This past summer, the Catholic Biblical Association made history by electing Dr. Amy-Jill Levine as its president for 2026–2027.
Dr. Levine is exceptionally qualified. She taught New Testament at Vanderbilt University for nearly three decades and is now Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace. She is the author of 39 books and numerous articles, has taught at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, and had three audiences with Pope Francis.
I know A-J personally. She was my New Testament professor in graduate school, and later became a mentor and friend. She is brilliant, witty, candid, and remarkably graceful when engaging difficult and controversial subjects. She modeled for this African woman how to lead serious Bible studies on complicated questions, including human sexuality and sexual orientation. More than anything, I credit A-J with deepening my discipleship.
When I first met her, I loved Jesus with all my heart and all my strength. A-J taught me to love Jesus with all my mind. I still remember the day she suggested that I study Aramaic. I resisted. There was not enough written in Aramaic, I thought, to justify destroying the necessary brain cells. A-J smiled and said something like, “Grace, I appreciate your love for Jesus. I would imagine you would want to learn the language Jesus spoke when he lived on earth.” I was hooked. Hello, Aramaic!
So when A-J was elected president of the Catholic Biblical Association, I was beaming with pride.
Then came the antisemitic backlash. A small but very visible group on social media shifted the conversation away from Dr. Levine’s scholarship and toward her Jewish identity. She was accused of being “anti-Christian” and of attempting to take control of Catholicism. Old antisemitic stereotypes and caricatures resurfaced.
True to form, A-J responded directly: “Hate and demonizing, name calling and slandering, are not good forms of evangelism.”
At the heart of some of the controversy is a question A-J helped me wrestle with years ago: How do Christians understand Jesus within the Judaism of his own time?
Some Christians might still be scandalized to discover that Jesus was Jewish. He did not eat barbecued pork chops at a Texas cookout. Humor aside, A-J challenges the old Christian caricature that Jesus introduced grace, compassion, and love in opposition to a Judaism concerned only with law and purity. Instead, she reminds us that Jesus lived, worshiped, taught, and argued as a Jew within the Jewish world of his time.
Knowing A-J, and filled with gratitude for this distinguished scholar, professor, mentor, and friend, I could not simply sit back and watch the attacks. I publicly affirmed her on Facebook and wrote to congratulate her on this historic election. I wanted her to know that hateful voices were not the only voices speaking out loud. Many of us treasured her scholarship and celebrated her leadership.
Wouldn’t you know it? I began receiving hate mail too.
Then A-J sent me a short note: “Thank you for being brave.”
Her words stopped me. If I have been brave, it is in part because Amy-Jill Levine taught me how. For the past forty years she has stood before Jesus-loving Christians like me, honoring our love of Jesus with heart and strength while giving us the intellectual building blocks to love Jesus with our minds.
And by her own example, she taught me something more: She taught me to be brave.
Love, Grace