Create a fictional dialogue between three individuals:
1) a practitioner of magic (like a priest or a witch or the like) from either ancient Babylon, Egypt, or Greece,
2) an early, first-century follower of Jesus or one of the apostles (like in the Book of Acts–but not Jesus himself), and
3) a modern news anchor (a real individual from CNN, Fox, NBC, CBS, NPR, or the like; pick someone you are familiar with).
Have the news anchor interview both the other two simultaneously on their show, just like we see and hear on our evening news shows. There should be debate and disagreement between the two guests on the show.
The practitioner of magic from Babylon/Egypt/Greece needs to be familiar with the views of their own culture (i.e., the readings we have done this semester) and to argue for the validity of the views on magic from that culture.
The early follower of Jesus should take the position that we have researched in the past few weeks regarding the views toward miracles and magic espoused among many early Christians.
Neither of the two guests on the show should sound stupid, but both should be eloquent and convincing spokespersons for their respective communities.
The news anchor can and should be a bit antagonistic toward both, representing the common view in the West that magic and miracles are not reliable and that society now puts their faith in science. For the sake of argument, we will pretend that the ancient guests understand something of the modern viewpoint but still reject it in favor of their own cultural perspective. (They are coming on a TV broadcast, after all.)
You don’t need to quote the readings from this semester, just paraphrase them in your own words. No need for a bibliography or footnotes. But be careful not to plagiarize the readings from this semester. Use your own summary of them. If one of your ancient guests quotes an ancient authority (like Jesus or an ancient curse document), you may put that in quotations and have the ancient guest cite where it comes from.
How long should this paper be? I would say 3 to 5 pages (single spaced). It’s a short interview. Get to the main points we covered this semester:
What is magic? How is magic different from science and religion? Is it different? Is magic a bad thing from, say, the Egyptian perspective? Are all miracles equal to magic? Was Jesus a magician?