Latest Lecture
This is the sixth lecture marking the special series on “Faith, Theology, and Community” commemorating 60 years of
the Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity in Israel
Catholic Zionism - An Impossible Path?
Fr. Dr. Antoine Lévy, OP
Tel Aviv University
25 February 2026, 20:00 IST (13:00 EST; 19:00 CET) via ZOOM
To register click HERE
You are warmly invited to a lecture by Fr. Dr. Antoine Lévy, OP, who will explore one of the most sensitive and intellectually challenging questions in contemporary theology: the relationship between Catholic thought and Zionism.
Fr. Lévy writes:
“I aim to begin with a critical analysis of the notion of ‘Christian Zionism,’ which has very recently been the object of a formal condemnation by the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem (January 17, 2026). This will offer an opportunity to explore the question of Zionism’s theological justification—or rather the absence thereof—from the perspective of the Catholic Church. I will argue that the only genuine theological explanation for the Church’s overly cautious, if not openly hostile, stance on the subject lies in the immense difficulty of confronting the legacy of a bi‑millennial supersessionism and following it to its ultimate consequences.”
Fr. Antoine Lévy OP was born in Paris in 1962 and raised in a non‑religious Jewish family. He discovered the Christian faith during his studies in philosophy and Ancient Greek at the Sorbonne, the École Normale Supérieure (Saint‑Cloud), and Moscow State University. After his baptism into the Catholic Church, he entered the Dominican Order in 1990.
He completed a PhD in Dogmatics and Patristics at the University of Fribourg, later published as Le créé et l’incréé: Maxime le Confesseur et Thomas d’Aquin (Vrin, 2006). In 2004, he became Director of the Studium Catholicum in Helsinki, where he also taught theology and intellectual history at the University of Helsinki and the University of Eastern Finland. He participated for many years in the ecumenical dialogue between the Catholic and Lutheran Churches in the Nordic countries.
In 2010, together with Rabbi Mark Kinzer, he founded the Helsinki Consultation, an annual international gathering of theologians of Jewish descent. He has been a member of the Dialogue Group between the Catholic Church and Messianic Judaism since 2013 and serves on the theological commission of Yachad b’Yeshua, a network connecting Jewish believers in Christ across ecclesial traditions.
Fr. Lévy is the author of Jewish Church: A Catholic Approach to Messianic Judaism (Lexington, 2021) and numerous scholarly articles on Patristics and Jewish‑Christian relations. He is currently based in Jerusalem at the École Biblique et Archéologique Française and has recently completed a new PhD at Tel Aviv University on the “Marrano dimension” of Edith Stein’s metaphysics.
Yours Fraternally,
Dr. Petra Heldt
Director ETRFI
Fr. Lévy writes:
“I aim to begin with a critical analysis of the notion of ‘Christian Zionism,’ which has very recently been the object of a formal condemnation by the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem (January 17, 2026). This will offer an opportunity to explore the question of Zionism’s theological justification—or rather the absence thereof—from the perspective of the Catholic Church. I will argue that the only genuine theological explanation for the Church’s overly cautious, if not openly hostile, stance on the subject lies in the immense difficulty of confronting the legacy of a bi‑millennial supersessionism and following it to its ultimate consequences.”
Fr. Antoine Lévy OP was born in Paris in 1962 and raised in a non‑religious Jewish family. He discovered the Christian faith during his studies in philosophy and Ancient Greek at the Sorbonne, the École Normale Supérieure (Saint‑Cloud), and Moscow State University. After his baptism into the Catholic Church, he entered the Dominican Order in 1990.
He completed a PhD in Dogmatics and Patristics at the University of Fribourg, later published as Le créé et l’incréé: Maxime le Confesseur et Thomas d’Aquin (Vrin, 2006). In 2004, he became Director of the Studium Catholicum in Helsinki, where he also taught theology and intellectual history at the University of Helsinki and the University of Eastern Finland. He participated for many years in the ecumenical dialogue between the Catholic and Lutheran Churches in the Nordic countries.
In 2010, together with Rabbi Mark Kinzer, he founded the Helsinki Consultation, an annual international gathering of theologians of Jewish descent. He has been a member of the Dialogue Group between the Catholic Church and Messianic Judaism since 2013 and serves on the theological commission of Yachad b’Yeshua, a network connecting Jewish believers in Christ across ecclesial traditions.
Fr. Lévy is the author of Jewish Church: A Catholic Approach to Messianic Judaism (Lexington, 2021) and numerous scholarly articles on Patristics and Jewish‑Christian relations. He is currently based in Jerusalem at the École Biblique et Archéologique Française and has recently completed a new PhD at Tel Aviv University on the “Marrano dimension” of Edith Stein’s metaphysics.
Yours Fraternally,
Dr. Petra Heldt
Director ETRFI
