The Longer Paper (The "Tripos" System):

Every seminar member will write one longer paper of ten to twelve pages. The paper topics will be discussed ahead of time, and each member's individual topic must be preapproved. The longer papers will be handled in true seminar-style. We will follow Cambridge University's "tripos" system. This system, developed in the earliest days of the university system in the Middle Ages, is named after the three-legged stool on which students would sit when being questioned by their examiners. We will dispense with the stool but proceed with the same type of system.

On predetermined class meetings we will address the longer paper of one member of the seminar. That member will be responsible for distributing his or her paper to every member of the seminar (including the instructor) at least two days prior to the discussion of the paper–this be done either on paper or via e-mail (Microsoft Word documents only, please; a link will be placed on the home page from which you can easily send papers to the entire seminar). Seminar members will scrutinize the paper, and, at the beginning of the class meeting, a "wrangler" will be appointed by the instructor. It is for that student--the wrangler--to begin discussion by critiquing the paper and questioning its author (for perhaps 10 minutes). The wrangler's "job" is to spur discussion by all seminar members, to raise interesting points, to debate spurious claims, to both praise and criticize inadequacies. Both the wrangler and the wranglee, if you will, will be graded on their performance. Once the discussion is complete, the author will have three weeks to revise the paper and resubmit it along with the original to the instructor.

A Note About Research and Sources:

Secondary sources are not necessary for the two shorter papers; they are not only required but necessary for the longer paper. However, because of the nature of Internet materials, no Internet sources are permitted for use in this course. This does not include use of online journal databases (such as ProQuest, SearchBank, or JSTOR), nor does it include the use of primary sources one may find on the Internet (such as full-text sites of Dante or Milton). This will require seminar members to make rigorous use of interlibrary loan. A copy of the interlibrary loan request form is attached to this syllabus; however, you can easily request materials on interlibrary loan from the SDLIN catalogue page by clicking the "Submit ILL Request" blue button on the catalogue entry page.

Books on Reserve in the BHSU Library:

• The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas, ed.Norman Kretzmann and Eleonore Stump. NY: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
• Frye, Roland Mushat. God, Man, and Satan; Patterns of Christian Thought and Life in Paradise lost, Pilgrim's Progress, and the Great Theologians. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press,1972.
• Marcus, John T. Heaven, Hell & History: A Survey of Man's Faith in History from Antiquity to the Present. New York: Macmillan, 1967.
• McDannell, Colleen and Bernhard Lang, Heaven: A History. New Haven: Yale UP, 1988.
• Miles, Jack. God: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1995.
• Pagels, Elaine H. The Origin of Satan. New York: Random House, 1995.
• Russell, Jeffrey Burton. Lucifer, the Devil in the Middle Ages. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1984.
• Werblowsky, Raphael Jehudah Zwi. Lucifer and Prometheus; A Study of Milton's Satan. New York: AMS Press, 1952.