The Living at the Crossroads paper is due this week. I’ll comment on the format I expect and then provide some tips on providing critical analysis. For the format you must use the template Word file that I provide on the assignment page—and don’t delete any of the content. And single space. Some professors request double space but I read your papers online so as you can imagine double spacing is really annoying. Thank you. For citations, if you refer to the book, simply put the page number in brackets in your running text. That’s it. If you refer to another source you need citations--but outside sources are not needed. Also don’t add a cover page or your name.

Now, how can I help you with this assignment?! To begin, the book is about how we all live at the crossroads of different worldviews and values and how we will navigate that challenge. I’m sure you have already experienced this. Society is so divided—whether politics, faith, views on medicine and science—we have all been in situations where we strongly disagreed with a person or the perspective in a movie or the news. So you’ve already dealt with being at the crossroads. But imagine the challenge when you face this crossroads in the workplace. What do you do when your supervisor tells you to cut corners or lie?

These are tough situations and this assignment asks you to reflect on how you will respond to the specific challenges of your vocation.  Now, for your assignment, it is not a traditional paper—there is no introduction or conclusion. There are eight short answer questions and you need to get straight to the point. And try to provide 3 to 4 strong points for each answer. This is really hard but you can do it.

I recommend that you have your assignment sheet in hard copy beside you as you read the book so that you can jot down your answers as you read. Even the process of writing is helpful. We are so used to typing as fast as we think, but writing is slower and we are more likely to write succinctly. You can also glance over your notes and if you see only one or two points, then you know you do not have enough for an A grade.

Second, the key to success really is critical analysis. So how about I give you an example? The authors claim that God’s people were unified in the Old Testament. This is simply not the case. The Old Testament strongly emphasizes that the people of God included many people who were not Jewish so not “unified ethnically” and for much of the Old Testament (actually hundreds of years) the people were spread out beyond their land in Israel, NOT an independent nation. Ironically, Israel was constantly living among other cultures that were at odds with the law of God. Moreover, the people of God spent many years in exile, living in a hostile land. For this reason, the Old Testament is very relevant to us today! We can learn a great deal from studying how Old Testament characters like Esther and Daniel lived faithfully to God in a countercultural way. So, even if you like this book, you are required to give critical analysis. No book is perfect and no book says exhaustively everything on the topic—every book has strengths and weaknesses and limitations. I hope the example of my own critical analysis here is helpful.

References:

 “God’s people in the Old Testament were unified ethnically (as Jews) and geographically (in Palestine)” (p 6).

 “God’s people no longer take the shape of an independent and separate nation living under their own sociopolitical law and on their own land. They are now a community that must live in the midst of various nations and various other dominant cultures” (p 58).