This course is an introduction to the religious experiences of American women in various historical periods, contexts and traditions. Our approach will emphasize cultural and spiritual diversity in women's lives, as well as issues of religious empowerment, piety, leadership, and theoretical questions involving gender, spirituality, the body, and social and ethnic differences.

It is expected and necessary that you prepare for class by completing the assigned readings for each week. You will be graded on your participation in class (30%) In addition, the following assignments will be required:

Oral presentations: (30%) Each student is expected to write and present two short papers during the course of the term.These papers will consist of a discussion and critique of the issues raised in the readings for that week. Papers should be five pages in length and are due to me no later than 9:00 am on the day of the class presentation. Late papers will not be accepted and will be graded as a zero.

Discussion questions: Students not doing presentations in a given week should write out three questions for discussion in class.

Final examination: (40%) A take-home examination will be given at end of the term.

Texts for this course are available for purchase at the College bookstore and are on General Reserve at McCabe Library.

WEEK/DAY/TOPIC

1. TU - Introduction to course, assignment of presentations
TH - Women in the New World: Jacqueline Peterson, "American Indian Women and Religion," in Rosemary Ruether, WOMEN AND RELIGION IN AMERICA, VOL. TWO, pp. 1-41; and Lillian Webb, "Black Women and Religion in the Colonial Period," in the same volume, pp. 233-259. Mary Maples Dunn, "Saints and Sisters: Congregational and Quaker Women in the Early Colonial Period," AMERICAN QUARTERLY 30, 1978, and reprinted in Janet Wilson James, WOMEN IN AMERICAN RELIGION

2. TU - Women and Witchcraft: Carol Karlsen, THE DEVIL IN THE SHAPE OF A WOMAN, pp. 1-19, 117-152
TH - Women and Revivalism: Nancy Cott, "Young Women in the Second Great Awakening," FEMINIST STUDIES 3, 1975; Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, "The Cross and the Pedestal: Women, Anti-Ritualism and the Emergence of the American Bourgeoisie," in Smith-Rosenberg, DISORDERLY CONDUCT

3. TU - Women and Revivalism, cont.: Martha Blauvelt, "Women and Revivalism" in WOMEN AND RELIGION IN AMERICA, VOL. ONE, pp. 316 367; "Jarena Lee," in Bert Loewenberg, BLACK WOMEN IN NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICAN LIFE
TH - **Indiana seminar - NO CLASS**

4. TU - Women as Religious Outsiders: Jean Humez, GIFTS OF POWER, pp. 71 154
TH - Barbara Brown Zikmund, "The Feminist Thrust of Sectarian Christianity," in Rosemary Ruether, WOMEN OF SPIRIT: FEMALE LEADERSHIP IN THE JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS, pp. 206-224
Mary Farrell Bednarowski, "Outside the Mainstream," JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION 48, June 1980

5. TU - Women's Spheres - Barbara Welter, "The Feminization of American Religion" in DIMITY CONVICTIONS; Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood, 1820-1860" AMERICAN QUARTERLY 18, 1966, and reprinted in Welter, DIMITY CONVICTIONS
TH - Ann Braude, RADICAL SPIRITS, 10-31, 84-116

6.TU, TH - Women and Traditional Religion I: Sonia Johnson, FROM HOUSEWIFE TO HERETIC, pp. 61-150, 235-301, 321-353

7. TU -Women and Traditional Religion II: Ann Braude, "The Jewish Woman's Encounter with American Culture," in WOMEN AND RELIGION IN AMERICA, VOL. ONE, pp. 150-192; Evelyn Beck, NICE JEWISH GIRLS and Christie Balka, TWICE BLESSED
TH - Religion and Right Wing Womanhood: Kathleen Blee, WOMEN OF THE KLAN, pp. 42-98, 101-122

8. TU - Spiritual Narratives: Dorothy Day, THE LONG LONELINESS, pp. 1 83, 132-243
TH - Nellie McKay, "Nineteenth Century Black Women's Spiritual Autobiographies," in INTERPRETING WOMEN'S LIVES: FEMINIST THEORY AND PERSONAL NARRATIVES
"Elizabeth," in Bert Loewenburg, BLACK WOMEN IN NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICAN LIFE

9.TU - Black Women and Religion: Evelyn Higginbotham, RIGHTEOUS DISCONTENT
TH - RIGHTEOUS DISCONTENT, (cont.); Cheryl Gilkes, "Together and in Harness: Women's Traditions in the Sanctified Church" SIGNS 10, Summer 1985, reprinted in Micheline Malson, BLACK WOMEN IN AMERICA: SOCIAL SCIENCE PERSPECTIVES

10. TU -Women and Neo-African Religion: Karen McCarthy Brown, MAMA LOLA: A VODOU PRIESTESS IN BROOKLYN, 1-20, 94-139
TH - MAMA LOLA, cont., pp. 312-328; David Estes, "Black Spiritual Churches of New Orleans" in Catherine Wessinger, WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP IN MARGINAL RELIGIONS

11.TU, TH- Women and the New Theologies: Judith Plaskow, WEAVING THE VISIONS, pp. 111-118, 139-162, 179-198, 235-243

12. TU - Women and New Age Spirituality: Margot Adler, DRAWING DOWN THE MOON, pp. 94-135; Andy Smith, "For All Those Who Were Indian in a Former Life," in Carol Adams, ECOFEMINISM AND THE SACRED
TH - DRAWING DOWN THE MOON, cont., pp. 176-229

13. TU, TH - Women in World Religions: Paula Cooey, AFTER PATRIARCHY, pp. 15-86, 146-165

14. Review and final examination