World Religions Paper Topics

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My class of 45 World Religions students are supposed to have submitted their paper topics for approval today (actually, the syllabus said last Thursday). Most of them have managed to do so, but there are some stragglers.

I'm looking forward to reading their papers--moreso, I'm looking forward to their learning experiences as they go through the process. I hope to learn from them as well.

Here is a selection of some of the paper topics that have been chosen.
(Thanks due to Dr. Win Corduan, btw, author of Neighboring Faiths: I made use of the "Term Paper Ideas" sections in your textbook to make suggestions to the students, and some/many of them made use of those suggestions in choosing their topics.)

• A Biography of Kassapa Buddha (the one right before Gautama)
• A Biography of Moses
• Buddhist Philosophy of the Self (two students are doing this one)
• Overview of the specific beliefs & practices of Shi'ite Islam
• Yom Kippur (my one Jewish student is writing this one; two other student are writing on Jewish holidays as well)
• Pure Land Buddhism
• Women's Roles in Sikhism
• The Ten Precepts (in Buddhism)
• Major Schools of Buddhism in Japan
• Hindu Marriage
• Compare & Contrast Shvetambara & Digambara Jainism
• Mormonism & why some Christians say Mormons are not Christians
• Mysticism in the Abrahamic Faiths
• Jain Philosophy
• Yoga in Hinduism
• Jesus Christ in Islamic Teaching
• The Relationship of Judaism & Christianity
• The ideas of harmony & perfection in Daoist teaching & practices
• The Ideal Hindu Family
• Symbols in Christianity
• Compare & Contrast Roman Catholicism and Protestantism (the student doing this approached me and asked if she could write a paper "comparing and contrasting Catholicism and Christianity"--so I figured I had better have her write that paper! I directed her to make use of a couple of specific resources among others she might choose).
• An interview with a friend who grew up Hindu and is now searching for her religious identity

These are all great topics! And there's a good amount of diversity, don't you think?


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"He Himself is our Peace." (Eph 2)