Jon D. Levenson, the Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard Divinity School, received a 2023 Barry Prize from the American Academy of Sciences and Letters in recognition of his “intellectual excellence and courage.”
“Jon Levenson’s meticulous and sensitive investigation of the text and history of the Hebrew Bible has helped us confront the unconscious assumptions we bring to texts, especially texts presented to us as divine scriptures,” said the Academy in its official citation. “His landmark work in Jewish biblical theology as well as in interfaith dialogue invites us into a deeper awareness of what we mean by such essential concepts as gratitude, faithfulness, covenant, tradition, resurrection, and divine love. The Academy honors Dr. Levenson’s distinguished contributions to humanity’s understanding of one of its oldest and most influential sacred traditions.”
The Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement is the Academy’s premier award to promote excellence in scholarship and honors those “whose work has made outstanding contributions to humanity's knowledge, appreciation, and cultivation of the good, the true, and the beautiful,” according to the Academy.
Levenson was recognized along with nine other scholars during an award ceremony held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., on November 8 and keynoted by Sir Salman Rushdie. The honor comes with a cash prize and recipients become members of the Academy.
“Receiving this award was an unexpected honor,” Levenson said. “I have a certain agenda that I've tried to follow throughout my career. I believe in putting the Bible in a multi-contextual focus—to understand that it is, on the one hand, an ancient text from a very different culture from what succeeds it but also, and on the other hand, a scripture that finds new contexts and energizes and challenges later communities. I’ve always tried to use a multiple-lens approach, to be philologically responsible but also aware of the religious meanings that these texts have had and continue to have for many. The well-rounded scholar of the scripture of any tradition has to have a sense of the original situation, the cultural and linguistic particularity of the text, but also of the history of interpretation—what it's meant over the ages, what it might mean today. I know that’s not the most popular position. So, I’d like to think that this prize is a testament to that vision.
“A scholar never knows whether anybody’s reading what he writes,” Levenson added. “I certainly haven’t written any bestsellers. It’s encouraging to know that somewhere in the world people I don’t know and have no connection to have thought this was something worthy to honor,” he said. “It’s also encouraging to see more classically rigorous fields, especially fields relevant to antiquity, being honored, since the pressure in society and the academy alike is to speak to contemporary causes and to subordinate scholarship to the popular activism of the moment.”
Levenson began teaching at Harvard in 1988. His work concentrates on the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, including its reinterpretations in the “rewritten Bible” of the Second Temple Judaism and rabbinic midrash, though he also gives a course on twentieth-century Jewish theology. He is the author of several books including Inheriting Abraham: The Legacy of the Patriarch in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life, which won both a National Jewish Book Award and the Biblical Archaeology Society Publication Award in the category of Best Book Relating to the Hebrew Bible published in 2005 or 2006. Choice, a publication of the American Library Association, listed Inheriting Abraham as one of the Outstanding Academic Titles for 2013.
Levenson, who earned his bachelor’s degree (concentrating in English) and PhD from Harvard, credited his former teachers for their support during his scholarly journey.
“I was very influenced by my high school Latin and English teachers. In graduate school, my principal advisor, Frank Moore Cross (Hancock Professorship of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages) and Bill Moran (Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities) were very influential and positive role models. I’m very grateful for the education I had at Harvard,” Levenson said.
Also recognized with a Barry Prize was HDS alumnus and Princeton University Professor Robert P. George, MTS ’81. George was recognized for advancing “our understanding of the intellectual and moral foundations of our Nation’s republican civic order” and for his “distinguished contributions to humanity’s pursuit of moral wisdom and liberty and justice for all,” according to the Academy’s citation.
Two other members of the Harvard University faculty were among the 10 scholars awarded a Barry Prize: Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law Ruth L. Okediji and John Cowles Professor of Sociology Orlando Patterson.
—by Michael Naughton