Podcasts about professor levine

In today's episode, Galit Kierkut speaks with Professor Samuel Levine about antisemitism and its impact on Jewish communities. Professor Levine addresses topics such as campus protests, community safety, and the importance of staying informed on this critical issue. Tune in to hear their perspectives on antisemitism in the U.S.  Please be aware that this episode was recorded in the summer of 2024. As a result, any time references may no longer be accurate. 

Explore the cosmos with Colgate Associate Professor of Physics Jonathan Levine. Professor Levine shares his journey from his childhood interests in astronomy to his work in an upcoming 2027 lunar research mission through NASA's recurring Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) program. Professor Levine teaches courses in the traditional physics and astronomy curriculum, and a Core Sciences course on the atmosphere Core 166S. Levine also works with the Benton Scholars at Colgate and discusses some of the exciting work being done by students in that program.

I'm honored to speak with Professor of Law and Director of the Jewish Law Institute Samuel Levine in this episode. Over his years working as the director of the Touro Law Center, Professor Levine has advocated and spent countless hours discussing and providing direction and advocacy for autism and other special education areas.  We discuss the importance of individual education plans (IEP) and also the laws and regulations protecting the disability community in education. Professor Samuel J. Levine joined the Touro Law Center faculty in 2010 as a Professor of Law and Director of the Jewish Law Institutehttps://www.tourolaw.edu/AboutTouroLaw/bio/194Support the show

This bonus episode features my full discussion with Professor Robert S Levine. You can find The Failed Promise: Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass, and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, everywhere books can be purchased, and you can learn more about Professor Levine on his site, https://blog.umd.edu/robert-s-levine/

