Religious Language and Asian American Hybridity

Julius-Kei Kato, a proud Filipino-Japanese-Canadian hybrid, is Associate Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies at King’s University College, London, Canada. He has previously served as Assistant Professor at Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan, and Visiting Associate Professor at Kwansei Gakuin University, Nishinomiya, Japan. He is the author of How Immigrant Christians Living in Mixed Cultures Interpret Their Religion (2012). He has lived and studied in Manila, Tokyo, Rome, Jerusalem, and Berkeley-California, among other places.

• Introduction: What does Hybridity have to do with Religious Language? How Asian North American Hybridity Could Converse with Religion Today.- Part I: Foundations.- 1. Our Building Blocks: Hybridity, Diaspora, Hermeneutics and the Identity of the Interpreter.- 2. The What and What-Not of Asian North American Hermeneutics: What Mark 2:23-28 and l’affaire Peter Phan Illustrate.- 3. A Thick Description of Hybrid Theological Interpreters.- 4. Should There Really Be an “End of Faith”? Hybridity and Sam Harris’ Proposal for an “End” to Religion.- 5. Talking Back to Our Parents: What Asian North American Hybridity Can Suggest to Asia.- Part II: Hybridity Converses with Particular Themes.- 6.The New Testament Canon as Hybrid.- 7. The Changes in Jesus’ Plans: How Hybridity Reveals and Revels in a Developmental View of Jesus.- 8. John’s Claims of Superiority as Seen through Hybrid Eyes.- 9. Revelation’s Telos (Goal of History) as Seen through Hybrid Eyes.- 10. The Dark Side of Realized Hope: Hybridity Traces the Roots of Christian Intolerance.- 11. What is “Conversion” in a Hybridized Postmodern World? From Monoreligiosity to Interreligiosity.- Conclusion: Assessing Hybridity’s Role in Religious Language: Toward an Interreligious/Interspiritual Future.

“Religious Language and Asian American Hybridity is a welcome addition and a thoughtful contribution to the developing field of Asian American theology. Those seeking to understand the direction of this field today will benefit from reading this book.” (Andrew Ong, Reading Religion, readingreligion.org, April, 2017)