Instead, I am interested in what the memory of Jesus means to the people of the early church and how it might have affected their lives. I have a feeling that it may be an impossible question to answer, but I’d like to try. I will be taking a class called “The Cross in the New Testament” with Marianne Meye Thompson this next quarter, which I think will concentrate mostly on atonement theories. How the early church conceived of atonement will certainly be part of this exploration, but not nearly the whole. If you have any suggestions for angles or good reading material, please let me know.

Both fortunately and unfortunately, the paper can only be so long. Here are some of the descriptions of the writing sample requirement for a few of the schools on my application list:

• Boston University: “A writing sample of no more than 20 pages. Academic writing is preferred.”
• Drew: “A recent academic writing sample which should highlight the applicant’s writing and research ability. The writing sample should not exceed 20 printed, double-spaced pages, not including bibliographic data.”
• Duke: “a term paper or sample of other scholarly work of 15-20 pages”
• Emory: “a research paper or academic essay of about twenty pages”
• Notre Dame: “A writing sample is strongly recommended but not required. Writing samples should be between twenty and twenty-five pages in length. An applicant should choose a writing sample that highlights his or her strengths for the area to which he or she is applying. In addition to clear writing and ability to frame a theological question, one might, for example, submit a sample that shows facility with primary-text research languages.”
• Princeton Theological Seminary: “We require a 20-25 pg. writing sample relevant to the subfield area of interest.”
• U of Chicago: “Applicants to the Ph.D. program must, in addition to this essay, submit a writing sample not to exceed twenty-five (25) pages, typed and double-spaced. The sample should be from work you have submitted for a course or for publication. It may be an excerpt of such work (but please include a short paragraph contextualizing the excerpt), but it must not be a re-write done solely to satisfy the stipulated length of the submission.”
• UNC-Chapel Hill: “An academic writing sample (no more than 25-30 pages) is suggested but not required.”
• Union in VA: “A research paper or recent essay the student considers representative of his or her work in the proposed field of study.”

In response to the requirement by U of Chicago that it should be from a work submitted for a course or for publication, I do hope that I will be able to submit the paper to a regional SBL conference. I wonder if that fits their expectation. It looks like I have to aim for a 20 page paper to satisfy all of the above. Many say “not to exceed” or “no more than” 25 pages and I wonder if I should have a slightly longer version for those schools.