Course Description
For the last several decades religion has been at the top of some women's lists of organizations that have worked against women. In answer to this, some women continued to follow their family religious tradition while remaining feminists. Many women worked toward gender equity in leadership of their religions. Others dropped out altogether from religion or formed their own, woman-centered religions. A new movement has been building for the last ten years. Women with the power to make a choice to leave traditional religions have chosen to stay, often drawing criticism from feminists. Why?
This course examines gender and religion: in speaking of God, in creation narratives, in family structures, in attitudes toward the body, in the history of religious movements. We look at the new ways of reading foundational religious texts that attempt to expose and counter sexism in religious texts and social structures. While we will consider women in non-western religions for comparison, primary attention is directed toward women in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. The course focuses on women's interpretation and experience.
Course Evaluation
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Lecture and recitation attendance, and participation. If you have to miss a recitation meeting, please email before recitation time. 25%
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Typed weekly response papers (1-2 page) on one of the required readings for the week, plus a typed one-page film review of every film we see together. Due in recitation. The response papers and film reviews will be graded with plus, check or minus sign only. 30%
(NB: Any time you receive a minus sign, you are required to attend the next available office hour.)
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Midterm take-home essay 20%
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Final exam 25%
Texts
Available from Penn Book Center, 34th and Sansome
Telephone
(215) 222-7600
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R. Biale Women and Jewish Law
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B.M. Kienzle and P. Walker Women Preachers and Prophets through Two Millennia of Christianity
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A. Wadud Qur'an and Woman
Romance Reader and Rapture of Canaan and Little X for the last three sessions of the semester. Little X is on reserve and will be online later in the term.
You do not have to purchase books. These books, and many more on women and religion, are on reserve in Rosengarten in Van Pelt Library. From Franklin Webpage, choose "Course Reserves" and enter my name.
Articles and Chapters from Books - both Required and Supplementary Readings
There is no paper bulkpack. You can read the articles in Rosengarten Reserve Study Center or electronically (from a local computer, enter courseweb as an address to get to the Blackboard site). Copy, download, or print the readings as needed. We have Required Readings and Supplementary Readings (in the form of textbooks or online texts). You are welcome to do all the readings each week, but the Supplementary Readings are intended primarily for the essays on the midterm and final exams.
Inclusion of a piece of writing as an assignment does not mean that you must accept the author's views. In fact, I encourage you to be vigorously critical in your analyses of the readings and films.
Lecture Schedule
January 7 and 9 Introduction to the Study of Women and Religion
Required Readings in preparation for discussion and assignment next week (Handout)
- Genesis 1- 3 (Philadelphia: JPS, 1995).
- Cantor, "The Lilith Question" from S. Heschel, ed., On Being a Jewish Feminist (New York: Shocken Books, 1991).
Required Reading:
- Wadud "In the Beginning, Man and Woman Were Equal," Qur'an and Woman, 15-28 (Textbook).
Assignment for class this Wednesday: Bring in a misogynist statement from any religious text. Handwritten is fine. State the source.
Assignment for recitation, week of January 14: Write your own Creation Myth (1-2 pages) or comment on how your religious tradition explains creation and write response paper on Sarah and Hagar readings.
January 14 Creation: The Story of Eve
January 16 Sarah and Hagar in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Required Readings (Handout)
- B. von Schlegell, "Hagar" from S. Young, ed. Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion (NY: Macmillan, 1999). Not acceptable for response paper.
- R. Behar, "Sarah and Hagar," C. Herron "Chamisa," and S. Ezrahi "Brothers and Others" from G.T. Reimer and J. Kates, eds., Beginning Anew: A Woman's Companion to the High Holy Days (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1997).
- D. Williams, "Intro." "Hagar's Story" and "Sisters in the Wilderness" from Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993).
January 23 God-language: Can God be Gendered?
Required Readings (from now on, readings are either online or from our textbooks):
- R. Adler, "God and Metaphor," Engendering Judaism: An Inclusive Theology and Ethics (Philadelphia: JPS, 1998), 83-103.
- E. Pagels, "What Became of God the Mother? Conflicting Images of God in Early Christianity," from C. Christ and J. Plaskow, eds., Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1979).
- S. Murata, "Divine Duality," The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islam, selection (NY: SUNY, 1992).
