-‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍ 1 – Historical Approaches to Being Neighbor Paper: For thi

-‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍ 1 – Historical Approaches to Being Neighbor Paper: For this paper, students will compare and contrast the approaches to how to be a good neighbor in the world as performed in two central works on the topic from two radically different times and places. St. Basil the Great’s sermons in On Social Justice come out of 4th century Cappadocia (central Turkey). Martin Luther King, Jr.’s sermons in Strength to Love come out of the Civil Rights struggle of mid-20th century America. Both texts are pivotal in understanding how Christians in these times and places were thinking about the hard work of how to live Christianly in society with and for others. It will be the student’s task to read the texts, do critical contextual research, and both analyze and come to constructive conclusions about the texts. Students will locate similarities between the texts’ perspectives (analysis), discern a major difference between how they present what it means to be neighbor (analysis), and demonstrate why those differences exist (context). (Not in that order, but those are the great things you get to do.) The following is a guide for writing the paper, breaking down the various sections required in the paper, what the content of each section should be, and how much attention (space) to give to each section. Writing the Paper – Its flow, shape, and content: I. Introduction/Thesis Statement -½ page Here, give your thesis and a preview summary of what you will argue in your paper. To be clear: Having both a thesis and a good thesis statement implies that you know what you are going to argue before you start writing. This can only come at the very end of your thorough reading of and research into the texts. Your thesis will focus on a major difference you find in the texts’ approaches to justice/being neighbor. There is no one right thesis. Your job is to argue successfully for one of many possible ways of describing a major difference between the texts. What is a difference between Basil’s and King’s approaches to justice/living Christianly in society/being neighbor? Do they have different focuses? Is one more broad in his thinking than the other? Does one focus on those who need to be a good neighbor while the other focuses on those who are in need of being treated as neighbor? Is one focused on heavenly reward and the other on the goods of justice in this present life? What do you see? (You are free to explore and even use any of the above ideas…so long as you think they are true and you can argue for them successfully.) Your thesis statement should look something like this: “In this paper, I will show that a major difference between Basil and King on being a good and just neighbor is that while Basil is/focuses on/is concerned with __________, King is/focuses on/is concerned with __________.” Be sure you are making an “apples to apples” contrast. Specific vs. broad, doers vs. receivers, heavenly vs. earthly. Something like doers vs. broad is apples and oranges. You want to make a substantive argument and that means identifying a substantive difference. II. Context -2 pages (1 page for each primary text/author) Next, make sense of Basil and King‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍, historically. Who are the authors? What is prompting them to write about justice/being neighbor in their time and place? To do this, you will need to find two secondary sources for each of your texts (. two for Basil and two for King for a total of four secondary sources for your research). For Basil, who was he and why did he think and preach about justice/being neighbor in the way he did? What are his major concerns behind his presentation of justice/being neighbor and why does he have those specific concerns? 1 page – 2 – For King, who was he and why did he think and preach about justice/being neighbor in the way he did? What are his major concerns behind his presentation of justice/being neighbor and why does he have those specific concerns? 1 page III. Similarities – 1 page What are some similarities in how the texts approach the issue of justice/being neighbor? Where do Basil and King share similar concerns? Where might there be clear points of agreement between the texts? IV. Primary Source Analysis/Evidence -4-5 pgs. Now turn your focus to your primary texts (Basil, On Social Justice and King, Strength to Love). You have already given your thesis/summary of what you have found in the texts and how it relates to your topic in the introduction. Now prove your point from the texts themselves. Give your evidence. Evidence is stuff from the primary sources that supports your thesis. Prove your thesis. How did you fill in the thesis statement? “In this paper, I will show that a major difference between Basil and King on being a good and just neighbor is that while Basil is/focuses on/is concerned with __________, King is/focuses on/is concerned with __________.” Start with Basil and prove from the text (quote him and cite him) that what you say about him in your thesis is true. Then move on to King and prove from the text (quote him and cite him) that what you say about him in your thesis is true. Stay on topic and focus on proving your thesis (don’t meander into talking about other things—prove the thing you promised you would). And prove your argument from the texts (did I already say that?). Show how and where the texts themselves convince us that what you say in your thesis statement is true. Quote and cite a lot. You should have at least 10 citations from Basil and 10 citations from King in this section. (Be sure to use both paraphrase and direct quotes and be sure to cite the texts when you do both of these.) Be sure to treat Basil and King evenly (2-2 ½ pages for each). V. Conclusion -½ pg. Restate your thesis and give a summary of your argument (thesis+evidence=conclusion). For example, a sentence that reads something like “I have shown that a major difference between Basil and King on being a good and just neighbor is that while Basil is/focuses on/is concerned with __________, King is/focuses on/is concerned with __________.” Briefly review your argument and the sort of evidence you used to prove it. Finally, in light of your research, give a brief explanation as to why Basil and King differ in the way you have shown in your paper. Why does it make sense, historically, that Basil does what you say he ‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍does and King does what you say he does?