First Essay = 20%

The first essay is due on Monday, 25 June at 10:00 a.m. in AQ 6230. It should be 1500 words long. Choose one of the topics below, based on Bireley, Refashioning of Catholicism and Forster, Catholic Germany. Follow the Instructions for Written Assignments on pp. 5-7 of the syllabus.

1. Bireley states that the Catholic Church "was anything but monolithic" (201). How well does his book provide evidence for this claim?

To answer this question you will, of course, need to know what "monolithic" means, but please do not supply dictionary definitions in your essay. I know what the word means.

2. To what extent did Catholicism, in Bireley's account of its refashioning, react or respond to Protestantism?

The question invites thinking about degrees of response, e.g. to a minimal extent, to a considerable extent, but it allows for absolute approaches, e.g. not at all or completely. To answer this question you must consider Bierley presents the way in which Catholicism related to what he sees as one of the major transformations of the early modern period.

3. Do developments within early modern German Catholicism support Bireley's idea of the refashioning of Catholicism? Base your answer on Marc R. Forster's German Catholicism and the essay by C. Scott Dixon (Week 5) or the essay by Ulrich Lehner (Week 6).

You will need to begin with a brief explanation of what Bireley means by the refashioning of Catholicism and then proceed to a thesis statement that answers the essay question. A superior thesis will indicate how early modern German Catholicism exemplifies or does not exemplify refashioning.

4. "Baroque Catholicism was the great achievement of early modern German Catholicism. It represents the culmination of a long search for creating a stable and durable Catholic identity in Germany." Do you agree with this assessment? Why or why not? Base your answer on Marc R. Forster's German Catholicism.

The introduction of your essay should concisely and precisely explain what Forster means by Baroque Catholicism before you devise the thesis statement in answer to the question. To see if you agree or disagree with the quoted statement about Baroque Catholicism, you need to test it before beginning to write your essay. Was Baroque Catholicism a "great achievement"? Were earlier or later phases in early modern German Catholicism at least equally important? Or do they pale in comparison with Baroque Catholicism? Was Baroque Catholicism a final point of an historical development, i.e. a "culmination"? Did it produce a stable and durable Catholic identity? Was the previous Germany Catholic identity less stable and durable?

Note that every topic is a question. You should state your answer in the introduction of your essay. Your answer is the argument that you seek to prove in your essay. You may answer in a simple or straightforward way by taking an absolute position (e.g. a yes or no answer), or you may take a more nuanced approach (e.g. in some cases, yes, but in some cases, no). To answer any question, of course, you need to analyze the relevant readings.

Try to refine the statement of your argument in the introduction by providing a basic explanation for it, e.g. x = y because ... . The rest of the essay will unfold or develop this answer. Do not keep your reader waiting and guessing until the conclusion to find out what your argument is. The argument's purpose is to give the essay a definite analytical focus and thus to guide readers through the evidence you supply. For it to serve this purpose the argument must appear at the beginning of your essay.

Write carefully, correctly, and intelligently. I value good writing, i.e. the clear and persuasvie communication of your ideas. Form and content are both crucial for good writing. Grammatically unsound sentences prevent the effective communication of ideas.

Since I was a student, I have always thought that writing was the most important part of the learning process. I felt I really learned something when I committed my thoughts to paper. For me, writing was and remains hard work--it takes me a long time to write anything because I aim to write everything well--but it is the most rewarding thing I do as a life-long learner.