RLB45 Woman in Christianity

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2008
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
PhDr. Iva Doležalová (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Dušan Lužný, Dr.
Department for the Study of Religions – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Lucie Čelková
Timetable of Seminar Groups
RLB45/P: Wed 13:20–14:55 B12, I. Doležalová
RLB45/K: Fri 3. 10. 10:00–11:35 J31, Fri 31. 10. 10:00–11:35 J31, Fri 28. 11. 10:00–11:35 J31, I. Doležalová
Prerequisites (in Czech)
( RLA06 Christianity I || RLKA06 Christianity I ) && ( RLA07 Christianity II || RLKA07 Christianity II )
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 50 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/50, only registered: 0/50
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course focuses on the problems of evolution and changes of women's social status and roles within the frame of European Christian culture during Antiquity and Middle Ages. This topic is grasped within the broader context of the methodology of the academic study of religions and gender studies. Genuine content of the course is based upon two levels: (1)history of the cult of Virgin Mary and (2) particular lives of various women representing the variability of social roles and conditions which have influenced their lives.
At the end of the course, students should be able to understand and explain the complexity of factors conditioning the status and roles of women during the history of Christian culture and interpret religious aspects of them.
Syllabus
  • Sylabus
  • (1) Introduction. Basic draft of the problem: religion and gender studies
  • (2) Woman and Christianity: understanding woman – tradition: a comparative view (Hellenism/Greec and Roman culture - Judaism – Christianity)
  • (3) Rise of the cult of Mary within the context of late Antiquity (Hellenistic religious system, Ancient mother goddesses – Ísis a Cybelé – comparative perspective)
  • (4) 1st seminar discussion: Status and role of a woman during the early Christian period (The New Testament on women and their status – in society, towards the God). Women and men: Church hierarchy – laymen. Apocrypha: Protoevagelium of James, Acts of Paul and Thecla.
  • (5) Early Christian view of Mary: canonical and apocryphal (Protoevangelium of James – apocrypha as a source of the offical doctrine). Ideals and roles of women in the Christian Church. (The cult of Mary as means of creating models for women's lives. Celibacy/marriage - virginity/motherhood - understandin purity and sexuality.
  • (6) Interpretation of Mary and understanding women in the early patristic literature: Tertullian (asi 160- po 220) - Ambrosius (339-397) - Hieronym (+420) - Augustinus (354-430). Mary as the pattern of an ideal woman – Virgin and Mother, Christ's bride, Mary as New Eve, Virgin Mother of God - council in Efesus 431.
  • (7) Women and heresy: Montanism, Kollyridians, stereotype patterns in the interpretation of women's roles
  • (8) Woman and Medieval Christianity (multiple women roles, from saint to witch)
  • (9) 2nd seminar discussion: Saint and witch
  • (10) Mary during the Medieval period – Mary as New Eve, Madonna; changes within the cult of Mary, an example of Marian spirituality: Bernard from Clairvaux
  • (11) Woman and authority during the Middle Ages. Women and the body/sexuality. Mystical spirituality
  • (12) Saints and witches, inquisitional framework of Late Middle Ages. Basic overwiev of particular women.
  • (13) 3rd seminar discussion: Sacramentalisation of the marriage.
Literature
  • BROWN, Peter. Tělo společnosti :muži, ženy a sexuální odříkání v raném křetanství. 1. vyd. Brno: CDK-Centrum pro studium demokracie a kultury, 2000, 435 s. ISBN 80-85959-72-0. info
  • DINZELBACHER, Peter. Světice, nebo čarodějky? : osudy "jiných" žen ve středověku a novověku. Translated by Petr Babka. Vyd. 1. Praha: Vyšehrad, 2003, 283 s. ISBN 8070216506. info
  • DUBY, Georges. Vznešené paní z 12. století. Edited by Josef Válka, Translated by Růžena Ostrá. Vydání první. V Brně: Atlantis, 1997, 126 stran. ISBN 8071081353. info
  • DUBY, Georges. Vznešené paní z 12. století. Edited by Jitka Uhdeová, Translated by Růžena Ostrá. Vyd. 1. V Brně: Atlantis, 1999, 149 s. ISBN 8071081671. info
  • DUBY, Georges. Vznešené paní z 12. století. Edited by Jitka Uhdeová, Translated by Růžena Ostrá. Vyd. 1. V Brně: Atlantis, 1999, 149 s. ISBN 80-7108-167-1. info
  • DUBY, Georges. Rytíř, žena a kněz :manželství ve Francii v době feudalismu. Praha: Garamond, 2003, 238 s. ISBN 80-86379-44-2. info
Assessment methods
Colloqium
Seminar group P
1. Participation in seminars
2. Active participation in three seminar discussions on the base of the reading, submition of three written coments of the read texts in time.
3. Elaboration and presentation of the paper on a particular topic according to teacher's list.
Seminar group K 
1. Active participation in seminar discussions on the base of the reading, submition of three written coments of the read texts in time.
2. Written test of factographic knowledge is the prerequisite of the oral colloquim testing knowledge within the framework of the list of questions on the content of the course. During the oral colloqium also the ability of interpretation of the given topics is tested.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught once in two years.
Information on course enrolment limitations: Zápis mimo religionistiku je podmíněn souhlasem vyučující.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2004, Autumn 2006, Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Autumn 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2019.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2008, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/autumn2008/RLB45