The final examination will be held on Monday, December 17 from 9 am to noon in Milbank 202.

The exam will be divided into three parts:

Part I: IDENTIFICATIONS (50 points, 50 minutes). You will be asked to identify the author and title of 5 out of 7 passages and discuss their significance. You should briefly situate each passage in the context of the work as a whole. You’ll also comment on any significant themes addressed in the passage, and consider how they relate to the text as a whole as well as to popular concerns in the period that we've been studying. Note also any interesting qualities of language. What kinds of images are used? Is the syntax unusual? Are any of the words especially important in the text? Also, you might consider the passage's engagement of any relevant literary and theological traditions. If you can give the date of the text, you’ll get a point for that as well. Though your answer need not be in essay form, you should use complete sentences for all parts of your response after the author, title, and date.

Part II: CLOSE READING (75 points, 60 minutes). I will provide you with pairs of passages from different works, and with questions relating each pair of passages. You will choose one pair of passages, and write an essay in response to the question. Your essay will involve close reading of the two passages in comparison with one another. You might, for example, be asked to compare a passage from Wieland with a passage from The Age of Reason, discussing the reliability of reason in these texts. While your answer to this question should be most closely concerned with the provided passages, you may, of course, use insights from your general knowledge of the writers and their texts to enrich your argument.

Part III: ESSAY (75 points, 65 minutes). You will be asked to write a synthetic essay, in which you explore a theme or issue through three or four texts, ranging across the full span of the course. You will be free to choose the texts you wish to discuss, but you must include at least one seventeenth-century text and one eighteenth-century text. You should allow about ten minutes to plan your answer, as you'll need to develop a specific thesis based on the question, and based on the texts with which you choose to work.

1. Reread texts, going over your notes as you do. Obviously, you won't have time to reread everything that we've read this term. But use class notes to point you to important passages, and familiarize yourself with them. Think about passages from different texts that might be profitably compared and contrasted in Part II.

2. Consider themes, issues, problems, and concerns that have resurfaced in multiple texts. As you consider these themes, try to imagine how texts might fit into a discussion of them. For example, many of our writers have explored the limits of language, both human and divine. Consider which writers you could discuss in an essay on this topic, and what you might want to say about each. Even if you don't guess the precise topics that appear on the exam, thinking across texts and making connections will help you prepare for other questions as well.

3. See me if you have questions. I will hold special office hours the week of December 10; check http://professorgordis.pbwiki.com for details. If you need to reach me at other times, e-mail me or leave a message on my voice mail, and I'll return your call as soon as I can.

Class on Monday December 10 will include both discussion of Wieland and concluding comments. Note that on this occasion, you’ll also have an opportunity to fill out course evaluations. On Wednesday December 12 there will be an optional review session from 11:30 am to 1 pm in Milbank 202. For this review session, I’ll ask you to prepare two sample questions:

1. A sample essay question, which you should bring to the review.

2. By Tuesday December 11, please post a sample passage for identification on the wiki. (Follow the link at the bottom of the wiki front page.)

We'll spend part of the review brainstorming the sample items that you supply. We'll also have time for general questions and clarifications of the course material we've covered, so you might want to keep notes on things you'd like me to address. If you know in advance that you'd like me to address a particular question, drop a note in my box next week or send me an e-mail.