Outline

Overview

This unit examines the relation between sexuality, desire, gender and the sacred as presented in a diverse range of religious traditions; mysticism; tantra; cults of virginity and abstinence; sacred androgyny; philosophy of religion approach to gender and ontology, epistemology and ethics; cultural difference as it pertains to issues of religion and sexuality

Unit details and rules

Academic unit	Studies in Religion
Credit points	6
Prerequisites ?	12 credit points at 2000 level in Studies in Religion
Corequisites ?	None
Prohibitions ?	RLST2635
Assumed knowledge ?	None
Available to study abroad and exchange students	Yes

Teaching staff

Coordinator	Jay Johnston, jay.johnston@sydney.edu.au

Type	Description	Weight	Due	Length
Presentation	Presentation Presentation	10%	Multiple weeks	1000wd
Outcomes assessed:
Participation	Tutorial participation Tutorial participation	10%	Ongoing	n/a
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Essay Essay	50%	Week 06 Due date: 02 Oct 2020 at 23:00	3000wd
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Public Discourse Analysis Public Discourse Analysis	30%	Week 10 Due date: 06 Nov 2020 at 23:00	2000wd
Outcomes assessed:

Assessment summary

Presentation: Students are required to deliver a 10 minute presentation on an allocated tutorial topic.

Participation: Students are required to engage in discussions on-line and via Canvas discussion boards throughout the unit

Essay: Students are required to respond to one essay question from a list provided. Further instructions will be given in class.

Public Discourse Analysis: Students are required to select one example of public discourse and analyse its presentation of relevant unit themes. Further instructions will be given in class.

Assessment criteria

Please see the Faculty Guide to Grades for a breakdown of the assessment framework for all assessment tasks in this unit.

https://www.sydney.edu.au/students/guide-to-grades.html

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

This unit has an exception to the standard University policy or supplementary information has been provided by the unit coordinator. This information is displayed below:

As per Faculty guidelines

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automated writing tools

You may only use generative AI and automated writing tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator. If you do use these tools, you must acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section. The assessment instructions or unit outline will give guidance of the types of tools that are permitted and how the tools should be used.

Your final submitted work must be your own, original work. You must acknowledge any use of generative AI tools that have been used in the assessment, and any material that forms part of your submission must be appropriately referenced. For guidance on how to acknowledge the use of AI, please refer to the AI in Education Canvas site.

The unapproved use of these tools or unacknowledged use will be considered a breach of the Academic Integrity Policy and penalties may apply.

Studiosity is permitted unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission as detailed on the Learning Hub’s Canvas page.

Outside assessment tasks, generative AI tools may be used to support your learning. The AI in Education Canvas site contains a number of productive ways that students are using AI to improve their learning.

Learning support

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

Weekly schedule

WK	Topic	Learning activity	Learning outcomes

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

Instructions with regard to reading requirements will be provided in class.

Week 1: No Readings

Week 2

Beier, Ulli. Yoruba Myths. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Archive. 1980, pp. x–xiv.

Joseph M., and Mei-Mei Sanford. "Introduction." In Osun across the Waters: A Yoruba Goddess in Africa and the Americas. edited by Joseph M. Murphy and Mei-Mei Sanford, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 2001, pp. 1–9.

Temisanren, Ebijuwa. "Views of Women in Yoruba Culture and Their Impact on the Abortion Decision." Women & Health 22, no. 3 (1995): 1–8.

"The Secret Book of John." In The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts Complete in One Volume, edited by Marvin Meyer, New York: HarperOne, 2009, 103–32.

King, Karen. "Reading Sex and Gender in the Secret Revelation of John." The Journal of Early Christian Studies 19, no. 4 (2011): 519–538.

Week 3: Abstinence and Excess: Discourses of Regulation

Staples, Ariadne. From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion. London: Routledge, 1998, pp. 129–156.

Augustine: ‘Adolescence'. Translated by Henry Chadwick. In Confessions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 24–34.

Week 4: Queering Traditions

Wilcox, Melissa M. "Queer Theory and the Study of Religion." In Queer Religion. Volume 2: LGBT Movements and Queering Religion. edited by Donald L. Boisvert and Jay Emerson Johnson, Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2012, pp. 227- 251. 

Kripal, Jeffrey J. The Serpent's Gift: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007, pp. 29–58.

Lefkovitz, Lori Hope. "Passing as a Man: Narratives of Jewish Gender Performance." Narrative 10, no. 1 (2002): 91–103.

