Kah-Jin Jeffrey Kuan

Kah-Jin Jeffrey Kuan

Associate Professor of Old Testament; Director of the Certificate of Ministry Studies Program

Academic Credentials: 
BTh, Trinity Theological College, Singapore, 1980; MTS, Southern Methodist University, 1986; PhD, Emory University, 1994.
Quote: 
“We have learned that scripture is not always pleasant to read. If we take ourselves seriously as readers, we will find ourselves in situations where we must speak and preach against the text. Biblical interpretation is not about saving the text or saving God, for that matter. My goal as a teacher is to help students come to grips with the text, both its benefits and flaws, its blessings and curses.”
Profile: 

Dr. Kuan’s scholarship focuses on ancient Near Eastern – including Israelite – history, Asian and Asian American biblical interpretation, and pedagogies for teaching the Bible in church. Dr. Kuan is associate editor of the New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible and a member of the Council of the Society of the Biblical Literature. His publications include Neo-Assyrian Historical Inscriptions and Syria-Palestine (1995), “Diasporic Reading of a Diasporic Text: Identity Politics and Race Relations and the Book of Esther” (2000), "Samsi-ilu and the Realpolitik of Israel and Aram-Damascus in the Eighth Century BCE," (2001), "Reading Amy Tan Reading Job,"(2003), and Ways of Being, Ways of Reading: Asian-American Biblical Interpretation, co-edited with Mary F. Foskett (2006). He is an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church and a member of the General Conference Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

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