assignment 4 the age of the theologians

• Assessing David’s Reign (1 Kings)

How are we to evaluate David and his reign? It is noteworthy that while Solomon gained more wealth, land, and renown than his father David, it is David whom the books of Kings and Chronicles acclaimed as Israel's greatest king, the model against which all other kings were measured.

We may gain hope for ourselves from God’s response to the very positives and negatives we see in David's life and actions. We are impressed by his fundamental piety even as we blanch at his political manipulation, lust, and violence. When we see a similar ambivalence in our own hearts and actions, we take comfort and hope in the God who forgives all our sins. The Lord’s presence with David gives us hope that even in the face of our faithlessness, God stays with us as the relentless Hound of Heaven.

Like Saul, David combined greatness and faithfulness, with sin and error. We may wonder, then, why God preserved David’s reign, but not Saul’s. Partly, it may be because David’s heart remained true to God (1 Kings 11:4, 15:3), however errant his deeds. The same thing is never said of Saul. Or it may be simply because the best way for God to carry out his purposes for his people was to put David on the throne and keep him there. When God calls us to a task or position, it is not necessarily us he is thinking about. He may choose us because of the effect we will have on other people. For example God gave Cyrus of Persia victory over Babylon not to reward or benefit Cyrus, but to free Israel from captivity (2 Chronicles 36:22-23).

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Table of Contents

• Introduction to Samuel, Kings and Chronicles
• The Historical Background of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles
• From Tribal Confederation to Monarchy: 1 Samuel
• The Calling of Samuel (1 Samuel 1-3)
• The Perils of Treating God Like a Good Luck Charm (1 Samuel 4)
• The Opportunities That Arise From Working Faithfully (1 Samuel 5-7)
• Samuel’s Sons Disappoint (1 Samuel 8:1-3)
• The Israelites Ask For a King (1 Samuel 8:4-22)
• The Task of Choosing a King (1 Samuel 9-16)
• David's Rise to Power (1 Samuel 17-30)
• Abigail Defuses a Crisis Between David and Nabal (1 Samuel 25)
• The Golden Age of the Monarchy: 2 Samuel 1-24, 1 Kings 1-11, 1 Chronicles 13, 21-25
• David's Successes and Failures as King (2 Samuel 1-24)
• David’s Rape of Bathsheba and Murder of Uriah (2 Samuel 11-12)
• David’s Dysfunctional Handling of Family Conflict Leads to Civil War (2 Samuel 13-19)
• David Learns He Needs God’s Guidance How to Do His Work (1 Chronicles 13)
• David’s Disobedience to God Causes a National Pestilence (1 Chronicles 21:1-17)
• David’s Patronage of the Musical Arts (1 Chronicles 25)
• David Prepares Solomon to Succeed Him as King (1 Kings 1; 1 Chronicles 22)
• Solomon Succeeds David as King (1 Kings 1-11)
• Solomon Builds the Temple of the Lord (1 Kings 5-8)
• Solomon Centralizes the Rule of the Kingdom (1 Kings 9-11)
• Assessing Solomon's Golden Age (1 Kings)
• From Failed Monarchies to Exile (1 Kings 11 - 2 Kings 25; 2 Chronicles 10-36)
• Obadiah Saves a Hundred People by Working Within a Corrupt System (1 Kings 18)
• Ahab and Jezebel Murder Naboth to Get His Property (1 Kings 21)
• The Prophet Elisha’s Attention to Ordinary Work (2 Kings 2-6)
• Elisha's Restoration of a City's Irrigation System (2 Kings 2:19-22)
• Elisha’s Restoration of a Household’s Financial Solvency (2 Kings 4:1-7)
• Elisha’s Restoration of a Military Commander’s Health (2 Kings 5:1-14)
• Elisha’s Restoration of a Lumberjack’s Axe (2 Kings 6:1-7)
• The Southern Kingdom's March Toward Exile (1 Kings 11:41 - 2 Kings 25:26; 2 Chronicles 16 - 36)
• Financial Accountability in the Temple (2 Kings 12:1-12)
• Arrogance and the End of the Kingdoms (2 Chronicles 26)
• Hezekiah's Contempt for the Next Generation (2 Kings 20)
• Self-Reliance in Place of God’s Guidance (2 Chronicles 16-20)
• Rehoboam’s Failure to Tell Good Advice From Bad (2 Chronicles 10:1-19)
• Conclusions from Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles

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Contributors: Jill Baker, Brian Housman and Alice Mathews Adopted by the Theology of Work Project Board June 2, 2014.

