Asian American Biblical Interpretation

The first reference resource on how Asian Americans are currently reading and interpreting the Bible, this volume also serves a valuable role in both developing and disseminating what can be termed as Asian American biblical hermeneutics. The volume works from the important background that Asian Americans are the fastest growing ethnic/racial minority population in the USA, and that 42% of this group identifies as Christian. This provides a useful starting point from which to examine what may be distinctive about Asian American approaches to the Bible. Part 1 of the Handbook describes six major ethic groups that make up 85% of Asian population (by country of origin: China, Philippines, Indian Subcontinent, Vietnam, Korea, Japan) and outlines the specific concerns each group has when its members read the Bible. Part 2 of the Handbook examines major critical methods in biblical interpretation and suggests adjustments that may be helpful for Asian Americans to make when they are interpreting the Bible. Finally, Part 3 provides 25 interpretations by Asian American biblical scholars on specific texts in the Bible, using what they consider to be Asian American hermeneutics. Taken together the Handbook interprets the Bible both with and for the Asian American communities.

"Liew is one of the most articulate, creative and sophisticated biblical scholars in North America. What Is Asian American Biblical Hermeneutics? has not caused me to question that judgment. A set of provocative questions, arguments, issues, and problems, the book opens a window onto what it means for human beings to try to negotiate a rather complex contemporary world, with evidence of increasingly blurred but also thick ideological and social-cultural boundaries and overlapping but also recognizable and isolable identity formations. That Liew does this by using and bringing together the category "Asian American" and the phenomenon of the reading of "the Bible" as sharp analytical wedge is all the more fascinating. This impressive book represents the collapse of the center and a major shift in orientation to the peripheries. It is a major achievement and a major challenge." —Vincent L. Wimbush, Claremont Graduate University "A groundbreaking achievement! Dr. Liew uses his amazing breadth of scholarship to challenge Eurocentrism in biblical studies and secularism in Asian American studies at once. Like Gender Trouble, The Future of an Illusion, and other original work, this book will become a classic in Asian American biblical hermeneutics, setting the terms of debate for years to come. After Liew, reading the New Testament will never be the same again."—Kwok Pui-lan, Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts This is the first single-authored book on Asian American biblical interpretation. It covers all of the major genres within the New Testament and broadens biblical hermeneutics to cover not only the biblical texts, but also Asian American literature and current films and events like genome research and September 11. Despite its range, the book is organized around three foci: methodology (the distinguishing characteristics or sensibilities of Asian American biblical hermeneutics), community (the politics of inclusion and exclusion), and agency. The work intentionally affirms Asian America as a panethnic coalition while acknowledging the differences within it. In other words, it attempts to balance Asian American panethnicity and heterogeneity, or coalition building and identity politics.

Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial/ethnic population in the United States. Especially since the 1990s, readings by Asian American biblical scholars have been increasing to meet the particular theological and pastoral concerns of their Christian racial/ethnic seminarians, clergy, and churches. Gale A. Yee is one of their major interpreters, becoming the first Asian American and first woman of color president of the oldest professional guild devoted to the critical study of the Bible, the Society of Biblical Literature. This book is an anthology of her major, ground-breaking essays on Asian American theorizing and analysis of the biblical text. It is a retrospective of her growth of over almost three decades in wrestling with questions like “What is Asian American biblical hermeneutics and how does one undertake it?”

Ways of Being, Ways of Reading is a collection of essays that address biblical interpretation and the Bible's role from an Asian North point of view. Beginning with the history of biblical interpretation in Asian countries and cultures, this impressive collection by noted contemporary scholars, address issues and themes such as cultural hermeneutics, the politics of identity, and what constitutes Asian American theology. Contributors include: Devadasan N. Premnath, John Yueh-Han Yieh, Samuel Cheon, Philip P. Chia, Andrew Yueking Lee, Lai Ling Elizabeth Ngan, Uriah Yong-Hwan Kim, Jean K. Kim, John Ahn, Mai-Anh Le Tran, Sze-Kar Wan, Gale A. Yee, Frank M. Yamada, Mary F. Foskett, and Henry W. Morisada Rietz

