Amy-Jill Levine to speak at several Mobile Christian-Jewish Dialogue events

The Mobile Christian-Jewish Dialogue is hosting Amy-Jill Levine for six talks in a visit to the area this month.

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 in Nashville. Her books include “The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus” and “The Meaning of the Bible: What The Jewish Scriptures and the Christian Old Testament Can Teach Us.”

Her most recent work is “Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi.”

Levine, a self-described “Yankee Jewish feminist who teaches in a predominantly Christian divinity school in the buckle of the Bible Belt,” begins with a talk on “Understanding Jesus Means Understanding Judaism,” Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Daphne.

On Oct. 9, she will speak to students at Spring Hill College, and then deliver the Fran and Paul Brown Scholar in Residence lecture at Springhill Avenue Temple. The Shabbat service will be at 7 p.m., followed by “How Jews and Christians Misunderstand Each Other” at 7:30 p.m.

She will be at Ahavas Chesed on Oct. 10 for the 9:30 a.m. Shabbat service and lunch. Her topic will be “Speaking of the Middle East: Jews and Christians in Conversation.” Lunch reservations are requested.

At 7 p.m., she will speak on “Of Pearls and Prodigals: Hearing Jesus’ Parables through Jewish Ears,” at Our Savior Catholic Church.

The series concludes on Oct. 11 at First Baptist Church of Mobile with “Understanding Jesus in His Jewish Context” at 9 a.m., followed by “Dangers on the Road to Jericho: The Challenge of the Parable of the Good Samaritan” during the 11 a.m. service.

The weekend is co-sponsored by the Mobile Area Jewish Federation, Ahavas Chesed, Springhill Avenue Temple, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (Daphne), St. John’s Episcopal Church, The Mobile Catholic Archdiocese and Spring Hill College.

The Dialogue will also bring in Rabbi Joseph Polak from Nov. 8 to 10. Polak is assistant professor of public health at the Boston University School of Public Health and rabbi emeritus of the Hillel House at Boston University.

A child survivor, he is author of “After the Holocaust the Bells Still Ring.”