In this assessment, you will write an essay about how you see a story told by Jesus. You will not require any outside material for this, just your own ideas based on your own cultural worldview. To do this you will look atONE Bible passage chosen from the following list
- The Parable of the Good Samaritan,Luke 10:29–37in the New Testament of the Bible, OR
- The Story of the Prodigal (wasteful, indulgent) SonLuke 15: 11-32in the New Testament of the Bible.
You will NOT need anything from the internet or other books to complete this assessment. Indeed if you DO include anything else you will FAIL the assessment and will have to redo it. What we are looking for is howyouview these stories based on your own cultural worldview.
You must do this work on your own - using someone else’s material is plagiarism and will result in a fail.
What to do to prepare for your essay(This is not your essay, just your preparation):
1. Read the material from Georges' book on the 3D Gospel (In ExO Week 2) In it Georges describes three different paradigms or worldview form which people interpret their loyalties and interactions in the world. These are the
- honour/shame paradigm
- the guilt innocence paradigm, or
- the power/fear paradigm
2. Choose the worldview that best represents your own experience. You will write your essay on the basis of this cultural worldview.
3. Choose a Bible story from the two listed above
4. Read your chosen story 3 times - try to understand it as best you can
5. Now write a list of the following
- What parts of the story stood out as strengths (i.e. good things or things that you liked)
- What parts of the story stood out as unusual (i.e. weaknesses, or things you did not like)
Your List could look something like this (These are just made up examples):
Strengths List
Verse |
Strength |
Why this is a strengthaccording to you and your worldview |
|---|
4 |
The Samaritan was a kind man |
In my culture Buddha tells us to be kind to everyone |
7 |
The Samaritan Gave money to help the injured man |
In my religion giving money to the poor is a good thing |
10 |
etc. |
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etc. |
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Weaknesses List
Verse |
Weakness |
Why this is a weakness according to you and your worldview |
|---|
5 |
The Priest should have stopped and helped |
In my culture the priest is expected to be the one giving a good example |
12 |
The robbers were mean and should have respected the man's property |
In my religion we must always show respect to the rich and the poor. |
18 |
etc. |
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etc. |
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6. Now write your essay. This is what you will hand in. This is the assessment task. Your essay should include the following:
Introduction
- tell me what you are about to do (you are effectively restating the things from above)
- tell me what your cultural background/worldview is
- tell me what story you will be using and why (cite the Bible reference)
- DO NOT include some fancy quote
Body
- Now write a transition sentence, something like "I will now look at the story and list the things that I see as strengths and the things that I see as weaknesses"
- Now tell me about the list of strengths and weaknesses you found in the story.
- Write in sentences and paragraphs
- If the item in your list stands out to you based on your cultural worldview then tell me so
- Tell me why this stood out to you
- Tell me what you would have expected should happen
- Give me examples of how people in your culture would have acted in the same circumstances
- Do this as much as you can for each item in your list.
- Use writing style to show me when you are moving from one item to the next
- Use linking words so that anyone who reads your work would be able to follow.
- Get someone to help you with grammar and spelling before you submit the work
Conclusion
- You must never include any new material in your conclusion
- Tell me what you have just done (use the introduction as a guide)
- Re-tell me a short version of some things that stood out to you and why
- Tell me what you think of the Bible story having viewed it from your own cultural perspective
- Tell me if you learned anything from this.