HONORS THESIS PROPOSAL FORM

HONORS

THESIS PROPOSAL FORM

To be completed by student and sponsoring faculty Form Please attach unofficial transcript

Please Word process

Name-

-

ld#-

f

Major- lnsrrumenral Music (rrumpet)

Telephone-

l-Email-Are you in good standing? yes Honors

CPAIOverall

GpAJ

Number of Honors hours completed: I

semesters of thesis research & paper defense: summer '12 & Fall ,'12 Thesis course department, number & title:

Sec:0.l

Dept: HUM Course

#:4993

Title:

ls-

Thesis: Aristotelian _{Existentialism in}

the

_{Early Church}

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Please explain all elements of

this

proposed Honors thesis in detail.

1. State ycur schalarly objective

and/or

research guestion. State the academic purpose and educational objectives of your Honors thesis project in a clear and concise manner.

(objectives _{must be deemed as acceptable}

for

_{Honors work by you, your} instructor/advisor, your thesis committee, and

the

Honors Board.) Please see attached.

2.

Demonstrate your understanding of the research completed by others on this topic.

Either summarize

the

relevant secondary _lprimary sources you've _{reviewed [write a} literature review, including a preliminary bibliographyl _{oR attach an annotated} bibliographv (i.e., a bibliography with each source summarized).

Please see attached.

3 Describe how your project

will

make an original contribution to this topic.

Please see attached.

4.

outline

your proposed research schedule for the

first

semester. Please see attached.

STATEMENT OF THESIS INTENTIONS:

l, _{(student ), understand}

that

plagiarism or any other activity which violates university

policy

will

result in loss of Honors credit for the thesis course and a Ietter verifying this violation

will

be placed in my permanent Honors file at the Honors Office. I agree

to

provide project updates requested by the Honors Director and

will

complete all research, the thesis document, and its defense by the deadline established on the Honors

calendar.

I

understand significant revisions of this thesis proposal must be submitted to the Honors

Board before formal

writing

of the thesis begins.

I

further understand that an

unacceptable written thesis

will

not be included in a completed

portfolio

of all Honors

Student signature and printed name

Faculty advisor signature and printed name Committee member and printed name (in department or major)

(in related area)

Committee member and printed name Honors Board signature and printed name Date telephone

Date Extension Date Extension Date Extension Date Extension

1.)

My

academic purpose in

writing

this thesis consists

of

gaining intellectual and professional experience in the area of Christian philosophy.

In

the course of this thesis,

I

will

work towards a better understanding of my subject, my future profession, and the standard of the work

I will

have to do in graduate Ievel studies.

I

seek to understand, on a

deeper level, the body

of

work Ieft to me by the church fathers and thinkers in an authentic way. As this thesis is not in my major field,

I will

also seek to broaden my

horizons into the major fields of philosophy and theology. However,

I

am thrilled to

conclude that my major in instrumental Music

will

not be a wasted.In order to

understand the Christian religion,

it

is imperative to look at its music. The thesis

itself

will

show that

I

have the

ability

to read, independently study,

critically

analyze,and

effectively write

on the deeper works and ideas of philosophy and Christian theology.

Successfully completing this thesis

will

not only bring me great pride and

joy

in my

academic pursuits, but

it will

also pave the road to my graduate studies and an eventual professorship.

2.) Please see

initial

research citations entitled "Works Cited',

3.)

My

thesis

will

not only make an original contribution, but

I

feel

like

it

could open the door to some redefinition in the fields of philosophy and theology.

It

is my

"u.n"ri

hop"

that

Aristotle,

by my research, would not only be seen as a classical philosopher but that

he could be seen as a proto-existentialism.

Likewise,I

believe that my research

will

bring

solace to thinkers in the Christian church and

will

diffuse the

wall of

separation between

philosophy and theology that exists.

Church

and Theological

History- May

Dods, Marcus (Augustine of Hippo). The City of God

MacCulloch, Diarmaid . The Reformation

Macculloch,

Diarmaid .

christianity:

The First Three Thousand years

McGinn,

Bernard. The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism

Selman, Francis John. Aquinas

l0I:

A Basic _{Introd,uction to the Thought of Saint Thomas} Aquinas

Shelley, Bruce

L..

Church history In

plain

Innguage

Walker,

Williston.

A History of the Christian Church Chesterton, G.

K..

Saint Thomas Aquinas

Theology-

June

Edmonson, Robert J.. You Converted

Me:

The Confessions

of

St. Augustine a Modernized Christtan Classic

Edwards, Jonathan, and Mark Trigsted. Jonathan Edwards: His Greatest Sermons

Elmer, Robert.

Practicing

God's Presence: Brother Lawrence

For

Tod.ay,s Reader.

Finney, _{Charles Grandison. Finney,s Systematic Theology}

Grudem, Wayne

A..

Systematic Theology: An Introduction to

Biblical

Doctrine. Keller,

Timothy

J.. The Reasonfor God: Betief in an Age of skepticism

Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica

Christian Life.

