Journal+6+Religion,+Love,+Society,+Politics

A typed copy of journal #6 is due on Friday, November 11th at the start of class. Your sixth journal is based on one of the following categories:


 * The Renaissance period in England was marked by religious conflict. Henry VIII and each successive monarch held a different view on the country’s official religion. Leaders were assassinated, writers were imprisoned, and the country even endured a civil war over questions of religion. What is the proper role of religion in public life? How can societies reconcile religion and politics?
 * The Renaissance was a time of rapid change in the arts, literature, and learning. New ideas were embraced, and old ones—including the concept of love—were examined from fresh perspectives. Poets of the day put their pens to many different aspects of love: unrequited love, constant love, timeless love, fickle love. What is so fascinating about love? Why does it seem so complicated?
 * In certain respects, the Renaissance was a golden age— a time of relative peace and prosperity, a time of amazing advances in the arts and sciences. Yet people of the day began to question their society, examining its failings and asking themselves how it could be improved. Sir Thomas More even created a fictional “perfect world” that he called Utopia—a world ruled by reason. What do you think a perfect society might be like?
 * During William Shakespeare’s lifetime, there were frequent struggles for control in and around the court of Elizabeth I and her successor, James I. In turn, many of Shakespeare’s plays dealt with themes of political conflict and the struggle to achieve balance between power, justice, and legitimate authority in society. What is so attractive about power? Is it a worthwhile objective, or does power inevitably corrupt people?

This is a 24 point journal. Your journal should be three academic paragraphs of 9-12 sentences each and be double spaced. You must turn in your handwritten prewriting strategy to recieve full credit.