Editor’s Note: In the July-September issue of Good Faith Magazine, the article honoring Amy-Jill Levine was inadvertently truncated. Below are Rev. Ryan Motter’s words in their entirety.
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Dr. Amy-Jill Levine holds many titles with long names, including the Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace; and the University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies Emerita, Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies Emerita, Professor of New Testament Studies Emerita, Vanderbilt University. She is a highly sought-after Jewish scholar of the New Testament. She is also an author and contributor to many books and publications.
Mostly, her students know her as “AJ” and a trusted friend.
By Rev. Ryan Motter
I arrived with one minute to spare as Dr. Amy-Jill Levine began the first seminar I took from her, and found myself sitting directly next to her. That first class, I stewed in worry. Surely I’d say something to reveal I didn’t belong.
The class ended, and I breathed out. Phew! Inadequacy undiscovered. But as I left, a firm-but-kind hand landed on my shoulder. AJ (as she invites all to call her) said, “This only works if you participate. Understood?”
Those instructions could be a motto for how AJ invites students of the New Testament around the world to know that the study of scripture only works if you bring your whole self to it. Modeling this in word and deed, AJ has become an inspiring figure who leads conversations in the critical study of the New Testament and creates interfaith community — especially Jewish-Christian relationships of mutuality and dignity.
She is a teacher who practices what she professes, a way of kind and honest challenge, in Sunday School rooms and lecture halls, through prolific books and articles, from academy walls to prison halls. She comes alongside all of us, places a firm-but-kind hand on our shoulders, and invites us to show up to and know the gospel we claim to profess.
—Rev. Ryan Motter is Senior Minister at Creekwood Christian Church in Flower Mound, Texas.
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