use the required texts to arrive at a personal sense of the material. There are no right or wrong answers

You need to make sure that you are fully using the required texts to arrive at a personal sense of the material. There are no right or wrong answers. You certainly won’t find any insight in other sources. This course is about you doing a directed reading of selected texts to arrive at a personal sense of the literature. So, make sure you are doing that. Don’t seek answers outside the course material. It is only a distraction.

Make sure that you are working to balance a synthesis between the readings. Put them into conversation with each other so you can interrogate them, speculate about answers to the questions posed in the assignment, and then explain your ideas…specifically, how you put all the material together. What does the Genesis narrative reveal about the “moral intention” of both “heaven” and “humanity”? While this may seem like a simple question, this idea of intention goes back to the idea of purpose you explored in the last two reading assignments and asks that you consider the age-old question “why am I here?”. Be sure you allow the narrative to reveal to you its meaning and not focus merely on what the text says.

Part 1: This is another run at the last two weeks. What sense do you get of God as a creator? Pay attention to how the text depicts him creating. Read what Kass has to say about “intention.” Is God a moral creator, violent? Is he logical? Sloppy? I realize that this is similar to the other papers, but try to deepen your understanding of God as creator. Make sure you use the texts.

Part 2: What sense do you get of the moral intention of human beings? I’ll make this easy, humans are charged with “dressing and keeping” the earth. What does that mean? Since humans, as an image of God, are expected to behave like God, your answer here should parallel your answer in part one. As God does in heaven (in the spiritual world), so should we on earth (in the material realm). Make sure you use the texts.

Part 3: Now, really dig deep and explain what you think the moral intention of human beings is? Why are we here? What are we supposed to do? If you read Alter closely, the answer is right there…God tells humans exactly what they should do and demonstrates, with his own actions, how to do it. Take some time to explain where you think we get it right and where we don’t.

Part 4: Just write a conclusion.

• Alter, pp. 11-21
• Kass, pp. 40-45; 58-87