Syllabus

Hedgerow Seminar Spring 2007

Her Story: Women’s Power, Wisdom, and Creativity

Text: Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition, Second Edition, Barbara J. MacHaffie

Instructors: Mary Bednarowski, Joan Mitchell, CSJ

Assignments: Weekly readings in Her Story

                   A short personal her story (three to four pages)

                   A her story of a woman significant to you today

                   Read from the writing of a two-thirds world woman theologian

February 5, 2007: Introduction: Women’s history—what is it?  Sources of Her Story

·        6 p.m. Light meal: chili, cornbread

·        Timeline: Of what histories are we part? Economic, political, economic, religious, gender, cultural, popular.

·        Sources: archaeology

·        Sources: oral, personal, family—Sharon Howell, CSJ

·        Introducing the instructors, the text, syllabus, and requirements

·        Women are historical actors.  The complexity of women’s history—Mary Bednarowski

·        How are we aware that men and women’s history are different?

February 12, 2007 Women in the New Testament; Gospel of Mary Magadalene

Instructor: Joan Mitchell, CSJ, Ph.D., Publisher Good Ground Press

Read: Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition, pp. xi-xiv,1-22

            Mark 1.29-31              Matthew 28.1-10         Luke 8.1-3                   John 4

Mark 3.31-35                                                      Luke 10.38-42             John 12.1-8

Mark 5.21-43                                                  Luke 13.10-17             John 20.9-18

            Mark 7.24-30              Acts 16.11-15              Luke 24.1-12

Mark 14.3-9                Acts 18.1-11,18-28

Mark 15.40-41,47       1 Corinthians 11.1-6

Mark 16.1-8                Romans 16

           Questions to Think About:

·        Each week consider: What questions do I bring to this period of her story?  What questions do the readings and conversation during class answer and raise?

·        What leadership do women exercise in the Jesus movement?

·        What roles do women play in the Christian community and its rites?

·        How do women participate in handing on traditions about Jesus?

·        How do women today contend with Colossians 3.18, Ephesians 5.21-33, Titus 2.3-5; 1 Timothy 2.8-15; 5.3-16?

·        What roles do women play in leadership structures, in religious ceremonies, and in the creation of a theological tradition? 

·        What roles do women find for themselves outside "official" institutional churches or the formalities of worship? 

·        How does theological writing regard women?

February 19, 2007 Women’s Prominence in the Early Churches

Instructor: Joan Mitchell, CSJ, Ph.D., Publisher Good Ground Press

Read: Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition, pp. 22-48.

           Gospel of Mary Magdalene (available online or in library)

            Questions to Think About

·        Christian Widows: Why do these widows require so many rules?

·        Perpetua and Felicitas: Describe the leadership Perpetua demonstrates.

What enables these two women and other early Christians to face martyrdom?

·        Adorning Women: How prevalent are Tertullian’s attitudes today?

·        Egeria: How does she achieve independence?  What does she contribute to Her Story?

·        Thecla: Whose Christian heroine is Thecla?  To whom is her story valuable?

·        Gospel of Mary Magdalene: What threats to the patriarchal church does Mary Magdalene embody in this gnostic gospel?

February 26, 2007 Virgin and Witches : Women in Medieval Christianity

Instructor: Mary Kaye Medinger, Director, Wisdom Ways Center for Spirituality

Read: Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition, pp. 49-88

·        Rejecting Patriarchal Marriage, Christina of Markyate

·        Hunting for Witches, Malleus Maleficarum

·        Margery Kempe

·        Julian of Norwich

·        Catherine of Siena

Questions:

·        Reflecting on the background material for this chapter, what is a significant insight for you historically?

·        What is a significant insight for you personally?

·        As you read the writings of Margery Kempe, Julian of Norwich, and Catherine of Siena, which woman would you like to have a conversation with?  What would you ask her?  What would she say to you?

March 5, 2007 Reformation Women of Prayer and Proclamation

Instructor: Sherry Jordon, Ph.D., Professor University of St. Thomas

Read: Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition, pp. 89-124

·        Luther on Marriage

·        Calvin on the Creation of Women

·        Catholic Women in Geneva, Jeanne de Jussie

·        Women in Defense of the Reformation, Argula von Grumbach

·        Marriage and Adultery among the Hutterites, Peter Rideman

Questions:

·        How did the reformers view women and marriage?