Author: Theology of Work Project

Theology of Work Project Online Materials by Theology of Work Project, Inc. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License . Based on a work at www.theologyofwork.org

You are free to share (to copy, distribute and transmit the work), and remix (to adapt the work) for non-commercial use only, under the condition that you must attribute the work to the Theology of Work Project, Inc., but not in any way that suggests that it endorses you or your use of the work.

© 2014 by the Theology of Work Project, Inc.

Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

Mr. Wiggin's History Class

Everything that follows is a result of what you see here., 1-1: an age of reason.

Assignment 1-1: An Age of Reason

Part 1 of 3 : Read the secondary source below and create a cover for your Unit Homework Packet.  The Cover Page should contain your name, Unit Title (The Enlightenment and French Revolution) and 5 elements contained within the reading below. (Hard copy only, does not apply to online submissions)

 An Age of Reason

The diverse and often contradictory nature of eighteenth-century Enlightenment thought, commonly known as the Age of Reason, pays tribute to the tremendous intellectual achievements of the previous century. In the seventeenth century, the Scientific Revolution had provided a new model for how problems could be solved through rational thought and experimentation (The Scientific Method), rather than on the authority of religion or the ancients. In fact, the French philosopher, mathematician and scientist Rene Descartes had seen man’s ability to reason as the very proof of his existence, declaring “I think, therefore I am”.

The Scientific Revolution had actually begun in the mid-16th century with Copernicus’ new theory of the sun as the center of the universe, replacing the earth-centered model. This revolution culminated in the seventeenth century with Newton’s vision of a universe whose most basic workings could be calculated and understood rationally, but which was also the work of a Creator.

This triumph of science helped to produce another fundamental intellectual change. By the early eighteenth century, the focus of speculation was shifting from theological to secular concerns. The old religious hostilities that had divided Europe since the Reformation no longer preoccupied the continent. Science and rational inquiry now came to be seen as the common ground which reunited men of different religions. Reason provided a unifying doctrine, and the key to increasing human happiness taking over the position once held by religion. With the right use of reason, all society’s problems could be solved and all mankind could live prosperously and contentedly.

This optimism reflected a sense of growing economic opportunity. Europe in the eighteenth century was richer and more populous than ever before. Steady economic growth seemed to bear out the notion that the new key of scientific method could unlock the answers not only to the physical world (as Newton had done), but to theology, history, politics and social problems as well. Using the advances made possible through rational scientific inquiry, farmers pioneered improvements in agriculture and entrepreneurs experimented with new technologies and products.

In England, the political theories of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke were in the spirit of the same rational approach to problem solving, but had also been influenced by the dramatic conflicts that unfolded in Britain between the 1640s and the 1680s. Hobbes wrote in his masterwork, the Leviathan (1651), that men were motivated primarily by the desire for power and by fear of other men, and so needed an all- powerful sovereign to rule over them. He characterized their lives without a strong ruler as “solitary, nasty, poor, brutish, and short.” For Hobbes, the English Civil War, which began in 1642, and ended with the execution of King Charles I in 1649, was convincing evidence that men were ultimately selfish and competitive.

John Locke, a generation later, developed an entirely different notion of the basic nature of humankind, which he saw as innately good. Locke witnessed the almost bloodless, so-called “Glorious Revolution,” and became convinced that people could live amicably together, after discovering God’s law through the application of reason. In Locke’s Two Treatises of Government (1690), he outlined a theory of politics based on people’s natural rights: life, liberty, and the ownership of property. To Locke, the task of the state was to protect these rights. Government was a contract between ruler and subjects, as the events of 1688-1689 had demonstrated: rulers were granted power in order to assure their subjects’ welfare. His writings were seminal for the American revolutionary leader Thomas Jefferson, who closely followed Locke’s ideas in the Declaration of Independence.

This early critical inquiry into the nature of man and society, spurred by events in England, influenced a group of French thinkers who came to be known as the Philosophes . Many French thinkers came to admire the economically advanced country across the channel with its unique form of representative government.

