September 12, 2023
PC appoints Scholar-in-Residence in Jewish Studies and Jewish-Christian Relations
By Martha Young
Benny Bar-Lavi, Ph.D. is Providence College’s inaugural Scholar-in-Residence in Jewish Studies and Jewish-Christian Relations. He will be a member of the Department of Theology for the 2023-24 academic year.
The scholar-in-residence program is the culmination of years of effort by PC’s Jewish-Catholic Theological Exchange, which was established by the theology department in 2007. Its goal is to bring together academic expertise and teaching excellence in Jewish studies with a commitment to interreligious dialogue, and to advance the college’s mission by fostering interreligious learning, understanding, and friendship through intellectual engagement and personal encounter.
Bar-Lavi described the role as “a rare opportunity to explore the ways in which Jews and Christians have come to define themselves and their beliefs by thinking about each other.” He said he is eager to bring scholarship, dialogue, and outreach to the community to foster Jewish and Christian relations.
This semester, Bar-Lavi is co-teaching a course, Jews and Christians in Dialogue, with Arthur Urbano, Ph.D., professor of theology and director of the Jewish-Catholic Theological Exchange. The two also will teach a Development of Western Civilization colloquium in the spring semester, Judaism as an Idea in Western Civilization.
As part of several outreach events for the campus and public communities, Bar-Lavi plans to host informal campus meetings on the history and teachings of Judaism, a spring mini-conference, and a forum on the influence of Moses Maimonides on Thomistic theology.
In the spring, Bar-Lavi and Urbano will offer a course on the development of Judaism and Christianity in late antiquity for Delve Deeper, an educational initiative sponsored by a consortium of local synagogues and Jewish organizations that brings college-level courses to a diverse group of adult learners in Rhode Island.
Even before arriving on campus, Bar-Lavi presented an online lecture in July, “An Assembly for the Sake of Heaven: The New Testament and the Providential Role of Christianity in the Thought of Rabbi Jacob Emden,” hosted by the Jewish-Catholic Theological Exchange. Rabbi Emden emerged as an outstanding Talmudic scholar and a brilliant polemicist during the 18th century.
“We’re very happy to have Dr. Bar-Lavi with us as the inaugural Scholar-in-Residence. He is an extremely gifted young scholar who is committed to engaging interreligious dialogue from both academic and practical perspectives,” Urbano said. “He is bringing great ideas to further the work of the JCTE in the classroom, on campus, and in the broader community. I hope students will gain a deeper appreciation for Jewish history and thought and learn what it means to dialogue — a skill that unfortunately is sorely lacking in our society today.
“I am sure Dr. Bar-Lavi’s work here will foster constructive conversations and complement the work we have been doing at PC to build bridges between Jews and Christians here on campus and beyond,” Urbano added. “This is all part of the ‘culture of encounter’ that Pope Francis has encouraged and is rooted in the Church’s teaching in the Vatican II declaration Nostra Aetate.”
Raised in Mexico City and Israel, Bar-Lavi earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where he also taught courses in Jewish civilization and in the history of political thought. His research interests include early modern European history, Judaism and Islam in Christian and post-Christian thought, and political theology. He is writing a book, Politics Against God: Judaism and Islam in the Political-Theological Discourses of Early Modernity.
more about the jewish-catholic theological exchange
