Syllabus
for
English 399 Rhetoric of Religion: Mary Baker Eddy
Instructor: Karen D. Austin
Shepherd College, Shepherdstown, WV 25443
Week 1 by Friday Jan 11th: Meet with Instructor
Week 2 by Friday Jan 18th: Read two sermons by Eddy:
"Pulpit and Press" and
"Message to the First Church....June 15, 1902"
Week 3 by Friday Jan 25th: Read Selections from Bloom's book The American Religion:
Invocation: The Evening Land
1. What Is Religious Criticism
2. Enthusiasm, Gnosticism, American Orphism
5. The Religion-Making Imagination of Joseph Smith
7. Christian Science: The Fortunate Fall in Lynn, Massachusetts
8. Seventh-day Adventism: Health, Prophesy, and Ellen Harmon White
9. Johovah's Witness: Against the American Religion
16. The Religion of Our Climate
Week 4 by Friday Feb 1st: Turn in Paper 1 on Context
Week 5 by Friday Feb 8 read Eddy's autobiography "Retrospection and Introspection"
Week 6 by Friday Feb 15 read Gill's chapters
1. Early Influences, Later Memories
2. Father and Brothers
3. The Baker Women of Sanbornton Bridge
7. "A Devilish Smart Woman"
Week 7 by Friday Feb 22 read Gill's chapters
8. "Fired with the Prescience of a Great Mission"
9. The Fall in Lynn
10. Homeless
11. Rebellious Student
12. Science and Health 1875
Week 8 by Friday Mar 1: Turn in Paper 2 on Ethos
Week 9 and 10 by Friday March 15th: Go on a Web Quest on the Topic of the Mind/Body Problem
Week 11 by Friday March 29th: Re-read Eddy's autobiography "Retrospection and Introspection," taking notes on how Eddy describes the relationship between the mind and body.
Week 12 by Friday April 5th: Read the sermon "Unity of Good" taking not on how Eddy describes the relationship between the mind and the body.
Week 13 by Friday April 12th: Review the Web Quest on the Topic of the Mind/Body Problem so that you can outline your analysis for Paper 3.
Week 14 by Monday April 22th: Turn in Paper 3 on Logos, which analyzes Eddy's view on the Mind/Body Problem by quoting her autobiography, her sermon, and items from the web quest you took.
Week 15 by Friday April 26th: Choose your poem/hymn by Mary Baker Eddy, the one you will analyze for Paper 4 on Pathos.
Week 16 by Friday May 3rd: Finish your Pathos Paper and turn it in to Prof. Austin.
Finals Week: Revise your Context, Ethos and/or Logos Paper by May 9th and turn in to Prof. Austin