RELI 186 - Queering Religion: Identity and Politics

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as JWST 186) “Religion” is often thought of as being synonymous with rigid doctrine that seeks to mold reality to its particular views. But the vast majority of religious traditions are living and flexible systems of making sense of the world as we humans find it. History (in modernity and post-modernity, of course, but also, interestingly, beginning far earlier) has challenged and reconfigured the approaches of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to sex and gender, family life, social life and political power. There are, for instance, not two, but six possible genders discussed in the Talmud, certain Christianities understand Christ as a “virile woman,” and Islam as an historical phenomenon is both wide and flexible enough to admit depictions of the “undepictable” Prophet, wine-drinking Muslims and Muslim punks. In Queering Religion, we explore the challenges to religious traditions in the West, uncovering the relationships of identity and politics to the formation and development of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Readings include texts from the classical religious canon as well history and theory of religion, autobiography, fiction, drama and poetry. Agi Veto.

Open only to freshmen; satisfies the college requirement for a Freshman Writing Seminar.

Two 75-minute periods.