Sex and the Bible
Final Paper (1500 word minimum; due on Blackboard on May 9) Pick ONE of the following questions and answer in a minimum of 1500 words. Your paper should provide a clear and well-reasoned argument. Regardless of which question you choose, make sure to use detailed and specific examples from the text(s) to support your analysis. You can feel free to go over the 1500 word minimum, but do not come in under. If you are under, take that as an invitation to dig deeper into the details.
1) If someone were to ask you to answer the question “What does the Bible say about homosexuality?,” how would you answer? In your response, you must offer a discussion of biblical texts but should also critically engage at least two of the four contemporary authors that we have read on the issue of homosexuality (Hays, Ratzinger, Brooten, or Martin). In preparing your answer, you may want (optionally) to reflect on the following subsidiary questions: What are the assumptions that drive arguments about homosexuality and the Bible? Which categories or conceptions of sex, gender, and sexuality are taken as given – and which ones are called into question? How important is it to take the context in which the Bible was written into account and what might it mean to account for this context? Is it possible to take an ancient text and apply it to a modern argument? If so, what conditions should be placed on this application?
