OVERALL: Jesse Mabus entered as a first-quarter Evergreen freshman into a program designed for advanced students,
where he proved he is a mature student who could readily hold his own. He demonstrated that he can interpret
difficult individual texts, can make apt comparisons among them, and can arrive at his own original construction of
an overview. His final paper demonstrated an especially high level of accomplishment, because it provided an
overview of the subject matter of the whole program. He has thus stepped well beyond the usual achievements of the
freshman year and demonstrated that he was wise to begin with an advanced, rather than a freshman, program.
FINAL PROJECT: His final paper illustrates the level of competence and the overview he achieved. His thesis was
that images of the deity and of human nature exist in reciprocity: "As the deities we envisage change in their
function, so too do our relationships to them change reciprocally." He demonstrated this hypothesis in five
instances, using the Homeric Hymn to Demeter as an example of a religion relating the divine to sustenance; Hesiod's
Theogony as one emphasizing social relations; the Old Testament, emphasizing family line; the New Testament, the
individual; and finally Paradise Lost representing a text with a different moral function, that of building a spiritual
"immune system," so to speak, against consequences of the Fall. As Jesse himself said, it was a breakthrough for
him to study the Christian tradition open-mindedly and comparatively.
SEMINARS: Jesse was fairly regular in attendance and had pretty consistently done all the reading ahead of time.
Overall, his attendance was excellent for a student with two additional roles, working and parenting. His quizzes
showed that he reads well, and that the important information registers for him. He was a deferential rather than
an outspoken participant, but he definitely held his place as a contributor to the group, especially because he had a
better background than most students in the subject matter, having read more than his peers about non-Western
and non-Orthodox religious experience.
ESSAYS: Jesse's essays were timely and competent, showing that he was getting used to new rituals of college
essay-writing. His most successful essay dealt with "Yahweh: A Father and His Sons." Jesse attributed the strength
of this paper in part to his new interest in the subject of parenting.
Suggested Course Equivalencies (in Quarter Credit Hours): 16 (*Denotes Upper Division Credit)
*4 - Religion: Comparative religion
*4 - Comparative literature: The Bible as literature
*4 - Comparative literature: Critical theory
*4 -English: Advanced prose writing
LEVEL: Advanced: Sophomore standing, or above (qualified freshmen admitted at discretion of the instructor, by
submitting an academic paper)
This program focused on both themes in its title - "interpretation" and "comparative religion."
Interpretation: As a program on scholarly methods and practices, the program emphasized close reading of
texts, comparison of - texts to one another (in terms of structure, content, figurative language, 'meaning'),
comparison of interpretations, and authorship of interpretive essays - essays with a thesis, supporting arguments,
and evidence derived from the texts. With these emphases, the program fit into a series entitled "On Interpretation,"
covering different disciplines, offered by the "Culture, Text, and Language" (or humanities) division of the college.
With reference to this theme, students read S. Langer, Philosophy in a New Key, and C. Geertz, Interpretation of
Cultures, to become familiar with a semiotic or 'symbol systems' approach to texts. Students also read and wrote
about two fairytales early in the program, to awaken their interpretive skills.
Comparative religion: As a program comparing the foundation-texts of major religions, the program focused
on religions of the European-Mediten-anean world: Greek polytheism, Judaic monotheism, and both orthodox and
gnostic Christianity. Each religion was approached through close reading of one or two texts, specifically the
Homeric Hymn to Demeter; Hesiod's Theogony; H. Bloom -and D. Rosenberg's The Book of J
(translation of the archaic or "J"-level material of Genesis and Exodus); Genesis, Exodus, and selections from
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; the Gospels of Matthew, John, and Thomas; E. Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels;
and J. Milton, Paradise Lost. These readings were each approached in their own terms, but some emphasis
was placed upon interconnecting themes:
What are the major shapes or configurations of the story of the divine, in Western cultures?
What is conveyed by a belief in many gods; in a single deity; in the Christian cluster of three divine personae?
Within the long-dominant pattern of western Christian belief, what difficult choices were made to represent the
divine, and to organize thought and feeling about the relationship between the divine and the human?
What images, symbols, and practices have we received to organize our self-knowledge, our image of the human
condition, and our intimations of what is more important than the individual ego?
Every week, students attended six hours of seminars and two hours of writing workshops (close reading and
constructive criticism of one another's writings). They wrote three or more essays, at first on single texts, and later,
comparing two or more texts. Finally all students presented, at the end of the program, a major paper, with thorough
discussion, on one or more program texts.