T&T Clark Handbook of Asian American Biblical Hermeneutics

by Uriah Y. Kim (Editor), Seung Ai Yang (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780567716590
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/28/2024
Series:	T&T Clark Handbooks
Pages:	544
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Uriah Y. Kim is Dean, Vice President for Academic Affairs and John Dillenberger Professor of Biblical Studies, at Graduate Theological Union, USA.

Seung Ai Yang is Associate Professor of New Testament, Chicago Theological Seminary, USA.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations
Contributors
Introduction to the Handbook - Uriah Y. Kim and Seung Ai Yang
Part One Contexts
1 The Complex Heterogeneity of Asian American Identity - Tamara C. Ho
2 Familism, Racialization, and Other Key Factors Shaping Chinese American Perspectives - Russell Jeung
3 Filipinos in America: A Cartography of Diasporic Identities - Lester Edwin J. Ruiz
4 One Long Labor: Toward an Indian American Interreligious Consciousness - Jaisy A. Joseph and Khyati Y. Joshi
5 Of Mythologies, Wars, Exodus, and Adaptations: A Brief Account of a People Called Việt Mỹ (Vietnamese Americans) - Mai-Anh Le Tran
6 The Biblical Hermeneutics: A Korean American Case - Jung Ha Kim
7 Japanese American Jourbaneys of Remembrance, Identity, and Solidarity - Joanne Doi
Part Two Methods
8 Historical Criticism - Mary F. Foskett
9 Social Science Criticism and Its Relevance for Asian American Biblical Hermeneutics - D. N. Premnath
10 Asian American Literary Criticism - Jin Young Choi
11 Critical Methods and Critiques: Theological Interpretation - Bo H. Lim
12 Feminist Critical Theory and Asian American Feminist Biblical Interpretation - Seung Ai Yang
13 Toward an Asian North American Liberationist Hermeneutics - Julius-Kei Kato
14 More Than an Interpretation from a Different Perspective: A Postcolonial Reading from a Different Epistemological (Back)Ground - Uriah Y. Kim
15 Queer Hermeneutics: Queering Asian American Identities and Biblical Interpretation - Dong Sung Kim
Part Three Texts
16 The Exile of Cain and the Destiny of Humankind: Punishment and Protection - Hemchand Gossai
17 Women in Exodus and Asian Immigrant Women: Asian Female Immigrants' Bible Reading Strategy on Exodus 1–4 - Esther HaeJin Park
18 Zelophehad's Daughters as Lienü (Exemplary Women): Reading Num. 27:1-11 and 36:1-12 in the Discursive Context of Confucianism - Sonia Kwok Wong
19 Saul's Question and the Question of Saul: A Deconstructive Reading of the Story of Endor in 1 Sam. 28:3-25 - Suzie Park
20 A Heart That Listens (1 Kings 3) - Jin H. Han
21 Of Foreigners and Eunuchs: An Asian American Reading of Isa. 56:1-8 - Gale A. Yee
22 Conceptual Blending in Joel 2:1-11: God's Apocalyptic Storm-locust-warriors - Kevin Chau
23 Narrative of Jonah in Four Acts - Rajkumar Boaz Johnson
24 Reading Job as a Chinese Diasporian - Chloe Sun
25 Engaging Ecclesiastes Narrativally and Polyphonically with a Chinese Lens: Traditional Wisdom and “Collective Lived Experience under the Sun” in Dialogue - Barbara M. Leung Lai
26 Made in Babylon: Daniel 1 - John Ahn
27 Incising, Inscribing, and Concretizing Identity: Reading 1 Maccabees and Japanese Americans in Hawai'i - Henry W. Morisada Rietz
28 Filial Piety and Radical Discipleship in Matthew - Diane G. Chen
29 The Absent Body and Postcolonial Melancholia (Mk 14:3-9) - Jin Young Choi
30 Privilege and Solidarity in Asian American Context (Lk. 14:15-24) - Raj Nadella
31 God's Love, Christ's Cross, or Human Faith? Interpretations of Jn 3:16 in Ethnic Chinese American Churches - John Y. H. Yieh
32 Lost and Silenced in Translation: Reading Pauline Discourse on Language in 1 Cor. 14 from an Asian American Perspective - Ekaputra Tupamahu
33 “My Story” in Intersection with Gal. 3: 26-28: An Indian-Dalit Feminist Interpretation - Surekha Nelavala
34 Imagined Nations, Real Women: Politics of Culture and Women's Bodies. A Postcolonial, Feminist, and Indo-Western Interpretation of 1 Tim. 2:8-15 - Sharon Jacob
35 Always Ethnic, Never “American”: Reading 1 Peter through the Lens of the “Perpetual Foreigner” Stereotype - Janette H. Ok
36 The Practice of Hospitality in Early Christianity: Reading 2 John and 3 John from a Vietnamese American Perspective - Toan Do
37 Revelation from the Margins: A Vietnamese American Perspective - vanThanh Nguyen
Bibliography
Subject Index
Ancient Index

Editorial Reviews

Uriah Kim and Seung Ai Yang have made a very significant contribution to the field of Asian American biblical hermeneutics through the publication of this volume, which represents the diversity of contexts and methods in the reading of texts. The diverse, rich, and sophisticated essays in the volume seek to showcase the field coming to maturity. It is a more than worthy sequel to Ways of Being, Ways of Reading: Asian American Biblical Interpretation!” —Jeffrey Kuan, Claremont School of Theology, USA

“This volume persuasively captures the complex histories, interpretative strategies and methodological approaches of Asian American hermeneutics, a late but creative and compelling entrant to biblical studies. The range and breadth of the essays are extremely diverse, detailed and authoritative, filled with revealing exegetical observations based on the profoundly complicated contexts of the essayists. This enthralling compilation simultaneously urges mainstream scholars to look closely and appreciate what they have often overlooked, and compatriots in Asia to take notice of the convoluted negotiating process that those who leave the continent and settle away from home must endure. A significant addition to, and a shining example of, the already spectacular canon of minority hermeneutics.” —R.S.Sugirtharajah, University of Birmingham, UK

“In this valuable compendium, some of the most important Asian American scholars have answers for all parties interested in the hows and whys of interpretation; by their very presence, they show the falsehood of the myth that interpretive truth was discovered beginning with Schleiermacher and proceeding through a succession of white European and American scholars. With so intense a pitch of hermeneutical insight and so broad a range of front-line scholars, this handbook demonstrates that any account of hermeneutics that does not acknowledge the work of the many Asian American interpreters who contribute - both to this volume and to the biblical academy - is but the ghost of a fuller, richer, more candid and deeper hermeneutical discourse.” —Andrew Adam, University of Oxford, UK

“Written by both established and emerging scholars, this handbook shows how the Bible is interpreted among diverse Asian American ethnic groups. It challenges us to rethink the methods and scope of biblical interpretation in mainstream scholarship. It will be a most useful reference for years to come; I highly recommend it.” —Kwok Pui-lan, Emory University, USA, author of Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology

“This monumental work is a treasure-trove, offering rich descriptions of Asian American contexts, insightful analyses of critical biblical and hermeneutical methods from Asian American perspectives, and new understandings of select biblical texts. Written in a way that is accessible to the non-specialist, this volume is a must-read for any serious student or teacher of the Bible.” —Barbara E. Reid, Catholic Theological Union, USA

From the Publisher