Dialogues in Asian American Theology and Ministry Podcast

This lecture was recorded on April 29, 2023, as part of the 2023 Asian American Theology Conference “Multiple Belongings in Transpacific Christianities: Christian Faith and Asian Migration to the US.” Find out more about the conference here: https://pts.events/events/aat-2023-mbtc/. Introduction by Dr. Easten Law of Princeton Theological Seminary.

Abstract: When the first wave of Korean immigrants came to the United States from 1903 to 1949, they experienced multiple layers of marginality. Many had escaped the tumultuous political landscape in Korea as exiles during Japanese colonial rule. Simultaneously, the US government and American society deemed Asians unassimilable aliens unfit for membership in the US. For these “exiled aliens,” Christianity functioned as a source of liberation, democracy, and belonging. In this talk, we will examine Christianity’s role in the Korean independence movement and how today’s immigrant churches may reclaim their prophetic role in our society and culture. We will explore the story of Moses and how the deconstruction of his identity led to his sense of liberation and belonging, providing a precondition for his ministry. Just as Moses experienced quadruple displacement, Korean immigrant churches navigated liminal spaces as Christians, immigrants, and exiles.

This lecture was recorded on April 29, 2023, as part of the 2023 Asian American Theology Conference “Multiple Belongings in Transpacific Christianities: Christian Faith and Asian Migration to the US.” Find out more about the conference here: https://pts.events/events/aat-2023-mbtc/. Introduction by Dr. Easten Law of Princeton Theological Seminary.

Abstract: In 1517, Martin Luther initiated the Protestant Reformation and continued a “Christendom Project” to christianize European society. Less recognized, however, is the missio Dei and the Spirit of Christ moving across space since ancient times outside of Anglo-European languages and cultures. I dub the latter development “Post-Christendom Christianity.” Fast forward to the modern US context when the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act substantially repealed Chinese exclusion and simultaneously changed the face of US society. By extension, 1965 ushered in post-Christendom forms of Christianity from the majority world to the US. Rather than thinking in terms of Anglo-European formations of faith, which have naturalized doctrinal difference and similarity through various culture wars, US discourses about Christianity need new wineskins that make explicit the varying social formations of migrational Christianity from the majority world. I present a threefold formation of Asian American Christian consciousness as a post-Christendom way to understand the interplay of doctrine, practical reasoning, and identity formation.

These opening remarks were recorded on April 28, 2023, as part of the 2023 Asian American Theology Conference “Multiple Belongings in Transpacific Christianities: Christian Faith and Asian Migration to the US.” Find out more about the conference here: https://pts.events/events/aat-2023-mbtc/.

This lecture was recorded on April 28, 2023, as part of the 2023 Asian American Theology Conference “Multiple Belongings in Transpacific Christianities: Christian Faith and Asian Migration to the US.” Find out more about the conference here: https://pts.events/events/aat-2023-mbtc/. Introduction by Dr. David Chao of Princeton Theological Seminary.

Christian discipleship is defined as the deepening of one’s relationship with Christ and draws from biblical teachings in the context of a church community. This conception is true but inadequate. Discipleship programs generally exclude explicit engagement with the complexities of cultural heritage, family belonging, and migration that characterize Asian American experiences. Utilizing principles of lived theology, this presentation takes the arc of the biblical narrative as a foundation to imagine an expanded vision for Christian discipleship. This expanded account takes the multi-generational and multicultural stories of Asian American families as a fundamental starting point rather than a peripheral concern. The presentation will use the speaker’s own personal and family stories of migration across China, Taiwan, and the United States as a case study.

This lecture was recorded on April 28, 2023, as part of the 2023 Asian American Theology Conference “Multiple Belongings in Transpacific Christianities: Christian Faith and Asian Migration to the US.” Find out more about the conference here: https://pts.events/events/aat-2023-mbtc/. Introduction by Dr. David Chao of Princeton Theological Seminary.

