Biola AffiliationsFaculty

Documents

Degrees

  • D.Phil., Oxford University
  • M.Th., Edinburgh University
  • M.Div., Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
  • B.A., Yale University

Biography

Allen Yeh is tenured Professor of Intercultural Studies and Missiology. His areas of geographical expertise are Latin America and China. He also has other academic interests in Gen Z, history, classical music, homiletics, social justice, the California missions, the Maya, and biographical interest in Jonathan Edwards (America's greatest theologian) and Adoniram Judson (America's first intercontinental missionary). He serves on the Board of Trustees for the International Theological Seminary (ITS), the Learning Synthesis Manager for the Lausanne Generations Conversation, and a Research Fellow with the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton College. He is also an adjunct professor of World Christianity at Palm Beach Atlantic University, and an annual summer professor of missions for Campus Crusade for Christ's Institute for Biblical Studies (IBS). He earned his B.A. from Yale, M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell, M.Th. from Edinburgh, and D.Phil. from Oxford. Despite this alphabet soup, he believes that experience is the greatest teacher of all (besides the Bible). As such, Allen has been to over 60 countries on every continent, to study, do missions work, and experience the culture. As Mark Twain said in 1857, "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." He is joyfully married to Arianna Molloy, a professor in Biola's Communication Studies Department.

Affiliations

  • American Baptist Churches (ABC-USA)
  • Evangelical Missiological Society (EMS)
  • International Association for Mission Studies (IAMS)
  • Latin American Theological Fellowship, Fraternidad Teológica Latinoamericana (LATF or FTL)
  • Yale-Edinburgh Group on the History of the Missionary Movement and Non-Western Christianity
  • Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE)
  • World Council of Churches (WCC)
  • Asian American Christian Collaborative (AACC)
  • International Theological Seminary (ITS)

Awards

  • 2017 Polycentric Missiology selected as one of the top 10 missions books of 2016 by International Bulletin of Mission Research (IBMR)
  • 2005 Cook Fellowship, Acton Institute
  • 2001 Parish Pulpit Scholarship, Church of the Pioneers Foundation
  • 2000 Sandy Ford Memorial Scholarship, Leighton Ford Ministries

Publications

Books

  • Majority World Theologies: Theologizing from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Ends of the Earth, co-edited with Tite Tiénou (Pasadena: William Carey Publishing, 2018) [Evangelical Missiological Society series, Vol. 26]
  • Polycentric Missiology: 21st Century Mission from Everyone to Everywhere (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2016).
  • Expect Great Things, Attempt Great Things: William Carey & Adoniram Judson, Missionary Pioneers (Studies in World Christianity), co-edited with Chris Chun (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2013).
  • Routes and Radishes: and Other Things to Talk About at the Evangelical Crossroads, co-authored with Dwight Friesen, Mark Russell, Michelle Sanchez, and Chelle Stearns (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010).

Publications

  • Book chapter: “Mission and Evangelism” in Kenneth R. Ross, Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Todd M. Johnson, eds., Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity, Volume 7 - Christianity in North America (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023).
  • Book chapter: “Christ Outside the Gate: How Hebrews 13 and Galilee Locate Mission for Jesus and Relocate Mission for Us” in ed. Abeneazer G. Urga, Edward L. Smither, and Linda P. Saunders, eds., Reading Hebrews Missiologically (Littleton: William Carey, 2023).
  • Book chapter: “Emerging Adults’ Historic Impact in Mission” in Mary T. Lederleitner, Andrew MacDonald, and Rick Richardson, eds., Formation for Mission: Discipleship and Identity for Emerging Adults (Bellingham: Lexham, 2022).
  • Book chapter: “Mission and the age of World Christianity” in Risto Jukko and Marina Behera, eds., Together in the Mission of God. Jubilee Reflections on the International Missionary Council (Geneva: WCC Publications, 2022). [Jubilee volume for the 11th Assembly of the WCC in Karlsruhe, Germany]
  • Book chapter: response to Guo Muyun, The Primary Colors of Sin (The Center for House Church Theology, 2022).
  • Tribute: in Jeremy Weber, “Remembering ‘Prof’ Andrew Walls, Founder of the Study of World Christianity” in Christianity Today (August 17, 2021).
  • Journal article: “Majority World Theologies” in Transformation (SAGE: Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, 2021).
  • Book chapter: “Bartolome de las Casas: Defender of the Indians, Defender of the Word” in Edward L. Smither and Robert L. Gallagher, eds., Sixteenth-Century Mission: Global Mission in the Age of Reformations (Bellingham: Lexham, 2021).
  • Festschrift chapter: “Creation Care in Latin America: Lessons from Catholics and Evangélicos” in Alexander Chow and Emma Wild-Wood, eds., Ecumenism and Independency in World Christianity: Historical Studies in Honour of Brian Stanley (Leiden: Brill, 2020).
  • Book chapter: “Jonathan Edwards, Revival, and Missions” in Chris Chun and Kyle Strobel, eds., Regeneration, Revival, and Creation: Religious Experience and the Purposes of God in the Thought of Jonathan Edwards (Eugene: Pickwick, 2020).

