Women and Religion * 2007
T, F 12:30-1:50 Dr. Susan Marks
PMC 219 smarks@ncf.edu
Office Hours: Monday 2:30-3:30 PME 221; x 4271
Thursday 11-Noon http://faculty.ncf.edu/marks/
and by appointment
Objectives:
In this course we will approach women’s religion from many different perspectives. Through historical and cross-cultural material we will explore gender and attitudes towards sex, purity and fertility as they shape the lives of women. We will consider exclusions within traditions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, as well as traditions involving goddesses. We will look at religious behaviors imposed by patriarchal culture as well as those developed by women. We will bring theoretical models of religion to the practices of women and ask whether women are religious for the same/different reasons as men, evaluating the implications of various different answers to these questions. And we will consider the changes in religious traditions as they encounter feminism and its vision of possibilities for women.
Meanwhile, we will listen to religious voices that caution us about judging from the outside. We enter a discourse in which advocating for “other” excluded women appears as but a short step from Euro-Americans imposing their privileged authority on “their” colonies. We will explore the line between being concerned and being patronizing. These explorations remind us that we must look closely at familiar traditions as well as alien, asking ourselves to recognize inequalities so close to home that they have become invisible, as well as our own many layered responses to the possibility of change.
As we take the opportunity to study new aspects of the theory and practice of women’s religion, we will also develop a language to use with each other as we confront issues that are both personal and abstract, both immediate and theoretical, and as we learn to recognize the wisdom of the written and spoken words offered by our classmates as well as our text-books.
Expectations:
Regular attendance is required. In order to facilitate review by both your peers and myself, assignments must be handed in on time. Class participation counts towards your overall evaluation. Your classmates will come to depend on your comments even as you will come to depend on theirs. If you are a person who does not readily talk in public, I encourage you to come see me during my office hours, and we can devise other ways for you to have input into class discussions.
Responsibilities:
1. Academic integrity.
2. Active participation. Since participation depends on regular attendance, more than three absences will be grounds for an unsatisfactory evaluation. Students should arrive on time, with readings in hand, having done relevant readings before class session as well as any informal writing assignments.
3. Two papers that build into one final project considering one issue in two traditions. Each paper will involve drafts and revisions.*
4. Explorations through informal writing assignments (which may also be understood as excerpts from an on-going journal).
*An appropriately formatted hard [paper] copy of formal assignments must be handed in on-time, together with all drafts and doodles. You will be evaluated based on the energy of the original exploration as well as the development in the revision process.
Required Texts:
Additional readings will be available and electronic reserve [* = reserve reading]
***Please also check Library Reserve for many additional, related books***
SCHEDULE:
Fri Feb 9 Women and Religions
Young, ix-xviii
Sered, 3-10, 195-213
Donaldson & Pui-Lam 1-5, 24-28, and chapter 2
Tues Feb 13 Ancient Goddesses
Readings:
Young, 298-305 (Readings continue on the next page)
Sered, 161-79
*The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, in Lefkowitz and Fant eds.,
Women’s Life in Greec and Rome, 1992, 278-281
*Ross S. Kraemer, Her Share of the Blessings: Women's Religions Among
Pagans, Jews and Christians in the Greco-Roman World,
1992, 22-29, 71-79
*E. Ann Matter, "The Virgin Mary: A Goddess?" from Carl Olson, ed., The
Book of the Goddess Past and Present, 1985, 80-96
Due: Tues, Feb 13, Reflection Paper
In
class: Hand out Research Assignment
Fri Feb 16 Research tools
Presentation by Librarian, Caroline Reed in PMA 117
(Read ½ Starhawk)
Tues Feb 20 Contemporary Goddess
Readings:
Starhawk
Readings:
Young, 149-50, 216-217, 218-219
Sered, 11-42, 43-69
*Michelle Rosaldo, "The Use and Abuse of Anthropology: Reflections on Feminism and Cross-Cultural Understanding," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 5 (1980) 3:389-417
*Sherry Ortner, "Is Female is to Male as Nature to
Culture?" from Woman, Culture and Society, eds. Michelle Rosaldo
