Asian American Christian theology: Topographies, trajectories, and possibilities

Abstract

This article introduces some of the history, thematic issues, and communities of Asian American Christian theology. "Asian American Christian theology" here is understood as a more expansive rather than narrowly defined endeavor, including the work of biblical scholars, practical theologians, ethicists, systematic theologians, and historians. Employing Edward Said's concept of Orientalism in order to situate Asian Americans as both the racial and religious "other," Asian American Christians have been simultaneously the "perpetual foreigner" and "heathen" in the white American, Christian imaginary. The article argues that Asian American Christian theology reflects this history and so vacillates in various intellectual, racial, and political spaces as a discourse invested in projects of belonging on the one hand and projects of solidarity on the other. The final section offers that a de-Orientalization of Asian American Christian theology will require an increased attention to interreligious dialog and transpacific connections, which will play critical roles in Asian American Christianity's resistance to its domestication. 1 | INTRODUCTION As a reflective exercise, Asian American Christian theology draws upon the varied experiences and histories of Americans who can claim genealogical origins to the continent of Asia in relationship to the Christian God. On a basic level, this means reflecting on Christian being-for example, God in three persons (traditionally, God as Father, as Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit)-and act in ways that speak intimately to the experiences of Filipino,