Professor Maeera Yaffa Schreiber, of the Depts. of English Literature and Religious Studies, Univ. of Utah, will speak on The Jewish Christian Dialogue in the Borderzone, based on her 2022 book, Holy Envy: Writing in the Jewish Christian Borderzone. Dialogues between Jews and Christians have made enormous strides in the last fifty years. We now read each other’s scriptures and discuss differences as well as agreements.
Many of the dialogues aim at harmony and religious inclusion, but some challenging differences are bypassed, leaving ingrained biases about the religious “other” unaddressed. Professor Schreiber will sharpen the debate by inviting us to consider emotions that may color these encounters. Specifically, she will discuss the mixed religious identity of the poet Denise Levertov and the emotional and religious complexities that can arise when Christian communities host Passover sedarim.