The Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar has initiated a multi-year project: Reading Difficult Texts as Christian Scripture. The focus for each year will be a particularly difficult biblical book or text, and each trimester we host an online discussion to wrestle with different dimensions of reading the text as Christian Scripture.

This year, Leviticus was the subject of our reflections. Leviticus is the literary and symbolic center of the Torah, and it functions as the beating heart of Israel’s life of worship. This book that was so vital to God’s people in the Old Testament seems so foreign to the people of God today. Because its contents (including countless rites and instructions) are so difficult for us to relate to and understand, we often simply ignore Leviticus or distort its teaching to make it palatable.

Over the course of 2024, the SAHS invited participants to reflect on Leviticus hermeneutically with Drs. AJ Culp and Dru Johnson, intertextually with Drs. Geoff Harper and Michael Graves, and formationally with Rev. Dr. Amy F. Davis Abdallah and Dr. Christine Palmer. These individuals expertly helped us navigate this difficult biblical text and helped to open it up as Christian Scripture today.

This event marks the culmination of our year’s work on Leviticus. We have invited a senior scholar with expertise in Leviticus and a New Testament scholar to offer their insights, reflections, and engagement with our year’s work, followed by a guided discussion. We hope to have the project’s presenters in attendance and will welcome their participation. 

Our presentations are:

• “A Leviticus Scholar’s Reflections on the Reading Leviticus as Christian Scripture Project”
  Jay Sklar, Covenant Theological Seminary
• “A New Testament Scholar’s Reflections on the Reading Leviticus as Christian Scripture Project”
  Tyran Laws, Prairie College