Bjorklunden Seminars Concentrate on Ovid, Women’s Ministry

Lawrence University’s Bjorklunden in Baileys Harbor is offering the following seminars from Sunday, October 18 through Friday, October 23:  “Ovid In and On Love” with Daniel J. Taylor and “Women’s Ordination:  The Hidden Tradition” with Mary Ann Rossi.

“Roma” is “amor” spelled backwards, according to the poet Ovid (43 BC – 17 AD), and the only thing that Ovid loved more than the city of Rome was being in love and writing about love. “Ovid In and On Love” will focus on Ovid’s Love Affairs, an ostensibly autobiographical account of his misadventures in love; and Art of Love, a facetiously didactic poem addressing the finer points of seduction and amatory intrigue. It’s all good, clean fun, but it’s also often serious, sometimes cynical, and always worldly and psychologically right on target.

The seminar is taught by Daniel J. Taylor, who is the Hiram A. Jones Professor Emeritus of Classics at his alma mater, Lawrence University. He is the author of three books and dozens of articles, and was named Lawrence’s Outstanding Teacher in 1998 and Wisconsin’s Distinguished Foreign Language Educator in 1990. He was nationally acclaimed for Excellence in Teaching the Classics in 1983, and was a two-time National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellow and a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Italy.

“Women’s Ordination:  The Hidden Tradition” will examine the archaeological, literary, epigraphical, and artistic testimony of women’s leadership and ministry in the early centuries of the Church (to the sixth century). The class will study readings of the church fathers who believed that women were not fully human, but defective creatures who had to be ruled and subordinated. This prejudice – still in place today in the Roman Catholic magisterium – was solidified into the power structure of the Church and defined the male priesthood up to the 21st century.

The seminar teacher, Mary Ann Rossi, is a retired college teacher and an independent scholar whose work centers on women and religion, both in the ancient world and today. She received her doctorate in Classics from the University of London and has taught Classics and Women’s Studies at Ball State University, Indiana University, and the City Literary Institute of London, England. As a result of her publication of the testimony for women priests in the early church, she has been invited to address conferences both in the United States and abroad. Rossi’s work for equal rights in the past three decades has led to her inclusion in Feminists Who Changed America, 1963 – 1975, a book put out by the University of Illinois Press.

Seminar classes meet weekday mornings and some evenings with remaining free time open for exploration of the area’s many cultural and recreational opportunities. Each seminar includes meals prepared by Björklunden’s own resident chef.

For complete course descriptions, fees, and registration dates call 920.839.2216 or visit http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/bjork.