·        What roles did women play in the reformations of the sixteenth century?  How did they understand their roles?

·        Did the reformations benefit women?  Why or why not?

March 12, 2007 Public and Prophetic American Colonial Women

Instructor: Mary Bednarowski, Ph.D., Professor Emeritas United Theological Seminary

Read: Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition, pp. 125-158

·        Wives as Model Christians, Benjamin Coleman

·        Anne Hutchinson, Anne Bradstreet

·        Sarah Osborn

·        Margaret Fell

·        Sor Juana

·        Sarah Edwards

Questions:

·        What insights do these women offer?

·        What women’s work has been preserved?

·        How do these women function as theologians?

March 19, 2007 Feast of St. Joseph Eucharistic Celebration 7 p.m.  All welcome.

Rauenhorst Hall, Coeur de Catherine, College of St. Catherine

March 26, 2007 Mission and Radical Reform, Bringing About God’s Kin*dom

Instructor: Mary Bednarowski, Ph.D., Professor Emeritas United Theological Seminary

Read: Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition, pp. 159-194

·        Mary Baker Eddy, Spiritualists, Shaker women

·        The Cult of True Womanhood, George Washington Burnap

·        The Cause of Moral Reform, New York Female Moral Reform Society

·        Equal Rights and Moral Duties, Sarah Grimke

·        Missionary Women Step beyond Their Sphere, Helen Barrett Montgomery

Questions: What insights do these women offer?

What women’s work has been preserved?

How do these women function as theologians?

April 2, 2007 19th-Century Preachers, Scholars (Anna Julia Cooper, Amanda Smith)

Instructor: Karen Baker-Fletcher, Ph.D, Professor Southern Methodist University

                    Author: Sisters of Spirit, Sisters of Dust

Read: Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition, pp. 195-231

·        A Defense of Female Preaching, Luther Lee

·        The Argument from Pentecost, Phoebe Palmer

·        Amanda Smith

·        Paul Prohibits the Preaching of Women, Cyrus Cort

·        Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Questions: How does voice express the image of God in human beings?

April 9, 2007 Catholic Women’s Impact in America

Instructor: Karen Kennelly, CSJ, Ph.D., Author, American Catholic Women

Read: Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition, pp. 233-272

·        Catholic Sisters as America’s Educators, Mother Caroline, SSND

·        Catholic Sisters as Civil War Nurses

·        Complex marriage in the Oneida Community

·        The Experience of Polygamy, Martha Cragun Cox

·        Shaker Women in Community, Charles Nordhoff

April 16, 2007 Global Voices of Women Theologians

Instructor: Joan Mitchell, CSJ, Ph.D., Publisher Good Ground Press

Read and prepare to represent the point of view of a Third World woman theologian

A list of readings will be provided; books available in Carondelet Center library.

Questions: What concerns women theologians of the third world?

For whom do they speak?

How does culture and gender affect their theological creativity?

April 23, 2007 The Move Toward Full Participation

Panel: Rev. Angela Way; Rev. Sally Hill;

Read: Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition, pp. 273-304

·        Unrest among Presbyterian Women, Katharine Bennett and Margaret Hodge

·        Investigating the Status of Women in the Churches, Kathleen Bliss

·        Raising the Consciousness of Baptist Women, Lois Blankenship

·        The Patriarchal Church, Mary Daly

Questions: What does full participation in the Church mean?

Does ordination give full participation?

What frees women’s creativity?  What destroys and limits women’s creativity?

How is women’s experience alike and different in various branches of Christianity?

April 30, 2007 Ordained Women, Agents of Transformation?

Instructors: Mary Bednarowski, Joan Mitchell

Read: Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition, pp. 305-344

·        Declaration on the Question of Admission of Women to the Priesthood

·        Inclusive Language for Worship

·        Feminist Liturgy

·        Feminist Views of Sin and Salvation, Letty Russell

·        Jesus in Womanist Theology, Jacquelyn Grant

Questions: How can women be agents of transformation in church and society?

What salvation do women need?

What frees women’s creativity?  What destroys and limits women’s creativity?

What do women need and want to transform and how?