Gender and sexuality in the early writings of Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Cooperation partner in Graz: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Katharina Pyschny, Institute for Old Testament Biblical Studies

Incoming Senior Fellows: Prof. Dr. Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert (Department of Religious Studies, Stanford), Prof. Dr. Annette Weissenrieder (Institute for Biblical Studies, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg), Prof. Dr. Mira Sievers (Berlin Institute for Islamic Theology, Humboldt University Berlin)

Local Junior Fellow: Dr. Rachel Claire Dryden

Incoming Junior Fellow: Bahattin Akyol, MA

Period: May 2023 - December 2025

Symposium: expected to take place in autumn 2025

Studies on gender and sexuality are quite present in the context of theological and religion-related research, but usually remain within their respective disciplinary framework and rarely have an interreligious perspective, especially one that takes into account the early scriptures of Islam. The planned project aims to break away from this by bringing together four professors with proven expertise and international visibility in the field of gender studies and, in particular, the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible (Katharina Pyschny), the New Testament (Annette Weissenrieder), rabbinic scripture (Charlotte Fonrobert) and the Koran and early Islamic writings (Mira Sievers). The aim is not to provide an interreligious overview of the project topic, but rather to drill deeper into selected key topics, paying particular attention to the conceptual, thematic, conceptual, literary and religious-historical interrelationships between Judaism, Christianity and Islam and evaluating these with a view to the past and present.

From a methodological point of view, the project goes its own way compared to the state of the art, insofar as different methods are taken into account when analyzing the early writings from Judaism, Christianity and Islam. First of all, this includes the scientifically established exegetical (historical-critical) methodological inventory of biblical studies, Jewish studies and Islamic textual studies. In addition, the interreligious approach should be mentioned once again, which explicitly focuses on interrelationships, exchange and transformation processes and their interpretations and aims to go beyond the comparative description of similarities and differences. The approach chosen here, which can be described as intertheology, aims to recognize and reflect on the constitutive significance of these ongoing processes of exchange for the self-understandings of the three religions.

The intended primary research output of this project is a study book on gender and sexuality in the early writings of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which will be jointly written and edited by the four senior fellows.


 

Events so far:
- Joint working phase (Graz) 01.-11.08.2023
- Theopodcast “Frühe Schriften: Mehr heiß, als fad” in Diesseits von Eden Gespräche über Gott & die Welt with the Senior Fellows on 23.10.2023
https://diesseits.theopodcast.at/fruehe-schriften-mehr-heiss-als-fad
- Winter School 2.0 (Berlin) 09.-10.12.2023, together with the doctoral students from the Berlin Institute for Islamic Theology at Humboldt-Universität in Berlin 
- Lecture „GENDER & QUEER: Sexualität(en) im Alten Testament und seiner Umwelt: Biblische und ikonographische Perspektiven“ by Prof. Dr. Katharina Pyschny, KULTUM Graz on 09.01.2024, https://www.kultum.at/einrichtung/137/kalender/calendar/2004865.html 
- Lecture „Dialog der Theologien - Rede von Gott im Judentum und Islam Einladung zum Dialog“ with Dr. Yuval Katz-Wilfing and Bahattin Akyol, M.A., Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Graz on 10.01.2024, https://altes-testament.uni-graz.at/de/neuigkeiten/detail/article/dialog-der-theologien-2-1/

Upcoming events: 
- Lecture series "Religion am Donnerstag" (Graz), Lecture by Dr. Dryden and Mr. Akyol entitled "Von der Trauung bis zur Scheidung: Ehe aus islamischer Perspektive"
- Joint working phase (Graz) 29.07-09.08.2024
- Winter School 3.0 (Stanford), probably 19-21.11.24
- International conference (Graz), expected in autumn 2025
- Publication of the handbook