Senior Thesis

This capstone course is for students to use as a culmination of all their learning. Students will prepare an extensive paper on a topic carefully selected by them and agreed on with the instructor. They will defend their positions orally before a panel of experts. Class size is considerably smaller to allow more extensive presentation time and individual attention. Consequently, the course price is higher. This course is eligible for dual enrollment credit for junior and senior diploma students. Homework will average 2 - 3 hours per week.
 * Example thesis
 * SRTH Final Draft. Lysne Gabriel..pdf
 * While theologians debate how to interpret and understand the Bible, another branch of scholarship, textual criticism, is engaged in determining what the Bible says. Using the relatively recently established rules of modern textual criticism, text critics on Bible translation committees, in seminaries, etc. make rulings on what verses belong, keeping some and moving others to just footnotes at the bottom of a page. This paper explores in detail the lengthiest of all Scriptural passages to have been deemed untrustworthy by contemporary textual scholarship: The last twelve verses of the book of Mark. Both sides of the issue shall be explored and examined in the three most important categories of evidence: manuscript evidence, Patristic (Church father) evidence, and Internal evidence, leading to the conclusion that these twelve verses are original to Mark’s gospel and not the spurious addition of some later scribe.