'Envisioning Filipino American Biblical Interpretation' to be topic of annual lecture at Wheaton College

The Provost's Office at Wheaton College will present the Margaret Diddams '83 Annual Lecture on Faith and Learning on Thursday, Feb. 16, beginning at 7 p.m.

Dr. Jordan J. Cruz Ryan, who serves as Assistant Professor of New Testament, will be giving this year's lecture, which is entitled "Envisioning Filipino American Biblical Interpretation: Touching Ground and Taking Root in the Colonizer's House."

In his lecture, Dr. Ryan presents a vision for Filipino American biblical interpretation that brings his expertise in interpreting the New Testament in its ancient context into conversation with Filipino American studies, ethnography, and the Filipino church tradition. The result is an approach to biblical interpretation that empowers those who have experienced oppression and who live in the shadow of centuries of colonization to experience and enact the biblical message of hope, justice, and societal transformation amid their struggle to survive and flourish.

Dr. Ryan hails from the multicultural city of Toronto. His parents worked with the street youth population in the inner city, and he grew up in the heart of the city in community with some of its most marginalized people. Dr. Ryan is half-Filipino, and he is committed to doing scholarship that matters for the Asian American church. He also works closely with the Asian and American campus community.

Dr. Ryan's academic work focuses primarily on two different areas: interpreting the New Testament in light of its archaeological and cultural background and on Asian American approaches to biblical hermeneutics. He is the author of The Role of the Synagogue in the Aims of Jesus and From the Passion to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and is a staff member with the Tell Shimron excavation. His current research project is a postcolonial reading of the life of Jesus from a Filipino American perspective.

This event is free and open to the public with a light reception following the event. The lecture will take place in Barrows Auditorium (Room 105) of Billy Graham Hall, which is located at 500 College Avenue in Wheaton.

For more information, contact the Provost's Office at (630) 752-5004 or provost@wheaton.edu.