Wallenberg Lecture On Religious Reform; Tribute To Honor Sherman
The Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding (IJCU) of Muhlenberg College cordially invites the public to the annual Wallenberg Tribute Lecture, Sunday, March 14, 3 p.m., in Miller Forum, Moyer Hall.Tuesday, March 2, 2004 09:52 AM
The Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding (IJCU) of Muhlenberg College cordially invites the public to the annual Wallenberg Tribute Lecture, Sunday, March 14, 3 p.m., in Miller Forum, Moyer Hall. Speaker Amy-Jill Levine's topic will be "Why's a Nice Jewish Girl Like You Teaching the Gospels in a Place Like This?" The lecture is free and open to the public.
Levine is director of the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. A self-described "Yankee Jewish feminist who teaches predominantly Protestant seminary in the buckle of the Bible Belt," Levine brings historical-critical rigor, literary-critical sensitivity, and a frequent dash of humor to her commitment to exposing and eliminating anti-Jewish, sexist, and homophobic theologies. A widely published author, a popular lecturer both in person and on video, and a recipient of numerous prestigious research grants, she was on the panel of scholars who first reviewed the script of Mel Gibson's Passion film in April 2003.
On the evening of March 14, the IJCU, with support from the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley and the Jewish Chautauqua Society, will honor the Rev. Dr. Frank Sherman at its annual Wallenberg Tribute, at a 4:30 p.m. reception and 5:30 p.m. dinner in Congregation Keneseth Israel, 23rd and Chew Streets. Christa Grace Carlstrand '05 will receive the Jeannette Eichenwald Interfaith Award. Reservations for the Wallenberg reception and dinner can be made by contacting the Institute at 484-664-3470.
The Wallenberg Tribute acknowledges and honors Sherman's contributions to the IJCU and his relentless passion towards religious unity on behalf of Lehigh Valley residents. Sherman is the founding director of the IJCU of Muhlenberg College. A native of Allentown, Sherman returned to the Lehigh Valley in 1989 to lead College efforts to create an on-going framework for interfaith understanding. Sherman brought to Muhlenberg a distinguished academic record in ethics and theological education as well as interfaith understanding. In his writings on Luther and the Jews and his editorial work on the American Edition of Luther's Works, he used historical honesty, ethical rigor and keen human insight to deepen the mutual understanding of Lutherans and Jews in our own day.
Since his retirement in 1996, Sherman has continued his active involvement in the field of Jewish-Christian understanding. He serves as the Associate for Interfaith Relations in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and is presently co-editing a two-volume anthology of formal statements in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., and is managing editor of http://www.jcrelations.net, an international, interfaith web site on Jewish-Christian relations.
The Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding seeks to build an understanding of both the common roots and the diverse expressions of Judaism and Christianity, creating connections between Jews and Christians. For more information about the Wallenberg Tribute and other IJCU programs, contact the Institute at 484-664-3470 or visit www.ijcu.org.
