A Winner! "Plague Time" Essay Contest

It is past time--you have all been waiting with bated breath--to announce the winner of our "Plague Time" Essay Contest. And we have one! The Department of History and Political Science is pleased to announce that the winner of the contest, for his essay "Plague Time: God's Judgment?", is...

...Blythe Gilbert! Blythe is a rising senior, a double major in History and Political Science, and he will be writing a senior honors project next fall on Italian Fascist foreign policy under Mussolini.

In his winning essay, Blythe ponders the fact that earlier generations of Christians, in the face of plague and pandemic, would have wondered what brought this terrible judgment of God down upon them. Drawing upon examples from Byzantium and the Puritans, he concludes--inspired by Martin Luther's experience with the plague--that Christians today, facing the coronavirus pandemic, should ask themselves not, "Why is God punishing us like this?," but rather, "What does God want us to do in the face of this trial?"

The department plans to make Blythe's essay available later in the summer. Shoot me an e-mail to reserve your advance e-copy of the winning essay.

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"Plague Time" Essay Contest

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Plague Time

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