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UNIVERSITY 
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UNIVERSITY
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840:351
Women in Western Religions
Amanda
Berry Wylie
WOMEN IN WESTERN RELIGIONS
This course explores the representations and roles of women in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We will read passages from the foundational texts associated with each religion and explore how these texts represent women and gender and in what ways they are ambiguous. We will examine how women and gender were represented in the interpretative traditions of each religion, in theology and law. We will also consider the difficulties in generalizing about women's traditional roles in each religion. Even if women were excluded from the official interpretative tradition, how did they gain access to power through mystical experience, prayer, and ritual? We will discuss the changes in these roles and representations historically and their practical implications. The issues will include attitudes toward sexual practice, the adornment and covering of the body, and the participation of women in religious leadership.
Course Requirements
1) Attendance at all class sessions is expected. Your participation in small group exercises and general discussion is expected and is part of the learning experience for the entire class. (Class participation: 5%)
2) Papers (45%): Three analytical essays, each of 4-6 pages in length. Proper documentation of sources in footnotes or endnotes is expected. Further instructions will be given in class.
Paper 1: due October 3
Paper 2: due November 14
Paper 3: due during the last 2 weeks of class
3) Participation in leadership of class discussion on one of the last four class meetings.(5%) Each student will sign up for a team which will prepare a list of discussion questions for one session - the same session for which the third paper is written. The paper will be due in class on the given day.
4) Test: October 31 (20%)
5) Final Exam: Friday, December 14, 12-3pm (25%)
Required Texts
1. Course Packet.
2. Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1992).
3. K. Kvam et al., Eve & Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender (Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1999)
The Course Packet and the two textbooks can be purchased at the Rutgers University Bookstore on College Ave.
Recommended Texts
1. Translation of the Qur'an. Recommended translation: The Koran, trans. Arberry.
2. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha (New Revised Standard Edition).
These can also be purchased at Rutgers University Bookstore.
COURSE SCHEDULE
Sept. 5 Introductions
Sept. 10 Women and Gender in the Hebrew Creation Story
1. Bible: Genesis 1-5.
2. Eve & Adam, pp. 15-40, 431-444.
Sept. 12 Women and Gender in the Hebrew Bible
1. Bible: Exodus 15, 19, and 20; Numbers 12.
Sept. 17 Women and Gender in the Hebrew Bible, cont'd.
1. Packet: Biale, "Sexual Subversions in the Bible," in Eros and the Jews, pp. 13-32.
2. Bible: Ruth; 1 Samuel 18 and 25; 2 Samuel 11-13; Judges 4-5.
Sept. 19 Women and Jesus
1. Bible: Matthew 26, 28; Mark 6:1, 15:40f, 16:9, 14; Luke 7, 8, 10, 24; John 12, 20, 21; Acts 10, 12, 21:9, 16.
2. Women and Gender in Islam, pp. 1-40.
3. Eve & Adam, pp. 120-121.
Sept. 24 Women in New Testament Communities
1. Packet: D'Angelo, "Veils, Virgins, and the Tongues of Men and Angels," in Off with Her Head!, pp. 131-164.
2. Bible: Galatians 3:28; 1 Corinthians 7, 11, and 14; Romans 1:18-32; 1 Timothy 2; Titus 2; 1 Peter 3:1-7; Ephesians 5.
Sept. 26 Women's Roles in Early Christian Churches
1. Packet: Fiorenza, "The Apostleship of Women in Early Christianity," in Women Priests pp. 135-140.
Oct. 1 Women and Gender in the Qur'an
1. Qur'an 2:222-242; 4:1-59; 4:127-134; 7:1-25; 66:11-12; 28:1-25; 19:16-40; 49:11-18; 33:4-55; 24:11-26
2. Women and Gender in Islam, pp. 41-78
3. Eve & Adam, pp. 413-419, 463-477.
Oct. 3 Rabbinic Judaism and Women
1. Packet: Baskin, "Rabbinic Judaism and the Creation of Women," in Judaism Since Gender, pp. 125-130
2. Eve & Adam, pp. 69-100.
Oct. 8 Women in Traditional Jewish Law
1. Packet: Hauptman, "Images of Women in the Talmud," in Religion and Sexism, pp. 184-211.
2. Packet: The Code of Maimonides: Book Four, The Book of Women, selections.
3. Eve & Adam, pp. 161-164, 216-220.
Oct. 10 Women Martyrs in Early Christianity
1. Packet: "Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas"
2. Packet: Miles, "Becoming Male," in Carnal Knowing, pp. 53-62.
Oct. 15 Women and Early Christian Asceticism
1. Packet: Miles, "Becoming Male," pp. 63ff.
2. Eve & Adam, pp. 123-128, 131-132.
Oct. 17 Interpretations
of Genesis in Early Christianity
1. Eve & Adam, pp. 133-147
Oct. 22 Interpretations of Genesis by Augustine
1. Packet: Augustine (excerpts from Clark).
2. Eve & Adam, pp. 147-155.
Oct. 24 Medieval Islamic Society and Women
1. Women and Gender in Islam, pp. 79-101.
2. Eve & Adam, pp. 185-199.
Oct. 29 Women in Islamic Law
1. Women and Gender in Islam, pp. 102-123
Oct. 31 TEST
Nov. 5 Women and Islamic Mysticism
1. Packet: Rabi'a: Her Words and Life
2. Eve & Adam, pp. 199-203.
Nov. 7 Women and Christian Mysticism
1. Eve & Adam, pp. 169-172.
2. Packet: Bynum, "...And Women His Humanity: Female Imagery in the Religious Writing of the Later Middle Ages," in Gender and Religion, pp. 257-288.
3. Packet: Catherine of Siena, "Dialogue," in In Her Words, pp. 187-203.
Nov. 12 Women and Jewish Mysticism
1. Packet: Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment, pp. 153-162 and notes.
1. Eve & Adam, pp. 165-169, 220-225.
Nov. 14 Women and Piety: Judaism
1. Packet: Weissler, "The Traditional Piety of Ashkenazic Women".
Nov. 19 Women and Piety: Islam
1. Packet: Hegland, "Mixed Blessings: The Majales - Shi'a Women's Rituals of Mourning in Northwest Pakistan," pp. 179-196.
[Nov. 21 designated day for Friday classes - we do not meet]
Nov. 26 Women and Piety: Christianity
1. Packet: Jeanette Rodriguez, Our Lady of Guadalupe: Faith and Empowerment among Mexican-American Women, pp. 31-36, 127-142.
Nov. 28 Islam and the Veil
1. Women and Gender in Islam, pp. 144-168, 188-248.
Dec. 3 Christianity and the Ordination of Women
1. Eve & Adam, pp. 280-287.
2. Packet: "The Struggle for the Right to Preach," in Women and Religion in America, pp. 193-214, 223-229.
3. Packet: Cannon, "Womanist Interpretation and Preaching in the Black Church," from Katie's Canon, pp. 113-121.
Dec. 5 Challenges to traditional Catholic interpretations
1. Packet: Catholic "Declaration on the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood" (Rome, 1976).
2. Packet: Fiorenza, "The Twelve," in Women Priests, pp. 114-122.
Dec. 10 Challenges to traditional interpretations in Judaism
1. Eve & Adam, pp.401-412, 422-430.
2. Packet: Rebecca Alpert, Like Bread on the Seder Plate, pp. 37-52.
3. Packet: Rita Gross, "Female God Language in a Jewish Context," pp. 167-73.
Dec. 12 Wrap-Up and Review
Dec. 14 FINAL EXAMINATION
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Last updated 09/29/2001