REQUIREMENTS:

• (10%) Active participation in discussion: including expressing the differences between your own contextual interpretation of a given biblical book and that of the GBC (these differences should be written down before class and in front of you in class - as everyone should be ready to express them in the discussion; by the day after class, please turn IN A LIST of what were the most surprising differencesfor you) and that of the presenter. (see Appendix # 2 to this syllabus: Preparing for each class)
• Quizzes: 4 x 2.5% quizzes on readings = 10%
  • Quizzes will be on the differences between your contextual reading and the reading of a contributor to the GBC.

    See Appendix # 2 (Below) Preparing for Each Week's Session

• Four Seminar Presentations (often in group; with 2 page handouts sent to daniel.m.patte@vanderbilt.edu; copied for class after approval by DP): First part of Semester: two presentations (out of 23 possibilities) 1). as Presenter of a GBC interpretation (handout due Thursday prior to class presentation); and 2). handout as Discussion Leader is (handout due Thursday prior to class presentation); 3). as Respondent (critical assessment of the differences between the GBC interpretation and the Leader's interpretation; due by Sundayevening) 4 x 10% = 40%
  (Note: 1/2 the grade on handout as first received; 1/2 the grade on the oral presentation & [if needed] revised handout.)
• Paper Proposal = Take Home Midterm = 10 % due Monday February 28.
• A paper prepared over the second part of the semester (including oral presentation with hand-out of a part of your paper): 30 % Final PAPER DUE Friday, April 29 at 9:00am by e-mail and in printed form.
  

  Grades: A = Excellent, exceptional = correctly addressing all the questions of the topic, and demonstrating special creativity and insightfulness in analysis; B = Good and solid. = correctly addressing all the questions of the topic, but without special creativity or insightfulness; C = Fairly Good = most questions of the topic are addressed correctly, but some questions of the topic have not been addressed correctly or have not been addressed; D = Poor = Many questions are addressed incorrectly, or not addressed at all.
  
  Late work: will

HONOR CODE: 

Throughout the semester, you are under the Honor Code of Vanderbilt University. All your reports and your paper should represent YOUR OWN work, yet they should benefit from the work of others members of the class [so as you take notes, make sure you identify who said what in class]. Identify in notes your sources (including insights from books and articles, from lectures, from presentations and remarks during discussion from other students, and from the Web), so as to avoid plagiarism. Sign your work as a pledge of compliance with the Honor Code (i.e., you wrote it without receiving aid from (or giving aid to) any other person, except as specified above and in class).

 

GROUP DISCUSSION:

• During the Group Discussion, one member of the class--discussion leader-- will present the contextual, theological, textual differences between her or his interpretation as compared with that of one the two GBC interpretations. (A one page handout outlining these differences will be expected; send to teachers and to respondent/scribe by Monday; bring 12 copies to class).
  • A respondent/scribe will present how her/his interpretation differs from the discussion leader's interpretation and the interpretation in the GBC.
  • Everyone should be ready for the discussion
  • A respondent/scribe will take notes, preparing to report to the seminar as a whole. the focus of the discussion and the main differences between the group's interpretation and the GBC's interpretation (being a good scribe-reporter requires a detailed preparation, so as to recognize what are the most significant points made in the discussion); 1-2 page (400-600 words) written report submitted by e-mail by Friday..

DURING THE SECOND PART OF THE SEMESTER:

• The group discussions will be focused on biblical texts you will have chosen as topics for your papers; in several stages, you will prepare your own contextual commentary of this biblical text, formulating its teaching for a particular aspect of your own life-context following one of the patterns found in the GBC.