RELS 377 Women and Religion
Does religion view women positively? Do certain religious teachings impact the quality of women's lives and their role and status at home and in society? From a religious viewpoint, how can women and men work together toward change for the betterment of society. This course examines religious teachings and treatment of women as well as the role of religion in women's struggle for social change. Topics include analyses of women's structural and personal oppression; critique of the role of gender, race, class and other diversity issues as they impact religious doctrines; and religious teachings about women and women's spirituality. This course may at times approach its subject matter in terms of a particular religious tradition, such as, Christianity or Buddhism, or it may be taught from a comparative religious perspective.
Overlap: GNDR 377.
Special information
4 Undergraduate credits
Effective August 24, 2002 to present
Meets graduation requirements for
Learning outcomes
General
- Apply analytical frameworks and concepts from feminist scholarship in religious studies.
- Recognize and respect differences among groups and individuals, including the dimensions of gender, race, class, ethnicity, religious affiliation, sexuality, and nationality.
- Understand how social differences based on gender, race, class, etc. can contribute to conflicts between religious groups, or to oppress of certain groups of people such as women or gay and lesbian people.
- Understand the historical framework of women's religious experience, including an understanding of women's contributions to religion.
Minnesota Transfer Curriculum
Goal 6: The Humanities and Fine Arts
- Demonstrate awareness of the scope and variety of works in the arts and humanities.
- Understand those works as expressions of individual and human values within a historical and social context.
- Respond critically to works in the arts and humanities.
- Engage in the creative process or interpretive performance.
- Articulate an informed personal reaction to works in the arts and humanities.
Goal 7: Human Diversity
- Understand the development of and the changing meanings of group identities in the United States' history and culture.
- Demonstrate an awareness of the individual and institutional dynamics of unequal power relations between groups in contemporary society.
- Analyze their own attitudes, behaviors, concepts and beliefs regarding diversity, racism, and bigotry.
- Describe and discuss the experience and contributions (political, social, economic, etc.) of the many groups that shape American society and culture, in particular those groups that have suffered discrimination and exclusion.
- Demonstrate communication skills necessary for living and working effectively in a society with great population diversity.