Review: An Asian American Ancient Historian and Biblical Scholar

August 30, 2024August 29, 2024 / rtrube54 / Leave a comment

Cover image of "An Asian American Ancient Historian and Biblical Scholar" by Edwin M. Yamauchi

An Asian American Ancient Historian and Biblical Scholar, Edwin M. Yamauchi (Foreword by Stephen B. Kellough). Resource Publications (ISBN: 9798385211609), 2024.

Summary: An Asian American Ancient Historian and Biblical Scholar is the memoir of Edwin M. Yamauchi, professor of history at Miami University, chronicling his family, faith, scholarly work, travels, and church leadership.

In the spring of 1974, I was a college sophomore on break, visiting a friend at Miami University. On Sunday, we went to his church, Oxford Bible Fellowship, attending the college Sunday School class. The teacher was a university professor, a somewhat owlish history professor known to students as “Dr. Y.” I forget the lesson but remember the questions people asked and the command of ancient Near East scholarship this man had. And I remember his kindness. Though obviously brilliant in his field, there wasn’t the least hint of condescension. He genuinely cared to encourage students in their Christian belief and their confidence in the Bible. Little did I know, this was an introduction to an acquaintance of fifty years.

So it was with great delight that I received a copy of his memoir which only deepened my respect for him as it filled in many gaps in his life story. I learned that he was the child of immigrants from Okinawa living in Honolulu. I did not know that his father took his own life when Edwin was just three years old nor of all the moves he made as a child as his mother moved from job to job to support the family. nor had I heard the story of his conversion through his friendship with Dick Lum and the ministry of Robert W. Hambrook.

From fifteen he aspired to mission work, receiving early training at the Christian Youth Center before studies at Columbia Bible College, followed by completing his undergraduate work at Shelton College. From there he went on to study with Cyrus H. Gordon, a distinguished ancient Near East Scholar at Brandeis University. After further post-doctoral work and a period at Rutgers, which denied him tenure, he came to the history department at Miami in 1969.

From here, the memoir progresses decade by decade, and later, year by year. Generally, for each period he summarizes his scholarly work and publications, his Christian service, and developments with his family. With regard to his scholarship, what stands out are the numerous conference presentations and research trips, and extensive lists of articles, chapters, and books. But perhaps even more important, Yamauchi was a dedicated witness. He lectured on scholarly and apologetic topics at many universities, served on the editorial board of Christianity Today, actively advised InterVarsity chapters at Rutgers and Miami. And he was one of the founding leaders of Oxford Bible Fellowship, to which one of the appendices is devoted.

In true scholarly tradition, we also read of the many former students and other scholars with which Dr. Yamauchi associated. He takes as great a pride in their accomplishments as his own. One appendix is a who’s who of present and former Oxford Bible Fellowship members and what they’ve accomplished. But pride of place belongs to his family. Nearly every chapter describes the accomplishments of Kimi, and his two children. We also see a man who delights not only in ancient artifacts but in sporting events, concerts, and the arts.

This memoir chronicles why, for so many of us, “Dr. Y” is the model of the scholar-Christian. Over his career he combined a forthright but gracious witness to Christ with scholarly excellence and devotion to his students. His scholarship consisted both of technical works advancing knowledge in his field and works of more popular scholarship advancing knowledge of the Bible and its backgrounds. In this memoir, Dr. Yamauchi renders that account in his own words.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Interview: Robert A Fryling, Publisher, InterVarsity Press: Part One

November 16, 2015August 25, 2025 / rtrube54 / 3 Comments

Robert A. Fryling, Publisher, InterVarsity Press

Recently, Robert (Bob) Fryling announced he will be retiring as publisher of InterVarsity Press (IVP) in June 2016. Bob Fryling also serves as a Vice President of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA. Out of his leadership experiences, he published The Leadership Ellipse in 2009. Recently we sat down via Skype for an interview in which we discussed his career, his tenure at InterVarsity Press, how IVP relates to its parent organization, changes he has seen in publishing, and what publishing accomplishments he thought most significant during his time at InterVarsity Press.

This interview has a bit of a flavor of an “inside conversation” due to the fact that Bob Fryling and I are both employed with InterVarsity/USA and have had a long association, Bob Fryling in the publishing division and I in Collegiate Ministries. I have inserted clarifications in a few places where a reference might be particularly unclear to an outsider. Otherwise, this is a very lightly edited transcript of the conversation. I should also mention that Bob on Books is a private endeavor, and not an official social media outlet of InterVarsity Press or InterVarsity/USA. With that, here is the first part of the interview:

You’ve had a pretty interesting career before you came to the publishing world. Could you recap for us your career before you came to InterVarsity Press?