Another mass shooting, another community devasted, another community deeply grieves. Supreme Court decisions that increasingly show not only a lack of care for the oppressed, but also lack of care for the earth itself. The world seems so very heavy right now. So, I needed to hear Jesus' words today, words that always reroute us in the only direction God desires for us – the way of love and compassion for all others.  Have you ever met people who become so focused on the law that, for them, their narrow interpretation of the law is ultimate?  When focus on the law – the ten commandments – becomes ultimate, the law is no longer received as gift. Then, obedience to the law becomes behavioral proof of faith.  When this happens, the gospel message is no longer a word of love but one of judgement.  Grace is no longer understood as God's gift to ALL people. When law becomes our focus, then our actions must be justified by our understanding of and obedience to the law as humanly defined.  Far too often, this perspective allows us to live with the illusion that we are in control.  It reinforces the idea that a life of discipleship is a life marked by knowing good from evil, rather than a life of knowing God and God's mercy and grace.  The lawyer who encounters Jesus in today's gospel reading lives and functions out of this perspective.  And Jesus' teaching today means that this lawyer's world, as ordered by his increasingly narrow definition of neighbor, must end.  You see, his definition of neighbor has been increasingly defined by the letter of the law and not by the gospel which is all about love and grace. This lawyer, an expert in the Law of Moses – the Torah – is on a fishing expedition as he comes to test Jesus.  He wants to know if Jesus will use the law in a proper way to answer his weighty question when he asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus responds by answering the question with another question.  Jesus asks, “What do you think is the answer?  What is written in the law?  What do you read there that might address your question?”  By doing this, Jesus forces the lawyer to put his cards on the table.  When Jesus asks, “What do you think is the answer?” he slowly begins to reel the lawyer in.  And it is as if this lawyer had been waiting for this opportunity all along because he intimately knows the law and Hebrew scriptures.  So, he quickly responds by giving Jesus a comprehensive statement of proper ethical conduct as he says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." Jesus praises the answer, but he is not yet finished with this lawyer.  So, he begins to pull the attorney into deeper conversation.  He pulls him in to the place where proper words and proper actions meet.  It is here that Jesus offers a surprisingly simple summary statement. "Do this and you will live."  Well, the lawyer takes the bait.   He is hooked, and he continues his lawyerly line of questioning by asking, “Who is my neighbor?”  Well, never missing an opportunity to teach, Jesus responds with a story. Now, it is important to remember that Jesus' stories were designed to shatter perceptions and perspectives and shake people out of their mindset.  The parables of Jesus were not meant to be comfortable, sweet stories.  They were always meant to turn people's thinking inside out and upside down.  In fact, one theologian calls Jesus' parables narrative time bombs designed to explode people's minds into new awareness.   Anyway, Jesus tells the suspenseful story of a man traveling the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.  We can surmise from the way Jesus tells this story that the traveling man was probably Jewish because this was a road going right through the heart of Judea.  In his story this traveler is ambushed, robbed, beaten, stripped, and left to die in a pool of blood.  And the big question is who is going to stop and help?  Two experts in the law walk right on past the beaten, nearly dead man.  They know the commandments to love God and neighbor.  But they don't stop to help a stranger at the point of death.  The twist comes with the third traveler, a Samaritan, an outsider, a hated enemy whose religious interpretation and practices make the lawyer's blood boil and his stomach churn.  This reviled, despised Samaritan is the only one who shows the dying man hospitality, kindness, mercy, generosity, and love to the extreme.  The one who is hated and reviled becomes the hero of the story and Jesus again shockingly turns social norms upside-down and inside-out! The learned lawyer requested a definition of neighbor, and he receives a downright scandalous description of mercy, grace, and love, leaving him with the most soul-searching question of all.  Of each of the characters in this story, where does he find himself and who is the neighbor?  This story does not bear the impact of parable for us because it is so familiar to us.  But, if we were to reinterpret this story and understanding of neighbor for our own time, who are those we would least expect to see and comprehend as neighbor?  Who are those who sit on the margins, stereotyped as being “less than” because their religious views, culture, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, or even political views are different from us?  Professor, author, and theologian Amy-Jill Levine, when teaching about this parable and the compassion of the Samaritan, insists, We should think of ourselves as the person in the ditch and then ask, “Is there anyone, from any group, about whom we'd rather die than acknowledge, ‘She offered help' or ‘He showed compassion'?”  More, is there any group whose members might rather die than help us?  If so, then we know how to find the modern equivalent for the Samaritan. To recognize the shock and possibility of the parable in practical, political, and religious terms, we might translate its first-century geographical and religious concerns into our modern idiom. Who is the one who proved neighbor?  Who is the one who loved God with heart, mind, soul, and strength and loved neighbor as the self?  In a lecture on this parable, before an audience who had experienced the horrors of 9/11 firsthand, Professor Levine suggested the one who proved to be neighbor was a member of Al-Qaeda.  (Feasting on the Word, p. 242.)  So, for us, considering what is happening today in our culture, “Who are the ones who love God with heart, mind, soul and strength and love neighbor as self?”  Wham!!  Suddenly, for us, this parable begins to bear the perception shattering, explosive nature it did for our learned attorney.  As we work on living together in society and community, the Samaritan lives among us by many other names, the names of any we consider enemies, any we loathe, any we consider “other”.  And the big surprise is that God shows up and is present in the most unlikely, unexpected places, working through the most unexpected people – even those we may despise.  Now, our definition of neighbor is redefined.  Furthermore, consider the idea that each one of us is the person in the ditch, the one who lies helpless and wounded beside the road, the one who needs to be rescued.  And along comes a Good Samaritan, a Good Samaritan named Jesus – despised and rejected – he is the one who comes to save us, speak tenderly to us, tend to our wounds, lift us into his arms, and take us to the place of healing.  Today, we grieve regarding the injustice in our own culture. Our country is not practicing love. But the gospel is love, and that is what we as Christians are called to live.  The gospel of love calls us to be present and to show up in the places of pain, to stand with any who are facing oppression. It is in those places of pain and oppression, under the shadow of the cross, where Jesus promises he will meet us to be present with us offering mercy, love, hope, and transformation to new life.  So, again, as we think about what is presently happening in our country, the question for each of us is who is your neighbor, who are you called to serve, to love, and be present to as neighbor?  Who has been neighbor to you?  Jesus Christ, the crucified one has been neighbor to you.  Have you felt God's mercy make your own heart merciful, compassionate, and loving?  Then in your heart you will know what this means:  Go and do likewise!

