Religion, Sexuality & Public Life

Catalog description

This country was founded on the promise of religious freedom, and yet U.S. laws and policies regulating sexual life derive much of their rationale from specifically religious notions of ?good? versus bad ?sex,? what bodies are ?for,? what kinds of human relationships are valuable. How are we to understand this apparent contradiction? If sexual life is a special case, what makes it so? Finally, what are the implications of this ?exception? for both sexual and religious freedom? Course materials are designed to introduce students to critical approaches to the study of religion in society as well as to familiarize them with important work in the interdisciplinary areas of gender and sexuality studies.