Supplementary Readings:
- "Julian of Norwich," from S. Madigan, Mystics, Visionaries, and Prophets (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998) pp. 191-208.
- B. Newman, "Renaissance Feminism and Esoteric Theology," from From Virile Woman to Woman Christ (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995).
- C. Christ, "Rethinking Theology and Nature," from J. Plaskow and C. Christ, eds., Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1989) pp. 314-325.
- E.A. Matter, "The Virgin Mary: A Goddess?" from C. Olson, ed., The Book of the Goddess: Past and Present (NY: Crossroad, 1983) pp. 80-95.
January 28 and 30 Introduction to Judaism: Jewish Women in History
Required Readings:
- R. Adler, "The Virgin in the Brothel…The Legend of Beruriah," Tikkun 3,6. Not suitable for response paper.
- J. Baskin, "Jewish Women in the Middle Ages," pp. 101-123 and R. Melammed, "Sephardi Women," pp. 128-149 from J. Baskin, ed., Jewish Women in Historical Perspective (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2nd. ed., 1998).
- Glukel of Hamlen, Memoirs (selection).
- Supplementary Readings: " R. Kraemer, "Jewish Women in the Diaspora World of Late Antiquity," pp. 46-72 from J. Baskin, ed., Jewish Women in Historical Perspective.
- C. Weissler, "Prayers in Yiddish and the Religious World of Ashkenazi Women," pp. 169-192 from J. Baskin, ed., Jewish Women in Historical Perspective.
February 4 and 6 Introduction to Christianity: Christian Women in History
Required Readings:
- B.M. Kienzle and P. Walker, eds., Women Preachers and Prophets through Two Millennia of Christianity (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1998). "Preface: Authority and Definition" and choose two from Chapters 1, 3, 7, 9, 13 and "Afterword: Exercising Power, Embracing Responsibility" (Textbook).
- The Book of Margery Kempe (born 1373) Selection.
- S. Madigan, ed. Mystics, Visionaries, and Prophets. "Hildegard von Bingen - Song about the Virgin" and "New Styles of Female Spirituality - Christina Mirabilis."
Supplementary Reading:
- Remaining chapters of Women Preachers and Prophets (Textbook).
- F.A. Petroff, Medieval Women's Visionary Literature, "Pelagia the Actress."
- E. Schussler Fiorenza, "The Jesus Movement as a Renewal Movement within Judaism" and "Epilogue" from In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins (New York: Crossroad, 1983) pp. 99-159, 343-351.
- E. Castelli, "'I Will Make Mary Male': Pieties of the Body and Gender Transformation of Christian Women in Late Antiquity" from J. Epstein and K. Straub, eds., BodyGuards: The Cultural Politics of Gender Ambiguity (NY and London: Routledge, 1991) pp. 29-49.
February 11 and 13 Introduction to Islam: Muslim Women in History
Required Readings:
- N. Keddie and B. Baron, eds., Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender (New Haven: Yale, 1991). N. Keddie, "Introduction: Deciphering Middle Eastern Women's History," L. Ahmed, "Early Islam and the Position of Women: The Problem of Interpretation," and J. Berkey, "Women and Islamic Education."
- F. Mernissi, "How Does One Say 'Queen' in Islam?" from The Forgotten Queens of Islam (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1990) pp. 9-25.
Supplementary Readings:
- M. Fadel, "Two Women, One Man: Knowledge, Power and Gender in Medieval Sunni Legal Thought," International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 29 (1997): 185-204.
- F. Daftary, "Sayyida Hurra: The Isma'ili Sulayhid Queen of Yemen" from GRG Hambly, ed., Women in the Medieval Islamic World.
February 18 and 20 Comparative Views on the Body: I Hair, Modesty, and Public Space
Required Readings:
- M. Sherif, "What is Hijab?" The Muslim World 77: 3-4 (July-Oct. 1987): 151-163.
- L. Bronner, "From Veil to Wig: Jewish Women's Hair Covering" Judaism 42 (Fall, 1993): 465-477.
- 1 Corinthians and 1, 2 Timothy. Not suitable for response paper.
- J.M. Bassler, "1 Corinthians" from C. Newsom and S. Ringe, eds., The Women's Bible Commentary (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992) pp. 321-329.
Supplementary Reading:
- S. Zuhur, "New Images or Continuous Archetypes?" and "Dreaming the Myth, and Veiling It" from Revealing Reveiling: Islamist Gender Ideology in Contemporary Egypt (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992) pp. 1-16, 125-134.
