SMCE 3018 F26 Gender and Faith

• Duration: Six weeks
• Day of the Week: Thursdays
• Dates: November 6th to December 10th, 2026
• Location: In person on campus at the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto (room TBA)
• Cost: $150 (includes HST) **15% discount available to alumni of the University of St. Michael’s College and seniors 65+
• Level of Interfaith Dialogue (for learners taking the Diploma in Interfaith Dialogue): Dialogue of Theological Exchange

Course Overview

An investigation of how gender shapes our religious lives. We will look at feminist and gender-based writings by contemporary faith leaders and analyze how conceptions of gender and gender role create, promulgate and also challenge the religious landscape of personal and communal faith and faith-based institutions.

Guided by internationally recognized scholar Rabbi Dr. Elyse Goldstein, learners will engage with feminist, queer, and post-modern theological perspectives through readings, lectures, discussion, and reflective journaling. Topics include: gendered language for God, scripture and interpretation, ritual, and gender diversity and its challenges within worship spaces. Participants will examine historical and contemporary texts, compare faith traditions, and critically reflect on how gender influences their own religious identity and spiritual development. 

This course is an elective within the Diploma in Interfaith Dialogue, and is open to all learners.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

Examine gender-based scriptural assumptions and analyze their historic and faith-based centrality 

Examine later Rabbinic, Church fathers, and Islamic writings on gender-based religious assumptions 

Learn about differing faith communities ways of conceptualizing gender and faith 

Analyze one’s own faith’s gender-based thinking and how it affects one’s individual religious development.

About the Instructor

Rabbi Dr. Elyse Goldstein

Rabbi Dr. Elyse Goldstein was the founding Rabbi of City Shul, a Reform congregation in downtown Toronto she started in 2011, and is now its Rabbi Emerita. She broke the “stained glass ceiling” upon her arrival to Toronto in 1983 as the only female Rabbi in all of Canada. After her first position as Assistant Rabbi at Canada’s largest synagogue (Holy Blossom Temple) she founded Kolel: The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning. She was awarded the most prestigious prize in Jewish education, the internationally recognized Covenant Award for Exceptional Jewish Educators, as a result of that work. She is the author/editor of four award-winning books on Women and Judaism: ReVisions: Seeing Torah through a Feminist Lens, The Women’s Torah Commentary, The Women’s Haftarah Commentary and New Jewish Feminism. She graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University in 1978, earning her Masters Degree from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1981 before ordination in 1983, and receiving their Doctor of Divinity, honoris causis in 2008. In 2013 she was named one of America’s 50 Most Influential Rabbis by The Forward and in May 2017 she was awarded Doctor of Laws Honoris Causis from TMU (formerly Ryerson University) in recognition of her path-breaking work in Canada. She is a fiery and passionate speaker/teacher who gets students to think, challenge, question and grow.

Questions?

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