I started off as a Campus Staff Worker in New England responsible for thirteen campuses in New Hampshire and Maine. I spent a lot of time driving on the turnpike. That was a great experience. I had large state schools like the University of Maine and the University of New Hampshire and smaller schools like Colby and Bates. It was a great way to learn about ministry and to be involved with InterVarsity. I became a team leader and then Area Director in New England and then Regional Director for the Northeast. In 1980 I moved to Madison and was national Director of Campus Ministries. I lived in Madison for seventeen years with two stints as Director of Campus Ministries and with a stint as Director of Human Resources in between. I started our NISET [National Institute of Staff Education and Training] program and led a lot of our management training. I came back to Campus Ministries when asked by Gordon MacDonald when he became President. I served in that role for a total of 14 years. I moved to the Press in 1997. It will be nineteen years by the end of June of 2016 as IVP publisher.

What was the biggest change or transition in moving from the collegiate ministry world to the publishing world?

A number of interesting things. I wasn’t asked to speak as much! As Director of Campus Ministries I spoke often at student and regional staff conferences. Somehow the publisher’s role was not seen as a ministerial role in the same sense. I had a lot to learn about the publishing industry. The publisher role was more of a CEO role. I was able to be in more of a leadership role without having to process things through three or four levels of people spread across the country. We have a lot of process at IVP but having most of the people in the building makes the process easier and the pace of decision-making was much, much faster because we have to get books out on time and sign authors. It was figuring out how to marry a ministry and a business. With Collegiate Ministries you don’t have the sense of the business aspect in the sense of time or urgency or money, although there is fund-raising, but it is not the same thing as making financial decisions every day as to how your business is going to turn out. I’ve enjoyed the challenge of bringing together both parts and that business is a ministry, too.

One of the things I’ve heard about InterVarsity Press is that you’ve won some awards for being a great place to work. I wonder if you could talk about that and what makes it such a good place to work?

I can answer the second part first. We have a lot of great people here. People come because they appreciate the books that we publish. We have been recognized by the Best Christian Workplaces Survey, I believe it is six straight times, and one of the questions that is asked is, “what do you most appreciate about IVP?” Usually the top answer to that across the whole company are the books that we publish. People are attracted to that. People are affected by the books. You can’t edit books and mark up books that don’t affect you as to its content. So that’s a big piece.

We have a strong leadership working team. Five of us have been together for eighteen years and so we’ve been able to benefit from each other’s gifts. We are fairly transparent in our leadership. We have a daily sales record so everyone in the company knows where we are on our sales on a day to day basis. We give quarterly financial reports and we share everything about what’s going on. I think people feel a high sense of ownership for IVP, a great deal of loyalty, great communication, and fine people. It sort of all comes together.

One of the things that may be indicative of this is that we have office meetings on a regular basis but we only have them when we need them. So we try to avoid perfunctory meetings but when we get together, everyone is expected to be there, so there is this sense of real community. We celebrate anniversaries, we share announcements, there may be times when we have authors that visit and usually those meetings are a morale boosting time and celebration time when we are together. We have special Christmas parties, we honor people when they leave, when people get married, when they have children. We try to celebrate each other, we try to celebrate our authors and our books and that creates a very positive environment.

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In Part Two of the interview, which will appear tomorrow, we will discuss how InterVarsity Press has responded to trends in reading and publishing, how IVP continues to support the collegiate ministry of InterVarsity, what Bob Fryling sees as IVP’s most significant accomplishments under his tenure, and his plans for retirement.

The Goodness Leading to Thanksgiving

November 27, 2014 / rtrube54 / Leave a comment

Photo by M. Rehemtulla [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I am celebrating Thanksgiving today. You might wonder from my post on From Lament to Thanksgiving if today was going to be a somber affair for us. No way! There will be food, family, great conversation, and football.

“But doesn’t that contradict what you wrote yesterday?” No, and here is why. While there is indeed a “problem of evil” in our world, the larger “problem” it seems to me is that of goodness. Why is it that soldiers tell jokes in the midst of battle, and show pictures of sweethearts while in the trenches? Why is it that even in the times surrounding funerals, we cannot resist telling stories that evoke laughter, even about the deceased, or enjoying good food and drink? It is because somehow, we believe deep down that the good is somehow more enduring and real than evil, that life somehow prevails over death and that with all the evil we see, we live in a world shot through with goodness.

