RSS 1.0Asian Christianity / Theologies
Browse by
The Asian Christianity / Theologies collections gathers sources on the history of Asian Christianity and churches, with a focus on their theologies embedded in the specific socio-political, cultural and religious contexts of the Asian region. It includes articles from major Asian religious journals, such as Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies, Chinese Theological review, Ching Feng, Indonesian Journal of Theology, International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, Religions and Christianity in Today's China, and others to follow. The collection is supported by the Foundation for Theological Education in South East Asia FTESEA.
Image taken from: England, John C. 2002. Asian Christian theologies: a research guide to authors, movements, sources. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, ISPCK/Claretian Publishers.
Recent Submissions
-
Kırgızistan’da bir din eğitimi kurumu: MedreselerKırgızistan’da ilk ve ortaöğretim düzeyinde din eğitimi-öğretimi veren okullar bulunmamaktadır. Yaygın eğitim alanında bireyler din eğitimi ve öğretimi ihtiyaçlarını medrese ve cami kursları aracılığıyla karşılamaktadırlar. Medreselerdeki öğretim programları çağdaş sorunlara cevap verecek nitelikte değildir. Bu programlar genellikle XII.-XV. asırlarda hazırlanmıştır. Medreselerdeki ders programlarında genellikle sosyal bilimler ve eğitim bilimlerine yer verilmemektedir. Medreseler devletten ve vakıflardan düzenli destek almamaktadırlar. Kırgızistan medreselerinde geleneksel medrese kuruluş yapısı ve ders programları konusunda köklü ve düzenli yeniliklere ihtiyaç duyulmaktadır.
-
The Richmond ReViewMonthly newspaper serving the Richmond District, Seacliff, Presidio Heights, and Laurel Heights.
-
The Richmond ReViewMonthly newspaper serving the Richmond District, Seacliff, Presidio Heights, and Laurel Heights.
-
The Richmond ReViewMonthly newspaper serving the Richmond District, Seacliff, Presidio Heights, and Laurel Heights.
-
Tacit Tirukkuṟaḷ: Religion, Ethics, and Poetics in a Tamil Literary TraditionThis dissertation examines the Tirukkuṟaḷ, a poem composed in Tamil around the fifth century C.E. that is today attributed to an author named Tiruvaḷḷuvar. The poem consists of 1,330 verses arranged into 133 chapters of ten verses each, which are then divided into three thematic sections on “virtue” (aṟam), “wealth” (poruḷ), and “pleasure” (iṉpam or kāmam). This project focuses on two closely related questions about this text. First, what vision of human life does the Tirukkuṟaḷ articulate to its audiences? I argue that the poem imparts a vision of human life as marked by the inward cultivation of virtue accompanied by the outward expansion of human relationships, in which both of these processes mutually enrich and reinforce each other and culminate in the attainment of a complex and fulfilling marital life. This vision of human life is never described explicitly, but there are subtle literary strategies operating throughout the text that tacitly convey this vision to the reader. At the same time, the text constantly destabilizes this vision of human life in order to illustrate that the path to attaining it is anything but simple and invite the reader to grapple with the tension between that ideal and the reality of human life. Second, how does the Tirukkuṟaḷ convey this vision to its audiences? I argue that the Tirukkuṟaḷ communicates its vision by working upon audiences at three different structural levels inherent to the text: the section (pāl), the chapter (atikāram), and the verse (kuṟaḷ or pāṭam). It is only by attending to all three levels together that we can fully understand what the Tirukkuṟaḷ is saying and how it operates as a work of literature to engage its audiences in specific modes of reflection on the nature of human life. These structural levels also provide the organizational framework for this dissertation, in which each chapter is dedicated to one of the three levels mentioned above: chapter 2 focuses on the text at the level of its sections, chapter 3 at the level of its chapters, and chapter 4 at the level of its verses.
