Unlike most New Testament experts, Vanderbilt Divinity School professor Amy-Jill Levine is Jewish. Her lessons are sprinkled with Yiddish phrases, and she attends an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Nashville. That's given her a unique perspective on Judaism and Christianity — two religions that have diverged from the same source, took different interpretations of similar texts and collided repeatedly throughout history.

"We are magnificent creatures in all our diversity," she says. "I want those differences to be celebrated, and I want people to have the ability of saying, 'That's not my tradition, but I see where you get it, and I see the beauty in it.' "

Emily Siner interviewed Amy-Jill Levine in front of a live audience at Nashville Public Radio. Support our podcasts by donating at wpln.org/give and noting that you listen to Movers & Thinkers.

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