RL 200
Social Justice Praxis
3 December 2005

WHY?

This course is designed to help students learn to read both the Bible and life in a critically engaging way. It is not enough to read the words of the Bible as a passive bystander, nor to sit in a lecture as the words wash over you, nor simply to endure the events of daily life. As Aristotle once said, "the unexamined life is not worth living." The foremost benefit of a University education is not factual knowledge ("what to think"), but rather the analytical ability which one gains from pursuing University-level studies ("how to think").

This assignment is designed to help the student synthesize the various resources for learning in this course—texts, discussions, lectures, projects, the Library, the City of Cleveland, etc.—and to focus them on analyzing one current social problem or challenge for contemporary U.S. society. To do this, the student will have been engaged for a minimum of 15 hours in some kind of direct-service work with a particular human or animal population or direct examination and response to a particular environmental/ecological condition. The service activity benefits the "recipient" in that the student does real work in service to the target population; it benefits the "doer" to the extent that the student learns to ask real questions about the individual's or group's life situation, needs and values. In turn, this provides the student with the impetus to re-think her or his own values, to analyze their social impact (both good and bad), and to evaluate their efficacy in promoting the common good.

As the final product of your social justice project, this paper provides the rest of the class (and, hopefully, the wider university community) with the opportunity to learn about this social challenge, and to pool their intellectual and moral resources to decide what key strategy or strategies would serve best to respond to this challenge.

FOR WHOM?

Requirements:

1. Direct service to a human or animal population, or direct examination and response to a particular environmental/ecological condition, at a placement approved by the JCU Center for Community Service, for an hour or more each week for at least 10 weeks, for a total of at least 15 hours (see Deadlines #1–4);
2. Registration of the Project on the course Blackboard. The description should include:
   1. Basic facts about your placement (site, supervisor's name, population you will be serving, schedule of service hours, etc.)
   2. What social problem is the focus of your Praxis?
   3. Why did you choose to highlight this particular issue?
   4. How do you hope this project will make Cleveland a more just place to live?
   5. What exactly do you expect to be the results of this project—for you, for the group with whom you are working, for the city as a whole?
   6. What criteria will you use to judge whether or not your project is "successful"?
   7. Would you classify your project as "religious" behavior?
3. Orientation interviews with your supervisor and one or two other workers at your placement site. The transcript of the interviews should be posted on the BBDB SJP interview thread, and should address the following questions (and any others you find of interest):
   1. Why did they choose this kind of work?
   2. What kinds of affects do they see from their efforts?
   3. What keeps them coming every day (rather than giving up and getting a different job)?
   4. How do their view their work (e.g., would they call it a "vocation" or "ministry")?
   5. What else do they think you should know as you begin this Praxis?
4. Weekly journal entries (via the Blackboard Social Justice Discussion Board). Your first Journal post should answer the question in #2.1. The later posts may discuss the service project in relation to the course topics for that week, especially the theology of the covenant, may respond to questions posed by the instructor (e.g., questions #2.2–3, below), may interact with topics or questions raised by other students, or address other issues that arise as your Praxis progresses (see Deadlines #5).
   1. Share with the BBDB SJP group some basic information about your particular Praxis.
      1. What social problem is its focus?
      2. Why does that problem exist (i.e., what socio-economic, political, or other factors give rise to it)?
      3. How many people are affected by it, and who are they (i.e., what is the demographic)?
      4. What other data can you tell us about this problem?
      5. How do you hope your Praxis will help to rectify this social problem?
   2. What changes are you seeing resulting from this project—for you, for the group with whom you are working, for the city as a whole?
   3. What affect is your social justice praxis having upon your understanding of religion? Of the Bible, esp. the Old Testament? Of God's Covenant with Israel, with humanity as a whole, and with you in particular?
5. Weekly contributions to the Blackboard Social Justice on-line discussion in response to two other students' entries each week (and be sure it is not the same students every time). Each contribution should raise specific questions or make specific observations about how the student's project relates to lectures or other course materials (see Deadlines #5);
6. Research on the social justice issue which is the subject of your praxis.
7. A 7–10 page retrospective essay developing a personal, convenantal ethic and relating the specific the service activity to particular Old Testament understandings of the Covenant as outlined in the monograph by Delbert Hillers; use your weekly journal entries to illustrate your covenantal ethic; conclude with a brief "epilogue" discussing how this project changed your understanding of the Hebrew Bible and/or of this course, and vice-versa (see Deadlines #6). Use a Select Bibliography or listing of Works Consulted to demonstrate that you have used a minimum of five print resources for your research in regard to the idea of the covenant and pertaining to the social justice issue which is addressed by your praxis. See here for more details on writing the Paper.
8. A website, PowerPoint, or other type of audio-visual presentation based on your retrospective essay from #6 highlighting your service activities and showing their relationship to O.T. theology in general, and covenant theology in particular; this is to be done in collaboration with 1–3 student colleagues who were engaged in the same social justice project as you, or one very similar to yours; and
9. A 7–10 minute group presentation to the class, using the PPT or website and other pertinent audio/visual/material aids developed in #5 (see Deadlines #7–8).

Deadlines

1. Register with the Center for Community Service and complete any paperwork necessary for them to track your service activity. DUE SEPTEMBER 14^th.
2. Through the CCS, arrange a direct service placement beginning no later than the third week of September.
3. Using the course Blackboard, complete the project registration form by describing your project. DUE midnight SEPTEMBER 18^th.
4. Begin your service activity by the week of SEPTEMBER 19^th.
5. Interview your supervisor and one or two other volunteers at your placement. DUE midnight SEPTEMBER 25^th.
6. Weekly entries are due by midnight each Sunday—BEGINNING SEPTEMBER 25^th—for the duration of the project, for a minimum of 8 entries.
7. The retrospective essay is due in the Blackboard "drop box" by midnight NOVEMBER 20^th.
8. The website/PowerPoint/audio-visual presentation is due in the Blackboard "drop box" by midnight NOVEMBER 30^th.
9. The group presentation to the class is due the last week of class (see the class schedule for details).

Evaluation