On-line readings (underlined below in blue) can be accessed by clicking directly on the links below.

 

Photocopied readings (underlined below in red), are available through Sakai; if you are already logged in to Sakai on your computer, you can click directly on the links below to access the additional readings. You can also log into Sakai, click on "Resources," and download them files from there

 

Green links will take you to the e-book version of Women and Christian Origins; you can only access this link through a Claremont terminal (or proxy server). Once there, you can print the pages you want to read to a PDF to save and read at your leisure. (Also available: PDF versions of those printouts.)

 

 

 

 

Part one: Defining our Terms: Religion, Women, Gender

 

Sept. 5 (W): Course introduction: What are we talking about?

No reading

 

Sept. 10 (M): Is there a "women's history"? Is there a "women's religion"?

Reading: *Joan Wallach Scott “Women’s History” in Gender and the Politics of History (Columbia University Press, 1988), 15-27 (also available as an e-book through Blais); HSB, introduction

 

Sept. 12 (W): How did ancient people think about women? About religion?

Reading: WCO, 13-34 (PDF version); Accounts of Hellenic Religious Beliefs, c. 800 BCE-110 CE; The Lot of the Hellenic Woman, c. 700-300 BCE; Women’s Life in Greece & Rome: Medicine and Anatomy, 1; Women’s Life in Greece & Rome: Medicine and Anatomy, 2; Women’s Life in Greece & Rome: Men’s Opinions

 

Sept. 17 (M): No class (Rosh Hashanah)

 

 

 

Part Two: Greek and Roman Women

 

Sept. 19 (W): Who did ancient Greek and Roman women worship, and why, and how?

Reading: The Olympian Gods; HSB, chs. 2-3; WRGRW #4, 5, 6, 17 (all), 125

Image/Word Posting: Demeter (Ceres)

 

Sept. 24 (M): What do we know about women worshipping Dionysus?

Reading: HSB, ch. 4; WRGRW #3, 7, 8, 9, 12, 16A, 16B, 16C, 102; begin reading Bacchae

Image/Word Posting: Maenad (Bacchant)

 

Sept. 26 (W): No class (Yom Kippur)

 

Oct. 1 (M): What role do women play in Euripides’ Bacchae?

Reading: Finish reading Bacchae

Image/Word Posting: Tragedy

 

Oct. 3 (W): How did women participate in Roman religious life?

Reading: HSB, ch. 5; WRGRW #11 (all), 16D, 16G, 16H, 18, 66A, 81, 82, 126; Women’s Life in Greece & Rome: Sources on the Bona Dea

Image/Word Posting: Matron

 

Oct. 8 (M): How did Greek and Roman women come to worship Isis?

Reading: HSB, ch. 6; WRGRW #19, 26, 129, 130, 131

Paper one due: Raving Women (no posting)

 

Oct. 10 (W): In what private and public contexts did Roman women have religious authority?

Reading: HSB, ch. 7; WRGRW #80, 83 (all), 84, 117A; WCO, 80-102; Women’s Life in Greece & Rome: Advice on Marriage

Image/Word Posting: Vestal Virgin

 

Oct. 15 (M): Is “magic” a feminine form of “religion”?

Reading: R. L. Fowler, “Greek Magic, Greek Religion,” Illinois Classical Studies 20 (1995): 1-22; WRGRW #21, 22, 57, 58, 59

Image/Word Posting: Hecate

 

 

 

Part Three: Jewish Women

 

Oct. 17 (W): What can we know about ancient Jewish women?

Reading: HSB, ch. 9; WRGRW #48 (all)-56, 61 (all), 62 (all), 63 (all), 67, 68, 103, 104

Image/Word Posting: Mikveh (spelling may vary)

 

Oct. 22 (M): No class (Fall Break)

 

Oct. 24 (W): Did the rabbis think women could really be Jews?

Reading: HSB, ch. 8; WRGRW #35, 36, 37 (all), 44, 45, 46; *Shaye J. D. Cohen, “Why Aren’t Jewish Women Circumcised?” Gender and History 9 (1997): 560-78

Image/Word Posting: Rabbi

 

Oct. 29 (M): Were Jewish women community and religious leaders?

Reading: WCO, 50-79 (PDF version); WRGRW #13, 15, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89

Image/Word Posting: Synagogue

 

Oct. 31 (W): No class (Professor away): study for midterm

 

Nov. 5 (M): Midterm (in-class) 

 

 

 

Part Four: Christian Women

 

Nov. 7 (W): How involved were women in the Jesus movement?

Reading: WCO, 105-28 (PDF version); Gospel selections

Image/Word Posting: Mary Magdalene

 

 

Nov. 12 (M): What did Paul think of women, gender, and sexuality?

Reading: WCO, 199-235 (PDF version); Selections from Paul’s letters

Image/Word Posting: Glossolalia

 

Nov. 14 (W): Why were early Christian women seen as dangerous?

Reading: HSB, chs. 10-11; WRGRW # 33, 40, 77, 133

Image/Word Posting: Whore of Babylon

 

Nov. 19-21 (M-W): No class (Professor at conference)

 

Nov. 26 (M): Why did early Christianity venerate virgins and martyrs?

Reading: WRGRW # 105, 112-116; *Shelly Matthews, “Thinking of Thecla: Issues in Feminist Historiography,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 17 (2001): 39-55

Image/Word Posting: Martyr

 

Nov. 28 (W): When were early Christian women in charge?

Reading: HSB, ch. 12-13; 90-101 (all)

Image/Word Posting: Prophetess

 

Week of December 3: Screening of Agora outside of class

 

Dec. 3 (M): Who was reading and writing the lives of Christian holy women?

Reading: WRGRW #71, 120, 121; *Elizabeth A. Clark, “Holy Women, Holy Words: Early Christian Women, Social History, and the ‘Linguistic Turn,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 6 (1998): 413-30

Image/Word Posting: Saint

 

Dec. 5 (W): How did women think of Mary, the mother of Jesus?

Reading: WRGRW #38, 39, 40, 127; *Select Syriac hymns

Image/World Posting: The Virgin Mary

 

Dec. 10 (M): Religious Conflicts

Reading: WRGRW #41, 47; *Virginia Burrus, “The Heretical Woman as Symbol in Alexander, Athanasius, Epiphanius, and Jerome,” Harvard Theological Review 84 (1991): 229-48

Paper two due: Wise Women (no posting)

 

Dec. 12 (W): Conclusions

Reading: HSB, epilogue

Image/Word Posting: Women and Religion in Greco-Roman Antiquity

 

 

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