Women In Church History

Content: Our goal in this course is to survey the history of women in the Christian movement from the founding of the church through the present. Our focus in the course will be both on how women have been perceived by the largely male church leadership and how they have participated in church leadership themselves. We will use both secondary and primary materials as resources.

Course Goals: This course is structured to help students attain certain goals in their Master of Divinity and Master of Arts program. Clearly, the first is a knowledge of the Christian religious tradition and its important texts. During the semester, we will touch on the major periods of Christian history and many of the most important figures in the history of Christian thought. The course is also intended to broaden the students awareness of the place of women in the Christian church. The inclusion of a section on women in non-western countries and the contemporary church also furthers this later aim. The section on mysticism will, of course, deal with questions of spirituality.

While a student may take the course (as students for the Master of Arts might wish to do) primarily as a course in religious history, the course has certain clear ministry goals as well. The projects are designed to enable a student to self-conscious work on integrating Christian history and various forms of personal communication. Although students may—as some have in the past—center their project around planning a worship experience, more will use this as a opportunity to develop educational and vocational skills.

Students who elect to do the group-based project will find that the experience of working together in an evaluated group deals with many fundamental skills of group leadership and the like.

Portfolio students may wish to have their major (individual) projects recorded for inclusion in their Portfolio. Students doing a serious group project may wish to record the process for more complete analysis.

The book review is designed to help students develop critical reading skills.

Assignments:

1. Since we are a small class, we will focus as much as possible on class discussion. Everyone is expected to prepare for class by doing the reading.
2. Every student will prepare an in-class project. The project should take one hour to present and should deal with some particular aspect of women’s Christian history, a particular person, movement, or theology. The form of the presentation may vary with the student. You may elect to lecture, to present a multi-media presentation, or a worship service. The presentation will be graded 50% on historical content and 50% on presentation. Artistic and musical subjects are acceptable. The Class project will count for 50% of the grade.
3. Every student will do a book review of Jo Ann Kay McNamara Sisters in Arms : Catholic Nuns Through Two Millennia. The review is due March 13, 2001. I have no particular form for reviews but expect a good review to discuss the book’s thesis and point of view. The review counts for 15 % of the grade
4. The student may earn the remaining 35% of her/his grade by completing one of the following assignments:
1. Traditional research paper.
2. Preparing a final take home examination.
3. Preparing an additional in-class project by working with another student or students to prepare an additional class project. Thus, you might do your main project on Hildegard of Bingen for 50% and work with one or two students on witches or women in foreign missions on another presentation that would use the talents of the whole group. This is encouraged but not required.

Grading:

1. There are two emphases in the grading of the course. First, there is an emphasis on the students understanding of historical materials. Projects should be well researched and have adequate bibliographical and other resources. Students may elect to have their course evaluation focus on this aspect of the course by using a predominantly academic form, such as a lecture, for the first project and following a traditional term or exam format for the second. Second, the course wishes to provide an opportunity for students to struggle with the material in a less traditionally academic way. Hence, the grade on projects will take into account the student’s work as a presenter and their use of their own special talents. Some students may elect to place more of their emphasis on the creative side of the project. This will be considered in the evaluation.
2. The research paper and the take home examination will be graded in the usual way with emphasis on the quality and debt of research and good technical form. If you do either of these assignments, please double-space, use end notes or social scientific footnoting, and broad left margins.
3. The group projects will include the group’s ability to work together as part of the evaluation.
4. Although the emphasis in the projects is on preparation, please submit written versions of your program or extensive program notes, if a written version is not appropriate. For instance, a performance of Hildegard’s music might be supported by good program notes on the performance, a discussion of the vocal problems encountered, etc. as well as a "note" on the theological understanding in both the text and the performance.
5. Group preparations may well involve some members of the group in more behind the scenes work, while others are more featured publicly. Please provides notes detailing the contribution of each member.
6. Projects are, of course, to be primarily historical. But students may, with the permission of the instructor, do a project that uses history in a contemporary way. Thus, a project or paper might develop the theme "Salve Regina: Towards a contemporary Mariology" and draw upon the sources of classical Marian doctrine, such as the Nicene Theology, the Dominican and Franciscan movements, the nineteenth and twentieth "appearances" of Mary, etc.

