Religious Language and Asian American Hybridity

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Introduction: What Does Hybridity Have to Do with Religious Language? How Asian North American Hybridity Could Converse with Religion Today

   • Julius-Kei Kato

   Pages 1-7

3. Foundations

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-9

      PDF

   2. Our Building Blocks: Hybridity, Diaspora, Hermeneutics, and the Identity of the Interpreter

      • Julius-Kei Kato

      Pages 11-19

   3. The What and What-not of Asian North American Hermeneutics: What Mk 2:23–28 and l’affaire Peter Phan Illustrate

      • Julius-Kei Kato

      Pages 21-33

   4. A Thick Description of Hybrid Theological Interpreters

      • Julius-Kei Kato

      Pages 35-57

   5. Should There Really Be an “End of Faith”? Hybridity and Sam Harris’s Proposal for an “End” to Religion

      • Julius-Kei Kato

      Pages 59-69

   6. Talking Back to Our Parents: What Asian North American Hybridity Can Suggest to Asia

      • Julius-Kei Kato

      Pages 71-83

4. Hybridity with Reference to Particular Themes

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 85-85

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   2. The New Testament Canon as Hybrid

      • Julius-Kei Kato

      Pages 87-97

   3. The Changes in Jesus’s Plans: How Hybridity Reveals and Revels in a Developmental View of Jesus

      • Julius-Kei Kato

      Pages 99-119

   4. John’s Claims of Superiority as Seen through Hybrid Eyes

      • Julius-Kei Kato

      Pages 121-132

   5. Revelation’s Telos (Goal of History) as Seen through Hybrid Eyes

      • Julius-Kei Kato

      Pages 133-147

   6. The Dark Side of Realized Hope: Hybridity Traces the Roots of Christian Intolerance

      • Julius-Kei Kato

      Pages 149-170

   7. What is “Conversion” in a Hybridized Postmodern World? From Monoreligiosity to Interreligiosity

      • Julius-Kei Kato

      Pages 171-187

   8. Conclusion: Assessing Hybridity’s Role in Religious Language: Toward an Interreligious/ Interspiritual Future

      • Julius-Kei Kato

      Pages 189-199

5. Back Matter

   Pages 201-206

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 In this book, Julius-Kei Kato lets the theories and experiences of Asian American hybridity converse with and bear upon some aspects of Christian biblical and theological language. Hybridity has become a key feature of today’s globalized world and is, of course, a key concept in postcolonial thought. However, despite its crucial importance, hybridity is rarely used as a paradigm through which to analyze and evaluate the influential concepts and teachings that make up religious language. This book fills a lacuna by discussing what the concept of hybridity challenges and resists, what over-simplifications it has the power to complicate, and what forgotten or overlooked strands in religious tradition it endeavors to recover and reemphasize. Shifting seamlessly between biblical, theological, and modern, real-world case studies, Kato shows how hybridity permeates and can illuminate religious phenomena as lived and believed. The ultimate goal of the move toward an embrace of hybridity is afurther dissolution of the thick wall separating ideas of "us" and "them." In this book, Kato suggests the possibility of a world in which what one typically considers the "other" is increasingly recognized within oneself. 

• Hybridity
• Diaspora
• Hermeneutics
• Asian American
• Contextual Theology
• Contextual Biblical Studies
• Religious Language
• America
• Asia
• culture
• hermeneutics
• literature
• religion
• social science
• sociology
• theology

“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)

“For Julius-Kei Kato, hybridity is a term for his multiple identities, a conceptual tool for doing theology, a hermeneutical lens for reading biblical and theological texts, and a paradigm for religion.While this book definitely makes a valuable contribution to the construction of Asian North American theology and hermeneutics, it is more than an Asian American theology of hybrid. Kato’s integrity and generous spirit, as a hybrid and interdisciplinary scholar, invites anyone who is interested in religion or religious language to a new way of being religious in this globalized and pluralistic world.” (Jin Young Choi, Assistant Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins, Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, USA)

“Hybridity can have such profound influence on and implications for how we view ourselves, others, biblical texts, and the world around us. Kato’s work opens up new lenses for speaking of religious language and identity using the rich concept of hybridity. I encourage anyone who is interested in thinking about multiculturalism, diaspora, Asian North America, and religious language and context to read it.” (Chloe Sun, Associate Professor of Old Testament, Logos Evangelical Seminary, USA)

“This is a quite substantial and significant contribution to global theological and critical thinking. Starting from the view that the world today is profoundly and inescapably hybrid, Julius-Kei Kato calls for conversation across worlds, with a focus on religious-theological language and with the aim of breaking down walls. In this volume he pursues such a conversation from the perspective of his own experience of hybridity as a North American Asian, engaging both theological tradition and biblical texts in the process. The result is a timely and masterful example of and model for constructive critical engagement.” (Fernando F. Segovia, Oberlin Graduate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, The Divinity School, Vanderbilt University,USA)

“In this book Kei Kato untangles the often misunderstood term ‘hybridity’ within the lived experiences of Asian American communities. While he admits his ‘confessional’ stance on this term, he draws readers to the pain and promise of the multiple worlds in which we find ourselves today.” (Fumitaka Matsuoka, Pacifica School of Religion, Berkeley, USA)

“This volume is a strong step forward in our current theological world. Kei Kato thinks outside the Euro-American box. He is a marvelous Asian scholar who presents the beauty and the integrity of religious language in today’s Asian American hybridity. The very title of his book includes the phrase Asia-American Hybridity, which honors not just the meaning of some reality in two languages but also the diverse beauty of what we see, know, and touch.” (Kenan B. Osborne, OFM, Professor Emeritus, The Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, USA)

“Kato invites all of us who are part of a globalized, hybridized world for a hopeful conversation on how hybridity can serve as a hermeneutical key to better understand the contemporary North American context as well as  ancient texts of the Christian tradition. I highly recommend this book.” (Uriah Y. Kim, Academic Dean and Professor of Hebrew Bible, Hartford Seminary, USA)

“With Religious Language and Asian American Hybridity, Julius-Kei Kato makes an important contribution to contextual biblical interpretation and Christian theological discourse.  Drawing on the hybrid and multiple diasporic experiences of himself and others, Kato makes the theoretical foundation of his approach accessible and applicable to diverse readers, inviting them to reflect on their own hybridity.  Kato puts his ‘hybrid reader’ ‘in conversation’ with classic theological concepts and biblical passages both to critique the destructive use of religion to create divisions among people and to appropriate the constructive theological potential to promote reconciliation and justice.” (Henry W. Morisada Rietz, Professor of Religious Studies, Grinnell College, USA)

“Perhaps no one is more qualified than Julius-Kei Kato to write on how diaspora and hybridity impact the development of Asian-American theology. Himself a son of Filipino-Japanese parents, theologically trained in Asia, Europe, and the US, and having taught in Canada and many other countries, Kato has experienced hybridity and diaspora first-hand and has written extensively on these themes. He has distilled both his rich experience and deep scholarship into this highly readable volume. I most strongly recommend it for classroom use and personal reading.” (Peter C. Phan, The Ignacio Ellacuria, S.J. Chair of Catholic Social Thought, Georgetown University, USA)

• King’s University College, Western University, London, Canada

  Julius-Kei Kato

 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.   

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