Program / Course 26: Comprehensive Assessment / Lesson 3.4
What you will learn
- Score the systematic examination for accuracy and for fairness.
- Check each description of a tradition against that tradition’s own source.
- Rewrite unfair statements so that their holders would accept them.
- Plan review with a personal standard and dates of your own choosing.
The big idea
The systematic examination is marked twice: once for accuracy, and once for fairness to each tradition. The second marking requires a check against each tradition’s own texts, since a student’s memory of a view held by others is often shaped by its critics. A score under the suggested 70 percent is information, not a verdict. The 1, 7, 30 and 90 day reviews are suggestions. Nothing is submitted, and no certificate, credit or degree follows.
Key terms
- Fairness check
- A review of each description of a tradition against that tradition’s own text or a knowledgeable member.
- Steelman
- To state a view in its strongest form, before answering it. The opposite of a straw man.
- Straw man
- A weak version of a view, set up to be easily refuted.
- Own terms
- The words a tradition uses to describe itself, such as theosis, justification or the teaching office.
- Confession
- A formal statement of the beliefs of a church, such as the Augsburg or Westminster confessions.
- Review date
- A day set in advance for returning to weak material.
Background
Marking for fairness is the central task of this lesson. For every place where the exam describes a tradition other than the student’s own, find a source by that tradition and compare. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, an Orthodox author such as Timothy Ware or John of Damascus, the Westminster Confession and Luther’s Small Catechism are among the library texts that serve this purpose.
Look for four signs of unfairness. The first is using terms the tradition would not use. The second is describing the weakest form of an argument. The third is attributing the view of a small group to the whole tradition. The fourth is treating a difference of emphasis as a flat contradiction. A statement that avoids all four is usually accurate and fair.
After marking, the student decides what to do. The suggested standard is 70 percent for each knowledge examination, and a student may keep it, raise it or drop it. If a section is below the line, review it and retake a different set of questions after at least one week. A return after 1, 7, 30 and 90 days, re-answering five questions each time from memory, is a helpful pattern. All of this is private.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Mark accuracy
Using the answer key, count the points present in each answer. Do not credit what was in your head but not on the page. Write the section scores and total.
Step 2: Mark fairness
For every description of a tradition, mark it fair, partly fair or unfair after checking the source. For each one that is not fair, write what a member of that tradition would say is missing or wrong.
Step 3: Rewrite
Rewrite each unfair statement. Use the tradition’s own term, state the reason it gives for its view, and add a sentence on the difference from the other traditions. Read the new version aloud and ask whether the tradition’s members would accept it.
Step 4: Plan the study
Choose the three biggest gaps in accuracy and the two biggest in fairness. Assign a source and a date to each. Write the review dates in your notebook. At each date, answer five questions from memory and record the result.
- Did my fairness score differ from my accuracy score?
- For which tradition was I least fair?
- Which source did I use to check, and was it the tradition’s own?
- Did I describe a small group’s view as if it were the whole tradition’s?
- Could I state the best argument each tradition gives for its view?
- What will I study first, and when?
Examples
A rewrite on authority
First draft: Protestants ignore tradition. Revision: Protestants hold that Scripture is the final authority and that all teaching must be tested by it, while most churches also value creeds and confessions as faithful summaries. (A constructed example.)
A rewrite on the saints
First draft: Catholics and Orthodox worship saints. Revision: Catholic and Orthodox teaching distinguishes the worship given to God alone from the veneration given to saints, and asks the saints to pray for the living, as one asks fellow believers. Many Protestants think this practice has no basis in Scripture. (A constructed example.)
A rewrite on grace
First draft: Calvinists say that people have no choice. Revision: Reformed teaching holds that God’s grace is the first cause of salvation and that human choices are real but are not the final ground of it. Arminian Protestants hold a different view of how grace and human response relate. (A constructed example.)
Different perspectives
Catholic
A Catholic reader would check that the account of the sacraments, merit and the teaching office follows the Catechism and does not reduce Catholic teaching to a caricature of medieval abuses.
Orthodox
An Orthodox reader would check that the account is not a Western template with Orthodox labels, and that terms such as theosis, mystery and economy are used as Orthodox writers use them. The review note for this course asks that the Orthodox account of authority be checked for this.
Protestant
A Protestant reader would check that the account distinguishes the Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Baptist and Wesleyan traditions where they differ.
Secular scholarly
A scholar of religion would ask that each tradition be described by its own self-understanding first, and that comparisons be offered without ranking.
Why it matters
Fairness across traditions is what separates a student of theology from a partisan. It can be learned only by checking against the real sources. It also builds the trust that makes honest disagreement possible.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Fairness requires hiding my own position.
Correction: It does not. A student may state a view after describing others fairly. The self-assessment asks that the description come first.
Misunderstanding: A friend from the tradition is enough as a check.
Correction: A friend helps, but individuals differ. Use a source the tradition itself recognizes, and a friend if one is available.
Misunderstanding: A low fairness score means I should not hold a view.
Correction: It means more study is needed before describing others. It does not say what you should believe.
Knowledge check
What are the four signs of unfair description?
Using terms the tradition would not use, presenting only the weakest argument, attributing a small group’s view to the whole tradition, and treating a difference of emphasis as a contradiction. Checking each description for these signs, and against the tradition’s own source, finds most unfairness.
Why mark fairness separately from accuracy?
Because a description may contain no false statement and still mislead through selection and tone. A separate fairness mark asks whether members of the tradition would accept it. This catches errors that a list of correct points does not reveal.
What should be done with an unfair statement?
Rewrite it using the tradition’s own terms, include the reason the tradition gives for its view, and then compare with other traditions. Read the result and ask whether a member would accept it. If unsure, return to the source or consult a knowledgeable member.
Is a score below 70 percent a failure?
No. The standard is a suggestion for personal use. No one declares a pass or a failure, and nothing is submitted. A lower score shows what to study, and a student may choose a different target or retake the exam after at least a week.
Think it through
- Which of your own beliefs makes it hardest to describe another view fairly?
- What would you ask a member of another tradition to check?
- How do you tell the difference between a short summary and an unfair one?
- When has a source changed your view of what a tradition teaches?
Independent assignment
A fairness audit
In your own notebook, write 400 to 500 words. Take five descriptions of traditions from your exam and mark each fair, partly fair or unfair after checking a source by that tradition. Rewrite the weakest two and say which source you used. Then write your dated review plan. Do not send this to anyone or post it anywhere.
Further study
- Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church To check Catholic descriptions.
- Timothy (Kallistos) Ware, The Orthodox Church To check Orthodox descriptions.
- Zacharias Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus, The Heidelberg Catechism To check a Reformed description.
- Martin Luther, The Small Catechism To check a Lutheran description.
- James Arminius, The Works of James Arminius To check an Arminian description.
- Exodus 20:16 The commandment against false witness, which bears on fair description of others.