Film in class Wed, Feb. 27, "Boys, Girls, and the Veil" (Egypt, 1999).
*Midterm essay questions handed out in recitation this week. Completed essays are due by 4:30 p.m., Friday, March 1 to your recitation leader - either in person or to her/his box in 201 Logan Hall. Out of respect for those who turn their exams in on time, those who turn in exams late will be marked down one degree per day (e.g. from a B to a B-).*
February 25 and 27 II Purity and Menstruation
Required Readings:
- R. Biale, Women and Jewish Law: The Essential Texts, Their History, and Their Relevance for Today (New York: Schocken Books, 1995). "Foreword" pp. ix-xv, "Introduction" pp. 3-9, Chapter 6 "Niddah: Laws of the Menstruant" pp. 147-174, and Chapter 8 "Procreation and Contraception" pp. 198-218 (Textbook).
- J. Hauptman, Chapter on niddah from Re-reading the Rabbis: A Woman's Voice.
- K. Reinhart, "Impurity/No Danger," History of Religions 30, 1 (1990): 1-24.
- V. Ochs, Words on Fire: One Woman's Journey into the Sacred (San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1990) selection pp. 217-234.
March 4 and 6 III Circumcision
Required Readings:
- M. Anees, "Circumcision: The Clitoral Inferno," Islamic Culture 63, 3 (1989): 77-92.
- V. Rispler-Chaim, "Circumcision" from Islamic Medical Ethics in the 20th Century (Leiden: EJ Brill, 1993) pp. 84-93.
- B. Brooten, "Clitoredectomy" from Love between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism (Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1996) pp. 162-172.
- D. Boyarin, "'This We Know to Be the Carnal Israel': Circumcision and the Erotic Life of God and Israel," Critical Inquiry 18 (Spring 1992): 474-505.
March 11-15 Spring Break
March 18, 20 and 25 IV Virginity, Sex, and Marriage
Required Readings:
- R. Biale, Women and Jewish Law. Chapter 7 "Sexuality outside of Marriage: Incest, Adultery, Promiscuity, and Lesbianism" pp. 175-197 (Textbook).
- J. Brundage, "'Allas! That Evere Love was Synne': Sex and Medieval Canon Law" and "'Better to Marry than to Burn?' The Case of the Vanishing Dichotomy" from Sex, Law and Marriage in the Middle Ages (Aldershot, Great Britain and Brookfield, Vt.: Variorum, 1993) pp. 1-13, 195-216.
- B. Musallam, "Contraception and the Rights of Women" from Sex and Society in Islam (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983) pp. 28-38.
- S. Haeri, "Temporary Marriage and the State in Iran: An Islamic Discourse on Female Sexuality" Journal of Social Research 59 (Spring, 1992): 201-223.
- J. Hauptman, "Relations between the Sexes," Re-reading the Rabbi's: A Woman's Voice (Boulder: Westview, 1998).
Supplementary Readings :
- P. Brown, "'Daughters of Jerusalem': The Ascetic Life of Women in the Fourth Century" and "Epilogue" from The Body and Society (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988) pp. 259-284, 428-447.
- C. Bynum, Introduction, "Religious Women in the Later Middle Ages," "Woman as Body and As Food," and "Women's Symbols," from Holy Fast and Holy Feast (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), pp. 1-9, 13-30, 260-276, 277-296.
- E.A. Matter "My Sister, My Spouse" from J. Plaskow and C. Christ, eds., Weaving the Visions (San Francisco: HarperSanFranscico, 1989) pp. 51-62
- S. Murata, "Mysteries of Marriage: Notes on a Sufi Text" from L. Lewisohn, ed., The Legacy of Mediaeval Persian Sufism (London and NY: Khaniqah Nimatullahi Pub., 1992) pp. 343-351.
- S. Murray and W. Roscoe, eds., "Introduction," "Woman-Woman Love in Islamic Societies," and "Conclusion" from Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature (New York: New York University Press, 1997) pp. 3-13, 97-104, 302-319.
