RLG357H1

Blood and Babies: Women’s Reproductive Cycles and the Fetus in Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Thought and Law

Reproductive experiences have often played a central role in women’s experience of religion -- spiritually, ritually, and legally. This course explores these themes in classical and medieval Jewish, Christian, and Islamic texts. We will study ritual purity laws and the religious significance of menstruation and other bodily fluids. We will explore attitudes towards contraception, struggles with infertility, and fear of the pain and dangers of childbirth. We will also delve into theological and legal debates about fetal development, the permissibility of abortion, and what happens to the bodies and souls of fetuses and babies who do not survive. Finally, we will explore rituals of the post-partum mother and the newborn child, including naming rituals, Christian baptism, Jewish circumcision and redemption, and Islamic aqiqah.