section to the end of your story that places the protagonist, another character, or someone else at a later time (one week, a month, a year, or any length of time). Have this person or character reflect on the preceding story and discuss what that story/time in their life meant to them, how they have changed since then, and what they are planning for the future. As part of this, include at least two of the following: 1) radical acceptance as the idea that one does not have what one wants badly but finds a way to be centered or balanced without acquiring the object of desire (Marsha Linehan) 2), wounded healer, or how one needs to have suffered oneself in order to help others who have suffered similarly (Marsha Linehan), 3) balancing acceptance and change as the path to evolving and deepening the self and one's story (Marsha Linehan) 4) how one can draw upon different streams of religion and spirituality to experience and embody a deep truth of one's own, especially in the depths of contemplative experience (Rubin Carter, Marsha Linehan), and 4) one may have to be creative in charting one's own unique path: one can connect parts of one's life and journey with those of others, but ultimately one must forge one's own path on one's own (Rubin Carter, Marsha Linehan, Beatrice Wood). Draw on at least one author from the last three weeks of the course. You can also draw on earlier authors and sources.

2. Dream or Vision: Add to your story by including a dream, vision, or epiphany that the main character or protagonist has that reveals the deeper or new significance of the story up to that point. Draw on similar dream, vision, or epiphanal experiences described by authors and sources from the course for insights on how to develop your story. Draw on at least one author from the last three weeks of the course. You can also draw on earlier authors and sources.

3. Turning Points: Add an unexpected turning point to your story that shows how release from suffering, a new counterstory, and/or a new path of creativity becomes possible through an unexpected encounter with a person, event, or natural phenomenon. Examples from our sources include Rubin Carter's encounter with Ezra Martin, Marsha Linehan's experiences with religious teachers, and Beatrice Wood's experiences with Marcel Proust and othersk.

4. Your own idea

You can further develop your story in some other way. In this case, please send me a paragraph description of how you would like to develop your paper at least one week before the due date, and I can provide some guidance.