From the Paper
"The period of the Israelite Conquest, the conquest of Canaan, was important as the beginning of the Israelites as a people with roots, with a physical place they could call home. This was not to last as they were driven out of this home and taken into slavery, but Jewish history ever since was intent on the idea of the return, of the revival of Israel as a state, based on the belief that Palestine was inherently the territory of the Israelites and rightfully theirs to be reclaimed. In this century, there has been considerable archaeological evidence to support aspects of the biblical story of the conquest and its aftermath, all offering support for the hypothesis that the Hebrew people possessed Palestine long before those claiming it in more recent history. Yet, the issue remains complex and controversial, as an examination of scholarship on this issue ... "

Abstract
This paper explains that, when fanatical and out-dated views of religion and life, emphasizing the fear of eternal punishment, are pushed obsessively on children, this far too strict child-rearing results in tormented children who become adults such as Ninah in Sheri Reynolds' "The Rapture of Canaan" and Hester in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter". The author points out that Ninah is confused and tormented sexually and socially by her guilt juxtaposed with her human desire for sensual attention. The paper relates that Hester fights back against the curse of the community, which gave her the letter "A" on her chest, by keeping her child and her sanity, while the community and law enforcement seems bizarre and lacking any kind of stable grip on their professed values.

Table of Contents
Introduction to "The Rapture of Canaan"
Thesis
"The Rapture of Canaan"
"The Scarlet Letter"

From the Paper
"Mr. Dimmesdale's guilt had seemed to have been well established through the lines of narrative, as to his role in Hester's "guilt" as to having a child out of wedlock; and she nonetheless is a strong person. She feels compelled to help Dimmesdale, which clearly shows that she has overcome the emotional demise she was thrust into at the outset of the novel. "With her knowledge of a train of circumstances hidden from all others, she could readily infer that, besides the legitimate action of his own conscience, a terrible machinery had been brought to bear, and was still operating, on Mr. Dimmesdale's well-being and repose.""

Tags:curse, values, sensuality, spirituality, passion

Abstract
This paper is on the Israelite's crossing the Red Sea. It explains the crossing of the Red Sea, conquest and settlement of Canaan, Moses and Exodus.

Abstract
This paper attempts to track the history of the Palestinian people. It begins with early biblical times and progresses through the Middle Ages to modern times. It explores the cultural and social development of this nation and discusses the current political situation in the region today.

From the Paper
"Palestine's location between Egypt and southwest Asia has made it a center of conflict for thousands of years (Le Gall 1). Palestine is not an ordinary place, with an almost mythological territory saturated with religious ideology and endowed with overwhelming cultural significance, Palestine has been weighed down with historical as well as political meanings for many generations, people, and traditions (Said 1). Palestine's position between the center of routes linking three continents, made it the meeting place for religious and cultural influences from Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor. This region, also known as the Holy Land, is held sacred among Jews, Christians, and Muslims (Britannica 1). DeHass stated that three world religions sprang from ideas and hopes nurtured on its hills and in its valleys and that within its borders at least three attempts have been made to found universal religions (1)."

Tags:middle, east, jerusalem, nation, philistine, semitic

Abstract
This paper discusses how the "Book of Judges" is an important section of the Old Testament both for its theological content as well as for its historical information. It studies its background from both an historical as well as liturgical standpoint, including an examination of the questions that the book leaves us with. It provides an overview of what is contained in the "Book of Judges" which is conventionally divided into three distinct sections and how derives its name from a class of temporary leaders in Israel who bore the title of judges during the historical period covered. It presents an historical examination of events in Israel beginning with the death of Joshua (one of the most important and visionary of Hebrew leaders) up to the point in Jewish thinking and Israel's history just before the birth Samuel, another of the most important of the prophets. This period thus corresponds with the time that extends from the end of the Israelite conquest of Canaan (which occurred about 3300 years ago) to the beginning of monarchy two hundred years later.

From the Paper
"The second section of the Book of Judges (from 2:6 to16:31) relates a series of trials visited on the nation of Israel by God. This section describes how were the people of Israel were delivered into the hands of their enemies time and again for the explicit reason of testing the nation of Israel. Each time the Israelites are tested, a new hero comes forward (or sometimes a heroine) to save the nation, by which the Israelites learn to trust that God will not deliver them into a situation from which they cannot escape."

Tags:joshua, israel, god, israelites, deborah, samuel, canaan, people, tribes

Abstract
This paper explains that the African-American song genre, developed largely among slaves, describes the inevitable escape from toil and bondage and serves to strengthen the faith of the people by reminding them of a universal God, who would bring justice to his followers. The author points out that, in "Bound for Canaan Land", the "land of Canaan" is a metaphor for heaven and for the North, a land of freedom. The paper reveals that the author Harriet Tubman used spirituals such as "Follow the Drinking Gourd", which meant following the Big Dipper to the Ohio River, as a communication device to convey the possibilities of physical freedom.

