Research Essay—Each student will write a research essay of 2,000-2,500 words based on one of these four essay prompts:
1. Was Christianity united in 18th century America? If so, around what principles? If not, why not?
2. Was Thomas Jefferson a Christian? Why or why not?
3. Should early America have adopted an established (i.e. state sponsored) religion? If so, which religion? If not, why not?
4. What was the relationship between Christianity and slavery in post-Revolution, pre-Civil War America?
Use the library catalog (http://pepperdine.on.worldcat.org) to find books (print and electronic) on your topic.
su:Freedom of religion United States.
su:Church and state United States.
su:United States Church history To 1775.
su:Church and state United States History 18th century.
su:Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826
Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826 Religion.
su:Presidents United States Religion.
Slavery and the church United States History 19th century.
su:United States Church history 19th century.
su:Christianity and politics United States History 18th century.
To find journal articles, try using the ATLA Religion database, which covers Religion journals, or Academic Search Complete, which covers interdisciplinary journals.
Be sure to limit your results so that only articles from peer-reviewed (scholarly) journals appear. You can do this on EBSCOhost via the search page:
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