Special Issue: Asian and Asian American Biblical Interpretation in East and Southeast Asia

This introduction situates the present special issue within the broader history and ongoing development of Asian and Asian American biblical interpretation and scholarship. It maps key contributions to the field while acknowledging the much wider body of biblical scholarship produced in diverse Asian languages. The essay also explains the rationale for the special issue’s distinctive focus on assessing the current state of scholarship rather than offering close textual exegesis. It concludes by introducing the three contributions to this issue, which examines biblical interpretation in Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Filipino American contexts. Taken together, these essays highlight emerging interpretive practices, alternative scholarly venues, and contextual strategies that challenge dominant assumptions about where Asian and Asian American biblical scholarship is produced and how it circulates.