New_Religions

History 3B

DeAnza College

Christopher R. Jackson, Ph.D.

Paper #1: The “New” Religions

In your first primary sources analysis paper you will compare Buddhism, Christianity and Islam: Where did these religions come from? What do they have in common? How are they different? Why did they spread so rapidly? What was especially appealing about these new religions? What impact did they have on the social and political structure of their respective worlds? Use your textbook and the following readings to write an essay comparing these three world religions.

Please note that this is a history assignment, and thus should attempt an objective analysis of the three religions. Your own feelings on the matter might be important to you, but you should consider carefully whether they belong in such an assignment.

Buddhism

Buddha’s Sermon

Christianity

Excerpt from Gospel according to Luke

Rule of St.Benedict

Eusebius on Constantine

Islam

Muhammad’s Call to Prophecy:

The Holy Qur’an

A Selection from Mohammed’sOrations

Typed, double-spaced, with citations and a list of references (formatted according to MLA style), approximately 700-900 words, to be submitted to the Turnitin website. (See instructions below.). The paper must be submitted by 11:59 pm on the date due. Note: before sending the assignment, you must rename the file in the following format: LastnameFirstname-papernumber. Example: JacksonChristopher-paper1. If the file is not properly named, it will not be accepted. If the file cannot be opened by MS-Word, it will not be accepted. These assignments will be posted on the class website. Each worth 12.5 points. Click on the links for the assignments. The papers will be graded and returned via the Turnitin website. For help on MLA formatting, consult the Purdue Owl.

Briefly, references to the primary sources should adhere to the following format:

According to the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th ed.), section 5.6.2.c. ("A Work on the Web Cited with Print Publication Data,") you would include the print publication data, and then in addition to that information, you would record, in the place of the concluding word Print, the following information in order:

1.Title of the database or Web site (italicized).

2.Medium of publication consulted (Web)

3.Date of access (day, month, and year).

So the citation would be (Buddha, point 4).

The reference would be

Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. “Sermon at Benares.” Documents in World History. Ed. Peter N. Stearns, Stephen S. Gosch, and Erwin P. Grieshaber. New York: Longman, 2000. Chris Jackson's

History. Web. 18 April 2013.

The above reference, like all your references in the list of works cited, would be double-spaced, with a hanging indent. (A hanging indent is flush left for the first line, and indented five spaces for all subsequent lines--a little like a reversed normal paragraph indentation. In MS Word go to the paragraph menu, then click the "Special" drop-down menu and you will find "Hanging.")

Please do not “borrow” material from the web without providing proper citations and enclosing direct quotations in quotation marks. Otherwise, it will be considered plagiarism, and the penalties will be severe.

Special Note on First Assignment: It is important that you read all of the comments that I write on your papers, not just the final points that each paper is given. For that reason, you will receive only one point for the first assignment. You will receive the rest of the points for that assignment (if any) when you e-mail me a one-sentence code that will be hidden in your paper when I return it to you along with my comments. The sentence will be grammatically correct, but it will stand out because it will not have anything to do with the paper or the comments on the paper. Simply copy that sentence and e-mail it to me, and I will reply with the rest of the points for that assignment.