Roman Empire & Christianity Split: The Iconoclastic Controversy

Nikayla Wright Senior Division Individual, Website

PROCESS PAPER 1. HOW DID YOU CHOOSE YOUR TOPIC? This year the theme for NHD is Revolution, Reaction, and Reform in History. As a result, the topics that I considered had to do with Revolution, Reaction, and Reform. The topics I

considered include the revolution that took place when hunter-gatherers turned to

agriculture/farming, the invention of democracy in Athens, the French Revolution, invention of paper in China, invention of the printing press in England, and Martin Luther with his 95 Theses.

However, I did not choose any of those. One day, the perfect idea just hit me! I came up with one

of the best and most original (in my mind) topics for this project: the Iconoclastic Controversy

that took place during the time of the Byzantine Empire! I chose this topic because it was a topic

that my Honors World History class already touched on previously this year and it grabbed my

interest. I was able to relate to it, especially due to the fact that I am Muslim. The Iconoclastic

Controversy is a topic that I would enjoy researching and I already have some prior knowledge

regarding it.

2. HOW DID YOU CONDUCT YOUR RESEARCH? As far as my path of research is concerned, the very first thing I did was return to my world history textbook by one of the leading virtual school providers, K12 Inc. Since I

am in a virtual school where we are taught how to conduct proper research online, the

next step I took was to utilize a search engine, namely Google, in order to find resources

for my research. After conducting my Google search, I went through the websites listed and critiqued each one based on certain aspects such as the credentials of authors of

websites in order to determine authenticity and reliability of sources I may find useful.

3. HOW DID YOU SELECT YOUR PRESENTATION CATEGORY & CREATE YOUR PROJECT? I chose the creation of a website as my presentation category. I enjoy creating websites

and I also enjoyed the topic I was researching and doing my project on so I knew right

away what presentation category I would use. I basically created my project by

researching, taking notes, organizing notes, and then using my notes to create the

website.

4. HOW DOES YOUR PROJECT RELATE TO THE NHD THEME?

My theme definitely relates to the NHD theme of this year. The theme is Revolution,

Reaction, and Reform in History. My topic is the Iconoclastic Controversy that took

place during the Byzantine Empire. The Iconoclastic Controversy was in part a revolution

for Christianity, a reaction to the split of the Roman Empire, and a reform when it came

to how Christians approached implementing the religion in different areas.

(473 Words)