Anthony Loke

Rev Anthony Loke is an Old Testament Lecturer at Seminari Theoloji Malaysia and joins the Associate Faculty as part of Redcliffe's Visiting Scholar Programme.  Anthony has written extensively on the Old Testament and is also an ordained elder within the Methodist Church.

Anthony describes himself as an 'Old Testament enthusiast', and teaches the subject at Seminari Theoloji Malaysia. He has written extensively on the Old Testament (OT) and is also an ordained elder within the Methodist Church.

During his time at Redcliffe, Jo Appleton took the opportunity to ask him a few questions:

Why did you want to come to Redcliffe?
Redcliffe has about the same size of student population as the college I work at in Malaysia. We are also an interdenominational seminary drawing students from around Asia and even Europe.  So it is a very good experience for me to come and compare notes, for example, looking at how Redcliffe tackles issues of ethnic diversity and what programmes and study modules are offered to the students.  I know I will greatly benefit from the experience of teaching and interaction in a different cross-cultural and academic setting.

What will you be teaching at Redcliffe?
I will be helping to teach Psalms in Term 1 and Christology in Term 2.  I also have to give a special lecture to staff and students each term.  For this term, my focus will be contextual-missiological and I will share on the topic of  '1987 Operation Lallang in Malaysia and its Aftermath'.  This is about the use of the Internal Security Act by the Malaysian government and how Christians were arrested under this act for the first time.  For the second term, I am working on the topic closer to my current research on Isaiah and the relevance of its message for today.

What are your initial impressions of the College?
It has a wonderful atmosphere with a traditional setting (an old building with a beautiful lawn) but thoroughly modern in its approach and outlook towards mission in today's world.  It is like a mini United Nations with 28 nations represented.  It is indeed a very good place to learn about mission.

As an OT scholar, where do you see the Old Testament fitting into the big picture of God's mission to the world, and what is its relevance to mission training today?
To speak about missions, one has to begin with the OT where we see God actively at work, creating and sustaining this wonderful world.  Even when the world was affected by sin, God continued reaching out to his fallen people.  Time and time again, in the pages of the OT, we can feel and hear God's heartbeat longing for the nations and the peoples to be restored to Him. To ignore what the OT has to teach us about mission is to neglect a huge portion of God's Word which is highly relevant to us today.  Through the OT, God reveals to us that he is a missionary God.

Anthony has contributed an article entitled 'There and Back Again: Reading an Exilic Text for the Post 1987 Operation Lallang Malaysian Church' to issue 16 of Encounters Mission Ezine (see Crucial Issues Facing Asian Mission)