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Mary Louise Bringle, Ph.D. |
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REL 288: Women and Religion
Illumination
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Mary Louise Bringle, Ph.D. |
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REL 288: Women and Religion
Illumination
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REL 288 LINC: Syllabus Fall 2005 |
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Description: This course explores the lives of women of faith, predominantly from the Western world of Judaism and Christianity, but also from the world of “old religions” prior to the establishment of patriarchy. We will explore together the particular challenges that women have faced and the resources that have inspired them to take courageous risks. As we think constructively about the place of faith and risk-taking in our own spiritual journeys, these women will serve as helpful guides and traveling companions. Texts:
This course is part of a linked learning community with ENG 241/341, Women in Literature. Such linkage will give us exciting opportunities to see how narratives from sacred traditions have affected writing by and about women, as well as how women in secular literature exemplify their own narratives of faith and risk. Assignments: Attendance and active participation in class discussions, based on careful preparation of assigned texts (absences from class have a serious impact upon our ability to form a learning community together, and will exert a commensurately serious negative impact upon your course grade); · One announced quiz (others, unannounced, as needed to assure conscientious preparation); · Two synthesis opportunities [tests], consisting of both short answer (closed-book) and synthesizing essays (open-book); · Final examination, consisting of both short answer and synthesizing essay questions (there may be an option for corporate oral exams for this course); · Spiritual journal entries reflecting upon at least one exercise from each chapter of Maria Harris, Dance of the Spirit. The journal entry for Chapter 6 is replaced by a creative project. More details forthcoming. · Group presentation on a chapter in Lerner (select from 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7). Each presenting group must prepare for the entire class one synthesizing hand-out and at least one visual aid, and must turn in an outline and notes for the oral presentation to the instructor; · Attendance at three required LINC events (5% of course grade). Saving Your Work / Contributing to Major Portfolio: All students are strongly encouraged to keep electronic files, where possible, of work completed for this course. Saving material onto the O: drive provided by the college is an easy way to do this. Any student majoring in Religious Studies may use synthesizing essays written for this course in partial fulfillment of major goals 1 and 2 (see college catalog) for his/her senior portfolio to be compiled during Humanities 461. Accommodations: If you have documented learning needs and require specific accommodations (time and a half on tests, testing in an alternate environment, etc.), please contact Sue Kuehn in the Office for Students with Special Needs (MG 203) to arrange for a letter to be sent to me. I will be happy to work with you on these matters. Attendance, Class Behavior, and Academic Integrity: For a detailed description of a student’s responsibility and rights, see the Brevard College Student Handbook as well as the college catalog. Students are strongly encouraged to help one another inside and outside of class, and much work for the course will be collaborative. However, any attempt to claim credit where credit is not due will be considered a violation of the Honor Code and will result in a failing grade on the exercise in question and, if repeated, in the course as a whole. A Note on Language: The way we speak and write both reflects and reinforces the presuppositions of our culture. If we use the word “man” or “mankind” in an attempt to refer to the whole human race, we replicate the presupposition that maleness is normative and femaleness does not count [just ponder the question, Why did man become the allegedly “generic” word, and not woman?]. Likewise, if we use masculine pronouns (“he,” “his,” “him”) to refer in a pseudo-generic way to both males and females. Thus, in this class, participants will be expected to become proficient in the use of gender-inclusive language in referring to human experience. (The use of masculine language for the deity is a personal choice, but people who use such language should be prepared to articulate the theological presuppositions undergirding it—as should people who choose to use feminine or gender-neutral images for the divine.) |
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| Calendar of Topics and Assignments |
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Last updated: February 16,
2006
