Rachel S. Mikva, Ph.D.
Herman E. Schaalman Professor of Jewish Studies | Senior Faculty Fellow, InterReligious Institute, Chicago Theological Seminary
Rabbi Rachel S. Mikva, Ph.D., is the Herman E. Schaalman Professor of Jewish Studies and Senior Faculty Fellow of the InterReligious Institute at Chicago Theological Seminary. Before returning to the academy, she served for thirteen years as a congregational rabbi in New York and the Chicago area.
Her books include Interreligious Studies: An Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2023), Monotheism and Pluralism (Cambridge University Press, 2024), Dangerous Religious Ideas: The Deep Roots of Self-Critical Faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Beacon Press, 2020), and Midrash vaYosha: A Medieval Midrash on the Song at the Sea (Mohr Siebeck, 2012). Her definition of Interreligious Studies, quoted in this program's call for applications, centers on the critical analysis of encounters between individuals and communities who orient around religion differently.
Mikva has helped build the field's institutions and literature. She serves on the board of the Association for Interreligious/Interfaith Studies, co-chaired the American Academy of Religion's Interreligious and Interfaith Studies Unit from 2019 to 2024, and contributed chapters to Interreligious/Interfaith Studies: Defining a New Field and The Georgetown Companion to Interreligious Studies. She has written on the pedagogy of Interreligious Studies, and her public commentary has appeared in the Washington Post, USA Today, and Religion News Service.
For the JPC Scholars, she brings rigorous scholarship on interreligious encounter, close attention to how the field is taught, and long practice carrying that scholarship into congregations and public conversation.
- Education
- Ph.D., Midrash, Scriptural Interpretation and Rabbinic Literature, Jewish Theological Seminary
- Rabbinic Ordination and M.A., Hebrew Letters, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion
- A.B., Stanford University
- Fields of expertise
- Interreligious Studies; Jewish Studies; Midrash and Scriptural Interpretation; Interreligious Pedagogy; Religion and Public Life