This year’s Edward Cadbury lectures at the University of Birmingham will take place in a few week’s time. Professor Amy-Jill Levine (Vanderbilt University Divinity School and College of Arts and Sciences) will be examining “Is the New Testament Anti-Jewish?“

The press release for this event reads:

Despite progress in both historical studies and interfaith relations, Jews and Christians continue to misunderstand each other, and to misunderstand the relationship of the New Testament to its Jewish context. By looking at major parts of the New Testament – the Christmas story, the sermon on the mount, the passion narrative, the letters of Paul, and the epistle to the Hebrews – we can see how and why the followers of Jesus of Nazareth dialogued with, debated, and sometimes defamed their fellow Jews. We also find, in doing the historical work, that Jews and Christians have much to celebrate both in terms of what they hold in common and in areas where they came to differ.

In this year’s series of Cadbury Lectures Professor Levine provides a historically informed and theologically sensitive reading of those New Testament passages that some claim to be anti-Jewish, rooted in a recognition that both Judaism and Christianity formed their identities in dialogue and debate with each other. The series explores and celebrates where Judaism and Christianity agree, as well as where they disagree.

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