-
The Priest of Han as a Theme in the Christian-Shamanist Interfaith DialogueIn the article I would see into the ‘priest of han’ as a theme which Nam-dong Suh, one of the fathers of the Minjung theology, has developed, and suggest how he has made a creative and critical encounter with the shamanistic hanpuri. First, I examine in the first step how influential the shamanism is still in Korean society. In this connection I would investigate briefly how the shamanism is incorporated in Korean Protestantism. Second, I explain han and hanpuri in the context of Korean shamanism. Third, I analyze how the Minjung theology has employed the themes of han and hanpuri. Lastly, I give some suggestions about a spiritual formation for the ministry. From the Christian encounter with the shamanism I draw a few consequences. First of all, I suggest that Christian minister should learn something from the attitude of shamans towards the weak and oppressed. They have “a special predilection for the weak and oppressed” (I. M. Lewis) and are ready to be in solidarity with others in suffering. Of course, Christian minister need not to suffer the initiation sickness like shamans, but they must be trained to attain a spiritual competency to sympathize and to be in solidarity with the little people in suffering. Second, I think that the church should be earnest to the priesthood of han. It is not just the duty of the minister. The priesthood of han should be reinterpreted from the perspective of the priesthood of all believers.
-
Korean Pentecostalism and Shamanism:Developing Theological Self-understanding in a Land of Many SpiritsThe background to this article is the controversy caused in 1980s South Korea when some theologians accused Yonggi Cho’s Full Gospel theology of syncretizing “shamanism” with Christianity. In this article, I shall problematize the use of both “shamanism” and “Pentecostalism” in this controversy. Instead, I shall set the episode in the wider context of what might be called Korean traditional religion, which has an animistic cosmology. By pointing to an affinity between Korean Protestantism more generally and Korean traditional religion that goes back at least to the 1907 Korean Revival, I shall argue that the Pentecostal–Charismatic and the liberationist strands of Korean Protestantism together represent a developing understanding of what it means to do Christian theology in the context of animism – or in a land of many spirits.
-
Issues of Protestantism’s dialogue with ancestor worship religious belief in VietnamThe ancestor worship is seen as the cause of deep contradiction between the Protestant doctrine and the traditional Vietnamese culture. Vietnamese Protestants recognized the need to relate their faith and religious practice to categories of the national culture. Therefore, the search for an alternative form of the ancestor worship for Vietnamese Protestants is very relevant. The basis for establishing a connection between the Protestant doctrine and the spiritual life of the Vietnamese people is the openness of religious consciousness. This article analyzes the dialogue options between Protestantism and the ancestor worship in Vietnam. This dialogue should not lead to confrontation, but to enrich the Vietnamese spiritual culture.
-
Steve Cochrane, Asia’s Forgotten Christian Story (Oxford: Regnum Books, 2019)A review of the book: Steve Cochrane, Asia’s Forgotten Christian Story (Oxford: Regnum Books, 2019)
-
Postcolonial Discipleship: Movement, Genius, and Uncertainty: Explorations in Contemporary 'Korean American' Theological DiscourseContemporary ‘Korean American’ theological discourse seeks to more broadly account for the variations and deviations that characterize the ‘Korean American’ experience. Theologians Andrew Sung Park and Grace Ji-Sun Kim theorize the ‘Korean American’ subject through notions of ‘authenticity’ and cultural ‘rootedness’. Such an approach presents itself to be problematic when one begins to account for the ways that colonialism and imperialism have shaped understandings of culture, ultimately revealing that culture is not simply an expression of ontology, but is also driven by a large array of sociological factors. In light of this, theologians Wonhee Anne Joh and Sang Hyun Lee provide a more promising way forward as they utilize postcolonial criticism and cultural theory in their theorization of ‘Asian American’ and ‘Korean American’ identity. ‘Korean American’ rapper, Dumbfoundead, exemplifies postcolonial notions of ‘hybridity’ and ‘mimicry’ in such a way that necessitates an in depth reflection on the ways in which his music outlines the possibilities of a ‘postcolonial embodiment’ - an embodiment defined by ‘movement’, ‘genius’, and ‘uncertainty’. The music of Dumbfoundead provides a foundation for the further theorization of a postcolonial mode of discipleship - a mode of discipleship that is equipped to wrestle with the numerous ambiguities and hybridities of this world.
