Instruction
Thursday 5/13/21:
Paper #4 due on Comparisons: Traditional Religious Professionals vs. Profane Man.
4 - 6 pages
This is going to be a different kind of paper. Create a conversation representing two points of
view: religious man vs. profane man/nonreligious man. Here is your chance to demonstrate what
you’ve considered this semester about the sacred and the profane.
Your “religious man” should represent one (or more!) of the religious professionals that we’ve
encountered (Hindu worshipers, Sun Dancers, medicine men, traditionalists who align with the
Earth Spirit, feng shui practitioners, etc.) Your “profane man” should be someone (or more!) of
your creation, based on the tenets we’ve discussed. Enjoy the use of your imagination. Give your
characters names, describe what they look like, where they come from. Be creative in the
circumstances of how and where they happen to meet and have this conversation.
Structure the conversation around such topics as what it means to live religiously, what it might
mean to live without connection to the sacred, challenges of initiation, role in the community,
understanding of the sacred, the way in which they communicate with God and/or the spirits,
personal attitudes about living this way (was it chosen or voluntary?).
Be sure to allow both the religious man and nonreligious man to address the rewarding and
uplifting, as well as the challenging and exasperating aspects of their lifestyles. Also be sure to
give them equal time in the conversation.
Make it a real conversation. Of course, the circumstances of their meeting may be entirely
surreal!
Include at least one significant quote from our course readings for each, and provide a Works
Cited. See "About Written Work" and “Sample MLA Format” for further specifications.
A note about format: You might want to single-space this, leaving a space after the words of each
speaker, as in the text of a screenplay.