From the Paper
"Biblical themes also evoke the image of crossing rivers, and many of the best spirituals were created and practiced by slaves who worked as sailors and boatmen on rowboats and ships of the Ohio River. "The Old Ship of Zion" is an inversion of the original ships that brought the slaves to America, and its singers wonder "Do you think that she is able/ For to carry us all home?" She promises deliverance having already "landed many a thousand," but being "loaded down with angels", her final destination is not necessarily a return to Africa, but a welcome to paradise."

Tags:slaves, freedom, escape, metaphor, death

Abstract
Set in the suburban affluence of 1970s New Canaan, Connecticut, "The Ice Storm" details the detached lives of two families and the dysfunctions experienced by both. This paper examines the movie directed by Ang Lee and shows why it is considered a masterpiece of intellectual art.

From the Paper
"Though The Ice Storm clearly exemplifies the banality of evil, it nevertheless fails in furthering the quest for evil. The lives are the characters exist in the realm of the boring, absent of all the passions, desires, and excitements that make life interesting. Sexual taboos are commonplace; the highest values are devalued, leaving nothingness. Adultery embodies the idea of an everyday evil and how when this evil becomes fully integrated into our routine lives, it eventually destroys us spiritually."

Tags:review, Kevin, Kline, Elena, Sigourney, Weaver

Abstract
This paper does not refute the more commonly accepted notions of Near Eastern religious faith as generated by the Hebrew Bible, but, rather, attempts to provide a greater understanding of the ancient Hebrews rejection of the concept of investing "idols" or statues with theological significance. The author points out that this rejection came not from the profound differences between the Israeli religion of the ancient Near East and its neighbors, but from the great similarities between the different cultic practices of Israel, Egypt, and Canaan. The paper reveals that the Israeli religion replaced the sacred space of the idolized body with the body of the temple, and replaced the ritual rhythms of investing the material substance of idols with the sacred space and temporal, seasonal rituals of sacrifice, and the sacrifice of animal, rather than human, offerings.

Table of Contents
Idolatry in the Ancient Near East a Non-Exodus Perspective
Near Eastern Religion "Idolatry" a Historically Rehabilitative Retrospective
Introduction
A Critical Perspective
Israeli Religion
Some Answers
A Rejection of the Familiar and the Past A New Judaism
A Final Caution

From the Paper
"It is also noteworthy that in ancient Israel, the temple itself was constructed in a highly schematized fashion, reflecting the importance of practice. "Just as the world was created in seven days, so also the Temple was created over seven years. These cycles of seven obviously serve to correlate Temple building with the construction of the world," and the observing of the rhythms of the Sabbath through a temporal, seven-day weekly structure of accessing the divine through time, rather than through material practices. Rituals and sacrifices pertaining to the material substances of the temple, moreover, were to "help concretize the manner in which the deity is truly present in the human community.""

Tags:hebrew, rejection, similarities, temple, animal

Abstract
Focuses on the Amarna Letters. Evidence of grammar and syntax of the language of the scribes in Canaan. Their importance in providing information about the early social and political history of Syria and Palestine in the Biblical period. Background and history of the El-Amarna site in Egypt. History of the Pharaoh The written word during the Amarna period. The Armana archive.

From the Paper
"THE AMARNA LETTERS

We do not know, of course, exactly when civilization began, in terms of writing down daily events, creating grammar, fashioning a language that could be understood by the people, and developing a means of informing, educating and unifying ancient people. However, the Amarna Letters, actually grammatically detailed in four intensive volumes by Rainey (1996), provide interesting insight and information about ancient Canaan on the verbal system in the Byblos letters and the Akkadian grammar, written by the scribes in Canaan (and) thoroughly treated and usually put in a wider context (Van Soldt, 1998, p. 1). This stems from a thorough review by Van Soldt of a book by Anson F. Rainey, Linguistic A Analysis of the Mixed Dialect used by Scribes from Canaan (four volumes, 1996)."

Abstract
In some ways, one could trace the development of the Israeli Palestinian conflict back to Biblical times, when the wandering Hebrew tribes fought their way into a place in what was then called Canaan. It was at that point that those tribes chose to make a covenant with their new God who was different from the Canaanite God, El.

From the Paper
"Social Stratification and the Israeli Palestinian Conflict

Introduction
In some ways, one could trace the development of the Israeli Palestinian conflict back to Biblical times, when the wandering Hebrew tribes fought their way into a place in what was then called Canaan. It was at that point that those tribes chose to make a covenant with their new God who was different from the Canaanite God, El. Not only were they of a different ethnicity than the original settlers of that valley, they chose to separate themselves from the religion and traditional practices of that people (Armstrong, 1993). Since that point, there has been increasing distinction between the two Semitic peoples who are now called Arabs and Jews, represented by the two distinct ..."