In this issue of the journal Semeia, readers will find essays less concerned with what the Bible says about Asian American lives than by how Asian Americans read biblical texts. Pulling together Asian American historians, rhetoricians, sociologists, biblical scholars, and theologians, the collection questions assumed understandings and challenges accepted practices of established disciplines in ways that are both transgressive and transformative. Essays in the first section deal with the Bible’s role in constructing Asian American identity. The second section delves into how the Bible is read and interpreted in Asian American literature and churches. The third section includes a response. Contributors include Antony W. Alumkal, Rachel A. R. Bundang, Patrick S. Cheng, Peter Yuichi Clark, Eleazar S. Fernandez, Mary F. Foskett, Jane Naomi Iwamura, Russell M. Jeung, Eunjoo Mary Kim, Jung Ha Kim, Uriah (Yong-Hwan) Kim, Tat-siong Benny Liew, Leng Leroy Lim, Fumitaka Matsuoka, Russell G. Moy, Henry W. Rietz, Roy I. Sano, and Timothy Tseng.

Top-notch biblical scholars from around the world and from various Christian traditions offer a fulsome yet readable introduction to the Bible and its interpretation. The book concisely introduces the Old and New Testaments and related topics and examines a wide variety of historical and contemporary interpretive approaches, including African, African-American, Asian, and Latino streams. Contributors include N. T. Wright, M. Daniel Carroll R., Stephen Fowl, Joel Green, Michael Holmes, Edith Humphrey, Christopher Rowland, and K. K. Yeo, among others. Questions for reflection and discussion, an annotated bibliography, and a glossary are included.

Asian American Christianity is one of the fastest-growing forms of American Christianity, and it has already proven to be one of the richest and most innovative movements in North American religion. With a deep understanding of their roots in classic Christianity as well as the diversity of Asian culture, these theological voices have contributed some of the freshest and most provocative work of recent decades. This volume brings together women who are searching for authentic Christian dialogue in a world of hybridity and changing context, and it represents one of the most significant areas of growth and vitality in contemporary Christianity.

"Into this new wave of homiletical insight comes a remarkable book by Eunjoo Mary Kim. Over against any notion of homiletical theory created in a cultural vacuum, Kim focuses with precision and insight on the Asian American context, showing how Asian American Christians are affected by the delicate interplay between the traditional religious heritage of the East and the new cultural situation in America. The Asian American pulpit will be richer for her efforts, and the field of homiletics will be wiser for her vision." --from the Foreword Kim's much-needed resource provides clear and thoughtful insights on preaching from an Asian American perspective. This book first explores the distinctiveness of the Asian American congregation and spirituality, and then goes further to develop a theology of preaching that fully considers the uniqueness of this spirituality. In addition, Kim provides sound perspectives on Asian American biblical interpretation, helpful sermon development and design, and a sample sermon to make this book invaluable--a resource that sets the standard in Asian American preaching.

The first reference resource on how Asian Americans are currently reading and interpreting the Bible, this volume also serves a valuable role in both developing and disseminating what can be termed as Asian American biblical hermeneutics. The volume works from the important background that Asian Americans are the fastest growing ethnic/racial minority population in the USA, and that 42% of this group identifies as Christian. This provides a useful starting point from which to examine what may be distinctive about Asian American approaches to the Bible. Part 1 of the Handbook describes six major ethic groups that make up 85% of Asian population (by country of origin: China, Philippines, Indian Subcontinent, Vietnam, Korea, Japan) and outlines the specific concerns each group has when its members read the Bible. Part 2 of the Handbook examines major critical methods in biblical interpretation and suggests adjustments that may be helpful for Asian Americans to make when they are interpreting the Bible. Finally, Part 3 provides 25 interpretations by Asian American biblical scholars on specific texts in the Bible, using what they consider to be Asian American hermeneutics. Taken together the Handbook interprets the Bible both with and for the Asian American communities.