Week 5: Androgyny, Celibacy and the 'Sexless' Individual

Michael F. Brown, ‘Toward Sacred Androgyny,’ in The Channeling Zone: American Spirituality in an Anxious Age. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997, pp. 93-114.

Raine, Susan. "Reconceptualising the human body: Heaven's Gate and the quest for divine transformation." Religion 35, no. 2 (2005): 98–117.

Week 6: Philosophies of Desire & Sexual Difference

Irigaray, Luce. "Sexual Difference." Translated by Carolyn Burke and Gillian C. Gill. In An Ethics of Sexual Difference. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993, pp. 5–19.

Irigaray, Luce. "Spiritual Tasks for Our Age." In Luce Irigaray: Key Writings. London and New York: Continuum, 2004, pp. 171–185.

Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. "The Body without Organs." Translated by Robert Hurley, Mark Seem and Helen R. Lane. In Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983, pp. 9–16.

Protevi, John. "The Organism as the Judgement of God: Aristotle, Kant and Deleuze on Nature (that is, On Biology, Theology and Politics)." In Deleuze and Religion. edited by Mary Bryden. London and New York: Routledge, 2001, pp. 30–41.

Week 7: Eros: From Greek Myth to Modern Theory

Bataille, Georges. ‘Mysticism and Sensuality’ in Eroticism (Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1957), reprinted Mary Dalwood, trans.London and New York: Marion Boyars, 1987, pp. 221-251.

Week 8:

Blain, Jenny. ‘Ergi Seiðman, Queer Transformations?’ in Nine Worlds of Seid- Magic: Ecstasy and Neo- Shamanism in North European Paganism. London and New York: Routledge, 2002, pp. 111-141.

Pinch, Geraldine. Handbook of Egyptian Mythology. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2002, pp. 78–80.

Week 9: Desire and Mysticism

Amy Hollywood, ‘Mysticism, Trauma, and Catastrophe in Angela of Foligno’sBook and Bataille’s Atheological Summa’, inSensible Ecstasy: Mysticism, Sexual Difference and the Demands of History,Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2002, pp. 60-87.

Week 10: Tantra, Sacred Sex and Sex Magic

David Gordon White, ‘The Blood of the Yogini: Vital and Sexual Fluids inSouth Asian Thought and Practice,’ in Kiss of the Yogini: “Tantric Sex” in its South Asian Contexts, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2003, pp. 67-93.

Urban, Hugh B. "India’s Darkest Heart: Tantra in the Literary Imagination." In Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religions. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003, pp. 106–133.

Djurdjevic, Gordan. "Solve et Coagula: Attitudes toward the Ambrosial Aspects of Human Seed in Certain Yogic Traditions and in the Sexual Magick of Aleister Crowley." Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism 10, no. 1 (2010): 85–106.

Week 11: Sexual Energies: Self and World

Yao, Xinzhong. "Harmony of Yin and Yang: Cosmology and Sexuality in Daoism." In Sexuality and the World’s Religions. edited by David W. Machacek and Melissa M. Wilcox. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2003, pp. 65–99

Rita M. Gross, ‘Gender and Buddha-Nature: Feminist Comments on Third-Turning Teachings and on the Vajrayana,’ in Buddhism after Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993, pp. 185-206.

Week 12: Gender and Supernatural Beings

Barnes, Nancy J. "Lady Rokujō's Ghost: Spirit Possession, Buddhism, and Healing in Japanese Literature." Literature and Medicine 8, no. 1(1989):106–121.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

Outcomes
Graduate qualities

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

LO1. Develop skills in critical thinking and disciplinary knowledge
LO2. Increase knowledge and understanding of cultural diversity and difference
LO3. Develop skills in oral and written communication
LO4. Increase capacity for interdisciplinary analysis
LO5. Utilise knowledge and analysis skills in understanding and participating in the contemporary world

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1	Depth of disciplinary expertise Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.
GQ2	Critical thinking and problem solving Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.
GQ3	Oral and written communication Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.
GQ4	Information and digital literacy Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.
GQ5	Inventiveness Generating novel ideas and solutions.
GQ6	Cultural competence Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.
GQ7	Interdisciplinary effectiveness Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.
GQ8	Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.
GQ9	Influence Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes	Graduate qualities
Learning outcomes

Responding to student feedback

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

No changes have been made since this unit was last offered'.

Disclaimer

The University reserves the right to amend units of study or no longer offer certain units, including where there are low enrolment numbers.

To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an online glossary.

Current students

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

RLST3605: Sex, Desire and the Sacred

Semester 2, 2020 [Normal day] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links