Religion and Theology in Asian America: An ISAAC Lecture Series

ISAAC is delighted to announce the inauguration of “Religion and Theology in Asian America” (RTAA) lectureship in 2009. ISAAC, in partnership with colleges, universities and seminaries across North America, will sponsor talks by scholars and practitioners who specialize in Asian American Religion and Theology (with special attention to Christianity). We are in conversation with U.C. Berkeley, University of San Francisco, and Fuller Theological Seminary about hosting at least three lectures in 2009.

The Society of Asian North American Christian Studies (SANACS) steering committee oversees and recruits speakers for the RTAA lectures. The members of the steering committee are:

Dr. Russell Jeung
Associate Professor of Asian American Studies
College of Ethnic Studies
San Francisco State University
San Francisco, California

Dr. Rebecca Y. Kim
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Pepperdine University
Malibu, California

Dr. Jonathan Tan
Assistant Professor of Minorities’ Studies and World Religions
Xavier University
Cincinnati, Ohio

Dr. Timothy Tseng
Executive Director
Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity
Castro Valley, California

Dr. Russell Yee
Managing Editor
SANACS Journal
Oakland, California

For our “speakers pool,” we are interested in identifying scholars or practitioners who can address a wide range of issues that intersect with the experiences of Asian Christians in North America (e.g, the civic engagement practices of Asian American Catholics, Protestants, and evangelicals; trans-national and diasporic aspects of religion and theology in Asia America; the impact of the North American context on ethnic Asian spirituality and religious practices; reflections on the intersections or disconnections between the study of race, gender, politics, and religion in Asian American studies; etc.).

ISAAC also seeks donors who would like to make these lectures more widely available. We estimate a budget of $5,000 for each lecture. You may direct your gifts to this lecture – go to isaacweb.org for more information or to make an on-line gift.

If you represent an educational institution that is interested in hosting a lecture, if you are interested in becoming a member of the “speakers pool,” or if you are interested in contributing to the lectures, please email Tim Tseng for details.

Review- Conversations: Asian American Evangelical Theologies in Formation

Here is a review of D. J. Chuang and Timothy Tseng, eds., Conversations: Asian American Evangelical Theologies in Formation in Religious Studies Review 33:4 (2007): 319-20 by Dr. Amos Yong of Regent University School of Divinity. The Religious Studies Review is published by the Council of Societies for the Study of Religion.

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CONVERSATIONS: ASIAN AMERICAN EVANGELICAL THEOLOGIES IN FORMATION. Edited by D. J. Chuang and Timothy Tseng. Washington, DC: L2 Foundation, 2006. Pp. xi + 130. Paper, $10.00, ISBN: none; the book is available from www.L2Foundation.org.

Published by an organization devoted to “Asian American leadership and legacy development” (website), this is the first book to appear on the topic of Asian American evangelical theology (AAET). The six essayists reflect the diversity of the AAE community. David Yoo, a historian at Claremont McKenna College, surveys (with two collaborators) the pre-WWII histories of Japanese and Korean American Christians, and urges that religion needs to be factored into immigration and race analyses of these communities, even as Tim Tseng, a historian of American Christianity and founder of the Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity (http://www.isaacweb.org), exposes the “color blindness” of American church history and provides some hermeneutical options for moving beyond orientalist or assimilationist models of the Asian American Christian experience. A practical theologian at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Peter Cha, discusses the challenges involved in identity formation among second generation Korean Americans. An intriguing essay is missiologist James Zo’s insightful analysis of how structural and power issues complicate the assessment of racism, prejudice, and discrimination on both sides of the American and Asian American equation. For a volume on AAET, the two explicitly theological essays are by historical theologians: Paul Lim (who specializes in early modern England and teaches at Vanderbilt University) reveals the importance of biography in the construction of any AAET, and Jeffrey Jue (a post-Reformation historian at Westminster Theological Seminary) seeks a way beyond both modernist experientialism and postmodernist subjectivism by returning to the gospel. May others join in the conversation launched herein.

Amos Yong
Professor of Theology and Director of PhD Program in Renewal Studies
Regent University School of Divinity

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Dr. Amos Yong is author of six well received books, including the forthcoming Hospitality and the Other: Pentecost, Christian Practices, and the Neighbor (Orbis Books, 2008). A clergyman with the Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church, his scholarly life is dedicated to deepening biblical theology and promoting ecumenical and interfaith understanding.