REL 5184 Sexuality, Religion and Social Change
Dr. Christine Gudorf
Fall 2012
Wed 5:00 pm
Office Hours: Wed 2-4 in DM 305B
Office Phone: 305 348 2729
Class Meeting: Wed 5-8:45
A Note From the Instructor:
This course is a very ambitious overview of the changes in global attitudes toward sex/gender over the last half century and how those have challenged and changed religions. Because it has to explain what came before the changes with which you are familiar, how those changes came about, and in what directions they are pointed, it involves many sources.
The course is heavily focused on the women’s movement, since the women’s movement is at the center of the modern challenge to both gender roles and understandings of human sexuality, as well as the religious versions of these all over the world. Because the women’s movement began in the West and is more developed there, there is significantly more scholarship available from the West, though this situation is beginning to change.
The majority of the scholarship on these shifts, though not all, has come from women rather than men. During the 1960s-1970s this was because research on women was not considered real scholarship, and could only hurt the career of an academic, and so was left to those with personal interests in it (women). That situation began to change in the 1980s, in part because publishing houses began to realize that there was a huge market in women’s studies, but also as universities began to accumulate significant masses of feminist faculty, who gradually changed perceptions not only of scholarship on women, but of scripture, theology and history of religions. Today scholarship on sexuality both inside and outside religion is still dominated by a combination of gays, lesbians and other feminist women.
TEXTS:
Nancy Falk and Rita Gross, Eds. ,Unspoken Worlds: Women’s Religious Lives, 3rd Ed. Cengage, 2003.
Assorted articles posted in web-assisted Blackboard module (online.fiu.edu).
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
That students will be able to trace the trajectory of change in Christian understandings of sex and gender in modernity.
That students will be able to explain at least three principal ongoing shifts in sexual attitudes and thinking in two or more religions, excluding Christianity.
That students can explain the circumstances that brought about the global women’s movement, and how that movement has impacted changes in sexual attitudes.
That students can explain in some detail the challenge that the women’s movement presents to a. Christian and Jewish theology, and b. the status of sacred texts in Islam and Buddhism.
STATEMENT OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN STUDENT AND PROFESSOR:
Every student must respect the right of all to have an equitable opportunity to learn and honestly demonstrate the quality of their learning. Therefore, all students must adhere to a standard of academic conduct, demonstrating respect for themselves, their fellow students, and the educational mission of the University. As a student in the College of Arts and Sciences taking this class:
- I will not represent someone else's work as my own (PLAGIARISM);
- I will not cheat, nor will I aid in another's cheating;
- I will be honest in my academic endeavors; and
- I understand that if I am found responsible for academic misconduct, I will be subject to the academic misconduct procedures and sanctions as outlined in the Student Handbook.
Failure to adhere to the guidelines stated above may result in one of the following:
Expulsion: Permanent separation of the student from the University, preventing readmission to the institution. This sanction shall be recorded on the student's transcript.
Suspension: Temporary separation of the student from the University for a specific period of time.
At the very least it will result in an F for the class.
COURSE POLICIES:
Make-ups: If you have a serious reason for missing the open dates for the midterm or final (e.g., serious accident, hospitalization, incarceration, death in the immediate family) contact Dr. Gudorf immediately—not a week later--to arrange a make-up.
Attendance: Attendance is expected. Students are allowed one absence without penalty. Beginning with the second absence, one point will be subtracted from the final grade in the class.
Late Papers: Late papers will be penalized by the loss of one letter grade (e.g., A to A-) for every day late. This does not apply to serious illness, hospitalization, or death in the family, when supported by acceptable evidence. Talk to me before the due date.
Incompletes: University policy allows incompletes (IN) only in cases where the student has completed the majority of work in the class and has a passing grade on all completed work. You must ask for an incomplete--they are not automatic for anyone who has not completed the course. All my incompletes expire on the first day the student enrolls in another class, because the longer an IN goes on, the worse the student does, the less he/she remembers, and the more unlikely the IN is to be completed among the press of other work.
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES:
If you have a disability and need assistance, please contact the Disability Resource Center (University Park : GC190; 305-348-3532) (North Campus: WUC139, 305-919-5345). Upon contact, the DisabilityResourceCenter will review your request and contact your professors or other personnel to make arrangements for appropriate modification and/or assistance. The standard adaptation for students with disabilities is double time in taking quizzes and tests.
Grading:
The weight of the assignments in this class is as follows:
Midterm 25
Book Review10
Final Exam25
Quiz Average (Must take minimum of 6)15
Term Paper 25
Grading scale: 93-100=A, 90-92=A-, 88-89=B+, 83-87=B, 80-82=B-, 78-79=C+, 73-77=C, 70-72=C-, 68-69=D+, 63-67=D, 60-62=D-, 0-59=F
The midterm exam will be in class; the final exam will be online. Each exam has two parts: an objective part, with most questions coming from the quiz database, and an essay part.
The book reviewshould be 3-4 double-spaced pages and no more than one half page should be devoted to detailing the content of the book. The review must be on one of the books in the following list. Secure your book now—in the library or a bookstore or online. Don’t wait until you have to take library leftovers.
Marianne Dresser, Buddhist Women on the Edge: Contemporary Perspectives from the Western
Frontier (North Atlantic Books, 1996)
Marvin Ellison and Judith Plaskow, Eds., Heterosexism in Contemporary World Religions
(Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2007).
