{"id":61007,"date":"2026-03-31T09:38:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=61007"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:38:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:38:58","slug":"emu-hosts-consultation-on-judaism-the-bible-and-anabaptism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/emu-hosts-consultation-on-judaism-the-bible-and-anabaptism\/","title":{"rendered":"EMU hosts consultation on Judaism, the Bible, and Anabaptism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>This article originally appeared in the March 26 issue of The Weather Vane. To read more articles like it, visit <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theweathervane.org\/\">theweathervane.org<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Monday, March 23, Anabaptist and Jewish scholars and religious leaders gathered in the Strite Conference Room of EMU\u2019s Campus Center for a consultation on Judaism, the Bible, and Anabaptism. The invite-only event was planned by <strong>Peter Dula<\/strong>, professor of religion and culture at EMU, and <strong>Trina Trotter Nussbaum<\/strong>, director of the Center for Interfaith Engagement (CIE), and included all-day discussions centering around the work of <strong>Matthew Thiessen<\/strong> and <strong>Daniel Weiss<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Dula, Thiessen, a Mennonite New Testament professor at McMaster University, is \u201cone of the most influential voices in the \u2018Paul within Judaism\u2019 school of New Testament studies.\u201d The discussion of Thiessen\u2019s work at the consultation centered around four articles of his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Weiss, according to Dula, is a Jewish professor of Jewish studies and the philosophy of religion at the University of Cambridge, \u201cwhose work at the intersection of early rabbinic literature and early Christian literature has significant resonances with traditional Anabaptist understandings of violence and the state and critiques of Constantinianism.\u201d Weiss also had four articles discussed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The morning began with a presentation by Thiessen titled, \u201cWhat Mennonites Need to Know About Judaism,\u201d which introduced the work of Weiss. Weiss then responded, and there was time for some questions from the audience. Following a break, a panel engaged with some of Weiss\u2019s research, including articles on Christians and Levites, and the possibility that early Christians did not baptize their children, instead letting them be born into salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After a lunch break, Weiss took a turn introducing Thiessen\u2019s work in a section called, \u201cReading the New Testament within Judaism.\u201d Thiessen then responded. A panel then engaged in Thiessen\u2019s work, including reflections on how to read Paul with an awareness of Judaism, and whether Jesus meant to start a new religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dula was the guiding force in bringing the two scholars together to have the event. \u201cYou\u2019ve got a Jewish scholar writing really perceptively about Anabaptist themes, and you have this Mennonite scholar writing really perceptively about Judaism,\u201d Dula said. \u201cSo, I thought we should get them together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nussbaum reflected on the efficacy of the dialogue, and how it was in large part also due to the highlighted speakers. \u201cIt worked because the two scholars we were highlighting shared the spotlight so well,\u201d she said. \u201cHow many times did we hear, \u2018and now I want to open it up to you all?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Miranda Beidler<\/strong>, an EMU senior who helped coordinate the event in her role as a student chaplain with the CIE, praised the event and guests for creating \u201cinherent dialogue.\u201d She said, \u201c[The speakers] were so willing and open to talk about their beliefs, their theology, in ways that were open and curious about the others\u2019 theology and beliefs, but without imposing their beliefs on somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sara Kennel<\/strong>, another senior student chaplain at EMU, was struck by the openness and intellectualism of the event participants, saying, \u201cIt felt like a gathering of a lot of people that care about understanding differences, but also are deeply intellectual. &#8230; I don\u2019t think that I\u2019ve encountered that many spaces at EMU that are that level of scholarship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nussbaum was struck by the impact of cross-religious dialogue, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s something pretty amazing that we can see ourselves in another faith. &#8230; It was a spiritual love-fest.\u201d Beidler, similarly, connected the event to CIE\u2019s\u2014and EMU\u2019s\u2014goals of interfaith work, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s us putting into action when we say we care about learning from other people and from other cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"511\" src=\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/03\/30180805\/edited-1-1024x511.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-61009\" style=\"width:650px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/03\/30180805\/edited-1-1024x511.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/03\/30180805\/edited-1-300x150.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/03\/30180805\/edited-1-768x383.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/03\/30180805\/edited-1.jpeg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Anabaptist and Jewish scholars and religious leaders gather to listen to a lecture on Daniel Weiss by Breanna Nickel. (Photo by Alex Belisle)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article originally appeared in the March 26 issue of The Weather Vane. To read more articles like it, visit theweathervane.org. On Monday, March 23, Anabaptist and Jewish scholars and <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/emu-hosts-consultation-on-judaism-the-bible-and-anabaptism\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about EMU hosts consultation on Judaism, the Bible, and Anabaptism<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":302,"featured_media":61011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5583,14184,14715,13679,5861,17562,5623],"tags":[6502,7958,17242,18204,18946,7122,18945,18944,18947,9439,18049,17565,11971],"feature":[17427,17426,17241],"class_list":["post-61007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","category-campus-guests","category-campus-life","category-center-for-interfaith-engagement","category-conferences-and-events","category-digest","category-special-programs","tag-anabaptism","tag-bible","tag-center-for-interfaith-engagement","tag-cie","tag-daniel-weiss","tag-judaism","tag-matthew-thiessen","tag-micah-wenger","tag-miranda-beidler","tag-peter-dula","tag-sara-kennel","tag-trina-trotter-nussbaum","tag-weather-vane","feature-emu-home-page-feature","feature-myemu-feature","feature-news-feature"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>EMU hosts consultation on Judaism, the Bible, and Anabaptism - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/emu-hosts-consultation-on-judaism-the-bible-and-anabaptism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EMU hosts consultation on Judaism, the Bible, and Anabaptism - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article originally appeared in the March 26 issue of The Weather Vane. To read more articles like it, visit theweathervane.org. On Monday, March 23, Anabaptist and Jewish scholars and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/emu-hosts-consultation-on-judaism-the-bible-and-anabaptism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-31T13:38:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-31T13:38:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/03\/31093224\/20260323-Judaism-the-Bible-and-Anabaptism_MM-010.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ryan Cornell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ryan Cornell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/emu-hosts-consultation-on-judaism-the-bible-and-anabaptism\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/emu-hosts-consultation-on-judaism-the-bible-and-anabaptism\/\",\"name\":\"EMU hosts consultation on Judaism, the Bible, and Anabaptism - EMU News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/emu-hosts-consultation-on-judaism-the-bible-and-anabaptism\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/emu-hosts-consultation-on-judaism-the-bible-and-anabaptism\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/03\/31093224\/20260323-Judaism-the-Bible-and-Anabaptism_MM-010.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-31T13:38:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-31T13:38:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4d24e9770fdab8276fbcf29504123fdf\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/emu-hosts-consultation-on-judaism-the-bible-and-anabaptism\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/emu-hosts-consultation-on-judaism-the-bible-and-anabaptism\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/emu-hosts-consultation-on-judaism-the-bible-and-anabaptism\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/03\/31093224\/20260323-Judaism-the-Bible-and-Anabaptism_MM-010.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/03\/31093224\/20260323-Judaism-the-Bible-and-Anabaptism_MM-010.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":667,\"caption\":\"CC105, CIE, Campus Center 105, Center For Interfaith Engagement, Daniel Weiss, EMU, Eastern Mennonite University, Judaism the Bible and Anabaptism, consultation, guest speaker, interfaith, strite conference room CIE and the Seminary hosted a Marpeck-funded one-day interfaith consultation with Mennonite and Jewish scholars from the U.S., Canada, and the U.K...Photos: EMU\/Macson McGuigan. 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