Schedule of Courses

Summer Session 2003 Classes
for the Certificate in Sexuality and Religion

As part of its new Certificate in Sexuality and Religion, the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry is sponsoring three classes during the Graduate Theological Union Cooperative Summer Session. (You do not need to be enrolled in the certificate program to take these classes.)

All classes will be held on the campuses of the Graduate Theological Union, located just north of the University of California at Berkeley campus.

Same-Sex Love and American Religion

June 23-27, 9:00am to 1:00pm — Instructor: Mary Hunt

Debates about homosexuality continue in virtually all major religious traditions. This course is a scholarly chance to explore the impact of this discussion on U.S. culture. Using Christianity as a focal point, we will review the history of same-sex love in the U.S. and how theologies and ethical positions about it arose and developed. We will explore the many responses to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in U.S. religious institutions. We will imagine how religious and sexual diversity and pluralism will interact in the future.

Mary E. Hunt is a Catholic feminist theologian. She is the co-director of WATER, the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual in Silver Spring, MD. Dr. Hunt is a longtime scholar activist on issues of same-sex love. She is completing a volume on the topic which will be published by Columbia University Press.

Blessing Same-Sex Unions

June 23-27, 5:30pm to 9:30pm — Instructor: Mark Jordan

More and more Christian congregations will be blessing same-sex unions in the years to come. But should lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Christians want their unions blessed without first reforming the present theology and practice of "Christian marriage"? Should they seek to be seen as regular marriages or as radical alternatives to marriage? And what should they hope for (for themselves and their churches) after the blessings have been pronounced? This course will face up to these questions through a variety of readings, theological and secular, normative and rebellious, constructive and historical.

Mark Jordan is Professor of Religion at Emory University. His academic interests circle around the varieties of moral rhetoric, the history of Christian teachings on sex, and the relations of theological writing to power. His books include The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology (Chicago 1997), The Silence of Sodom: Homosexuality in Modern Catholicism (Chicago 2000), The Ethics of Sex (Blackwell 2001), and Telling Truths in Church (Beacon 2003).

Homosexuality and the Bible

June 30-July 4, 9:00am to 1:00pm — Instructor: Mary Tolbert

This course will explore the biblical texts presently at the center of debate in many denominations and churches over the status of lesbians and gay men in Christianity. After placing these few passages in their historical, social, and cultural contexts, we will examine their meaning for the ancient world and for our own, using the best recent historical and literary scholarship available. We will try to ascertain the ways in which these texts may or may not be responsibly used in contemporary Christian debate. In examining the current use of these passages, we will also need to look at views of the authority of the Bible and the theological and ethical presuppositions that lie behind those views.

Mary Tolbert is the George H. Atkinson Professor or Biblical Studies at the Pacific School of Religion and Executive Director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry. Her writings on the gospel of Mark, including "Sowing the Gospel: Mark's World in Literary-Historical Perspective" (1989), have established her as a leading voice in the interpretation of the New Testament. Her research also focuses on feminist hermeneutics and social location. She is co-editor of Reading from this Place, Volume 1: Social Location and Biblical Interpretation in the United States; Reading from this Place, Volume 2: Social Location and Biblical Interpretation in Global Perspective (1995); and Teaching the Bible: the Discourses and Politics of Biblical Pedagogy (1998).

Find out more:

For a complete schedule of classes, or details about Summer Session registration, fees, and credits, contact the GTU Summer Session offices at 510-849-8268 or (toll-free) 1-800-999-0528, or visit www.gtuss.org.

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