Barbara Leung Lai

Biography

Dr. Leung Lai came to Tyndale in 1997 after 20 years of teaching and equipping ministries in the East and West. She previously taught at Evangel Theological Seminary of Hong Kong (as a missionary with the Evangelical Free Church) and McMaster Divinity College. During her last two sabbatical leaves, she served as Visiting Scholar at Fuller (2003), Princeton (2004), and was a Senior Reader at Tyndale House (Cambridge, England, 2012). Upon her retirement in July, 2017, she has been reappointed as Research Professor of Old Testament. While continuing her service as Scholar Associate of Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, she is on adjunct faculty at Carey Theological College in Vancouver. Dr. Leung Lai serves the broader academic community through adjunct teaching internationally. Serving as co-chair of the Psychology and Biblical Studies Section at SBL, Dr. Leung Lai is a frequent presenter at scholarly and professional gatherings (SBL, ISBL, IBR, ATS functions and global consultations). She is the author of three academic monographs, and is completing a new book provisionally entitled Text and Praxis: Toward a Methodology of Appropriation. Dr. Leung Lai has published articles in peer-reviewed journals, chapters in academic books and festschrifts, articles in study Bibles, and dictionary entries. Other than teaching and scholarship, Dr. Leung Lai serves the church community and a sought-after consultant in the area of appropriating the Old Testament to the contemporary human and ecclesiastical contexts.

Research Interest

Wisdom Literature, Apocalyptic Literature, Psychological Hermeneutic of Biblical Themes and Texts, Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, Biblical Interpretation in Postmodern Times, Text and Reading, Gender-Culture Studies, methodological considerations towards the development of Appropriation/Relevance Theories, and Contextual Biblical Interpretation.