Abstract: Using ethnographic and interview data, this presentation explains Taiwanese ethnic identity formation in the United States and its endurance in the Taiwanese Christian and greater immigrant community. I argue that formative homeland events during periods of peak migration define and carve out ethnic boundaries, creating a time capsule-like effect for immigrants. For Taiwanese immigrants to the United States, peak migration between the 1960s and 1980s meant that dominant martial law era ethnic boundaries were transplanted from Taiwan to the wider community of “Sinophone” or sinetic language-speaking Christians. Today, the time capsule effect persists, and those ethnic boundaries continue to shape social relations within the same transnational Taiwanese Christian networks.

This lecture was recorded on April 28, 2023, as part of the 2023 Asian American Theology Conference “Multiple Belongings in Transpacific Christianities: Christian Faith and Asian Migration to the US.” Find out more about the conference here: https://pts.events/events/aat-2023-mbtc/. Introduction by Dr. David Chao of Princeton Theological Seminary.

Abstract: After centuries of colonial violence, Filipino American identity and Christianity are characterized by experiences of un-belonging. This un-belonging manifests in ways that are pastorally and ecclesially significant, as US Filipinos negotiate Christian faith with increasing distance from the Philippines itself. To theologize and minister with Filipino American churches, then, is to labor in “home construction,” as the idea of home is continuously contested and reconceived.

This lecture was recorded on April 28, 2023, as part of the 2023 Asian American Theology Conference “Multiple Belongings in Transpacific Christianities: Christian Faith and Asian Migration to the US.” Find out more about the conference here: https://pts.events/events/aat-2023-mbtc/. Introduction by Dr. David Chao of Princeton Theological Seminary.

Abstract: Burmese immigrants are relatively recent arrivals to the US. Their stories are hidden and are not widely mentioned in the academic discourses about Asian American Christianity and theology. Using an integrative methodology of ethnographic interviews and literature, I will explore the hidden and lived stories of Burmese American Christians and their imagination of religious, ethnic, and ecclesial identities. Particular attention will be paid to the grassroots ethnic minority Christians, such as Chin, Kachin, Karen, Lisu, and other minority groups. We will consider questions such as, “How do they imagine their religious, ethnic, and ecclesial identities?,” “Do they share a united or conflictual imagination of their identities?,” and “How do they relate their faith to American politics and Christian nationalism?” This paper reimagines a migrational theology of Burmese religious, ethnic, and ecclesial identities that embody God’s trinitarian mission with the multicultural context of the US.

This lecture was recorded on April 28, 2023, as part of the 2023 Asian American Theology Conference “Multiple Belongings in Transpacific Christianities: Christian Faith and Asian Migration to the US.” Find out more about the conference here: https://pts.events/events/aat-2023-mbtc/. Introduction by Dr. David Chao of Princeton Theological Seminary.

The 1965 Immigration Act transformed the demographics of US migration, flipping new arrivals from up to 90% European to majority Asian and Latine/x. The law greatly diversified Asian America, as skilled migrants and their families arriving under the 1965 law joined refugees fleeing Southeast Asia after 1975. Post-1965 Asian America, unlike earlier communities shaped by restrictive nation-based quotas and racial exclusion, encompassed several dozen nationality groups and ethnicities, languages, and creeds. Framed broadly, the new Asian migrants remade historically white Christian institutions and organizations, challenging normative categories and assumptions about Christian faith and practice. Within Asian America, new migration multiplied and rejuvenated ethnic churches even as it raised new questions about what the future of these churches would look like across differences of generation, language, and theology.

As an historian who also studies Asian American Christianity, William Yoo makes connections between the histories of anti-Black racism and anti-Asian hate within and beyond the Presbyterian Church. He engages the fraught relationships between some African American and Asian American communities and offers a pathway toward racial justice that accounts for historic sins and addresses ongoing challenges in theological education and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

This is a session in the series Dialogues in Asian American Theology and Ministry, recorded on March 7, 2023. In this presentation, Dr. Lee proposes a critical vocation for Asian American churches beyond cultural and social expressions—namely, being Asian American theologically. Without receiving and owning this core calling, Asian American churches too easily fall into the temptation to be merely a community center, squandering our unique and crucial place in American Christianity. Being Asian American theologically involves an interdisciplinary task that is dynamic and fluid, always attending to the movement and work of God in our communities.