Margaret Farley, Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics (Continuum, 2007)
Elisabeth SchusslerFiorenza, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of
Christian Origins (Crossroads, 1983)
Marie Fortune, Love Does No Harm: Sexual Ethics for the Rest of Us (Continuum, 1998)
Rita M. Gross,Buddhism After Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of
Buddhism(State University of New York Press, 1992)
Tova Hartman, Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism: Resistance and Accommodation
(Brandeis University Press, 2007)
Mark D. Jordan, The Ethics of Sex (Blackwell, 2002)
Mark D.Jordan,Blessing Same-Sex Unions: The Perils of Queer Romance and the Confusions of
Christian Marriage (University of Chicago Press, 2005)
James Nelson, The Intimate Connection: Male Sexuality, Masculine Spirituality (Westminster,
1988)
Judith Plaskow, Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective
(HarperCollins, 1990)
Rosemary Ruether, Sexism and God Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology (Beacon, 1983)
Saba Mahmoud, The Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject
(Princeton University Press, 2005)
Cristina Traina, Erotic Attunement: Parenthood and the Ethics of Sensuality between Unequals
(University of Chicago Press, 2011).
AminaWadud, Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective
(Oxford University Press, 1999)
The term paper may be on any one of the following topics. I will also entertain student suggestions for term paper topics, especially if they will contribute to thesis research.
- The bioethics debate around sexual morality: roles of genetics and reason.
- The coming of modern democracy as the harbinger of changing sexual morality.
- Equality for women and the authority of scripture. (Focus on a particular religion.)
- Christian theology and the quest for women’s equality.
- The ends of sex in ______and ______(choose two well -known religious thinkers who have written extensively on the topic).
- GLBQT members and ministers: analyze the current state of acceptance in two Christian denominations.
- Judaism and homosexuality.
- Islam: identifying the barriers to women’s religious, familial and social equality. (Best choose a particular Muslim nation or it can get too complicated.)
Use footnotes or endnotes, and identify the style manual you are using on the title page at the bottom. Papers should be 13-16 double-spaced pages, excluding notes.
Schedule of Assignments
Week 1Readings on Women and Religion in Pre-History
August 20-26Beverly Moon - “Inanna: The Star Who Became Queen” in Course
Content
MarijaGimbutas - “Women and Culture in Goddess-Oriented Old Europe:
in Course Content
Week 2Readings in Sex/gender in Christianity
Aug 27-Sept 2Rita Gross - "Feminism's Impact on Religion and Religious Studies" In
Course Content
Gudorf, "The Necessity for Reconstructing Christian Sexual Ethics" in
Gudorf, Body Sex and Pleasure: Reconstructing Christian Sexual Pleasure” in Course Content
Falk and Gross chapters 17, 22
Week 3Readings on Sex/gender in Christianity II
Sept 4-9Charles Wood, "The Doctor's Dilemma: Sin Salvation and the
Menstrual Cycle in Medieval Thought" in Course Content
Falk and Gross 2, 3
Week 4Readings on Sex/gender in Judaism
Sept 10-16Judith Plaskow , "Jewish Memory from a Feminist Perspective,” in Carol
Christ and Judith Plaskow, Eds., Weaving the Visions: New
Patterns in Feminist Spirituality (San Francisco: Harper, 1989) in
Course Content
Falk and Gross 18
Week 5 Women in Islam I
Sept 17 -23Falk and Gross, 11, 12, 13
Week 6Sex/gender in Islam
Sept 24-30Anita Weiss, "The Slow Yet Steady Path to Women's Empowerment in
Pakistan", in Course Content
ZibaMir Hosseini, "The Construction of Gender in Islamic Legal Thought
andStrategies for Change,"in Course Content
Elizabeth Bucar, “Bodies at the Margins: The Case of Transsexuality in
Catholic and Shia Ethics” in Course Content
Week 7Midterm Exam first hour; Presentation of graduate paper outlines
October 1-7second hour.
Week 8Readings on Sex/genderin Hinduism
October 8-14Falk and Gross 4, 7, 8, 9
Week 9Readings in Sex/gender in Buddhism
October 15-21 Falk and Gross, 16, 19
Week 10Readings in Sex/genderin Asian Indigenous Traditions
October 22-28Falk and Gross, 5,6, 14
Anne-Marie Hsiung, “Gender and SameSex Relations in Confucianism
and Daoism,” in Marvin Ellison and Judith Plaskow, Eds.,
Heterosexism in Contemporary World Religion (Cleveland:
Pilgrim Press, 2007).
Week 11Sex/gender in Non-Asian/Non-African Indigenous Traditions
Oct 29-Nov 4Falk and Gross 20, 21, 24, 25
Week 12Sex/gender in African and African-Diaspora Traditions
Nov 5-11Falk and Gross, Chapters, 1, 15, 10, 23
Week 13Sex and Reproduction in Religion
Nov 12-18Christine Gudorf, “Ending Reproductionism,” from Body, Sex and Pleasure: Reconstructing Christian Sexual Ethics, in Course Content.
View in Blackboard: “In a Just World: Contraception, Abortion and World Religions”
Week 14NO CLASS—AAR MEETING IN CHICAGO/THANKSGIVING
Nov 19-25
Week 15Sexual Abuse and the Language of Sex/Gender
Nov 26-Dec 2Susan Thistlethwaite, “Every Two Minutes” in Course Content
Christine Gudorf, "Getting Clear About Bodyself and Bodyright" (2
parts) in Course Content
Beverly Harrison, “The Power of Anger in the Work of Love: An Ethic for
Women and Other Strangers” in Course Content
Rosemary Ruether, excerpt from Sexism and God Talk in Course Content
Week 16Final Exam Online. Open from 12:01 am-11:59 pm.
Dec 5