Samuel Levine is a Professor of Law and Director of the Jewish Law Institute at Touro Law Center, which is part of the Touro College and University System. His work Was Yosef on the Spectrum? Understanding Joseph Through Torah, Midrash, and Classical Jewish Sources offers a unique examination of the life of Joseph (Yosef). Yosef's behaviors, interpersonal relationships, and personal development are often difficult to understand, and at times seem to defy explanation. This book offers a coherent and cohesive reading of the well-known Bible story, presenting a portrait of Yosef as an individual on the autism spectrum. Viewed through this lens, Yosef emerges as a more familiar and less enigmatic individual, exhibiting both strengths and weaknesses commonly associated with autism spectrum disorder. Professor Levine: Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/samuel.j.levine Faculty Page: https://www.tourolaw.edu/AboutTouroLaw/bio/194 SSRN Author Page: https://ssrn.com/author=328329 Prof. Levine has served as the Beznos Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University College of Law, and he has taught at the law schools of Bar-Ilan, Fordham, Pepperdine, and St. John's Universities. He has published two books and more than 60 law review articles and book chapters, and he has lectured throughout the United States on the subjects of Legal Ethics, Jewish Law, Criminal Law, Law and Religion, Constitutional Law, and Disability Rights.  Professor Levine has been described in the pages of the Notre Dame Law Review as “one of the leading legal-ethics and professional-responsibility scholars of his generation,” and in 2016, he received the Sanford D. Levy Award from the New York State Bar Association's Committee on Professional Ethics, in recognition of his contributions to the field of legal ethics.  He has been described by the Detroit Legal News as “one of the world's foremost experts on the interplay of Jewish and American law.” In 2021, he received the Touro College Presidential Faculty Excellence in Scholarship Award.

We begin our Beatitudes Series with a delightfully informative and rich conversation with Professor AJ Levine.  Professor Levine (along with Jim and Howie) talk about many personal, spiritual, and faith community topics.  AJ shares a bit of her personal life story.  She mentions some particularly blessed moments in her life. Listen for a quick clip about friendship and Job's friends in contrast to AJ's friends. The trio then moves on to chat about the Gospel of Matthew and its 2nd Temple Jewish context.  There's rich comparisons here discussing how Jesus' followers and crowds were similar as well as distinct from today's American contexts. The conversation then ventures into the variety of meanings (translated and otherwise) for the term "blessed."  Who is blessed and why?  What is the manner of blessings for Jesus that somehow identify God's reign uniquely. Finally, AJ offers some pertinent, holy ideas about what the Beatitudes teach us and how to share such wisdom in our faith communities - ecumenically and in interfaith environments.  She closes with her own translation of the Beatitudes. This episode in and of itself offers rich material for Christian educators and congregations.  It is also a great ladder for climbing us the rest of our Beatitudes pilgrimage in the weeks to come.   Blessings along The Way  

