Opening Paragraphs:
Below is an excellent example of an opening
paragraph:
Christians were
once also Jewish – Jesus, Peter,
James,
John, Paul and the rest. In fact, it can be argued that the
mission of
Jesus
and his disciples who first follow him was not to form a new
religion
but
rather to reform an old one gone astray. Born of Jewish parents,
Jesus
of
Nazareth obeyed Jewish dietary rules, followed Jewish customs,
and came
into
this world, according to Luke “To reign over the house of
Jacob.”
Nevertheless,
no matter what Jesus’ intentions actually were, those who had
once been
Jewish
Christians were eventually no longer Jewish. Alan Crown in his
book The
Parting
of the Ways argues that the split occurred at the Council of
Nicea in
325
(Crown), and Professor James Crossley of the University of
Sheffield
asserts
that the roots of the split were in the very beginning, 26-50
(Crossley). I
think that they are both right and that the split occurred
gradually
and at
different times in different places. What is clear is that by
the
fourth or
fifth century, because of theological, cultural and social
differences
Judaism
and Christianity had become two entirely separate religions.
This jumps straight
in to the topic. We are given two good secondary sources, each
of which
has a different opinion. So at once it is clear that the
student has
done good research, and has been thinking about the readings -
the
student announces from the start that he will be taking an
intermediate
position between these two extremes. This shows that the
student sees
secondary sources as offering opinions to be considered. Many
students
would just have taken one of these sources, and would report
those
opinions as if they were undisputed facts.
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