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May 05, 2024
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RLST101 PO - Womanist Theological EthicsWhen Offered: Each semester
Instructor(s): N. Smith Robert
Credit: 1
This course introduces students to womanist religious scholarship, a field of study that focuses on the experiences of Black women with interlocking systems of oppression in secular and sacred contexts. The emphasis of this class explores how racial, gendered, and economic inequities construct narratives of deviance that create unique burdens for Black women who are punished for transgressing dominant norms of white middle-class society. Students will examine teachings of sin, sacrifice, and surrogacy and analyze how these church theologies may (or may not) reproduce carceral logic. Students will also interrogate ethical practices, such as politics of respectability, that are harmful and condemn Black mothers’ moral agency. Specifically, participants will explore real-life issues, such as the criminalization of poverty and welfare reform, and consider how social and ecclesial appraisals construct poor Black women as unworthy of moral concern. Based on this critical study of adverse church teachings and practices, students will construct helpful ways to apply liberatory womanist religious values with abolitionist principles to shift narratives of deviance and create moral re-appraisals that advocate for the flourishing of Black women beyond punishment and prisons.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement(s), subject to conditions explained in the Degree Requirements section of this Catalog:
PO Area 3 Requirement
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