REL 104, 105 - Sex, Gender, & Religion

Course unit(s): 1
Meets GAR: Meets general academic requirement HU and DE (and is a linked IL course when offered as 105).
Gender and sexuality as fundamental aspects of human experience play important roles in all major religious systems whether explicit and positive or suppressed and denigrated. In this course we will explore how the varied understandings of gender and sexuality in different cultures and at different times have influenced religious practice and belief and how, in turn, religions have affected these understandings. We will also consider how this interaction between gender and sexuality and religion has affected the status of men and women in their various roles and orientations.