Religion & Gender
Prerequisites: THEO 100, THEO 107, or equivalent; please check requirements for declared majors/minors for exceptions.
This course will study the role of women in at least one (if not more) of the major world religious traditions.
Outcomes: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the influence of religion on gender roles, and how women in the contemporary world are reinterpreting their religious traditions.
Prerequisites: THEO 100, THEO 107, or equivalent; please check requirements for declared majors/minors for exceptions.
This course will study the role of women in at least one (if not more) of the major world religious traditions.
Outcomes: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the influence of religion on gender roles, and how women in the contemporary world are reinterpreting their religious traditions.
Prerequisite: THEO 100 or THEO 107 or equivalent.
Tier 2 Theological Knowledge
Women & Gender Studies
Asynchronous Class Meeting: All instruction for this section will be delivered online asynchronously.
This course will consider the relationship between gender and religious authority by focusing on prophets in ancient Judaism and ancient Christianity. The course will consider prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, but also beyond them, locating these texts in wide ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern contexts. It will map different models of gender in the ancient world, locating male, female, and nonbinary prophets alongside one another. This course will interrogate the ways that claims to prophecy are also claims to power, examining the role of the prophet as a speaker who must be taken seriously. We will also explore, however, the ways that texts present prophets as figures under control, by focusing on the ways that prophets are often subject to divine violence in inspiration. In these ways, the course will analyze the intersections of prophecy, gender, violence, and power. This course will focus on three sets of questions: (1) What is the gender of the prophet, and of the deity? Does their gender conform to categories of masculine or feminine, or does it belong to another category? (2) How does divine inspiration affect the body and mind of the prophet? Is the encounter between a prophet and a god violent? If so, is the encounter one of sexual violence? (3) To whose authority does this prophecy contribute (the gods, the prophets, the authors)? How does gender play a role in the production of that authority through prophecy?
Class Details
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