Episode: In this episode Jewish scholar Amy-Jill Levine engages some of the hard words of Jesus that followers then and now have found difficult. He instructs disciples to hate members of their own families (Luke 14:26), to act as if they were slaves (Matthew 20:27), and to sell their belongings and give to the poor (Luke 18:22). He restricts his mission (Matthew 10:6); he speaks of damnation (Matthew 8:12); he calls Jews the devil's children (John 8:44). How did these words sound in their own time, and how might that impact our interpretation of difficult texts? In this episode Biblical World host Lynn Cohick engages these questions with Amy-Jill Levine and her new book The Difficult Words of Jesus: A Beginner's Guide to His Most Perplexing Teachings (Abingdon, 2021).  Guest: Amy-Jill Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies, and  Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School, Graduate Department of Religion, and Department of Jewish Studies; she is also Affiliated Professor, Woolf Institute, Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations, Cambridge UK. Holding a B.A. from Smith College, M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University, and honorary doctorates from the University of Richmond, the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, the University of South Carolina-Upstate, Drury University, Christian Theological Seminary, and Franklin College, Professor Levine has been awarded grants from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies. She has held office in the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association, and the Association for Jewish Studies.  She served as Alexander Robertson Fellow (University of Glasgow), and the Catholic Biblical Association Scholar to the Philippines. She has given over 500 lectures on the Bible, Christian-Jewish relations, and Religion, Gender, and Sexuality across the globe. Her books include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (Publisher's Weekly Best Books of 2007; audio books); Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi (Catholic Book Club; translations: Spanish, Italian; audio books); The Meaning of the Bible: What the Jewish Scriptures and the Christian Old Testament Can Teach Us (with Douglas Knight; translation: Chinese); The New Testament, Methods and Meanings (with Warren Carter); and The Gospel of Luke (with Ben Witherington III -- the first full-length biblical commentary co-authored by a Jew and an Evangelical). Her most recent book is The Bible With and Without Jesus, co-authored with Marc Z. Brettler. With Marc Brettler, she co-edited The Jewish Annotated New Testament; she is also the editor of the 13-volume Feminist Companions to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings, and The Historical Jesus in Context (Princeton Readings in Religion; translation: Japanese). Presently she is editing several volumes in the Wisdom Commentary series, and she is the New Testament editor of the new Oxford Biblical Commentary Series. With Joseph Sievers, she is co-editing a collection of essays on the Pharisees. (from the Vanderbilt website) Give: Help support OnScript's Biblical World as we grow and develop. Click HERE.  

For episode three of Ori Spotlight, Bruce Levine, PhD., Barbara and Edward Netter Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and current President of International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT) joins our host Jason C. Foster. Professor Levine pioneered the very first FDA approved CAR-T therapy Kymriah®and is a driving force across the cell and gene therapy industry, holding numerous positions at some of the most progressive CGT institutions in the world. In this episode he shares his perspectives on the industry shift that is needed to enable widespread access to these life-saving treatments and the responsibility of all stakeholders to make it happen. Learn more about Ori Biotech: www.oribiotech.com | Learn more about Professor Bruce Levine |

US births in 2020 were actually down by 400,000 by year end 2020 due to the pandemic lockdowns. Professor Levine and his team have identified a correlation between unemployment and the US birth rate: for each 1% increase in the unemployment rate, the birth rate drops by 1%. Instead of the stay at home lockdowns producing a baby boom, they actually have caused a baby bust. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/james-herlihy/message

This show originally aired on December 14th, 2017. Amy-Jill LevineProfessor Levine is an internationally recognized expert in Biblical studies, Jewish/Christian relations, and the Bible, gender, and sexuality. She works in biblical studies broadly, with special interest in Jewish-Christian relations, Jesus and the Gospels, the roles of women, gender, and sexuality in biblical texts, and the relationship between history (what happened, as best as events can be reconstructed) and interpretation (how have texts been understood over time). University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies, and Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School and College of Arts and Science; she is also Affiliated Professor, Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations, Cambridge UK. Dr. Levine is also a co-editor of the Jewish Annotated New Testament. She has recorded three sets of lectures for the Teaching Company’s “Great Lectures” series. Holding the B.A. from Smith College, and the M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University, she has honorary doctorates from the University of Richmond, the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, the University of South Carolina-Upstate, Drury University, and Christian Theological Seminary. A self-described Yankee Jewish feminist, Professor Levine is a member of Congregation Sherith Israel, an Orthodox Synagogue in Nashville, although she is often quite unorthodox. To learn more about Amy-Jill Levine, visit http://divinity.vanderbilt.edu/people/bio/amy-jill-levine

Professor Levine is an internationally recognized expert in Biblical studies, Jewish/Christian relations, and the Bible, gender, and sexuality. She works in biblical studies broadly, with special interest in Jewish-Christian relations, Jesus and the Gospels, the roles of women, gender, and sexuality in biblical texts, and the relationship between history (what happened, as best as events can be reconstructed) and interpretation (how have texts been understood over time). University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies, and Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School and College of Arts and Science; she is also Affiliated Professor, Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations, Cambridge UK. Dr. Levine is also a co-editor of the Jewish Annotated New Testament. She has recorded three sets of lectures for the Teaching Company’s “Great Lectures” series. Holding the B.A. from Smith College, and the M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University, she has honorary doctorates from the University of Richmond, the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, the University of South Carolina-Upstate, Drury University, and Christian Theological Seminary. A self-described Yankee Jewish feminist, Professor Levine is a member of Congregation Sherith Israel, an Orthodox Synagogue in Nashville, although she is often quite unorthodox. To learn more about Provocative Enlightenment Radio, go to http://www.provocativeenlightenment.com

