An ethnic Chinese, Yeo was born and raised in a small coastal village called Kampong Teriso in Borneo Sarawak (three years before Sarawak joined the federation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963). He identifies his background as “a diasporic Chinese, a hybrid Chinese Christian identity”[1] in multi-cultural Malaysia that shapes his interests in the critical engagement between the Bible and cultures.[2]
Yeo was a professor of New Testament at Alliance Bible Seminary in Hong Kong from 1992 to 1996,[7] before becoming Harry R. Kendall Professor of New Testament at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, where he has taught since July 1996.[8] He also served on the graduate school faculty of Northwestern University, Evanston (1997–2008) for the joint Garrett-Northwestern PhD program.
Research and cross-cultural hermeneutics
Inducted as an elected member of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS: Society of New Testament Studies) in 1999, Yeo is also a full member of the Society of Biblical Literature (since 1987) and the Chicago Society of Biblical Research (since 1996). He has served numerous societies, journals, and institutions as an academic committee member, research fellow, and advisory consultant.
Yeo is best known for his work advocating for cross-cultural biblical hermeneutics, as found in his dissertation, later published as Rhetorical Interaction in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10: A Formal Analysis with Implications for a Cross-Cultural, Chinese Hermeneutic[9] and his second English book, What Has Jerusalem to Do with Beijing: Biblical Interpretation from a Chinese Perspective.[10][11] His approach includes the comparison and contrast of biblical and Chinese classical texts, in order to look for similar and unique themes or events as points of mutual critical engagement—"reading the Bible culturally and reading classical cultural texts biblically.”[12]
Collaboration and majority world theologies
Early in his career in 1994, Yeo and Philip P. Chia co-founded a Chinese-English peer-reviewed theological journal, Jian Dao: A Journal of Bible and Theology, and its two series: the Jian Dao Dissertation Series; Bible and Hermeneutic series.[13]
Together with Gene L. Green, Yeo co-edits the "Crosscurrents in Majority World and Minority Theology" series published by Cascade Books, which offers theological loci such as land, migration, identity, which are prominent in the majority world but often find no place in North Atlantic discussions.[16]
Yeo also co-edits with Melanie Baffes the "Contrapuntal Readings of the Bible in World Christianity" series, published by Pickwick Publications, which celebrates biblical interpretations that engage in contextual theology while taking part in the polyphonic conversation that is global Christianity.[17]
Yeo has edited The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in China (900+ pages and 43 images), as he collaborated with 48 authors writing 47 chapters on the translation, expression, interpretation, and reception of the Bible in China.[18]
Publishing and world Christianity
Yeo’s recent works have a special emphasis on the tasks of building nations, transforming local communities, fulfilling the ideals of culture, saving individuals from chaos, meaninglessness, injustice, and moving them toward shalom and beauty.
Since 2020 Yeo serves as the Vice-president of Global Faculty Initiative (GFI) [19] (Terence C. Halliday serves as the President and, together with Donald Hay, co-convenors) “to promote the integration of Christian faith and academic disciplines by bringing theologians into conversation with scholars across the spectrum of faculties in research universities worldwide.”
^Cosgrove, Charles H.; Weiss, Herold; Yeo, K. K., eds. (2005). "Introduction". Cross-Cultural Paul: Journeys to Others, Journeys to Ourselves. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. pp. 16–20. ISBN9780802828439.
^Lee, Archie C. C. (2008). "Cross-textual hermeneutics". In Sebastian C. H. Kim (ed.). Christian Theology in Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 192–193. ISBN9781139472067.
