Middlebury

WAGS 0290

Women's Religious Life/Thought

Women's Religious Life and Thought: The Female Pursuit of God in Late Antiquity and Byzantium
This course will explore the female religious experience in Greco-Roman antiquity and Early Christianity. We shall trace the transition from the mystery religions of Demeter and Isis in the Eastern Mediterranean to the cult of Mary the Mother of God (Theotokos) and the worship of female saints. Drawing on a wide range of sources (hymns, saints' Lives, Apocryphal Gospels, Patristic texts, and icons), we shall study the varieties of female devotion and examine the roles available to women in the early Church: deaconesses and desert mothers, monastics and martyrs, poets and rulers. Different theoretical approaches will enable us to ask a series of questions: were women in the early Church considered capable of holiness? To what extent did the female 'gifts of the spirit' challenge church authority? What is distinct about the feminine experience of the divine? Finally, we shall consider the vision and poetics of female spirituality in select modern poets. 3 hrs. lect.
Subject:
Women's & Gender Studies
Department:
Prog in Women's & Gender Study
Division:
Interdisciplinary
Requirements Fulfilled:
EUR HIS PHL
Equivalent Courses:
CLAS 0290
GSFS 0290
RELI 0290 *

Sections in Fall 2014, School Abroad Spain (Madrid)