A Lilly Fellows Program Summer Seminar

Desperate Housewives. The opening scene begins with music from the 1950s and a medieval portrait of Eve, who plucks the apple from the tree and hands it to Adam. In the final moment of this opening scene, the apple falls into the hand of one of the desperate housewives, who are mesmerizing a generation of those inhabiting TV Land – many of them our students.

A bewildering range of perspectives
Long before the advent of television, however, the Christian church tweaked and twisted this first story of gender into a sordid tale of manipulation and seduction of a man by a woman. Thus began a long and tortured relationship between gender and Christianity.

Students at faith-based institutions of higher education reflect a bewildering range of perspectives on the relationship between gender and Christianity. These perceptions, unwittingly or consciously, influence their choice of vocation, their personal associations, even the ways in which they participate in class. Professors with a textured understanding of the wide expanse of these perspectives will be uniquely equipped to mentor students in every dimension of their educational experience.

Catalyzing discussion among students
The purpose of this Lilly Fellows Summer Seminar is to create a cadre of significantly well-informed faculty who take the initiative to catalyze discussion and action on their campuses directed toward a rapprochement among students, staff, and faculty who often hold seemingly incompatible views of gender and Christianity.

To this end, this seminar will not advocate a particular agenda vis-a-vis gender and Christianity. Instead, it will introduce participants to the wide array of perspectives reflected in hermeneutical, historical, theological, and ecumenical approaches to this issue. These perspectives, after all, contribute to the assumptions about gender and Christianity that students bring to the college and university campus.

An unparalleled opportunity