Carpenter Certificate Program

Through an individually designed course of study, students in the certificate program explore the complex set of issues presented under the interdisciplinary rubric of "religion, gender, and sexuality." Open to full-time students in Vanderbilt Divinity School, the Vanderbilt Graduate School, and the College of Arts & Science, the certificate program normally requires candidates to have a 3.0 GPA and the support of their faculty advisor. Application may be made at any time following the first semester of study. Courses taken at Vanderbilt prior to admission to the program can be counted toward the certificate requirements.

The certificate requires eighteen credit hours encompassing the fields of textual interpretation, theology, ethics, and contemporary practice; a project relating to community issues; and a culminating exercise presented and defended in an open forum. A minimum of twelve hours of course work will be chosen from a list of core courses listed annually and found on the website. Six hours of core courses may be taken as independent study (see course listings below). The remaining six hours may be chosen from either the core courses or electives chosen with the advice of the Program Director. To avoid the potential of having the topic of sexual orientation receive only cursory attention, at least one course or independent study must directly address this subject.

For M.A. and Ph.D. students, at least two of the courses must be outside of the student's primary field. The student, his or her advisor, and the director of the Carpenter Program will plan the course of studies for the certificate. When appropriate, representatives from Field Education will be consulted.

COURSE LISTINGS AT VANDERBILT DIVINITY SCHOOL IN GENDER AND SEXUALITY, 2009

Fall 2009

2563/01. The Shakers in American Religion
Students who enroll in this seminar will focus on the Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, better known as the Shakers. The Shakers offer a case study in the development of a religion, from charismatic beginnings to institutional formation and decline. Shakerism will be a lens through which to explore topics in American religious history such as: revivalism and the Second Great Awakening, utopian communal societies, experiments in sexual equality and the restructuring of family relationships, spiritualism, and religious expression in ritual, music, and material culture. For students in the master of divinity degree program, this course may satisfy the core elective requirement in gender and sexuality.

3072/01. Pastoral Theology: Transitions and Crises
Students who enroll in this intermediate-level seminar will examine various pastoral responses to persons who are confronting transitions such as birth, vocational discernment and choice; partnering, marriage, aging, and dying and crises such as illness, bereavement, and interpersonal discord. Careful attention will be given to the theological and psychological dimensions of these experiences; the current research in coping and in religious coping theory will be studied for developing strategies for developing theological reflections and pastoral action.

3081/01. Christian Spirituality and Pastoral Care
Students will engage in an exploration of the history and the contemporary literature on spirituality within the pastoral care tradition. The topics addressed in this seminar will include the differentiation between spiritual direction and pastoral care, the history of the cure and care of souls, feminist spirituality, African American spirituality, and spirituality from the margins.

3044/01. Women’s Preaching: Finding God’s Word in a Higher Pitch
When Christian women preach, they face a multitude of issues that male preachers do not have to think about as intensely. After all, the Bible does not tell men to keep silent and to ask their spouses what they want to know about God. This course will explore a history of women’s preaching; authorization and authority for women’s preaching; gender, epistemology, and communication theory; womanist and feminist hermeneutics; finding God’s Word in a higher pitch; contextuality and embodiment; the rhetorical demands of the preaching event; current sermons by women; and how women are changing homiletic history. In addition to reading, constructing ethnographic research, listening to lectures, and discussing the issues, students will preach two sermons and participate in respectful feedback. Men are welcome to experience learning from a predominately inclusive female perspective. The seminar’s enrollment is limited to twelve students. An alumna of Vanderbilt University’s Graduate Department of Religion and the Divinity School, Professor Stricklen served as assistant professor of homiletics at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary for eight years before her appointment as the Associate for Worship in the Office of Theology and Worship for the Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church, USA. (Gender and Sexualities requirement)

3414/01. Black Women’s Literature and Ethics
Participants in this seminar will examine the Black women’s literary tradition as a repository for constructive ethics. Attention will be given to how Black women of various periods, cultures, and literary traditions have brought distinctive imaginative and critical perspectives to bear on “the sacred.” In addition to addressing the complicated presence of religious themes, biblical references, and theological issues in these texts, literary and religious methods of “reading” and “writing” will be employed by comparing constructive and hermeneutical approaches among both literary writers and womanist theologians.

3808/01. Seminar: Marriage in the Ancient Near East and Hebrew Bible
By researching ancient Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Egyptian sources, as well as the relevant sections of the Hebrew Bible, students will explore the religious, legal, and socioeconomic aspects of marriage as an institution at the beginning of recorded history.