Presentations

  • “Understanding Global Christianity and How Christian Publishing Can Serve, Equip, and Encourage Its Impact” Keynote speaker for the annual ECPA (Evangelical Christian Publishers’ Association) C-Suite (executives of all Christian publishers in the United States), September 17-19, 2023 San Antonio, Texas
  • “Friendship” Programme Committee member and Learning Synthesis Manager for the Lausanne Generations Conversation (LGC23); also a plenary speaker for the conference held at Biola University, May 31 – June 2, 2023 La Mirada, California
  • Christianity as mediator between Asian and Asian American Migration: Vertical and Horizontal Dimensions of Belonging”Presenter for Princeton Theological Seminary’s Center for Asian American Christianity (CAAC) conference “Multiple Belongings in Transpacific Christianities”, April 28-29, 2023 Princeton, New Jersey (via Zoom)
  • “The Political Theology of Sun Yat-sen; or, The Making of a Modern Chinese Theology Presenter for the third annual Chinese Theologies conference at Yale University’s MacMillan Center, on the theme “The State of Chinese Theology: Academic and Diasporic Theologies”, June 1-3, 2022 New Haven, Connecticut
  • “Theology of the Jesus People Movement” Presenter for Ablaze, a conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Jesus People Movement, co-sponsored by Biola University’s Center for the Study of the Work of the Holy Spirit and Wheaton College’s Billy Graham Center for Evangelism, October 7-9, 2021 La Mirada, California
  • “Mobilizing Generation Z for Missions” Keynote speaker for the annual Ray W. & Marianne E. Chamberlain Lecture Series on Mission, Houghton College, March 1-3, 2021 Houghton, New York (via Zoom)
  • “Majority World Theologies” One of four speakers for the Montagu Barker Lecture Series of the OCMS (Oxford Centre for Mission Studies), September 8, 2020. Theme for the year: Polycentric Missions Oxford, England (via Zoom)
  • “China, Christianity, and COVID” Presenter for Calvin College’s Nagel Institute conference “Evangelicals & Society in Pandemic Times,” August 14-15, 2020 Sao Paulo, Brazil (via Zoom)
  • “Lausanne III: Cape Town 2010” One of four presenters at Fuller Seminary on the theme “Ten Years after 2010” at Fuller Theological Seminary, May 13, 2020 Pasadena, California (via Zoom)
  • “The Global State of Missions” Keynote speaker for Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary’s annual Missions Week, October 1-3, 2019 South Hamilton, Massachusetts

Areas of Expertise for Media Interviews

  • Arts and Humanities
  • Asia
  • Bible
  • China
  • Church History
  • Cross-cultural Issues
  • Diversity
  • Culture
  • Evangelism
  • Gender and Theology
  • Hispanics
  • Intercultural Studies
  • Latin America
  • Missions
  • Movies
  • Multicultural Issues
  • Music
  • Preaching
  • GenZ
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