Jul 28, 2025  
OHIO University Graduate Catalog 2024-25 
    
OHIO University Graduate Catalog 2024-25 [Archived Catalog] Add to Portfolio (opens a new window)

CARS 5470 - Sex and the Bible


This course looks carefully and critically at how concepts of sex, gender, and sexuality are used in the Bible and later biblical interpretation as a fundamental means of shaping and reshaping the interpreter’s world. Students encounter and examine such topics as gender construction, sexual orientation, taboos, sex work, idolatry, family relations, abortion, cross-cultural marriage, slavery and trafficking, erotic literature, and sexual violence, among others. The course also engages modern writing about the construction of sex and sexuality in our look at biblical texts.

Requisites:
Credit Hours: 3
Repeat/Retake Information: May not be retaken.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to critically analyze contexts and contents of biblical writings about gender and sexuality and compare these to their own culture and core beliefs.
  • Students will be able to identify the influence of biblical texts on students’ own experience, their belief formation, and the belief formation of other cultures with regard to gender and sexuality.
  • Students will be able to identify and compare ways different global Jewish and Christian communities understand the Bible’s role in constructing gender and sexuality.
  • Students will be able to identify and evaluate how biblical texts inform a variety of ethical positions (including their own beliefs) about gender and sexuality in modern religious and political discourse.
  • Students will be able to connect and evaluate contemporary ethical issues and modern cultural frameworks related to biblical texts and their history of interpretation.
  • Students will be able to apply interpretive methods to contemporary debates about the bible and sexuality.
  • Students will be able to evaluate relative strengths of approaches to and interpretations of a given text in light of modern ethical commitments and perspectives.
  • Students will be able to identify differences in the ways that people with different cultural norms communicate verbally and nonverbally about around gender and sexuality, and negotiate shared understandings with them.
  • Students will be able to engage in productive and empathetic conversations–while suspending judgment–with those holding diverse perspectives on the implications of biblical texts for contemporary intercultural politics.
  • Students will be able to recognize and evaluate diverse modern strategies of invoking the Bible in public discourse about sexual ethics.
  • Students will be able to ask complex questions and articulate multifaceted answers about the role of the Bible in debates over modern global positions on gender and sexuality.
  • Students will be able to evaluate and apply complex methodological and theoretical frameworks to the interpretation of primary sources.



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