RELIGIOUS STUDIES/WOMEN’S STUDIES 303
Women in Religion
Fall 2004
Professor John K. Simmons
Exam date: Tuesday, October 5
Exam format: The in-class portion of the exam will be 20 computer-graded multiple choice questions worth 1 point each and eight short answer identifications (you pick any five) worth 2 points each for an in class exam total of 30 possible points. Please answer the take home essay question (see below), and bring the completed essay to the exam on October 5. The essay will be worth a possible 20 points for an exam total of 50 points. Please see the Syllabus under Exam Format and the Criteria for Evaluating Exam Essay handout for more details on organizing the essay.
Pages covered in Women And Religion: Chapter 7, pages 173 – 212; Who Cooked the Last Supper?: introduction and Chapter 1.
PowerPoint graphics on the Web site: All the questions on the exam including multiple choice and short answer identifications will be drawn from the in-class PowerPoint graphics. The text for those graphics can be found on my Web site under Religious Studies 303. We have two files so far: “Introduction” and “Feminist Response.” Please feel free to rely on these notes in creating your essay.
Please be familiar with the following key themes and women religious leaders and scholars:
Introduction: (File 1) shared characteristics of religious studies and women’s studies; both challenge social constructions, both “meet” on the issue of gender; both hope to make the world a better place by revealing and working to end the subjugation of women; identity & relationship; self-esteem & empowerment; acknowledging the reality that in most major world religious traditions, women have been “second class citizens.” Our “class quest” is to understand why?
Feminist Response: (File 2):
A. The Radical Response: characteristics, objectives, strategies; Mary Daly’s critique of patriarchal religions; critique of the radicals; video Goddess Remembered; Diane Sandage interview.
B. Contemporary Goddess-centered religions: a brief history of wicca; persecution in the Middle Ages; Malleus Malificarum; The Inquisition; fear and sexual bias feeds the subjugation of women; video The Burning Times = as many as 1 million women are accused of witchcraft and killed.
C. Ontological Dualism: differences between the unitive and dualistic worldviews; characteristics of ontological dualism; reasons why OD, in its more radical form, has had a negative impact on the role of women in the world’s religions. Krista Landon articulates the problem.
D. Women of Wicca: Cynthia Jones and Patricia Storm of Diana’s Grove, Krista Landon, Kate Cogan.
E. Ramtha School of Enlightenment: JZ Knight channels Ramtha; similarities with wicca, historical background on channeling.
F. The Reconstructionist/Reformist: characteristics, objectives, strategies; Rev. Mary Vick Roth.
G. Other videos: The Jesus Factor (President
Bush’s religiopolitical Evangelical Christian worldview);
The Need to Know (illustrates how
patriarchal oppression in religion influences other institutions in society, in this case, education.
Essay question (400-500 words, 2 to 3 pages; bring completed essay to the exam):
In your informed opinion, why have women been subjugated in the world’s major religious traditions? So far this semester, we have identified two responses by women to what they conceive to be patriarchal oppression in religion: a) radical; b) reconstructionist/reformist responses. Please identify the strategies applied in these two responses and, using examples of women we have met via video or women mentioned in our text, illustrate how women in religion are working to reclaim and recover equality, justice, and empowerment in human religious activity. In conclusion, please agree or disagree with any or all of the feminist responses to gender-bias and androcentrism in religion.