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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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