Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest

Dr. Amy-Jill Levine

Self-described “Yankee Jewish feminist who teaches in a predominantly Protestant divinity school in the buckle of the Bible Belt;” pioneering New Testament scholar; nimble, Cast On knitter; and General Hospital aficionado, you bring together the faith traditions of Judaism and Christianity in the classroom, places of worship and our greater society.

During your Harvey Lecture on our campus last year, you described Christianity and Judaism as two parallel sets of railroad tracks that stretch into an eternity where they meet in a place only God can see now. Your remarkable talk in Christ Chapel beforehand on Acts 3:11-26 called us to “take the logs out of our eyes as well as the cotton out of our ears” … so that we can “do something about ending the hurt.”

Professor of New Testament Studies in Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion, you were the Founding Director of that university’s Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender and Sexuality. Adept at creating a space that fosters conversation, you are skilled at engaging people from widely different backgrounds to thoroughly explore controversial issues together. With a knack of making the abstract very concrete, you used to bring then young son Alexander to the classroom dressed in his kippah and tzitzi. “I want you to picture this child,” you told the class, when you talk about “Jews” or “people of Israel ” … “don’t say anything that will hurt this child.” Since Alexander is almost out of his teens now, you say with trademark wit, “I’m looking for someone else’s children to borrow.”

Your most recent book – The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus – is an ecumenical exploration of Jesus’s place in First Century Judaism from which emerged both Early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.

Honoring your scholarship and commitment to women’s issues and ecumenism, we are pleased to award you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.

May 13, 2008

Austin , Texas