Write short essay answers to the questions based on the course textbook

Chapter 8 (7) *

1. Contrast the cosmic dualism of Chinese yin-yang with forms of dualism in late Zoroastrianism and in Gnosticism.
2. (a) Describe pantheism and monism. (b) How does the monism of Hindu Vedanta differ from forms of pantheism in, for example, Stoicism and some earlier Hindu texts such as the Upanishads?

Chapter 11 (10)

1. (a) What is theodicy? (b) What are the features of a millenarian, this-worldly theodicy, such as that of the Taborites?
2. How does a radically dualistic theodicy, such as Gnosticism and Mandeanism, differ from millenarian or monotheistic theodicy?

Chapter 12 (11)

1. (a) What is an ethics of divine command? (b) Describe and distinguish between (i) the Jewish written law, and (ii) the Jewish oral law. (c) Explain in detail how these two sources of law are applied to the ethics of abortion.
2. (a) Describe the four sources of Islamic shar?’a  (b) Explain in detail how, through an appeal to these sources, Islamic legal interpreters arrive at different judgments regarding a moral obligation such as jihad.