Scholar-Activist Encounter: Dong Hyeon Jeong and Nicholas Johnson

January 21, 2021, 7:30pm Eastern Time

How do activism and scholarship contribute to our understanding of Scripture in the world today?

In this session, CLBSJ Board Chair Nicholas Johnson will be joined by Korean-Filipino New Testament scholar Dong Hyeon Jeong for an exploration into the ways that scripture can be misused to further hate and polarization, and what we can do about it. Attendees are invited to review Dong Hyeon’s article, When the KKK Exegetes: Circulating Hate with 2 Peter, published in Spring 2020 by the Association of Jewish Studies.

Advance registration is required.

About the participants:

Rev. Dr. Dong Hyeon Jeong is a United Methodist Pastor and an Assistant Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, where he is utilizes such critical interpretive lenses such as postcolonialism, gender and sexuality, socio-economic, race and ethnicity, ableism, and posthumanism/eco-justice. His book With the Wild Beasts, Learning from Trees is forthcoming and will be published by the Society of Biblical Literature Press, Semeia Series. Articles written include “Jesus’ Triumphal Entry as a Flash Mob Event: Molecular ‘r’evolution in Mark 11:1-11” and “The (Processed) Vegetal Body and Blood of the Markan Messiah.” The son of Korean missionaries in the Philippines, Jeong is an ordained elder in the Philippine Central Conference, Manila Episcopal Area, Southwest Philippines Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.

The Reverend Nicholas A. Johnson is pastor of Raritan Valley Baptist Church in Edison, NJ. He also teaches in the Philosophy and Religion department at New Jersey City University in Jersey City, NJ. Nicholas holds undergraduate degrees in History and Religious Studies from the University of Chicago and a M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in New Testament and Early Christianity at Drew University in Madison, NJ. A native of Newark, NJ, Nicholas developed an interest in the intersections of faith, academia, and activism as a teenager. His work as a pastor-scholar-activist focuses on racial/ethnic justice and inter-generational community building.

The Center and Library for the Bible and Social Justice invites you to join us for an interactive dialogue exploring the interfaces between scholarship and activism. How do these ways of being contribute to our understanding of Scripture in the world today? Let’s come together to learn from each other. Most events take place on the third Thursday of the month at 4:30pm Pacific Time / 7:30pm Eastern Time. We do not meet every month, and occasionally meet on a different night.

See the full schedule of the Scholar-Activist Encounter series. For questions, email info@clbsj.org.

This series is co-sponsored by the Community of Living Traditions.