Scholar Q&A: Matthew Levering, Ph.D. - Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC (2024)

Matthew Levering, Ph.D.is a noted and much-published theologian who holds the James N. and Mary D. Perry Jr. Chair of Theology atMundelein Seminary. His latest book,Engaging the Doctrine of Israel: A Christian Israelology in Dialogue with Ongoing Judaism,was published in September 2021 and makes a significant contribution to charting a path forward for Jewish-Christian dialogue from the perspective of post-Vatican II Catholicism.

The547-page book features chapters on Jewish-Christian dialogue, Creation and Scripture, Exodus, Torah, Temple, Land, and King.It is a work of Christian theology, but engages extensively with Jewish thinkers as well, including Franz Rosenzweig, David Novak, Jonathan Sacks, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Michael Wyschogrod, Jon Levenson, David Berger, Adam Gregerman and many others.Engaging the Doctrine of Israelis of interest to scholars working in the areas of systematic theology, Jewish-Christian dialogue, and biblical studies.

The book is the dogmatic sequel to Prof. Levering’sEngaging the Doctrine of Marriage, in which he argued that God’s purpose in creating the cosmos is the eschatological marriage of God and his people.

IACS spoke to Prof. Levering about his new book.

Why did you writeEngaging the Doctrine of Israel?

It’s part of a Catholic dogmatics series that I am writing. BeforeEngaging the Doctrine of Israel, I published books on revelation, the Holy Spirit, creation and marriage.God’s plan for the marriage of God and creation is centered on the election of his people of Israel.So the next topic in the series was “Israel.”

I’ve also long been deeply interested in Jewish-Christian dialogue and in Christian engagement with the Old Testament.My dissertation, which eventually appeared asChrist’s Fulfillment of Torah and Temple: Salvation According to Thomas Aquinas(2002),studied Aquinas’s theology of salvation, and argued that his approach depends upon his in-depth engagement with both Torah and the Temple.It seemed to me then that commentators had too often simply reduced theology of salvation to the theology of the Cross or of the resurrection, without really attending to the way in which his engagement with Torah and Temple shapes his theology.My approach was inspired byJon D. Levenson, the great Jewish exegete and theologian.A few years after writing my dissertation, I became interested in natural law (again from a scriptural perspective). I was privileged to become a friend of David Novak, whom I consider to be the greatest contributor to Jewish-Christian dialogue that the world has ever known. That might sound like an exaggeration, but Jewish-Christian dialogue was generally not particularly vibrant until the past fifty years, although Abraham Joshua Heschel had made groundbreaking contributions before and during the Second Vatican Council, and Franz Rosenzweig and others offered some notable beginnings.My friendship with David Novak has born fruit in three books:Jewish-Christian Dialogue and the Life of Wisdom: Engagements with the Theology of David Novak(2010);Natural Law: A Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Trialogue(2014 co-authored with David Novak and Anver Emon); andThe Achievement of David Novak: A Catholic-Jewish Dialogue(2021).The last volume was afestschriftfor David, and is perhaps the most important of the set: it contains lengthy responses by David to each of the essays.It’s an important extension of David’s body of work.

What did you discover that surprised you during your research?

This was my first opportunity to read the work ofJoseph B. SoloveitchikandJonathan Sacksin depth, and I was tremendously impressed.These are truly great thinkers for our times.But it was also my first opportunity to engage in a sustained and rigorous way with the concerns of Jewish scholar (especially Jewish New Testament scholars), about the anti-Judaism or intra-Jewish polemics found in the New Testament, as well as the consequences of these polemics across the ages. It’s deeply sad to see how the intra-Jewish polemics were used in later centuries to justify persecution.Gentile Christians have “boasted over the branches” — to employ Paul’s phrase — in deeply sinful ways that is Christian blindness to the truth of Jesus Christ. It is clear that Christian persecution and hatred have sometimes created a scandalous counter-sign to the gospel itself.

Why is the book’s topic important?