and Louise Lamphere, 1974, 67-88
[e-book] Sherry Ortner, "So, Is Female is to Male as Nature to
Culture?" from Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture,
1996, 173-80
Fri Feb. 23rd or Sat Feb 24th at 7:30pm: Performance in Sainer of “By the Well of
Sarah and Hagar”
Tues Feb 27 Special Visit from “By the Well” – Ibtisom Mohamed,
Dorit Bat Shalom, Yonat Klar and Andrea Blanch
Fri Mar 2 Judaism: Women and Tradition
Readings:
Young, 7 bottom-12, 15-18, 20-26
Sharma &Young, chapter 5
Donaldson & Pui-Lam, chapter 7
*Ross S. Kraemer, Her Share of the Blessings: Women's Religions Among Pagans, Jews and Christians in the Greco-Roman World, 1992, 106-127
Tues Mar 6 Judaism: Engendering Jewish History
Readings:
*Miriam Peskowitz, "Engendering Jewish Religious History," from Peskowitz and Laura Levitt, eds., Judaism Since Gender, 1997, 17-39
Due: Tues, Mar 6, Draft First Research Paper
[Two copies of paper due - Exchange with peers]
Fri Mar 9 Peer Review
Read: Two papers from peers
Due: PRF for each paper
WEEK 6
Tues Mar 13 Judaism – One Woman’s Voice
In class film: B. Meyerhoff, In Her Own Time Due: Tues, Mar 13, First Research Paper
Fri Mar 16: Judaism – Women’s Voices
Readings:
Young, 34-5
*Penina Adelman, Miriam’s Well, 1986, 60-66, & 124
*Tamar El-Or, 89-110, 128-133
*Weissler, xvii-xxvi, 29- 35, 51-65
*Zierler, 251-271
Tues Mar 20 Islam: Qur’an and Hadith
Readings:
Young, 95-108
[e-book] Barbara Stowasser, Women in the Qur’an, Traditions, and Interpretation, 1994, 119-134
Fri Mar 23: Islam: Women and Tradition
Readings:
*Fatima Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite, 85-114 & 180-188
In class film: A Veiled Revolution
SPRING BREAK
Tues Apr 3 – First Day of Passover - No Class
Fri Apr 6 Islam – Feminist Voices
Readings:
Sharma &Young, chapter 7
*Mahmood, Saba, “Topography of the Piety Movement,” in Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject, 2005, 40-78.
Tues Apr 10, Islam – Women’s Voices
Readings:
*Declich, Francesca, “Sufi experience in rural Somali. A focus on women,” Social anthropology. 2000, v.8, no.3, 295-318
Donaldson & Pui-Lam, chapters 3 & 6
Fri Apr 13 Islam – Doctoral Candidate Amira Quraishi to Guest-Teach
Readings:
* Excerpts from: Amina Wadud, Quran And Woman: Rereading The Sacred Text From A Woman's Perspective, 1999, [2nd ed.].
*Valerie J. Hoffman, “Oral Traditions as a Source for the Study of Muslim Women” in Beyond the Exotic: Women's Histories in Islamic Societies, Amira El-Azhary Sonbol ed., 2005, 365-380.
Excerpt from Mohja Kahf, The Tangerine Scarf, 2006:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6588450
WEEK 10
Tues Apr 17 Looking Back/Looking Forward
Readings (for Tues):
Sered, 215-41
Due: Tues, Apr 17, Draft of 2nd Research Paper
[Two copies of paper due - Exchange with peers]
Fri Apr 20 Peer Review
Read: Two papers from peers
Due: PRF for each paper
Tues Apr 24 Christianity: Women and Tradition
Readings:
Sharma &Young, chapter 6
1 Corinthians 7, 11 (Young ,44) 14-15
1 and 2 Timothy
The Acts of [Paul and] Thecla (electronically at
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/courses/rs135/thecla.html)
Fri Apr 27 Church Conflicts and Women
In class film: The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Due Friday Apr 27, Second Research Paper, etc.
Tues May 1 Recent Church Practice
Readings:
*”Report of Pontifical Biblical Commission-July 1, 1976,
reprinted in C. Stuthlmueller, Women and the Priesthood, 1978.
Young, 51, 405-407.
*Susan Setta, "When Christ is a Woman: Theology and Practice in the Shaker
Tradition," in Falk and Gross eds., Unspoken Worlds 3rd
ed, 2001), 264-275
Fri May 4 Christianity –Women’s Voices
Readings:
Donaldson & Pui-Lam, chapter 8
And readings from Plaskow and Christ, Weaving the Visions (HarperSanFrancisco,1989):
*Rosemary Radford Ruether, "Sexism and God-language," 151-62
*Dolores Williams, "Womanist Theology," 179-86
*Mary Daly, "Be-friending," 199-207
*Beverly Harrison, "The Power of Anger in the Work of Love," 214-225
*Katie Cannon, "Moral Wisdom," 281-92
*Carter Heyward, "Sexuality, Love and Justice," 293-301
*Susan Thistlethwaite, "Every Two Minutes: Battered Women and Feminist
Interpretation," 302-13
Tues May 8 Religion, Feminism and Post-colonialism
Readings:
Donaldson & Pui-Lam, chapter 5
*Christ, Carol P, “Weaving the Fabric of Our Lives,” in Women, Gender, Religion: A Reader, Elizabeth Castelli, ed., 2001, 34-39.
*Peskowitz, Miriam, “Unweaving: A Response to Carol P. Christ,” in Women, Gender, Religion,137-43.
*Christ, Carol P, “Reweaving,” in Women, Gender, Religion, 46-48.
All papers Returned in Prep for Presentations
Fri May 11 & Tues May 15
In Class: Presentations
Presentation Outline due
A,B,C & D group responds
Fri May 18 Conclusions