Professor Amy-Jill Levine, a Jewish scholar, has been elected president of the Catholic Biblical Association. Frank Wright argues the controversy is not ethnic; it is theological. The issue is not Levine’s identity, but her approach to Scripture, which Wright says emphasizes Christ’s humanity while rejecting or setting aside His divinity.
The election, Wright contends, reflects a broader modernizing tendency within Catholic institutions: efforts to reinterpret Scripture through contemporary historical frameworks. He links it to what he calls the “Synodal Church,” warning that diminishing Christ’s divinity transforms Catholicism into a human-centered religion emptied of the supernatural.
Wright connects the appointment to Pope St. Pius X’s condemnation of modernism, which he describes as an attempt to reduce Christ to a merely human figure. If Scripture is treated as a purely historical document rather than divine revelation, the Church’s identity shifts from supernatural to secular. The election is not an isolated event. It is a symptom of a deeper crisis.