Philosophy-

July

and

August

Baird, Forrest E.., and Walter Kaufmann. Philosophic Classics

Bloom,

Allan

David. The Republic of Plato Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion

Meditations on

First

Philosophy:

InWhich

the Existence of God and the

Distinction

of

the Soul From the Body Are Demonstrated

Deshpande,

M.

S.. Gandhi's Way to God: SelectedWritings From Mahatma

Gandhi-Eliot,

charles

w.

.The

Harvard

classics: Plato, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius

Heide gger, Martin. and Gregory Fried. (ntroduction to Metop hy sics

Hitchens, christopher. _{God Is} Not Great: How Religion poisons Everything

Kant, Immanuel, and James

W.

Ellington. Grounding

For

the Metaphysics of

Morals

;

with

on

a supposed Right to Lie Because of Phitanthropic concerns.

Kierkegaard, Sgren, and Robert

W.

Bretall. A Kierkegaard Anthology McKeon, Richard. The Basic Works of Aristotle

Sartre, Iean. Existentialism and Human Emotions

Research PIan

In

the course of this thesis,

I will

have two phases of

work.

The

first

phase

will

be reading, research, and note taking. During this phase

I

will

study the listed works (see

Works Cited) and collaborate with my thesis director once a week in person or

virtually

over e-mail. The second phase

will

be the

writing

portion. In this phase,I

will

chapter

off

my

writing

and turn

in

sections at a time to my thesis director at specified times.

Ii

is

my

hope to have a rough

final

copy by the middle of Novemb er 2012.

The

following

criteria

will

be used to grade my work progress.

A-

93-100

-

Miss no more than one objective

for

the week.

B-

92- 85- Miss no more than two objectives

for

the week.

C-

8+

73- Miss no more than three objectives for the week.

D-

72- 65- Miss no more than

four

objectives

for

the week.

F- 64-0- Miss

five

or more objectives for the week.

Phase

One:

Research

I.

The student and instructor

will

have weekly meetings, by email or face-to-face, to discuss primary and secondary literature. Face-to-face meetings

will

be approximately

one hour. In the meetings, the student should be prepared to share a minimum of ten pages

of

summary

writing

related to primary sources to go over

with

the instructor as

well

as at least two secondary sources such as journal articles, peer review essays, or

documentaries.

II.

The student should keep a record of everything worked on either

digitally

or

in

a

folder. These records

will

include notes, articles, book PDFs, and thesii documents. The student should bring these with him to every meeting.

III.

The student

will

be responsible

for

making studying his

job for

the summer.

In

addition to his notes, the student

will

include a journal

of

_{study where he writes down his}

times

of

study and the materials he studied. This should equal out to

thirty-five

hours a

week. This

will

fulfill

the missing

two

hours from the three hour independent study contract.

IV-

Before meetings

in

person, the student

will

send copies of his weekly work load-out to the instructor

for

examination on whether he has met the expectations outlined in the study itinerary and

in

his workload.

Phase

Two:

Writing

I.

Weekly meetings to discuss and revise drafts. The student

will

bring in second drafts at a minimum page Iength

of

10 pages.

II.

The student should have a comprehensive

porfolio

in

which everything having to do

with

his thesis work should be stored. This can be digital or paper. Rough drafts of the thesis should be on paper, however.

III-

_{The student should plan on ten hours ofindependent revisions and further outlining}

in addition to the weekly meeting. This

will

account

for

the other

two

hours of the three-hour independent study contract.

IV-

The student should bring his weekly writings to the meeting to discuss organization and revision. These writings

will

be the basis for grading weekly on the same

icale

as

above.

V.

The

following

written components are to be included

in

the

final

thesis document: 1.) Table

of

Contents

2.) Introduction

3.) Chapters 3-5 (tentative)

4.) Conclusion 5.) Bibliography

Abstract

Is Christianity progressive? For generations, people have seen

Christianity

as a

church of unchanging

liturgy,

rituals, and recitations. The New Atheists discount Christianity as the enemy of progress and liberty. They say that Christianity is a process

of indoctrination and that Christianity can be seen as a glorified cookie cutter

foipious

people. To many scientific and skeptical minds, the empiricism of

Aristofle

makei the most sense.

Aristofle's

_{deductive reasoning and leanings toward moderation have a great} hold _{on many minds today, whether they know}

it

_{or not. The mystics of the early}

Christian church shaped many of their writings the same way.

It

is my goal to connect

Aristotle's

work, _{pertaining to epistemology, metaphysics, and ontology to a course}

of

proto-existentialist thought, going so far as to label some of his ideas as

proto-existentialist. In doing this,

I

will

reach to accomplish the larger goal of Connecting his thought and works to the thoughts

of

early church fathers and mystics.

I

shall focus this study on the question, 'Have Christians always been existential?' In

following

this

question,I

will

examine the works

of

St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica), St.

Augusfine of Hippo (Confessions,

city

of God) , sgren Kierkegaard (Fear and

Trembling,

Either\or),Aristotle (Multiple

works), plato

(Multiple

works), Ren6 Descartes (Meditations _{on First Philosophy),}

A.w.

