RUTGERS UNIVERSITY  RELIGION DEPARTMENT

840:346 Sexuality in the Western Religious Traditions Syllabus

James T. Johnson

Shape of the course

This course is designed to explore the central ideas and problems in the main line of the western Christian (Catholic and Protestant) and Jewish normative traditions on sexuality. At the same time, the course is also meant to provide a view, from the particular perspective offered by the ethics of sex, into how those major religious traditions deal with ethics in general.

About two-thirds of the course will follow the development of the core traditions from their biblical and classical beginnings up to now. The final third will take up several special problems posed by conflict between the traditions and contemporary culture. There will be an exam in the form of what I call a "directed paper" (you can think of it as a take-home essay test) at the  one-third mark, the end of September, and at the two-thirds mark, at first of November. A third directed paper will be assigned the last day of class and due during the final exam period in lieu of a final exam. It will cover the last third of the course as well as reflecting the course as a whole.

Office hours

Thursday 9:00-12:00 or by arrangement.

Readings for the course

You should buy the following books, which have been ordered at the Douglass-Cook Coop: Rachel Biale, Women and Jewish Law; Lisa Sowle Cahill, Between the Sexes; and Thomas C. Fox, Sexuality and Catholicism. Other books for the course, marked (R) below, are on reserve at Alexander Library undergraduate reserve desk. (A copy of the reserve list is attached for your reference). These reserve books are in short supply, and I strongly urge you to make personal copies of the readings as you go along in order to keep the books available to everyone in the class and so you will have them in hand to mark up and to review at exam time.

Part I: Early Shaping of the Western Religious Traditions on Sexuality

9/5: First day of classes. Orientation to the course. The biblical roots of the traditions on sexuality. Readings to be distributed.

9/7: Sources and shape of the Jewish tradition. Read: Feldman, Chapter 1 (R).

9/12: The Christian tradition: questions of interpretation. Read: Cahill, Chapter 1,2.

9/14-19: The Jewish and Christian traditions: interpreting the biblical record. Read: Cahill, Chapters 3-4; Fuchs, Chapter III (R); Biale, Introduction and chapter 1.

9/21: Biblical vs. classical concepts of love and their relation to sexuality. Read: Nygren, Part One, Chapter One, I, Chapter Two, II; and Thielicke, Chapter IIA (R).

9/26: Early Christian treatments of sexuality. Read: Fuchs, Chapter IV, pp. 86-128 (R).

9/28: Augustine's synthesis: the coalescence of a fundamental attitude. Read: Ramsey, "Human Sexuality in the History of Redemption" (R). First directed paper assigned.

Part II: Paradigms and Challenges from the Medieval to the Modern Periods

10/5: The Middle Ages: Christian tradition. Read: Cahill, Chapter 6. First directed paper due.

10/10: The Middle Ages: Judaism. Read: Guberman, "'To Walk in All His Ways': A Kabbalistic Sexual Ethic" (R), Maimonides, Code, The Book of Women, selections (D).

10/12: The impact of the Reformation on Christian understandings of sexuality: 1) early and general. Read: Fuchs, Chapter IV, pp. 135-71 (R); Cahill, Chapter 7.

10/17: The impact of the Reformation: 2) The Puritan movement and debate over the nature of marriage and human sexual relations. Read: Johnson, Chapters I, III (R).

10/19: The stabilizing of the paradigm: alternative versions. Judaism. Read: Feldman, Chapters 3-5 (R); Biale, Chapters 2-3.

10/24-26: The stabilizing of the paradigm: alternative versions. Protestantism. Read: Fuchs, Chapter V (R).

10/31-11/2: The stabilizing of the paradigm: alternative versions. Catholicism. Read: Pius XI, Christian Marriage (Casti Connubii), Parts I and II (R). Second directed paper assigned 11/2.

11/7: Working within the normative paradigms. Read: Cahill, Chapter 8; Biale, Chapter 5.

Part III: Applying and Challenging the Normative Paradigms in Contemporary Culture. Several Problem Areas.

11/9-14: Divorce and remarriage. Read: Biale, Chapter 3; Fox, 299-310; Christian Marriage 27-33 (r); Thielicke, Chapter III D (R). Second directed paper due 11/9.

11/16-28: Contraception. Read: Thielicke, Chapter IV A (R); Feldman, Chapters 6-8, 12 (R) or Biale, Chapter 8; Fox, Chapter 3. No class 11/21 because of Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee.

11/30: Abortion. Read: Biale, Chapter 9 or Feldman, Chapter 14-15; Thielicke, Chapter IV B (R); Fox, Chapter 4.

12/5: New reproductive technologies. Read: Cahill, Sex, Gender, and Christian Ethics, Chapter 7, and Spitz, "Through Her I Too Shall Bear a Child," Journal of Religious Ethics vol. 24.1 (Spring 1996), pp. 65-97.

12/7: Homosexuality. Read: Fuchs, pp. 215-19 (r) or Thielicke, Chapter IV D (R); Biale, Chapter 7; Fox, Chapter 5.

12/12: Last class day. Reprise of course. Third directed paper assigned, due 12/18, 12:00-3:00 PM.

 

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This page was revised 18 December 1998