-
Liberalismus mit Gemeinsinn: die politische Philosophie Nassif Nassars im libanesischen KontextAusgehend von einer Kritik der sozialen Wirklichkeit des Libanon entwickelt Nassif Nassar (geb. 1940) eine politische Philosophie, deren Relevanz über den arabischen Raum hinausgeht. Sein Konzept des Liberalismus mit Gemeinsinn fordert zum einen vom Einzelnen ein kritisch-offenes Vernunftdenken ein, das in Abgrenzung zur Absolutheit partikular-gemeinschaftlicher Wahrheitsansprüche bescheiden auftritt. Es soll seine Postulate aus Respekt vor und im alltäglichen Dialog mit den Überzeugungen anderer sowie im Abgleich mit gesamtgesellschaftlichen Interessen kontinuierlich kritisch hinterfragen. Zum anderen verteidigt dieser Liberalismus individuelle Rechte, deren Ursprung Nassar auf ein universelles Menschsein zurückführt. Aus diesen Prämissen folgt sowohl der Respekt individueller Freiheiten als auch ein staatlich-institutionell gestütztes solidarisches Handeln unter gleichgestellten Personen. Dieses Handeln ist zudem auf sieben intrinsische Werte und damit über Rechtsansprüche hinaus auf ein holistisches Gerechtigkeitsverständnis ausgerichtet. Grundlage einer in diesem Sinne liberal-gemeinsinnigen Gesellschaft ist ein schulischer Philosophieunterricht, in dem der Einzelne in Konversation mit der Philosophiegeschichte zum kritisch denkenden sowie über die Grenzen seiner partikularen Gemeinschaft hinaus solidarisch handelnden Staatsbürger ausgebildet wird. Dieses Buch ist das erste, das sich mit der Philosophie Nassif Nassars auseinandersetzt. Es zeigt, welch wichtige Rolle (selbst-)kritisches Denken in zeitgenössischen arabischen Diskursen spielt. Zudem illustriert es, wo die ›westliche Philosophie‹ in Nassars Ideenwelt Anschlussmöglichkeiten findet. Denn es scheint, dass in Zukunft auf bestimmte Probleme, die etwa globale Prozesse des sozialen Wandels oder der Verlust sozialer Kohäsionen mit sich bringen, überhaupt nur noch eine transkulturell ausgerichtete Philosophie plausible Antworten liefern kann.
-
Ideology and Paradox in British Civil Service Accounts of Muslim ‘Conspiracy’ in 1857–1859This analysis of British Civil Service accounts of Indian Muslim participation in the Indian uprising of 1857-59 assesses the widespread British conception of Muslim 'conspiracy' as the guiding hand behind the genesis and evolution of what is now commonly understood by historians as a series of competing and at times collaborative, cross-communal civil and military rebellions. Using contemporary correspondence, official accounts, and later published memoirs, this chapter argues that among a relative circumscribed and elite British official class (known as 'Civilians'), not only had these exaggerated perceptions of Muslim 'conspiracy' quickly become central to strategies of British self-presentation in India in 1857, but that these forms of narrative constituted an ideological subjectivity strongly marked by the workings of paradox and centred ultimately on the complex and troubled evolution of secular neutrality as a guiding doctrine of the colonial state.
-
Aus dem weiten Reiche der Kunst /Die arabische Kunst. Die Kunst in Indien. Wohnung und Palast im Orient. Metall- und Schmuckarbeiten des Orients. Die Gewebe des Orients. Geschichte des Porzellans. Der französische Geschmack. Wanddecoration und Wandmalerei in der Kirche.
-
The impact of religious conversion on cultural identity conversion story South African Anglican Indian ChrstiansThe impact of religious conversion on cultural identity is a study of conversion story
 of South African Indian Anglican Christians rooted in the oppressive history of
 casteism in India and Racism in South Africa.
 This study has used multi discipline approach using various schools of human
 sciences and broader theological framework in dealing with moral and ethical issues.
