reflective writing

Write a reflective essay in response to ONE of the following questions.

Use the question as a provocation to your own thinking about the subject or theme that the question represents. The questions are sprawling and point in a general direction. You are 

responsible to discern the essence of each question Do not respond to each question, within the question, separately. Find your way into the question and do not necessarily feel a responsibility to touch on each aspect equally. Do take note that the questions are trying to 

include you and that you should not avoid including thoughts about yourself and how you think and live in  your response.

graded in relation to the depths of your insights (avoidance of quick and 

clichéd conclusions, demonstration of new thinking) and the clarity of your expression (are you communicating your point, or it lost in your own private or unclear language). An opinion is not a reaction or a long held presumed belief. Instead, it reflects your fresh and new thought within the parameters of the material and ideas we have been considering. 

Feeling that the work you are doing i

s important to you is essential to an excellent grade. Write simply, academic expertise is not expected or desired. Use your own voice but be clear.  Explain why you think as you do and do not just rely on declarations. You should feel encouraged to write in the first  person Your response should be no more than five double

spaced pages.

Choose only one of the Questions

1. In reference to the lecture on the constitution of a religious life, and the idea that we are to 

have no “strange or other Gods”, consider what does it mean to have a “strange God”? What do you think of “strange Gods ”? Further, what do you think of the idea that religious scriptures describe an account of 

freedom 

as freedom 

from worldly definition, and the potential problem 

of one’s own identity or ego? 

2. 

Considering characters in 

Martha Marcy May Marlene

write a 

reflective

essay on how our 

society and you understand the importance of family, and how family is connected to how we 

think of

respo

nsibility or

freedom

. Does family govern ho

w we conceive of 

success or

failure?

Do you think your family has a praiseworthy understanding of freedom and success? 

Have you 

been taught that 

freedom 

is 

found in self

–

definition or in self surrender? 

Is it a good education

?

3. In the film 

The Village

the elders have decided to protect themselves

,

and future generation

s,

from the terrors and violence of 

the world. 

Is there something good or disgraceful about 

educating young people to believe certain things, with the threat of fear (most often pitched 

today in relation to what you will n

eed in order to succeed in a career) so that they will 

preserve their ability to continue in the ways that society wants for them? 

Is it a good 

education or is it more

about

worry than love? 

Can a person l

ove their lives

and still be fearf

ul 

or are th

ey (

love and fear) 

opposites

?

4

. I have been suggesting that new religious movements that have been labell

ed as cults speak 

of truth as if it is a definite fact and that they possess it. Do religions do the same thing? If they 

do, is it correct to call them religions? How do you relate to the idea that religious experience 

depends on an acceptance that the cor

e of freedom and existence are mysteries that we 

participate in and do not define (as love cannot be defined but we can be loving; we do not 

know the noun, but we can enact the verb)? How do you think/feel about the idea of the 

religious as being mysteriou

s and unknown, and as such, not all about you and what you want? 

Do you see more freedom or more threat in this?