Janette H. Ok
George Eldon Ladd Associate Professor of New Testament
School of
Mission and Theology
BA, University of California, Los Angeles
MDiv, Princeton Theological Seminary
PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary
Courses Taught
BI500: Interpretive Practices
BI503: Biblical Interpretation in Context
NT500: New Testament Introduction
NE527: New Testament Exegesis: 1 Peter (Greek text)
NE527: New Testament Exegesis: 1–3 John (Greek text)
Campus Affiliations
Areas of Expertise
New Testament, 1 Peter, Letters of John, Asian American hermeneutics, feminist interpretation, intersectionality, social-scientific approaches, ministry, leadership
“As Christians, we need to rethink our ecclesiologies. Engaging issues of racial justice is fundamentally a matter of ecclesiology. We’re part of the body of Christ. So if one member of the body has a knee on his neck, can’t breath and dies, while others breathe proudly without a mask, protesting . . . for the right to gather on Sundays, the whole body still suffers.”
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Dr. Janette Ok, in a panel discussion hosted by the Asian American Christian Collaborative (AACC) in August 2020.
Bio
Before joining Fuller’s faculty in 2020, Janette Ok taught at Azusa Pacific University for five years. She studied religion and English literature at the University of California, Los Angeles, and taught English at Compton High School before earning her MDiv and PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary.
Dr. Ok’s research focuses on 1 Peter, 1–3 John, the Catholic Epistles, and early Christian identity formation, especially through Asian American, intersectional, feminist, and interdisciplinary approaches to biblical interpretation. As a teacher, she is passionate about forming wise and discerning readers of Scripture for the church through close reading, contextual interpretation, and engagement with diverse interpretive perspectives.
Ok has contributed to numerous edited volumes, including At This Time: Dialogues in Theological Education and the T&T Clark Handbook of Asian American Biblical Hermeneutics. She is the author of Constructing Ethnic Identity in 1 Peter: Who You Are No Longer and coeditor of The New Testament in Color: A Multiethnic Commentary on the New Testament, which received the 2025 Christianity Today Book Award for Biblical Studies. She is currently writing a commentary on the Letters of John and coauthoring a book on reading the New Testament as Asian Americans.
An active member of the Society of Biblical Literature, Ok serves on the Committee for Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession and the Professional Conduct Committee. She previously co-chaired the Asian and Asian American Hermeneutics seminar and served on both the Status of Women in the Profession Committee and the steering committee of the Minoritized Criticism and Biblical Interpretation unit. She also serves on the editorial boards of Brill’s Biblical Interpretation Series and Cascade’s Asian American Theology and Ministry Series and is a Senior Fellow of the Asian American Center at Fuller.
An ordained minister with more than twenty-five years of ministry experience, Ok currently pastors at Ekko Church. Her scholarship, preaching, and teaching are shaped by a sustained commitment to Christian formation, church ministry, and leadership.
Featured Publications
