Romans

Introduction:

Martin Luther said that anyone serious about his or her faith should memorize Paul’s letter to the Romans. It is perhaps the single most important book in the Bible because it gives meaning or explains the events chronicled in the New Testament books prior to it. The gospels describe the key events of the faith – the crucifixion, the resurrection; Romans explains their significance. In this course we will examine Paul’s letter verse by verse, line by line, and as we do so, we will encounter three of the most basic questions people ever ask:

Is God there?
Does he care?
Is he fair?

We will critically examine these questions. We will analyze how Paul presents the questions and their answers. This intellectual, spiritual, and at times emotional journey will force us to as critical questions about law, justice, mercy, and grace. We will bring up Paul himself on charges of misogyny, homophobia, and for being pro-slavery. These accusations, which have been a sort of theme in criticism of the letter, will force us to take a thoroughly interdisciplinary, trans-disciplinary approach. Philosophy, religion, history, anthropology, sociology, psychology and the natural sciences all will be brought to bear on our interrogation of Paul’s argument, in which the apostle seeks to carefully lay a foundation for the Christian faith, a foundation centered on Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.

Are we seeking truth? Hmm . . . Yes and no. Ultimately, the existence of God is a matter of faith, not truth, at least truth as a discrete, provable (or dis-provable) fact. But then science isn’t even searching for truth. Like the sciences, we will be searching for a set of principles that enable us to see the disparate and apparently chaotic mass of phenomena as a coherent whole, or at least to critically examine and analyze Paul’s principles seeking these same goals. A premise or pre-supposition of the course, then, is that design is an argument for the existence of God, a premise that was at the heart of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Course goals

Conscious and close analytical reading of assigned texts is central to whatever learning takes place in this course. Our effort will be to learn how to read more effectively so that as much as possible of the original author’s ideas become available to enrich our own thinking, and, perhaps, behavior.

A closely related goal is the development of critical and analytical thinking skills. Students will present in-class summaries of, references to, and evaluations of ideas encountered in required readings and in class discussion itself. In turn, the response of the instructor and other students will stimulate and demand collegial but also critical responses to ideas as they are presented.

More generally, our goal will be to begin a focused and sustained analysis of some of the basic questions our species has asked since whenever self-reflexive consciousness became a part of our being. We do not need to set as our goals the discovery of final answers; rather, our goal is to understand and interrogate one attempt at an answer, Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Writing requirements

You will be writing throughout the semester, realizing that writing IS thinking. It’s difficult to write every day; it’s difficult to write poorly every day. As your writing improves, so will your thinking, which will produce yet better writing. A virtuous cycle. The course asks you to write in three basic forms or formats: two-page response papers, a deep analysis of roughly 10 pages, and very short, discussive comments to the class blog, http://wanderingrocks.wordpress.com.

These various writing assignments will invite you to engage in the pursuit of course goals as outlined above. The response papers should not be considered an informal diary of cryptic, vague thoughts, randomly recalled as they are inspired by a muse. Rather, they should be a deliberate and systematic analysis of ideas written in complete sentences and well-developed paragraphs.

To give you a sense of the kinds of writing you will be doing, below are a few possibilities for writing emphases in your response papers. The list is not comprehensive, but should help you begin thinking about what to write (and how to write):

Consider significant arguments that cause you to think, to recognize a new perspective on or a new analysis of some idea/issue. In this type of response, you would define what the key idea is and then explain or analyze how and why that idea is significant to other parts of the article or to larger issues under discussion in the class. In this type of paper, you will not re-tell, re-phrase or merely summarize what you have read. Instead, you will explain and analyze what ideas in the passages are provocative, new, troubling, brilliant and/or insightful. Identify and react to these “must be grasped” ideas, concepts and perspectives to retrieve from the article its essential ideas. Include why they are significant.
Think about and comment on some of the implications of one or more specific ideas in the article: implications for other articles we have read and their key ideas; for your own understanding of the idea discussed in the article or for related ideas you have previously held; for values and beliefs related to our culture; for your own understanding, values, beliefs, and behaviors as any one or more of those relate to some as part of “happiness” or a good life.
Once we’ve read a few articles, I will ask you to write about how you see how two or more of the articles’ ideas interact. What is it you have noticed? Why is it intellectually engaging? What are some questions and issues that have arisen directly from readings or class discussion that you want to pursue further?
Look at your own life; the life you observe among your friends and peers; the life you see in our culture. What elements of the “good life” do you NOW see as potential parts of the good life because of readings and class discussion?
Given our readings and class discussion, what old ideas about a “good” in life appear somehow less good (or more good) than before? Explain. What NEW ideas are germinating, creating new perspectives on possible “goods” in life or new ways of looking at “old” goods? Give examples, and analyze why these new ideas seem like possible goods worth pursuing.

For all of the ideas and themes above, DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE NIGHT BEFORE TO WRITE YOUR PAPERS. As Ernest Hemingway put it: “All first drafts are sh--.” And remember rule one of and for writing: “Sit your butt in the chair.”

Revisions of earlier ideas/analyses will also be required. You will get fair warning on when these will be due, and which papers you are to revise. These revisions (think ‘re-VISIONing,’ seeing anew) are critical, both for discussion and for your own journey.

You will get much more help with the writing projects as the semester unfolds.