_Tozer

(Multiple

_works),

Martin

Heidegger (Introduction to Meraphysics) _, and Immanuer Kanr

(Grguqdirglalthg

Metaphysics of Morals)

for

a _{background on thoughts throughout church history.}

For

historical background and context,

I will

study the works of Diarmaid MacCulloch (Thq Reformation, History of the Church: The First Three Thousand Years), Bruce Shelley

(Cnurcn Histofv in

nal

_, and

Williston

Walker, as

well

noted New Testament scholars Bart Ehrman and

NT.

Wright.

My

research, however,

will

not be

limited

to

these authors and works

alone.I

shall study, through these works, how one can come to the conclusion that Christian Existentialism precedes such great movements as the

Reformation and the Enlightenment. _{This would, in historical context, make Christian}

Existentialism a more historically accurate expression of Christianity.

It

is my greatest hope, should my study bear

fruit,

to share my research with my

fellow

*",

und women and to show that, as Kierkegaard says, ,we stand alone before God,.

Works

Cited

Baird, Forrest E.., and Walter Kaufmann. Philosophic Classics.fifth ed. Upper Saddle

River [New Jersey: Pearson Prentice

Hall,l994.print.

Bloom,

Allan

David. The Repubtic of

Plato.2nd

ed. New

York:

Basic

Books,

lggt.

Print.

Chesterton, G.

K..

Saint Thomas Aquinas. Image book ed. New

York:

Doubleday

,

LgS6. Print.

Dawkins, _{Richard. The God Delusion. Boston: Houghton}

Mifflin

_{Co.,2008. Print.} Meditations

on

First Philosophy:

In

Which the Existence of God and the

Distinction

of

the Soul From the Body Are Demonstrated.3rd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub.

Co., 1993. Print.

Deshpande,

M.

S.. Gandhi's Way to God: _{SelectedWritings From Mahatma Gandhi.}

New

York:

MJFBooks-Fine Creative Media, Z0O9.print.

Dods, Marcus. The City of God.Modern

Library

ed. New

York:

Modern

Library,

Lgg3. Print.

Edmonson, Robert J.. You Converted

Me:

The Confessions

of

St. Augustine a Modernized

christian

classic. Brewster,

MA:

paraclete press,

2006.print.

Edwards, Jonathan, and Mark Trigsted. Jonathan Edwards: His Greatest Sermons.

Gainesville, Fla.: Bridge-Logos, 2003 .

print.

Eliot,

Charles

W.

. The

Harvard

Classics: Plato, Epictetus, Marcus

Aurelius.1909.

Reprint. New

York,

New

York:

P.F.

Collier

&

Son

Corporatiot,1969.Print.

Elmer, Robert.

Practicing

God's Presence: Brother Lawrence

For

Today,s Reader.

Finney, Charles Grandison. Finney's Systematic Theology.Abridged. ed. Minneapolis:

Bethany Fellowship, 197 6. Prinr.

Grudem, Wayne

A..

Systematic Theology: An

Introductionto Biblical

Doctrine.

Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press

;,

1994. Print.

Heidegger, Martin, and Gregory Fried. Introduction to Metaphysics. New _{Haven [etc.:} Yale University Press, 2000. Print.

Hitchens, Christopher. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. New

York:

Warner 72,2007. Print.

Kant, Immanuel, and James

W.

Ellingto n. Ground.ing

For

the Metaphysics of

Morals

;

With On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of

Philanthropic

Concerns-3rd, ed. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub- Co., 1993. Print.

Keller, Timothy J.. The Reasonfor God: Belief in an Age of Skepticisra. New

york:

Riverhead Books, 2A09. Print.

Kierkegaard, Sgren, and Robert W. Bretall. A Kierkegaard Anthology. Princeton,

NJ.:

Princeton University Press, 197 3 1946 - Print.

MacCulloch, Diarmaid . The Reformndon. New

York Viking,

Z\M.

print.

MacCulloch, Diarmaid .

Christianity:

_{The First Three Thousand Years. New York:}

Viking,2010.

Print.

McGinn,

Bernard. The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticis,rn. Modern Library pbk.

ed. New

York:

Modern Library, 2006. Print.

McKeon, Richard. The Basic Works of Aristotle. New

York:

Modern

Library,

2OO1.Print. Russell, Bertrand. Why

I

am Not a Christian: and Other Essays on Religion and related

Sartre, Jean. Existentialism and Human Emotions. New

York:

Philosophical

Library

:, 1985. Print.

Selman, Francis John. Aquinas 101: A Basic Introduction to the Thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Notre Dame,Ind.: Christian Classics,2;007 - Print.

Shelley, Bruce

L..

Church history In Plain Language. Updated 2nd ed. Dallas, Tex.:

Word Pub., 1995. Print.

Summa Theologica. Complete English ed. Westminster,

Md.:

Christian Classics, 19811948. Print.

Tillich,

Paul. Dynamics of Fairft. New

York:

Perennial,

200I.

Print.

Tozer,A. W..

The Knowledge of the

Holy:

The Attributes of God, Their Meaning in the

Christian

Life.San

Francisco: Harper

&

Row, 19781961. Print.

Walker,

Williston.

A History of the Christian Church.

Third

Edition ed. New

York,

'

_New

York:

_{Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970. Print.}