LEVINE TO HEADLINE NEXT UNA DISTINGUISHED EVENTS PROGRAM FEB. 25
Jan. 29, 2008
By Rebecca Walker
UNA Student Writer
FLORENCE, Ala. — The University of North Alabama’s Distinguished Events Series continues in February with “Jesus and Judaism: The Connection Still Matters,” a presentation to be given by author and religious scholar Amy-Jill Levine. The event will take place at 7 p.m. Feb. 25 in the Guillot University Center’s Performance Center.
Levine is the author of “The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus,” published by Harper One in 2006.
“The book shows how Christians often misunderstand Judaism in general, the New Testament in particular, and thus yank Jesus out of his Jewish context, resulting in intolerance (and sometimes outright hatred) of Jews,” according to the publisher’s description. Levine hopes to tackle those misunderstandings and explain the “Jewishness” of Jesus through humor and informed truth telling in an attempt to help Jews and Christians better understand one another.
An E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter professor of New Testament studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tenn., Levine has been awarded research grants from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies.
The UNA Distinguished Events Series was developed in 2005. Each semester, the series brings speakers to UNA’s campus to expose the community to varied sources of arts and culture. For more information about the series, contact Debbie Chaffin at 256-765-4297 or dkchaffin@una.edu.
