Meet the Jewish Scholar Elected to Lead the Catholic Biblical Association
AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast
This past summer, the Scripture scholar Amy-Jill (AJ) Levine, Ph.D., was elected as the first Jewish president of the Catholic Biblical Association (CBA). Sadly and horrifyingly, AJ’s election led to a torrent of antisemitic online comments and posts directed her way. Subsequent statements of support from the CBA and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops were positive, and we thought the way we could show our support was to invite her onto the podcast for a conversation about her distinguished scholarly career, which she has dedicated to countering Biblical interpretations that exclude and oppress. We were honored she accepted our invitation. AJ spoke with host Mike Jordan Laskey last week. AJ Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies Emerita, Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies Emerita, and Professor of New Testament Studies Emerita at Vanderbilt University. Since retiring from Vanderbilt, she is Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace. Her publications include “The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus”; “Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi”; “Jesus for Everyone, Not Just Christians”; and “The Jewish Annotated New Testament,” the third edition of which has just been published. In our conversation, Mike asked AJ about some of the central theses of her intellectual project, plus why a self-described Yankee Jewish feminist has spent so much of her career thinking about Jesus. We also talked about her recent election as president of the Catholic Biblical Association, the horrible anti-Jewish backlash, the subsequent support she received, and how she might use her position with the CBA to continue her work. “The Jewish Annotated New Testament”: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-jewish-annotated-new-testament-9780190461850 More about AJ Levine: https://www.hartfordinternational.edu/faculty/amy-jill-levine AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/