Course Syllabus: Feminist Theology (BTW14)

Program: BD IV
Semester: II
Credit Hours: 4
Assessment: Final Examination (100%)

Course Objectives

• To enable the students to develop a ‘feminist’/womanist perspective that is gender-sensitive and is consistently critical of patriarchy and other dominant ideologies and structures that are interlinked with patriarchy such as caste, class, race, and gender.
• To approach the fundamental theological themes with a basic commitment to gender justice, rooted in a faith that God created humankind male and female in God’s own image, as equals.
• To interrogate from a feminist standpoint the dominant theological articulations that have existed in the history of the Church/Christianity.

Pedagogical Methods

Lectures, Seminars, Group Work presentations combined with practical exposure to women’s issues in context. It is strongly encouraged to develop and sustain association with women’s movements and NGOs in order to address the issues of gender meaningfully and gain from the practical exposure to women’s struggles for dignity and survival.

Course Requirements

• Final Examination: 100%

Course Outline

Unit 1: Unmasking Patriarchy

1. Understanding the basic concepts of gender/sex and sex role stereotypes
2. Different theories of gender and origins of patriarchy
3. Analyzing the construct of “ideal woman”/“ideal man” in the patriarchal culture

Unit 2: Feminist Traditions/Movements: A Historical Survey

1. History of Global Feminist Traditions/Movements
2. History of Feminist Traditions/Movements in India
3. Different Waves of Feminism

Unit 3: Feminist Epistemology

1. Women’s Experience as the Primary Epistemological Source
2. Developing Tools of Feminist Reading and Interpretation of History

Unit 4: Methodological Issues in Feminist/Womanist Theologies

1. Feminist/Womanist Critique of Dominant Theologies
2. Feminist/Womanist Reconstructions of Theology
3. Feminist/Womanist Re-imaginations of Sources
4. Feminist/Womanist Re-imaginations of Theological Authority
5. Dalit/Tribal/Adivasi Reconstruction of Feminist Theology

Unit 5: Feminist Hermeneutics and Feminist Language

1. “Texts of Terror”: Hermeneutics of Suspicion
2. Hermeneutics of Retrieval
3. Re-reading the Bible with new eyes
4. Inclusive Language to Develop Non-Gender Bias Language

Unit 6: Feminist Subjectivities, Bodies, Selves, and Sexuality

1. Body in Feminist Theological Discourse
2. Understanding the Nature and Purpose of Human Sexuality
3. Celebrating Human Sexuality

Unit 7: Feminist Re-imaginations of Doctrines and Tradition

1. Metaphorical Theology and Radical Re-imagination of God
2. Feminist Theological Engagement with Mary
3. “In Memory of Her”: Re-imagining Tradition

Unit 8: Feminist Christology

1. Can a Male Savior Save Women?
2. Understanding Jesus Movement and the “Discipleship of Equals” in the Bible
3. Jesus Christ – the Theological Basis and Principle for Gender Justice

Unit 9: Feminist Pneumatology

1. Understanding the Nature and Work of the Holy Spirit
2. Personification of the Holy Spirit
3. Feminine Images and Metaphors of the Holy Spirit—Sophia
4. Reclaiming Women’s Spirituality

Unit 10: “Church in the Round”: Feminist Ecclesiology

1. Feminist Critique of the Kyriarchal Church
2. “Church in the Round”: Church as a community of disciples and equals
3. Feminist Perspectives on Ministry and Mission

Bibliography

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