In this episode…Professor Lawrence Levine, Director of the Summer Program in Salzburg and Professor of Law at McGeorge School of Law explains the Tort concept of Res Ipsa Loquitur. Some key takeaways are…1. Res ipsa loquitur is a type of circumstantial evidence for proving negligence.2. To prove res ipsa loquitur one must show a. The harm would not have happened but for a negligent act b. The defendant most likely had control over the instrumentality that caused the harm 3. Do not get intimidated by latin phrases. About our guest… Professor Lawrence Levine is the Director of the Summer Program in Salzburg and Professor of Law at McGeorge School of Law where he teaches Torts, Sexual Orientation and the Law and Legal Profession. After graduating from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law with honors, Professor Levine clerked for Judge Eugene F. Lynch (U.S. District Court, Northern District of California). He then was an associate with Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco for two years. Professor Levine was also an adjunct faculty member of UC Hastings College of Law before coming to McGeorge in 1985. Professor Levine has authored several books and articles on the subject of torts. He is the co-author of A Torts Anthology and is a co-author of the torts treatise, Understanding Torts, and a torts casebook, Tort Law and Practice. Professor Levine lectures on Criminal Law for Kaplan Bar Review. As always, if you have any suggestions for an episode topic, please let us know! You can email us at leslie@lawtofact.com or tweet to @lawtofact. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Instagram (@lawtofact) and to like us on FaceBook! And finally, your ratings and reviews matter! Please leave us a review on iTunes.Want to stay updated on all things Law to Fact? Join our mailing list by visiting us at www.lawtofact.com. This episode is sponsored by Kaplan Bar Review. Getting ready for the bar exam means you’ll need to choose the study program that’s right for you. Kaplan Bar Review will get you ready to take on test day with confidence by offering $100 off live and on-demand Bar Review with offer code Leslie100. Visit kaplanbarreview.com today to sign up.

