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| [back to main course list] REL 303: GODDESSESMary Daly has suggested that "as long as God is male, the male will be God." How the image of divinity is gendered has thus been of great importance in the history of religions. This course will examine the phenomenon of Goddess worship from a cross-cultural perspective. Throughout the course one of the primary theoretical issues will be whether it would be appropriate to speak of "the worship of many Goddesses in a variety of religions" or "the worship of The Goddess in many of her manifestations." In order to explore this matter in depth, we will examine texts that support the consideration of The Goddess as ultimately one despite Her many forms, and we will read texts which present the worship of specific female deities in specific societies. In regard to the latter, we will examine the myth of Demeter and Persephone as well as the role of Athena in ancient Greek religion; we will examine Medb, the Morrigan, Briget and Macha in the early Irish tradition, and we will examine the Orisha named Oya in the Yoruba tradition of West Africa.The course will be taught in an interdisciplinary manner; a religious studies perspective will be augmented by an analysis of visual images, a discussion of the value of intuitive rather than academic analysis, a consideration of Jungian approaches to the subject matter, and an openness to new interpretive methods. The course will conclude with a consideration of new developments in spirituality which have arisen out of the feminist movement. We will examine and discuss a number of these movements, many of which claim either to remember the worship of an ancient Goddess, or to create a new religion (or "modern tradition") which includes appreciation of a female divine principle alongside other principles. |
