Welcome back! It's that time again... I'm back in real classes, and have more or less a sense of what books we're likely to use in each class. So without further ado, here's how this term pans out:
Hebrew: Still using the same books as last term - a grammar by a man, lexicon by men, grammar handbook by two men and a woman, and the Hebrew Bible. Still only nearly acceptable, though it's not like I expected any change of books mid-course.
Theology of Music: Two books. Both are by men. (These don't count, but all the photocopies are by men too). Rating: Unacceptable.
Practicum in Liturgical Celebration: As you'll note in the original post on gender balance, I only count required books here. This class requires on the syllabus several of the recommended books, but they still don't count. I'll check when I get home, but as I recall, there are six or seven required books, and I think they're all by men. If so, that rates another unacceptable.
Pastoral Administration: No books. Ineligible.
Meaning and Ministry: Granted that the reading list isn't absolutely set, our likely list includes three men and three women, I think. Maybe four men and three women. Rating: Excellent!
Unhappily, there are once more several unacceptables. Happily, I can at least give the Gender Balance Award this term - clearly, it goes to Meaning and Ministry. I think that'll be true even if I get home and discover that Practicum has something by a woman, since M&M is a pretty even split so far.
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3 comments:
Some questions:
- How do you count the Hebrew Bible? Authored by men, those who received and wrote down God's word? Authored by God and therefore, as best as we know, non-gendered? I've never pondered it from that point of view.
- What's "Pastoral Administration?" We didn't have that, and it sounds intriguing.
- Is it possible to have a set of balanced books, even though they're only written by one gender or the other? Balanced in content, if not in gender of the author?
For the record, I've enjoyed reading the gender balance award posts over the quarters. I rather think, having had (for example) heard from preachers of both genders, that a balance in gender does make a difference! :-)
Thank you! I've been working for this award for a long time. I means a lot to me! (Now I have to make sure we actually read all those books.)
Mark:
I tend to count the Bible as "not by women." In this context, any class that uses the Bible isn't going to be short on other texts by men, so I don't really need to count the Bible as either by men or by God - though if you pushed me, I'd probably say that men "wrote" it even if they didn't author it.
Pastoral Administration is what used to be called just The Dean's Class.
No, it's not. The content can be all over the place, but if there aren't books by women as well as by men, you're still missing a huge part of the picture - and I'm not learning that there's a place for my voice anywhere.
AKMA: And I didn't even say anything in the syllabus planning phase to push having books by women! Hurray!
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