Describes a two-part approach to teaching the student research paper that encourages students to make a science of developing research gathering techniques and an art of blending the gathered materials with a perspective that will make the paper more than just a summary of facts. The approach uses biography as a model for research. (HTH)

Suggests two exercises in writing a research paper: compare two biographies of one person, and discuss a problem about the truth of an incident in the person's life, citing positive and negative points of view. (TJ)

Discusses a college course on "the Bible as Literature." Describes how, by focusing on the biography of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels, and comparing it to other cultural narratives about him (in the Apocrypha, films, biographies, and novels), students learn to see how various ages and cultures have reshaped Jesus's life and mission.…