RL 200 Social Justice Praxis Paper
last update14 September 2009

This paper has both a descriptive and prescriptive purpose. It will describe what you did in your social justice project and evaluate it in the contexts of the Old Testament idea(s) of the Covenant and your own covenant theology. It will prescribe what you and the reader should think and/or do after reading your essay.

WHAT?

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.

  1. Describe your social justice praxis. Be as concise as possible, while still conveying the essential elements of the activity. Make this section of the paper Appendix A.
  2. Gather the interviews with your supervisor and your volunteer peers. Make this section of the paper Appendix B.
  3. Gather the journal entries you wrote over the course of your social justice praxis. Make this section of the paper Appendix C.
  4. Gather the discussion board entries you made in response to other students' journal entries. Make this section of the paper Appendix D.
  5. Describe the Old Testament understandings of the Covenant as outlined in the monograph by Delbert Hillers, in required course texts, in your class notes. NB: Be sure to cite your sources, using footnotes that follow the Chicago Manual of Style. This will be the first section of part one of the body of your paper.
  6. Evaluate these various views of the Covenant, indicating which aspects of each you can or do accept and which ones you cannot or do not. This will be the second section of part one of the body of your paper.
  7. Develop a personal, convenantal ethic, by outlining which aspects of the Old Testament understandings of the Covenant you would like to adopt and make part of your own understanding of your relationship to to God, humanity, nature, the cosmos. This will be the first section of part two of the body of your paper.
  8. Now carefully select excerpts from your weekly journal entries to illustrate how your covenantal ethic came into play during your social justice project. Be as specific as possible: e.g., in what situation(s), with what population(s), at what time(s) did you live out your ethic? This will be the second section of part two of the body of your paper.
  9. Evaluate how well you lived up to your covenantal ethic during your project. In what ways could you have better implemented your ethic? In what situation(s), with what population(s), at what time(s) did you fail to live out your ethic? Why do you think that was the case? What were the forces or influences that held you back from living out this ethic? What remedies did you try to help yourself overcome these forces or influences, and how well did they work? This will be the third section of part two of the body of your paper.
  10. Evaluate the impact of the social justice praxis. How successful/unsuccessful was the praxis in dealing with the social justice issue that was its focus? What would be some further avenues for addressing this problem? How has this praxis made Cleveland a more just place to live? This will be the fourth section of part two of the body of your paper.
  11. Evaluate the religious nature/value of your project. E.g., if you take the OT understanding of religion, would you classify what you did as "religious" behavior? Why or why not? This will be the first section of part three of the body of your paper.
  12. In light of the OT understandings of the election of Israel and of Israel as the mediator of God's covenant blessings to the nations, evaluate to what extent and in what ways this praxis could be classified as "salvific." This will be the second section of part three of the body of your paper.
  13. Evaluate in what ways and through what means this project has changed your understanding of the Bible (esp. the Old Testament), of Judaism, of God, of humanity, of yourself, of nature, the world. Why do you think this project made you think differently about these realities? This will be the first section of part four of the body of your paper.
  14. Look toward the future and discuss what you think can be the impact of the covenantal ethic you outlined in part two of your paper (#5, above). How will you continue to live into this ethic? What other strategies might you try in the future to help yourself overcome the obstacles you noted (#7, above)? Why is it important to you to try to do this? How will your living this ethic continue to change your relationship to God, other humans, nature, and the world? How might it help to remedy social problems such as the one you addressed in your project? This will be the second section of part four of the body of your paper.
  15. Are there any other points you would make about this project, and other ways in which the project changed you as a person or other ways you learned from it?
  16. Develop a thesis for your paper, i.e., create a succinct statement that outlines what you want the reader to believe and/or do as a result of reading your paper.
  17. Write an introduction and conclusion for your paper that clearly states your thesis and lays out the issues you will(have) address(ed), in what order, to what end.
  18. Include a Select Bibliography 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
HOW?
  1. Once you have gathered all these data, organize your paper according to the basic three-part formula: Introduction, Body, Conclusion.
    1. the Introduction includes your thesis (i.e., what are the issues at stake and the concrete strategy you will propose to address these issues), followed by a basic outline of how you will argue your case
    2. the Body is where you lay out your argument, step-by-step, showing your audience why your thesis must be correct; this is where you will work in your responses to #5–-14 above, using this information to support your thesis
    3. the Conclusion contains your summary of how you have shown your thesis to be the best interpretation of the data at hand. Here you also can make suggestions for future avenues of research, praxis, and/or raise other comments relating to #15, above.
    4. Attach your Select Bibliography or Works Consulted page and your Appendices.
  2. The finished product should comprise approx. 2000–-2500 words, not counting the bibliography and appendices. Pertinent audio clips, photographs and/or illustrations are welcome—indeed, strongly encouraged—but they do not take the place of the text.
  3. Follow the Chicago Manual of Style for bibliography, citations, etc.
    1. Use footnotes for your citations.
    2. If citing an internet source, you must include:
      1. The author's full name;
      2. The title of that page;
      3. The title of the web site, if different from #2;
      4. The name and location of the sponsoring agency (e.g., the sponsoring agency for www.jcu.edu is John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio);
      5. The full web address;
      6. The date and time you accessed the site; and
      7. An annotation explaining why you judge this site to be reliable for the purposes of your research
  4. Submit the digital text, in DOCX, HTML, or PDF format.
EVALUATION

An "A" paper will follow a linear development, from the introduction through the body to the conclusion. it will have a clear thesis and will incorporate all the elements outlined in the "What?" section above. Its formal characteristics will be perfect, i.e., invariably it will conform to correct English grammar, syntax, spelling, punctuation, inclusive language (including references to God), etc., and all citations and bibliographic entries will follow the Chicago Manual of Style. It will be interesting, and will motivate the reader to want to live out the covenantal ethic being advocated in the essay. Click here to view the grading protocol for this project.