In the first generation of French Philosophes, one of the most important contributions to Enlightenment political thought was made by Charles de Secondat, the Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755). In his masterwork The Spirit of the Laws, published in 1748, he developed the notion that power should be divided among several branches of government. Another of the early Philosophes who wrote on the nature of government was the author and poet Voltaire (1694-1778). He harshly criticized the French noble society forcing him to flee France.

Rousseau (1712-1778) and Diderot (1713-1784), born a generation later, continued the Philosophe tradition. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was an outspoken critic of the French social and political order. In his landmark work, The Social Contract, written in 1762, Rousseau rejected existing forms of government in favor of a community based on the choice of all its citizens, and their democratic participation in every major decision. These ideas were to be of central importance after the outbreak of the French Revolution.

The Enlightenment was a cosmopolitan movement, not restricted to England and France. In Germany, Italy and Spain, thinkers similar to the French Philosophes pursued their campaign against outmoded ideas and political and religious obscurantism. In colonial America, men like Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), corresponded with European thinkers on political and scientific topics. Through Franklin and Jefferson the critical, rationalist thought of eighteenth-century Europe exercised a decisive influence on American political and social theories. The Declaration of Independence (1776) is one of the clearest and most succinct articulations of the Enlightenment program to be penned in the entire eighteenth century.

For the men of the Enlightenment the basic question of the age was: how does one make mankind happy and rational and free? Their basic answer was: by discovering the underlying laws which would organize all knowledge into a clear, rational system, enabling individuals to become enlightened, and the societies in which they live to progress. It was a goal seen as obtainable to the people of the eighteenth century. Science and reason seemed to offer the key to the future, to a kind of paradise which would be realized not in the next world, as the theologians asserted, but in this world, here and now.

Part 2 of 3: Identify the bold Vocabulary words within the reading. The words should have the definition of who or what it is and a one sentence explanation of its connection to the Enlightenment. Please be sure to have the definition that makes sense in context. (ie concentration can mean focus, density or imprisonment, pick the right definition based on context)

• The emergence of modern science during the 16 th century, when developments in science and the methodology of discovery transformed views of society and nature.
• The Scientific Revolution and its use of the scientific method helped scientists understand the natural world. The same methodology was then applied to human society to better understand human nature and interactions

Part 3 of 3 : Complete the reading comprehension questions that follow the reading.

• What contributions did the Scientific Revolution make to the Enlightenment?
• What is one specific example of how the Scientific Revolution changed our understanding of the universe?
• How did the Enlightenment repair the religious divide that had dominated Europe since the Reformation?
• What are 2 ideas the Locke and Hobbes disagreed about?
• What contributions did Montesquieu make to the Enlightenment? Rousseau?

EXTENSION SET

•  How did the US adopt Enlightenment ideals during and after its revolution?
• Why did the Philosophes admire the government of the English?
• Why did Europe become more secular during and after the Enlightenment?
• According to Enlightenment thinkers how can mankind be happy?
• The US is a product of the Enlightenment and Europe is not. What key differences are there between the US and Europe that might be because of this movement?

Introduction

The relative tolerance of the Abbasid leadership encouraged diversity, migration, scholarship, and much more. The empire’s vastness created international and intercultural relationships that shaped our modern world. It was called the Golden Age for a reason!

Your task for this assignment is to identify one political, economic, and cultural achievement during this period. For your political achievement, do not look for politics as it exists today. Anything that impacted law, government, or the way people grouped together was political. Complete the chart using 2–3 complete sentences for each category. Summarize each achievement in your own words. Then reflect on these achievements and identify a similar unifying improvement in your own society in the 21st century (Since 2000). As an example, students doing this assignment in the 1950s could have identified the interstate highway system. The highways connected Americans to each other. Just think of something new that helps people connect. Don’t overthink it!

As always, remember to use the template provided—either submit it after filling it out or reference it to make sure you don’t miss any part of the assignment.

• Complete the reading in this lesson.
• Review your notes for this lesson.
• Check your understanding of important concepts.
• View the Grading Rubric before completing the assignment.
• Open the template below, a copy will be forced to your Google Drive.
• Complete the assignment in Google Docs.
• Rename the assignment as: YourLastName_YourFirstName_ Monotheistic_Religions_WH
• Upload the completed assignment below using the Google Drive method and submit the 01.02 Monotheistic Religions assignment. 

Assessment 01.04 Rubric Assessment 01.04 Template