Film "Divorce Iranian Style" (1998)
March 27 Women, Spirituality, and Religious Ritual
*Class visits to synagogue, church, or mosque (details in class). No recitation meetings. Comment on your visit along with your reading response paper (two pages total) for this week's assignment, collected in lecture Monday April 8.*
Required Readings:
- S. Sered, "Introduction," "Sacralizing the Feminine: Food Preparation as a Religious Activity," and "The Liberation of Widowhood: From the Private to the Public" from Women as Ritual Experts: The Religious Lives of Elderly Jewish Women in Jerusalem (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992) pp. 3-17, 26-33, 87-101, 103-120.
- B.R. von Schlegell, "Islamic Revivalism and Mysticism among Muslim Women in Damascus" (unpublished ms.) Not suitable for response paper.
- P.S. Nadell, Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Women's Ordination 1889-1985. Selection.
- Y. Chireau, "Prophetess of the Spirits: Mother Leaf Anderson and the Black Spiritual Churches of New Orleans" from B.M. Kienzle and P. Walker, eds., Women Preachers and Prophets, pp. 303-317 (Textbook).
- J. Clancy-Smith, "The House of Zainab: Female Authority and Saintly Succession in Colonial Algeria" from N. Keddie and B. Baron, Women in Middle Eastern History, pp. 254-274.
April 1 and 3 Women's Revivalism and Modernities: I Judaism
Required Reading (Novel):
Supplementary Readings:
- L. Harris, "A Brief Social and Religious History of Hasidism," "The Mikvah (Ritual Bath)," and "A Wedding" from Holy Days: The World of a Hasidic Family (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985) pp. 32-53, 135-149, 242-250.
- J. Plaskow, "Introduction: It's Feminist, But Is It Jewish?" from Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1990) pp. vii-xix.
- T. El-Or, "Introduction," "Educated and Ignorant," and "Afterword: Cultures in Context," from Educated and Ignorant: Ultraorthodox Jewish Women and Their World (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1994) pp. 1-9, 65-87, 207-214.
- T. El-Or, "Multi-Literacies and Democracy: Religious Zionist Women Reading Actuality in Antiquities" Jewish Social Studies 156: 133-156.
April 8 and 10 II Christianity
Required Reading (Novel):
- S. Reynolds The Rapture of Canaan (NY: GP Putnam's Sons, 1995).
Supplementary Reading:
- R. Griffith, "Introduction," "Released, Restored, Set Free," and "Conclusion" from God's Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997) pp. 1-23, 55-79, 199-213.
Film in class Wednesday April 10, "The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God."
April 15 and 17 III Islam
Required Reading (Memoir):
- S. Tate Little X: Growing Up in the Nation of Islam (San Francisco: Harper SF, 1995). Tate writes about several Islamic approaches in the African-American community, not just the Nation of Islam.
Required Reading:
- Wadud, "Rights and Roles of Woman: Some Controversies" from Qur'an and Woman (Oxford, 1992) pp. 62-93 (Textbook).
Supplementary Readings:
- E. Fernea, "The United States: Coming Home" and "Conclusion" from In Search of Islamic Feminism (New York: Doubleday, 1998) pp. 364-413, 414-422 together with A. al-Hibri, "Who Defines Women's Rights? A Third World Woman's Response," Washington College of Law Human Rights Brief (Fall 1994): 9 - 11.
- M. Badran, "Independent Women: More Than a Century of Feminism in Egypt," from J. Tucker, ed., Arab Women: Old Boundaries, New Frontiers (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993) pp. 129-148.
- Andrew Rippin, "Feminism's 'New Islam,'" from Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, vol. 2 (London and New York: Routledge, 1993) pp. 115-126.
- S. Arebi, "Gender Anthropology in the Middle East: The Politics of Muslim Women's Misrepresentation," American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 8, 1 (1991): 99-108.
*Final exam essay questions will be handed out in recitation this week. I hope that you will organize your thoughts for answering the questions ahead of time, but the final exam is not open-book. The Registrar has tentatively scheduled our final for Friday May 3, 8:30-10:30 am.*
Concluding Discussion and Bonus Final Exam Materials on Reserve
- S. Ortner "Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?" from M.Z. Rosaldo and L. Lamphere, eds., Woman, Culture, and Society (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1974) pp. 67-87 together with S. Ortner "So, Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?" from Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996).
Party
We will discuss the best time for having the class banquet and movie ("Door to the Sky"- a Moroccan film story about women, religion, and modernity, in Arabic and French with English subtitles). A review of this film is not required! |