The doctrine of God’s covenantal people Israel — and their Scriptures, the Exodus, Torah, the temple, land and Davidic kingship — is of perennial importance for Christian theology.My book is a Christian theological exploration of these topics, showing how in various ways they are central to Christian reflection upon our faith. I devote about half of every chapter to learning about these realities from Jewish thinkers.My book is not simply an effort to hear what Christians have to say about these topics; it’s also an intense labor to learn how Jewish scholars understand these topics.In doing that, I’m not trying to smooth over the differences between Christianity and Judaism. Instead, I intend to show my deep appreciation for the holy and wise Jewish theologians who have so much to teach Christians. I did my best to read as much Jewish theology, philosophy, and biblical scholarship as I could, even though I should note that I focus on 20^thcentury thinkers rather than on the great masters such as Maimonides or the great Talmudists or the Talmud itself.Since it’s a work of Christian theology, I take pains to explore what these themes — Exodus, Torah, Temple, and so on — mean in light of Jesus Christ and the Church.I also confront difficult issues such as how the Catholic Church should understand the Jewish people’s covenantal obligation to dwell in and govern the land that God has given them, and how Catholics should deal with the terrible sins committed by Catholics in the name of Christ and the Church across the centuries.

I also confront difficult issues such as how the Catholic Church should understand the Jewish people’s covenantal obligation to dwell in and govern the land that God has given them, and how Catholics should deal with the terrible sins committed by Catholics in the name of Christ and the Church across the centuries.”

Are there any practical ramifications from what you’ve discovered?

Catholics need to understand their faith through the lens of the mysteries of Israel.Just to give an example, the Exodus is not simply the flight of the Israelites under Moses.The New Testament conceives of Christ as the new Passover Lamb who leads his followers on the New Exodus, guided by the Spirit, to the true Promised Land.This means learning a self-sacrificial, Godward life of love, which is the fulfillment of the Torah in Christ. The Eucharist is unintelligible outside of the context of Israel’s covenants and Temple — a great book for seeing that isBishop Robert Barron’sEucharist.Studying Davidic kingship helps us to understand not only the role of Jesus as “King” to establish the people in justice. It also shows that the profound sins and failures of the Davidic kings, leaders of God’s covenantal community (as well as the terrible sins of the people) do not invalidate what God is doing through the community that truly mediates divine gifts which have power to transform: true teachings about God and humanity, true worship, true sacraments, a true covenantal people and their transformative power.

Regarding the ongoing history of the Jewish people, Catholics need to be ashamed of the wells of anti-Semitism that seem continuously —including in the years leading up to the Holocaust — to poison Catholic witness to divine love.We also need to recognize how central the land is (and thus the State of Israel) for Jewish covenantal self-understanding.Even while affirming that Jesus has fulfilled the covenants and reconfigured them around himself, Catholics need to support the Jewish people in their efforts to fulfill their covenantal obligations. After the Holocaust, these efforts are simply heroic. They reveal a deep faith. After such a horrible event, the Jewish people as a whole could simply have given up on God.

Catholics need to support the Jewish people in their efforts to fulfill their covenantal obligations — efforts that after the Holocaust are simply heroic and revelatory of a deep faith.”

Who do you hope reads the book and why?

This book is written for people who enjoy Catholic theology. I hope that Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish graduate students, professors, and clergy will read this book.It’s a work of Christian theology, and I try carefully not to water down Christianity, since doing that would be to cast doubt upon the value of Jewish-Christian dialogue in the eyes of believing Christians. Jewish-Christian dialogue is valuable precisely because it enriches Catholicism and allows us to understand and practice our faith in its fullness, without the distortions of anti-Judaism, anti-Semitism and not ignoring of the core Jewish elements of our biblical faith.

Jewish-Christian dialogue is valuable precisely because it enriches Catholicism and allows us to understand and practice our faith in its fullness.”

What are the questions that emerged for you that have yet to be answered?

One question is why God permits such persecution and division. Another is how we might enrich our journey together as Catholics toward the fullness of the kingdom of God. Reading Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy opens up extraordinary vistas that Christians need to recover.The people were constantly murmuring, turning away from God and living with each other as enemies — yet God loved the people so much that he revealed himself in a deeply personal though not individualistic way. His purpose was to build up a people of self-sacrificial grace, a community whose spiritual depths we can read in Psalms, Job, the prophets, and so on.The deepest question at the center of this book is really how we can live as God’s people manifesting his covenantal love and mercy.In my heart, I feel a great need to learn from Joshua 24:14-15, words which are easy to read but difficult to put in practice.

“Now therefore fear theLord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt, and serve theLord.

And if you be unwilling to serve theLord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve theLord.”

May God make this possible for all of us, so that we might truly love God and neighbor, and so that we might begin truly to share in God’s life!

The deepest question at the center of this book is really how can we live as God’s people manifesting his covenantal love and mercy.”