The parable of the Good Samaritan is probably one of the best-known stories Jesus told.  As we make our faith journey through life, this story provides a scriptural GPS, routing us in the only direction God desires for us – the way of love and compassion for all others.   Have you ever met people who become so focused on the law that, for them, the law is ultimate?  When focus on the law – the ten commandments – becomes ultimate, the law is no longer received as gift, and then obedience to the law becomes behavioral proof of faith.  When this happens, the gospel message is no longer a word of love but one of judgement.  When law becomes our focus, then our actions must be justified by our understanding of and obedience to the law as humanly defined.  Far too often, this perspective allows us to live with the illusion that we are in control.  And, it reinforces the idea that a life of discipleship is a life marked by knowing good from evil, rather than a life of knowing God and God’s mercy and grace.  The lawyer who encounters Jesus in today’s gospel reading lives and functions out of this perspective.  And, Jesus’ teaching today means that his world, as ordered by his increasingly narrow definition of neighbor, must end.  You see, his definition of neighbor has been increasingly defined by the letter of the law and not by the gospel which is all about love and grace. This lawyer, a religious leader and expert in the Law of Moses – the Torah – is on a fishing expedition of sorts as he comes to test Jesus.  He wants to know if Jesus will use the law in a proper way to answer his weighty question when he asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus responds by answering the question with another question.  Jesus asks, “What do you think is the answer?  What is written in the law?  What do you read there that might address your question?”  By doing this, Jesus forces the lawyer to put his cards on the table.  When Jesus asks, “What do you think is the answer?” he slowly begins to reel the lawyer in.  And, guess what, it is as if this lawyer had been waiting for this opportunity all along.   He intimately knows the law and Hebrew scriptures.  So he quickly responds by giving Jesus a comprehensive statement of proper ethical conduct as he says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." Jesus praises the answer, but he is not yet finished with this lawyer.  So, he begins to pull the attorney into deeper conversation.  He pulls him in to the place where proper words and proper actions meet.  It is here that Jesus offers a surprisingly simple summary statement. "Do this and you will live."  Well, the lawyer takes the bait.   He is hooked, and he continues his line of questioning by asking, “Who is my neighbor?”  Well, never missing an opportunity to teach, Jesus responds with a story. Now, it is important to remember that Jesus’ stories, or parables, were designed to shatter perceptions and perspectives and shake people out of their mindset.  The parables of Jesus were not meant to be comfortable, sweet stories.  They were always meant to turn people’s thinking inside out and upside down.  In fact, one theologian calls Jesus’ parables narrative time bombs designed to explode people into new awareness.           Anyway, Jesus tells the suspenseful story of a man traveling the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.  We can surmise from the way Jesus tells this story that the traveling man was probably Jewish because this was a road going right through the heart of Judea.  In his story this traveler is ambushed, robbed, beaten, stripped, and left to die in a pool of blood.  And the big question in the story is who is going to stop and help?  Two experts in the law walk right on past the beaten, nearly dead man.  They know the commandments, to love God and neighbor.  They even have them memorized.  But, they don’t stop to help a stranger at the point of death.  The twist comes with the third traveler.  A Samaritan, an outsider, a hated enemy whose religious interpretation and practices make the lawyer’s blood boil and his stomach churn.  This reviled, despised Samaritan is the only one who shows the dying man hospitality, kindness, mercy, generosity and love to the extreme.  The one who is hated and reviled becomes the hero of the story and Jesus again shockingly turns social norms upside-down and inside-out! The learned lawyer had requested a definition of neighbor and he receives a scandalous and alarming description of mercy, grace and love, leaving him with the most soul-searching question of all.  Of each of the characters in this story, where does he find himself and who is the neighbor?           This story does not bear the impact of parable for us because it is so familiar to us.  But, if we were to reinterpret this story and understanding of neighbor for our own time, who are those we would least expect to see and comprehend as neighbor?  Who are those who sit on the margins, stereotyped as being “less than” because their religious views, culture, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity is different from us?  Professor and author, Amy-Jill Levine, when teaching about this parable and the compassion of the Samaritan, insists, We should think of ourselves as the person in the ditch and then ask, “Is there anyone, from any group, about whom we’d rather die than acknowledge, ‘She offered help’ or ‘He showed compassion’?”  More, is there any group whose members might rather die than help us?  If so, then we know how to find the modern equivalent for the Samaritan. To recognize the shock and possibility of the parable in practical, political and religious terms, we might translate its first-century geographical and religious concerns into our modern idiom.             Who is the one who proved neighbor?  Who is the one who loved God with heart, mind, soul, and strength and loved neighbor as the self?  In a lecture on this parable, before an audience who had experienced the horrors of 9/11 firsthand, Professor Levine suggested the one who proved neighbor was a member of Al-Qaeda.  (Feasting on the Word, p. 242.)  So, for us, considering what is happening today in our culture, “Who are the ones who love God with heart, mind, soul and strength and love neighbor as self?”  Wham!!  Suddenly, for us, this parable begins to bear the perception shattering, explosive nature it did for our learned attorney.  As we work on living together in today’s global village, the Samaritan lives among us by many other names, the names of any we consider enemies, any we loathe, any we consider “other”.  And, the big surprise is that God shows up and is present in the most unlikely, unexpected places, working through the most unexpected people – even those we may despise.          Now, our definition of neighbor is redefined.  Furthermore, consider the idea that each one of us is the person in the ditch, the one who lies helpless and wounded beside the road, the one who needs to be rescued.  And, along comes a Good Samaritan, a Good Samaritan named Jesus – despised and rejected – he is the one who comes to save us, speak tenderly to us, tend to our wounds, lift us into his arms, and take us to the place of healing.            Today, with the horrific treatment we see taking place in detention centers at our southern border, we grieve as a church regarding the injustice and inhumane actions of our government.   Our country is not practicing love.  But, the gospel is love, and that is what we as Christians are called to live.  The gospel of love calls us to be present and to show up in the places of pain.   It is in those places of pain, under the shadow of the cross, where Jesus promises he will meet us to be present with us through mercy, hope and transformation to new life.  So, again, as we think about what is presently happening in our country, the question for each of us is who is your neighbor and who are you called to serve, to love, and be present to as neighbor?  Who has been neighbor to you?  Jesus Christ has been neighbor to you.  The crucified one has been neighbor to you.  Have you felt God’s mercy make your own heart merciful, compassionate and loving?  Then in your heart you will know what this means:  Go and do likewise!

