Asian & Asian-American Biblical Interpretation: Evangelical Voices

Asian and Asian American Biblical Interpretation is holding an invited panel discussion on the topic of “What Asian and Asian American Biblical Interpretation Can Learn from Asian and Asian American Studies.” The panel features specialists in various fields of Asian and Asian American Studies including history, social science, and theology with a response from a cross-disciplinary biblical scholar.

Asian American Biblical Interpretation (AABI) has come of age in recent years. Publications continue apace with works as recent as the encyclopedic T&T Clark Handbook of Asian American Biblical Hermeneutics (2019). In addition, Asian American biblical scholars have now attained the highest and most visible positions in the academy including presidents and deans of seminaries, the presidency of the Association of Theological Schools and even most recently the highest office in our premier guild, President of the SBL. Yet, most of such scholarship and representation has come from non-evangelical or mainline theological schools. Evangelicals are less represented (see Chloe Sun, “Recent Research on Asian and Asian American Hermeneutics Related to the Hebrew Bible” CBR 17(3): 258 [238–65]). This new research group provides a space for Asian American evangelical scholars to engage with, critique, integrate and indeed pave new ground in current approaches in Asian American Biblical Interpretation. The fact that the majority of Asian American Protestants are evangelical makes their voices even more imperative. “Asian American” includes but is not limited to the Confucian-belt countries of origin. Asian American biblical interpretation by its very nature is interdisciplinary. Thus, invited guests will include theologians, historians, sociologists and scholars from other disciplines to inform our research. For further information, please contact Milton Eng ([email protected]) or Bo Lim ([email protected])