This course examines the key elements of contemporary feminism, both “equity” and “difference”: its critique of patriarchy, its central concern about women and work, its appeal to “experience” as norm, and its understanding and construction of the idea of “gender.” The course will, moreover, consider these elements at work in the feminist critique of the main theological topics (Trinity, Christology, Ecclesiology, Mariology). Students will become familiar with the key representatives and essential ideas of feminism (theological and otherwise). They will read key texts representing feminist thought (e.g., Beauvoir, Irigaray, Butler), its theoretical background (e.g., Mill, Hegel, Foucault), its theological manifestation (e.g., Johnson, Hampson, Schüssler-Fiorenza, Coakley)
The course will also consider the “New Feminism” which, while critical of the dominant feminisms, is also provoked by them to look for a more satisfying account of woman (the “feminine genius”), of man (the “masculine genius”) and of sexual difference as such. To that end students will read key texts from John Paul II, Ong, Stern, von Le Fort, and von Balthasar, among others.