Professor Roy Robins-Browne, renowned vaccinologist who retired from the University of Melbourne late last year, and Professor Myron (Mike) Levine, a microbiologist from University of Maryland are “scientific soulmates”. The two met in 1979, when Professor Robins-Browne's interest in the varieties of E. coli that cause diarrhoea took him to the Center for Vaccine Development of the University of Maryland in Baltimore. At this time, Professor Levine was working in developing countries on the epidemiology, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. Both believed this disease was caused by a pathogen - they just had to convince the rest of the world. Episode recorded: November 19, 2018. Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath. Producer and editor: Chris Hatzis. Co-production: Dr Andi Horvath and Silvi Vann-Wall. Banner image: Shutterstock.

Professor Roy Robins-Browne, renowned vaccinologist who retired from the University of Melbourne late last year, and Professor Myron (Mike) Levine, a microbiologist from University of Maryland are “scientific soulmates”. The two met in 1979, when Professor Robins-Browne’s interest in the varieties of E. coli that cause diarrhoea took him to the Center for Vaccine Development of the University of Maryland in Baltimore. At this time, Professor Levine was working in developing countries on the epidemiology, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. Both believed this disease was caused by a pathogen - they just had to convince the rest of the world. Episode recorded: November 19, 2018. Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath. Producer and editor: Chris Hatzis. Co-production: Dr Andi Horvath and Silvi Vann-Wall. Banner image: Shutterstock.

Professor Levine is an internationally recognized expert in Biblical studies, Jewish/Christian relations, and the Bible, gender, and sexuality. She works in biblical studies broadly, with special interest in Jewish-Christian relations, Jesus and the Gospels, the roles of women, gender, and sexuality in biblical texts, and the relationship between history (what happened, as best as events can be reconstructed) and interpretation (how have texts been understood over time). University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies, and Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School and College of Arts and Science; she is also Affiliated Professor, Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations, Cambridge UK. Dr. Levine is also a co-editor of the Jewish Annotated New Testament. She has recorded three sets of lectures for the Teaching Company’s “Great Lectures” series. Holding the B.A. from Smith College, and the M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University, she has honorary doctorates from the University of Richmond, the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, the University of South Carolina-Upstate, Drury University, and Christian Theological Seminary. A self-described Yankee Jewish feminist, Professor Levine is a member of Congregation Sherith Israel, an Orthodox Synagogue in Nashville, although she is often quite unorthodox. To learn more about Provocative Enlightenment Radio, go to http://www.provocativeenlightenment.com

Her books include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus; The Meaning of the Bible: What the Jewish Scriptures and the Christian Old Testament Can Teach, The New Testament, Methods and Meaning, and the thirteen-volume edited Feminist Companions to the New Testament and Early Christian Writing. Amy-Jill 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 Divinity School and College of Arts and Sciences. Holding the B.A. from Smith College, the M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University, and honorary doctorates from Christian Theological Seminary, Drury University, the University of Richmond, the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, and the University of South Carolina-Upstate, Professor Levine has been awarded grants from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies. She has held office in the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association, and the Association for Jewish Studies.

We interviewed Nancy J. Levine, Associate Professor of English at the University of North Florida. Professor Levine and her class recorded the history of the Hasting Library, a collaborative effort that is chronicled in an article in this issue, titled “Florida Classroom: Tea Sets, Tractors and T-1 Lines: The Survival of a Small Town Library: The Hastings Branch Library, Hastings, Florida.”