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  My Final - Mark G.

 

Quick Links to Midterm Questions:  ••••   Q1    Q2    Q3   Q4    Q5    Q6    Q7    Q8 

Final: 

a. Name: Mark S. Grzeszczak

b. Yahoo Group Username: "MGresak"

c. I completed 14 posts this semester.

• Post #1 - Religion Overview (9/1/06 10:14pm)
• Post #2 - Indian Gurus (9/4/06 7:25pm)
• Post #3 - Hinduism (9/7/06 9:48pm)
• Post #4 - Movie Review "Seven Years In Tibet" (9/9/06 11:39pm)
• Post #5 - Jainism (9/11/06 10:00pm)
• Post #6 - Sikhism (9/14/06 8:41pm)
• Post #7 - Main Basic Buddhist Teachings/Concepts (9/16/06 10:07pm)
• Post #8 - Confucianism/Taoist main ideas (9/20/06 10:45pm)
• Post # 9 - Gnosticism and Eastern Ideas (9/27/06 10:39pm)
• Post #10 - General overview of Muhammad and Islam (9/30/06 10:30pm)
• Post #11 - General Overview/Summary of Judaism (10/6/06 10:34pm)
• Post #12 - Review of False Testament in comparison to traditional religious accts (10/7/06 9:00am)
• Post #13 - Summary of Christianity (10/12/06 5:53pm)                • Post #14 - Basic Summary of Crossan’s Perspective on the Life of Jesus (10/20/06 10:57pm)

d. I made two field trips this semester:

• Trip #1 - Eastern Religion: Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple in Hacienda Heights
• Trip #2 - Western Religion: Islamic Mosque in Chino


e. The grade I received on my midterm was “high standing with a B+/A-.” All material was present, no make up was required.


f. Reading I completed in this course

First Four Weeks:

• Read online text http://elearn.mtsac.edu/adiem/sacredtitle.html
• Read the online book http://elearn.mtsac.edu/adiem/nrtit2.html
• Read online text “The Politics of Mysticism” by Lane http://www.oocities.org/eckcult/lane3.html
• Read the online book “THE ENCHANTED LAND”
• Read the website http://angelfire.com/realm/bodhisattva/baba_chand.html
• Rad Chapter 1 (intro) and Chapter 2 (on Hinduism) in Smith's book.
• Read the five chapters in the Bhagavad Gita (chapters: 1, 2, 3, 8, & 11) - Posted to religious literature section
• Read and reviewed fully the two websites below on Jainism http://www.umich.edu/~umjains/jainismsimplified/jainsimp.html http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/jainhlinks.html
• Read the online booklet on vegetarianism “WHY I DON'T EAT FACES”
http://articles.animalconcerns.org/ar-voices/archive/faces.html
• Read the online book about Sikhism http://allaboutsikhs.com/books/litp
• Read the chapter three on Buddhism in Smith's book.
• Read the five chapters in the Wisdom of the Buddha (chapters 1, 7 11, 14 & 15)  - Posted to religious literature section • Read chapters four and five in Smith's book on Confucius and Taoism.
• Read the ten chapter in the “Tao te Ching” (chapters: 22, 24, 25, 32, 37, 49, 53, 56, 77, & 79)  - Posted to religious literature section
• Read the five sections/chapters in the “Analects of Confucius”
• Vol. 1, Book 1, chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 13, 14; Vol.. 1, Book 2, chapters 1, 3, 11, 15,17; Vol. 2, Book 4, chapters 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 24; Vol. 4, Book 7, chapters 6, 15, 26; Vol. 7, Book 14, chapters 21, 24, 25  - Posted to religious literature section

Second Four Weeks:

• Read “THE GNOSTIC MYSTERY” - small text that gives a glimpse into how eastern religions can be similar to western based religions) (about one hour to read): http://elearn.mtsac.edu/adiem/gnostictitle.html
• Read chapter six in Smith’s book on Islam
Reviewed the following websites for information about Islam:
http://www.islamworld.net/, http://www.religioustolerance.org/islam.htm
• Read Selected Sura’s from the Koran (Introduction, the Opener Sura, and the following Suras: Sura 87 (pg. 41); Sura 75 (pg. 62); Sura 16 (pp. 126-138 all of it); Sura 2 (pp. 175-190); Sura 4 (pp. 193-200)  - Posted to religious literature section
• Read chapter seven on Judaism in Smith's book
• Reviewed the following four websites, http://www.nv.cc.va.us/home/lshulman/Rel232/JEWNOTES.htm (branches of Judaism, etc...), http://www.jewfaq.org/, http://i-cias.com/e.o/judaism.htm#geogr, http://www.religioustolerance.org/jud_desc.htm
• Read False Testament article, http://elearn.mtsac.edu/adiem/false.htm
• Read website on Judaism and the Holocaust: http://www.holocaust-history.org
• Read article “Triumph of Christianity”, http://elearn.mtsac.edu/adiem/triumph.htm
• Read chapter 8 on Christianity in Smith’s Book
• Read these accounts of Jesus from Jewish sources:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Topics/JewishJesus/
• Read four Gospel accounts (Mathew, Mark, Luke and John) in the New Testament dealing with the death and resurrection of Jesus (the end sections of each gospel)  - Posted to religious literature section
• Read Chapters 1-5 of Crossan's book on the life of Jesus.
• Looked at website “summary of the Crossan book”, section called Jesus: A revolutionary Biography by Crossan. http://elearn.mtsac.edu/msullivan/critbibliohome.htm
 

g). Reading evaluation:
 

I liked Huston Smith’s Book on Word Religions. I thought it was a great primer of the belief systems. While not extensive, it was enough to allow us to get the basic concepts of the belief systems. The only critical evaluation I would have would be that his Chapter on Islam made Muhammad look like a saint, where as the religious literature reading on the Koran: Selected Sura’s gave a more accurate picture of his character.
 

I liked all articles I read with the exception of:
.  Web site for Ancient Jewish Accounts of Jesus
.  Crossan's book on the life of Jesus
 

h). No Extra Credit was completed this semester.

 

Links to Final Exam Essay Questions

Essay Question 1: What is Gnosticism and why did it fail and Christianity succeed

Essay Question 2: Crossan view of "historical Jesus"

Essay Question 3: “False Testament” article and examples

Essay Question 4: Outline the history of Christianity and its differing schools

Essay Question 5: Jewish quest for meaning

Essay Question 6: Life and teachings of Muhammad/Islam

Essay Question 7: Compare and contrast Islam with Judaism and Christianity

Essay Question 8: Which Religion did I find most appealing this semester.