- Integrative Truth: Ontological Existence & Epistemological Challenge
- This paper was written for a seminar based class on the integration of psychology and Christianity. Informed by a postmodern worldview, it is a beginning attempt to define my presuppositions, epistemology, and idea of unified truth through a model resembling the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. One defining feature is the attempt to suggest that a unified truth (i.e. all truth is God’s truth) has ontological existence but is epistemological untenable because of the noetic effects of sin. It closes with a personal application of a proposed integration model for my desired career in urban planning.
- Final Integration Paper (.pdf)
- The Blessing and Curse of Too Many Good People at APU: Relational Capacity and the Paradox of Choice
- Exploring the dynamic nature of friendships at APU, two arguments are suggested: 1) that few committed and engaged friendships are healthier than many transient friendships, and 2) that APU fosters many transient friendships. Supporting this second argument are two premises: a) that intensity of social integration creates an unsustainable number of friends and b) that in a homogeneous group of many ‘friendable’ individuals, there is less motivation to stick with a particular friend or small group of friends. This paper was written for a theological senior seminar course taught by Dr. Dennis Okholm.
- Too many good people (MS Word)
- Blessed are the Poor
- This was a final paper for a Christian Contemporary Thought class. It provides compelling arguments and questions regarding the blessings of the poor and other’s means of serving the poor.
- Blessed Are thePoor (.pdf)
- Anthropomorphism in Children’s Literature: A Psychological Perspective
- Written as a final paper for the British History and Culture course, this paper explores the prominent theme of animals in children’s literature. Both a push and pull is suggested to account for children’s proclivity towards anthropomorphic animals in literature. The push to understand animal characters in human terms comes primarily from children’s limited egocentric cognitive functionary, whereas the pull towards animal characters themselves is derived from E.O. Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis. This paper was presented at Oxford, UK, at the end of the course, as well as in Baltimore, MD, for the 2012 Alpha Chi Honors Conference.
- Anthropomorphism in Children’s Literature (.pdf)