Posted: Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Amy-Jill (A.-J.) Levine, professor of New Testament and Jewish studies at Vanderbilt University, will be the next speaker in the University of Evansville’s Patricia H. Snyder Concert and Lecture Series, October 18-20.

With the theme of “Jesus, Judaism, and Christianity,” Levine’s visit to Evansville will include several free, public lectures:

• “Jesus and Judaism,” 4 p.m. Friday, October 18, Eykamp Hall (Room 251, Ridgway University Center). A 3:30 p.m. reception, open to all, will precede the lecture.
• “How to Hear a Parable: The Good Samaritan,” 10:30 a.m. Sunday, October 20, Neu Chapel
• “Agreeing to Disagree: How Jews and Christians Read Scripture Differently,” 2 p.m. Sunday, October 20, Eykamp Hall (Room 251, Ridgway University Center)

“I am so excited to bring A.-J. Levine to Evansville,” said Tammy Gieselman, University chaplain. “Her work is essential in our pluralistic world, but it is especially important for the Church as we continually seek to understand who Jesus was and how scripture informs our behavior in the world. A.-J.’s lectures will inspire our community and facilitate responsible interfaith conversations.”

Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies, and Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School and College of Arts and Sciences. Levine’s lectures combine historical-critical rigor, literary-critical sensitivity, and a frequent dash of humor with a commitment to eliminating anti-Jewish, sexist, and homophobic theologies.

Levine holds a Bachelor of Arts from Smith College and a Master of Arts and PhD from Duke University, along with five honorary doctorates. 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 books include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (HarperOne), the edited collection The Historical Jesus in Context (Princeton), and the fourteen-volume edited series Feminist Companions to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings (Continuum). With Marc Brettler of Brandeis University, she has edited the Jewish Annotated New Testament (Oxford), and she has written, with her Vanderbilt colleague Douglas Knight, The Meaning of the Bible: What The Jewish Scriptures and the Christian Old Testament Can Teach Us (HarperOne).

Levine has recorded “Introduction to the Old Testament,” “Great Figures of the Old Testament,” and “Great Figures of the New Testament” for the Teaching Company, publisher of the Great Courses series. In 2011, she became affiliated professor at the Woolf Institute: Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations at Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Made possible through an endowment from the late Patricia H. Snyder, trustee and longtime friend of the University of Evansville, the Patricia H. Snyder Concert and Lecture Series was created in 1997 to bring speakers or performers of national or international renown to Evansville at no cost to the public. The concerts and lectures in this series span a wide variety of topics, and are aimed at both the Evansville and campus communities. Events are free and open to the public.

Additional support for Levine’s lectures comes from UE’s Department of Religious Life, Temple Adath B’nai Israel, and the Shavitz Trust.

For more information on the Patricia H. Snyder Concert & Lecture Series, please visit www.evansville.edu/speakers.

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