 This study defends the religious conversions and highlights the impact it has made on
 cultural identity of converts from social, economic, psychological and spiritual
 perspectives.
 While highlighting the positive impact of religious conversion on cultural identity this
 study has also pointed out some ambiguities attached to this process.
 This study looks into the possibilities of Native and Indian Christians working
 together to create a healing culture in South Africa. An attempt is made to point out
 the interrelatedness of the experiences of suffering of Native Christians and Indian
 Christians from indentured backgrounds in South Africa.
 This study does not cover disparity issues between native Africans and the Indian
 Community in South Africa. However, an attempt is made to encourage Indian
 Christians in South Africa to connect with the pain and pathos of poor communities in
 South Africa. This study encourages the Indian Christians hi South Africa to read
 Dalit theology and get involved with Black theologians in formulating appropriate
 mission praxis for their mission and ministry in post apartheid South Africa.
 This study concludes on a positive note and hope based on my eight years of ministry
 in Lenasia. During my ministry I had experienced that South African Anglican Indian
 Christians and native Christians have the developing ability and capacity to become a
 spiritual resource in building a transformed and transforming society in South Africa.
 I could see in them a reconciled 'wounded healers' and for me this is a powerful
 impact of religious conversion on their cultural identity, "Victims' now have the
 capacity to act as 'Wounded Healers'.
-
LIBERATION FROM BONDAGE: ENJOYING FULL HUMAN DIGNITY IN A JUST, CASTELESS SOCIETY IN THIS WORLD. A Study of James Massey - Pioneering Dalit Theology in IndiaDalit theology, a young Christian liberation theology distinct from Indian Christian theologies, emerged in the 1980s and it is still developing. Dalit theology aims to address the needs of the poorest of the poor in India, the so called outcastes or untouchables, or Dalits (‘broken’, ‘crushed’, ‘downtrodden’) as they call themselves. This large group of mixed people, who have been ostracised for thousands of years, constitute nearly 20% of the population of India today (over 200 million people). Dalit theology is a response to the oppression that Dalits experience in their daily lives within the context of the caste system in Hindu society, and aims to obtain justice and liberation for all Dalits and Hindu society at large. The research question of this thesis is: What is the contribution of the pioneering Dalit Christian theologian, James Massey, to Dalit theology? Massey is the youngest pioneer among the first generation Dalit theologians and has contributed significantly on a wide range of topics. His major contribution is the ‘historical reconstructions’ of Dalit history from a Dalit point of view. The Aryans invaded the Indian subcontinent about 1500 BCE and subdued the indigenous people, the Dalits. Massey has carried out in-depth research of ancient Hindu scriptures. This research reveals the historical roots of the ‘Dalit problem’: the caste system that denoted Dalits as ‘outcastes’ and its evolution towards untouchability. Through Massey’s analyses of past missionary theologies and traditional Indian Christian theologies, it is evident that these theologies and thus the Indian churches that used them neglected the needs and the context of the Dalits, who represent the majority of the Christian community - Over 70% of the 24 million Indian Christians are Dalits. With another major contribution on the theme of Dalit Solidarity, Massey builds on ‘Divine Solidarity’, which is based on two divine interventions in human history - the Exodus event and the Jesus’ event. ‘God is on the side of the oppressed’, and ‘God liberates the oppressed’, is a side of Dalit Solidarity related to God. The other side, is related to the interrelationships of Dalits. Massey has also contributed to Dalit theology through, the consideration of political issues of all Dalits, with special reference to Dalit Christians. To this end, Massey has had personal political involvement, as well as producing a plethora of literature. Dalit Christians suffer more discrimination than their non-Christian counterparts, as their human and constitutional rights have been denied by the Indian Government. Further contributions of Massey to Dalit theology are: the etymology of ‘Dal’, dalitness, and the theme of Dalits representing the divinely undivided humanity, and therefore, no longer denied access to God. The Dalit Bible Commentary is a major project that contributes to Dalit theology; it is a first attempt to render the biblical text more meaningful to the lives of Dalits. Last but not least, is Massey’s contribution of Dalit Spirituality to Dalit theology.