Tat-Siong Benny Liew


Tat-Siong Benny Liew is an American New Testament scholar. He is the Class of 1956 Professor in New Testament Studies at the College of the Holy Cross.

Biography

Liew obtained his B.A. and M.A. from Olivet Nazarene University and completed a Ph.D. in New Testament from Vanderbilt University. He taught New Testament at Chicago Theological Seminary and Pacific School of Theology and, in Autumn 2013, took up the 1956 Chair of New Testament Studies in the religious studies department of College of the Holy Cross.
Much of his scholarship is around New Testament studies, related to the gospels, and for promoting Asian American biblical hermeneutics.

Controversy

In 2018, the Holy Cross' alternative newspaper, the Fenwick Review, published extracts of Liew's scholarship which suggested that Jesus had "queer desires." Though this was seen as controversial, given that Holy Cross is a Jesuit institution. Liew was defended by the president Philip Boroughs on the basis of academic freedom. A petition of 14,000 signatures followed asking for Liew's dismissal. An open letter written by Robert J. McManus, the Catholic bishop of Worcester, declared Liew's views blasphemous and stated that "academic freedom… particularly in the fields of theology or religious studies, cannot provide cover for blatantly unorthodox teaching."

Selected works

*