Some Projects, Both for Groups and Individuals:

• Mary in the Development of Contemporary Doctrine
• The Doctrine of Marriage in the Medieval Church
• Mystical Women
• Julian of Norwich
• Margery Kemp
• The Deaconess Movement
• Perpetua and other Women Martyrs
• Theca and Her Kin: Asceticism in the Ancient ChurchMusic by women (in any of a number of periods)
• Performances of Women’s Music
• Witches
• Reenactment of a witch trial
• Reenactment of a trial of women religious during the French Revolution.
• The Sisters of Charity and St. Vincent
• Conversation between women of different periods
• Anabaptist Women
• Missionary Women
• Ann Judson
• Ann Judson’s Defense of Her Husband in Burma
• Georgia Harkness
• Salem Village
• Prostitution in Christian Tradition
• Mary Madeline
• Gnostic views of Women
• Nineteenth Century Women Hymnists: Performance or Critical Study
• Fanny Crosby: Life and/or Works. (She was blind and was taken advantage of by those who published her hymns and often paid her less than .01 per word for her works).
• Antoinette Brown
• The Ordination of Women among Protestants. (A good one act play could be written around the first "unofficial" Episcopal ordination.)
• Women in the Third Reich
• Righteous Gentiles among Christian Women in the Third Reich

Grading: Graduate Level Work:

B- =Work is on a graduate level, but the paper requires polish or much more thorough research. Usually, specific suggestions for improvement are made.

B=Good work on a sound graduate level. This is work that is clearly on a graduate level, and the instructor believes that it would be recognized as such anywhere.

B+=Not an "almost A" as some suppose. This is a paper which has demonstrates a sound understanding of the subject and hard work. Usually, there is some area of the paper that the instructor believes was particularly worthy of consideration, such as effective presentation or sound research. It is this special feature that sets the paper above a B paper.

A-=Very sound work but generally needed more attention in some area, such as grammar or research. Often an A- paper is one that presents the common wisdom about a subject but which does not explore that common wisdom too deeply

A= Excellent work, demonstrates a grasp of the material and the capacity to express that grasp in writing. Ordinarily, an A reflects work with a modicum of grammatical problems, clearly argued, and richly researched. Papers that demonstrate individual interpretation are often rewarded with an A grade.

Grading: Not Graduate Level Work, but has enough quality to be rewritten and resubmitted.

Since both the Master of Divinity and the Master of Arts require B- level work, grades beneath a B- indicate serious problems. At a minimum, they reflect work that needs major overhaul and which would benefit from a rewrite.

C+=This work is close to meeting the mark. The student, however, needs to do some serious rewriting before the paper is at a graduate level. The student may wish to meet with the professor for a discussion of C+ work and see if it is possible to do a rewrite of the assignment or part of the assignment.

C=This work is seriously deficient in academic quality. It represents a failure to work on a seminary level. The student should make an appointment with the instructor and perhaps with their advisor to see if the problem can be identified and solved. Most C work can be rewritten.

Grading: Not Acceptable for Credit

C-=The paper barely merits credit. The problems with the paper are so serious that a rewrite would probably not improve the final result.

D=The D grade is never given in history courses.

F=Work is either very bad or never completed. An F represents failure. If the work is so seriously lacking as to fail, it probably will not benefit from a rewrite or other such measures. If this is a semester course, the student should repeat the course. If the problem is the failure to submit work, the remedy is obvious.

Electronic Submission: Many students prefer to submit their work electronically, either as an email or as an enclosure to an email. The professor finds such work easier to grade and return as he can put it in his word processor and type in comments. (My handwriting is notoriously bad). I have learned that I make more comments on electronic submissions. In general, I tend to very sympathetic to people who try to email their work and have problems so doing, and it is a real advantage for you to know that your work is safely on my hard drive and has not been lost or eaten by Hamlin, my attack cat.

Mail to: Gmiller@bts.edu

Late Work: It happens. I try to be as generous as possible, but if your work is not completed by the last day for submitting work on the official seminary calendar, then you must file for an incomplete with the Dean. Unfortunately, late work frequently arrives at a time when other work is pressing, so it often does not receive as many comments as it might have received, were it submitted in a more timely fashion. (That is a terrible sentence—mark him down for it).