So much of that goodness comes in the ordinary warp and woof of life. Sometimes it is the amazing feeling of refreshment after sleeping in after a good night’s sleep. Sometimes it is that first sip from the first cup of coffee in the morning. Sometimes it is in the first hug and first “I love you” of the day. There are all the shared moments and shared memories that weave the tapestry of a family’s life together.

Then there is the work of our days. Some is around our home and particularly the making of a place of welcome together. I also work in an amazing organization filled with gifted people of every ethnicity using their gifts to pursue the glory of God in the university world. I’m often amazed to be counted among them and to have been blessed to share in this work for 38 years. I work alongside amazing students and faculty, brilliant people of character pursuing their work with God-honoring excellence.

I often find myself giving thanks and rejoicing in the beauties of artistic expression, poor imitations at best of the work of our Creator. This past Tuesday in our Capriccio Columbus rehearsal, the men sat and listened to a number of our women sing a beautiful piece as our director tried to figure out who should have the solo. What struck me was all the different ways our women sang this so beautifully. While they sang the same notes and words, nuances of emphasis and varying timbres of voice reminded me that goodness and beauty have so many expressions.

I don’t think days like Thanksgiving are an escape but rather a celebration that affirms the deep sense we have that goodness, truth, and beauty will prevail in the end. And it is a day to gives thanks both to and for those who mean so much to us, and for those who believe that all this goodness comes from a good Creator, to offer that thanks to Him. And so I eagerly look forward to our family gathering today when we may do all of these things.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I also want to thank all those who read and especially who comment on this blog. Much of the joy of writing it has been in learning of the joy or insight it gives another and the thoughts it provokes that you share, which often enlighten me as well. Happy Thanksgiving!

Review: When Diversity Drops: Race, Religion, and Affirmative Action in Higher Education

February 25, 2014February 25, 2014 / rtrube54 / 2 Comments

When Diversity Drops: Race, Religion, and Affirmative Action in Higher Education by Julie J. Park
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Diversity and inclusion are big buzz words in higher education circles. Most of the time, efforts to promote diversity and inclusion are university sponsored. What Julie Park does is study the unusual instance where a campus organization on its own initiative pursues a diversity initiative, moving from a mostly white and Asian-American group to one incorporating significant numbers of African-American and Latino/a students. The group? InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at “California University” (a pseudonym to provide anonymity to the group as well as students involved in this study). This book is based on her doctoral research project studying this group.

Beginning in the years after the LA riots in 1992 this group pursued an increasingly deliberate agenda to become more diverse ethnically. Staff leaders took risks, there was more regular teaching on racial reconciliation that grounded this in a biblical rather than “political correctness” agenda, frank and sometimes emotion fraught “Race Matters” sessions were launched, and intentional efforts were made to reach new students across ethnic lines. Julie Park chronicles the up and down difficult journey toward increasing ethnic diversity through a series of interviews with students, staff, and alumni involved with the group during this period.

Cutting across this trend to increasing diversity was the passage of Proposition 209, that mandated “color blind” admissions policies at the state’s universities. This led to a precipitous drop in African-American admissions and a continuing rise in Asian-American admissions. And what she found was that this constrained the InterVarsity’s group to continue to achieve the kind of ethnic diversity it had previously achieved, despite having a multi-ethnic team of campus workers. This occurred both through restricting the pool of African American students from which they could recruit (in one year, only 96 African American students were admitted). It also created a new majority among Asian-American students. This also required a renewed process of aligning vision and strategies to reach students of other ethnicity.

While it is clear that Park at many points is very impressed with the InterVarsity group’s efforts to increase diversity, she also doesn’t flinch at noting their failures and miscues, including a very explosive “Race Matters” session that actually set their reconciliation efforts back, or an instance of “vision creep” where a relaxed focus on multi-ethnic outreach led to a drop in diversity. She gives us a well-written, carefully researched narrative of what it takes to change the culture of a group around race and ethnicity.

This is an important book both for those who work in collegiate ministry and for those concerned with higher education admissions policies. Groups like InterVarsity provide a voluntary meeting place where students can gain a greater vision for relationships across the ethnic lines that we draw throughout American society. If laws and admissions policies decrease these opportunities (which rarely happen in the church or other societal structures), where will they happen? And what should we conclude about the disparity of admissions by ethnicity? That is complicated but one thing is clear, at least to me. We are not operating from a level playing field, which seems to be the assumption of “color blind” laws and admissions policies.

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