Comparative Reading-Response Paper

The assignment requires students to read two books and write a comparative reading-response paper. The purpose is to develop a practice of sacred reading, also known as lectio divina. Students are invited to reflect on the process and analyze its impact and influence in a 2,000-word paper, using questions provided as guides. The paper should be structured around bold headings, including Introduction, Reflection on 'book 1', Reflection on 'book 2', Commonalities and differences between the two books, and The applied meaning of this process for my spiritual journey. The assessment criteria include familiarity with book content, identification of common threads and differences, explanation of reading exercise's meaning to spiritual journey, and grammar, spelling, expression, structure, and referencing.

SS5104 EPSF - Assessment 3: Comparative reading-response paper
Assignment description:
The purpose of this assignment is to create a space in which to develop the practice of
sacred reading or lectio divina. This process draws you into contemplative dialogue with two
experienced spiritual guides (authors) and also into the inner dialogue that occurs as you
process the personal meaning of the conversation.
Following the reading of the two texts you are invited to reflect on the process and analyse
its impact and influence in a 2,000-word paper.
The following questions are offered as a guide, please adapt these or frame your own as it
seems best to you:
Suggested questions for reflecting on each text as an individual voice:
What parts of this reading have evoked a sense of one or more of the following:
Gratitude, Hope, Comfort, Clarity, Reassurance, Insight, Peace, Patience,
Forgiveness, Moral Courage, Humility, Compassion, Faith, Trust, and Rest?
What has been the primary wisdom message/s of this text to you in the context of
your current situation and circumstances?
In what ways have the messages of this text confronted you?
What action, lifestyle adjustment, outlook and/or way of being have resulted from
your experience of the reading?
Has the text left you with any sense of tension and/or unresolved questioning and if
so, how are your managing that?
Suggested questions for reflecting on the meaning of the dialogue between the texts:
In what ways have the two texts complimented and/or reinforced a wisdom message
for you?
Do there seem to be any tensions between the messages and outlooks of the two
texts and if so what is your experience of that? (E.g. does this tension represent for
you an example of the breadth and diversity of the spiritual life and/or does it leave
you wondering what to do about contradictory views? Has a particular insight
occurred as you have considered the possible tensions between the outlook of the
authors?)
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Suggested questions for considering the applied meaning of the process:
What have you learned from the process of reading contemplatively and engaging in
a form of spiritual conversation with the two authors as potential soul-friends or
mentors?
Is there something particular you want to do, small or large, as a response to this
process and what will that look like in action?
Referencing procedures:
You are required to read the two books only and to consider both their individual and
shared meaning for your spiritual life. You do not need to add extra references either in
support and/or contradiction to the two chosen texts.
You should include both titles in your reference list and make appropriate in-text references
to specific sections or themes, following the conventions of the APA style guide.
Assignment structure and content guide: Please use this the following bold headings as the
outline for your paper. The content guide in italics is designed to assist the shape of your
responses:
Introduction: (approx 200 words)
Explain why you chose these two books, name the essence of what you found in each,
their relationship to each other and meaning for your spiritual journey. Write your
introduction last.
Reflection on 'book 1' (use the actual title in place of 'book 1') (600 words)
Explain what you found helpful, illuminating, provocative, confronting, assuring
and/or ... Be careful to be specific about the particular ideas/images/content/themes
of the book so that your assessor can see that you are familiar with the content. If
your discussion here only talks about how you have been impacted by the reading
and not about the nature of the material that has had the impact there is no clear
evidence or insight into the material. See the examples below:
Example of what not to do: I found the insights from this book to be really
helpful and interesting. It made me feel more open to the spiritual
possibilities of everyday life. I'm more likely now to stop and pause in my
work and consider the meaning of what I do. The book helped me to see that
spirituality is not just what happens in church but what happens in me, in
relationship to all kinds of things. I loved how the author showed that
everything can become spiritual.
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Example of what to do: One of the passages in this book that I found to be
most meaningful was the discussion about the spirituality of daily routine
(pp, 45-52). I was taken in by the author's provocative metaphoric language
as he illustrates the experience of feeling crowded and jaded in a busy and
material world:
... doesn't my soul look like a market place where the second-hand
dealers from all corners of the globe have assembled to sell the
shabby riches of this world? Isn't it just like a noisy bazaar, where I
and the rest of mankind display our cheap trinkets to the restless,
milling crowds? (p.45).
From here, Rahner takes us on a brief journey into other areas of his
experience, including religious practices, through which he draws the
conclusion that deadening routine can and does affect all aspects of life.
From this seeming cul-de-sac in the spiritual journey, however, the author
rebounds into a mirror-like awareness that if it is possible to lose spirit in all
things then it must also be possible to find spirit in all things (p.48). Thus, the
awakening is the realisation that spirit is neither determined nor restricted by
the 'sacred' or 'secular' nature of routine but by the turn of the heart within
any and all aspects of everyday life. Such a turn, Rahner attributes to the
permeating presence of the Divine.
Reflection on 'book 2' (use the actual title in place of 'book 2') (600 words)
Simply repeat the process described above.
Commonalities and differences between the two books (400 words)
Explain what you found to be common between the two books. Look beneath the
surface of vocabulary, writing style/genre and worldview. In what ways are they on
the same page in terms of essential values and in seeking to promote spiritual
awareness and practice?
What is the most important difference between the two books in your mind? Is this
difference complimentary or does it seem contradictory?
The applied meaning of this process for my spiritual journey (200 words)
Explain what you are taking away with you from this exercise. Is there a lingering
theme, a piercing insight, a change in practice and/or perspective? The influence of
the book may not necessarily have left you with a fully formed or resolved conclusion.
Perhaps you are left with a niggling doubt or are wondering what a changed
perspective looks like in practice. You don't need to pretend here that all of the loose
ends have been tied up. It is important to be honest and thoughtful.
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Assessment criteria
The paper reveals a significant level of familiarity with the content of both selected books
and examples of this are explicit
The paper meaningfully identifies the deep common threads between the two books and
explains the meaning of their differences as complimentary and/or contradictory
The paper reveals an honest and clear explanation of the meaning of this reading exercise
to the spiritual journey of the student
Appropriate care has been taken with the grammar, spelling, expression, structure and
referencing of the paper – it reads as a carefully edited document
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