SYLLABUS

READINGS:

Pagels, Elaine 1995 The Origin of Satan Random House NY

GRADING

There are two papers and a final (see below for information about the papers)

THE FINAL EXAM FOR THIS COURSE IS MONDAY DEC. 18th FROM 6:00 P.M. TO 8:00 P.M. DO NOT MAKE ANY TRAVEL PLANS FOR THIS OR ANY OTHER EARLIER DATE SO YOU CAN NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR THE FINAL. The final exam is essay format and you will be asked to write TWO essays from a number of topics presented.

Papers:

The most important things to remember about writing papers for this or any other class:

For the second paper which is due the TENTH class meeting, you should choose a different film and discuss the way in which specific characteristics of the devil or demon are developed in the film and how this is reflected in the film techniques.

For these papers you should NOT use a film which we have shown in class. For a variety of reasons avoid using a film you can only understand through sub-titles.

INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL

Notes for each class are posted AFTER the class has met.

The Notes should not be thought of as a substitute for coming to class. They do not contain all the material discussed in class but may contain some materials that have NOT been discussed in class.

A Note about references and the use of upper case letters in papers.

References:

For this course your papers should be your own analytic work, so in general there is no reason to cite other works, since basically you shouldn't be looking at them. If, however, you have an obsession on this point, then you MUST cite the reference in the body of the paper and have a "Bibliography" page at the end with the full citation. The easiest form I know would look like this:

If you write the author's name in the body of the text, immediately following the quote parenthetically add the date and page number:

Pagels says that "The canonical gospels were not by any means the only account of Jesus' life and teaching."(1995, p.64)

If you do NOT put the name in the body of the text, then immediately following the quote parenthetically add the name, date and page:

Jesus life and teachings occur in other places than canonized gospels. "The canonical gospels were not by any means the only account of Jesus' life and teaching."(Pagels, 1995, p.64)

The bibliography should have an entry for each and every book cited as shown here:

Pagels, Elaine, 1995, The Origin of Satan, Random House, NY
or
Pagels, Elaine, 1995, The Origin of Satan, Random House, NY

Upper Case Letters:

Three words come up rather frequently in the course and personally, I use the following rules for upper and lower case letters. Since all three words can be used with a specific reference and a general reference I use upper case for the specific and lower case for the non-specific. You can follow this or not. The Bible: When I mean the specific book used by the Judeo Christian tradition, I use upper case letters - The Bible (without italics). When I write about a book with rules "Hoyle's Rules of Card Games is the bible of card players, then I use lower case. When I refer to The Bible by title then I italicize it as either The Bible or The Holy Bible depending on what is written on the title page. If in any paper you cite The Holy Bible you must give the reference for that particular version as you would any other book (see above).

God: When the word refers to the Judeo-Christian-Islamic divinity, I write an upper case "G" to distinguish it from the use of the word in phrases like "X was like a god to his followers".

Devil: Same rule. When it refers to the one from the Judeo-Christian-Islamic one, I write an upper case "D". Jesus was tempted by the Devil.

Proper names are always upper case (this is not an optional rule) so Jehovah, Jesus, Satan (when used as a proper name as opposed to the word when used with its traditional meaning of "adversary"), Lucifer, etc.

Titles: Titles of books, films, major art works (paintings, sculptures) are UNDERLINED or ITALICIZED. DO NOT USE QUOTATION MARKS which are used for short stories and other shorter pieces.

Foreign words: These should be underlined or put in italics: The director has a lot of Angst which appears in his films.

Pronominal Reference

In general, it is traditional to refer to both God and the Devil as "he". I do that.

ORGANIZATION OF THE FILMS IN THE COURSE

Who and what is the Devil?

The history of the Devil.