Vern Barnet's email Interview with Amy-Jill Levine
E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies

Amy-Jill Levine is E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, Department of Religious Studies, and Graduate Department of Religion. Holding a B.A. from Smith College, an M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University, and honorary Doctorates from the University of Richmond and the Episopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, Levine has been awarded grants from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies. She has held office in the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association, and the Association for Jewish Studies. Her most recent publications include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus; the edited collection, The Historical Jesus in Context; and the fourteen-volume series, Feminist Companions to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings. She has recorded "Introduction to the Old Testament," "Great Figures of the Old Testament," and "Great Figures of the New Testament" for the Teaching Company's "great lectures" series. A self-described "Yankee Jewish feminist who teaches in a predominantly Protestant divinity school in the buckle of the Bible Belt," Levine combines historical-critical rigor, literary-critical sensitivity, and a frequent dash of humor with a commitment to eliminating anti-Jewish, sexist, and homophobic theologies.

Professor Levine in Kansas City Apr 24-25

The weekend of April 24-25, 2009, Village Presbyterian’s Visiting Scholar Program welcomes Amy-Jill Levine, PhD, professor of New Testament studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School and author of The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus.  A respected academic and outspoken advocate for interfaith dialogue, Levine describes herself as a “Yankee Jewish feminist who teaches in a predominantly Protestant divinity school in the buckle of the Bible Belt.”

The event takes place at Village Presbyterian Church, 6641 Mission Road, in Prairie Village.  Sponsored by the Presbyterian Women of Village Church, Levine’s appearance is part of the church’s ecumenical Visiting Scholar program, which brings noted theologians and biblical scholars to Village Church. 

Friday, April 24, 2009
· 7:00 pm – “Jesus, the Misunderstood Jew”
· Reception, book sales and signing follow the program

Saturday, April 25, 2009
· 9:00 am – “Hearing the Parables through Jewish Ears”
· 10: 30 am – “How Jews & Christians Read Scripture Differently”

Tickets are $25 in advance for both days or individually, $15 for Friday and $10 for Saturday’s lectures.  Add $5 for tickets at the door.  Register by mail or online.  Go to www.villagepres.org, click Ministries, then Visiting Scholar and follow the links to register.  Request ticket and event information, call (913) 671-2381 or e-mail visitingscholar@villagepres.org

On KCUR’s “Up to Date” Tuesday, Apr 7, Steve Kraske hosted Amy-Jill Levine (remotely), Rabbi Alan Cohen, and Rev. Brian Ellison (Parkville Presbyterian).
 
1. Do you know or know about Mark Nanos, lecturer at the University of Kansas Department of Religious Studies, whose work has been to help Christians rethink their assessment of Paul and the Jewish world of his time? If so, any comment? I am always happy to work with, and to learn from, Mark Nanos. He is contributing a major essay on Paul to the Jewish Annotated New Testament, which I, together with Marc Brettler of Brandeis University, am editing for Oxford University Press.
2. Your first lecture here is "Jesus, the Misunderstood Jew." Could you please say in what respects Jesus is misunderstood and by whom (Christians, Jews, both, secularists, others)? Why is it important for Christians to understand Jesus as a Jew?  If we get first-century Judaism wrong, we’ll get Jesus wrong.  Some Christians incorrectly regard Jesus as the only Jew who respected women, showed compassion to the sick, aided the poor, and counseled non-violence.  They view his Jewish context as comparable to the Taliban, if not worse. Seeing Jesus within Judaism helps to avoid such inaccurate anti-Jewish teaching and to deepen understanding of his teachings.
3. Many folks "pre-read" scripture, that is, they approach it with preconceptions of what it says and what it means. How can Jewish "ears" help readers understand what may have been the original intent of the parables? Can you give an example or two?   First-century Jews knew that parables were not just sweet stories.  By doing the history, we learn how “the Prodigal Son” is not necessarily about repentance; how “the Good Samaritan” would have shocked (and not in the way many readers today think), and how the “Parable of the Leaven” may have gotten a rise out of its listeners.
4. More generally, how do Christians and Jews read scripture differently? Is this true both of Christians and Jews reading the Hebrew scripture and the Christian "New Testament"?  Church and synagogue read the same books –Genesis, Leviticus, Isaiah – through different lenses, with different translations, different canonical ordering, even different punctuation. Further, not all Jews or all Christians read the texts the same way. Diversity exists both within and across religious traditions.
5. Why is interfaith dialogue important? Do you have a special passion for Jewish-Christian dialogue because of your experience in the Bible Belt? To what extent should dialogue about Jesus (and Abraham, etc) include Muslim perspectives? The Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council includes faiths A-Z, from American Indian to Zoroastrian. Do you have any tips on how respect for diversity can be deepened amongst those not yet part of interfaith conversation? Interfaith dialogue not only helps us understand our neighbors, it should help us better understand ourselves.  Jews and Christians have a special reason for dialogue: although we share common roots and a common Scripture, our history has been marked by misunderstanding, and worse. 

We enter a dialogue not only and not primarily as representatives of our traditions. We come as individuals seeking understanding; we come not to convert, but to learn, to explain, and to be challenged.
6. What is it like to be Jewish teaching New Testament at a Protestant divinity school? Any anecdotes about how Protestant students have expressed being enriched by your Jewishness?  Any Jewish students expressing new appreciation for the Christian scriptures as they studied with you?  Vanderbilt welcomes students from across the globe from the range of Christian traditions to Judaism and Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, Unitarianism and atheism. Each enters the study of early Christianity with different presuppositions, and each finds new challenges. Some have never met a Jew; many hold false stereotypes of Judaism; most are unaware of how Jesus fits within his Jewish context. 

Some Protestant students have misperceptions about Catholic teaching;  some Jews who have never read the New Testament are convinced that it is anti-Semitic; misperceptions occur between those from Conservative and Liberal Christian traditions.

Historical study, theological sensitivity, and the recognition that Scripture can evoke multiple interpretations at Vanderbilt create a community in which different beliefs are respected even as the students find firmer grounding for their own faiths.

 
7. What would you like my readers to know about what they might expect when they come to hear you? What do you hope might occur? By recovering Jesus in his Jewish context, I seek to help Jews learn more about our own history, Christians deepen their understanding of Scripture, all readers avoid the anti-Jewish interpretations that sadly often accompany Christian preaching, and all readers find in the texts “good news.”

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