5. Christian Responses to Secular Views on Gender and Family Roles

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we analyse Christian responses to secular views on gender and family roles, focusing in particular (i) the divide between complementary and egalitarian ideas on the roles of men and women in Christianity (ii) scriptural and church teaching on complementary roles of men and women (iii) how certain interpretations of scripture and the expansion of the role of women in religious life promote the egalitarian view (iv) the impact of feminism in changing the role of women in religion and society.

Course

In this course, Dr Nicole Graham (University of Kent) explores the relationship between gender and society in religious thought. In the first module, we consider the relationship between religion, gender and society with special attention to the influence of feminism. In the second module, we examine the history around feminism and changing roles of gender. In the third module, we look at the relationship between feminism, Christianity and secularism, both historically and within contemporary society. In the fourth module, we look at biblical teaching on gender roles in the family and society, before turning our attention to Christian responses to secular views on gender roles in the fifth module. In the sixth and final module, we explore the emergence of intersectionality, and its significance to understand the interrelations between social structures and religious life.

Lecturer

Dr Nicole Graham is an associate lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent. Her research interests include humour and religion, the body, ethics, and feminism. She has recently published “Laughing With ’Horrible’ People: Reaffirming Ethical Boundaries Through Laughter”, in Ethics in Comedy: Essays on Crossing the Line (2020), and Opponent or Advocate?: Exploring Clement of Alexandria’s Attitude(s) Towards Laughter”, in Humour in the Beginning: Cultural Interaction of Laughter and the Comic in the First Phase of Asian religions, Christianity and Islam (2020).