By: Mary Pandiani on May 13, 2015
Ten years ago, I reluctantly watched a movie that I loved and hated at the same time. Even now, the reality of Crash (2004) feels too overwhelming: “Los Angeles with vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of race, loss, and redemption.” (http://www.imdb. com/title/tt0375679/) As characters happen upon each other in work, play and society,…
By: Dave Young on May 12, 2015
As I began to read “Social Geographies” [1] I wondered what would a book on eight different spaces where society intersects life offer my church-centered research? Next came the rather simple question: “Where is the church?” What societal space does it fill? What space should it fill? Also in the back of my mind was…
By: Travis Biglow on May 10, 2015
Thinking the faith in Asian contexts May 10, 15 Many of the concepts that I read in the Grassroots Asian Theology were not too surprising. I have always believed that Asian Christianity was not that different from how we as Westerners perceive it. As the book said, “a genuine development in new contexts must…
By: John Woodward on May 10, 2015
I was delighted that we were assigned a book on Asian theology in light of our up and coming trip to Hong Kong. Upon reading Grassroots Asian Theology, I had two immediate insights: First, I realized that I remembered very little of my “Indian Traditions” class of 40 years ago (though I remembered my professor,…
By: Mitch Arbelaez on May 9, 2015
The main focus of Simon Chan’s book Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking the Faith From the Ground Up is how theology ought to be done, within the Asian culture as well as other cultures.[1] As I am reading more and more on the subject of contextualization I am learning that this ought to be the objective…
By: Richard Volzke on May 9, 2015
This week’s reading, Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up, by Simon Chan was packed with a lot of information. The book focuses on the Asian church and how it understands God within the cultural setting. But, what I enjoyed most was the theological insights on Christianity and church history that Chin…
By: rhbaker275 on May 9, 2015
In the preface to Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking the faith from the ground up, Simon Chan heightens one’s reading expectations. Although the title implies a study on Asian theology, Chan holds out the spectra of developing an “authentic” and “vibrant” theology “that will yield a better theology for the Asian church and perhaps the global…
By: Telile Fikru Badecha on May 8, 2015
A couple of years ago two of my coworkers went to visit a new small church in a village. Upon arriving, they asked the villagers what they knew about the community that meets there. The villagers told them that they were Protestant Christians. They come on Sundays, they dance and they go home. The villagers…
By: Dawnel Volzke on May 8, 2015
Simon Chan’s book, Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up, draws the reader into a discovery of authentic faith in relation to cultural expression. While Chan’s book focuses on Asian theology, we can observe religion within this cultural context to better understand the dynamics in the relationships between people and theology. In the…
By: Carol McLaughlin on May 7, 2015
I am influenced by my geography, the culture and context of the Pacific Northwest. Stephen Bevans identifies contextual theology as a way of doing theology that involves two realities, “The first of these is experience of the past, recorded in Scripture and preserved and defended in the church’s tradition. The second is the experience of…
By: Julie Dodge on May 7, 2015
Theology. David Ford suggests that “(t)heology at its broadest is thinking about questions raised by and about the religions.” [1] Grenz and Olson narrow that definition down to “any reflection on the ultimate questions of life that point toward God.” [2] I might narrow it further to be man’s attempt to understand God. That definition…
By: Ashley Goad on May 7, 2015
Under the Mango Tree… The Next Chapter I will freely admit, I know very little about Asia, Asians, or religion in Asia. In fact, I have never even been curious. That is one part of the world that has never captured my wanderlust. While I studied a bit on Zen Buddhism throughout seminary, I never…
By: Michael Badriaki on May 7, 2015
Simon Chan’s book In Grassroots Asian Theology is on point and timely indeed. There is more one could say about the issues concerning Ferguson, New York, the Officer Slager and Scott Walker case, the late Freddie Gray and Baltimore city , but one common theme in all these instances has been the presence of grassroots…
By: Bill Dobrenen on May 7, 2015
I have been in school for a long time, not only as a student, but also as a teacher. Knowledge and information runs through my academic veins. I like to know things. But the more I know, the less I realize I know. And this is particularly true with the study of theology. What do…
By: Jon Spellman on May 7, 2015
This week, Who Needs Theology by Grenz and Olsen came to mind. I was reminded if their concerns that Christian theology in the West could deteriorate into a “mere ‘folk religion’ (unreflective believing based on blind faith in a tradition of some kind), relegated to the realms of sheer subjectivity and emptied of public credibility.”1…
By: Liz Linssen on May 7, 2015
Asian and Western cultures are worlds apart. Many of the issues that faced Asian Christians are simply non-existent for the Western believer. For example, one of the issues that South Koreans face once they have chosen to follow Jesus Christ is the question of ancestral worship. Each year, families throughout the country visit the graves…
By: Deve Persad on May 7, 2015
When stepping inside an airplane, if you take a quick glance to your left, while making the turn to walk down the aisle to your seat, you will notice a radar screen in the center of the console between the pilot and co-pilot. It’s a digital display whose scale can be adjusted to show all…
By: Mary Pandiani on May 6, 2015
Last fall, I was first introduced to Simon Chan through his book Spiritual Theology. For my essay on theology, this core text summed up much of my own understanding of God. With a contextual theology to be in a “conscious, personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ,”[1] Chan applies his systematic understanding about God to…
By: Nick Martineau on May 6, 2015
My Uncle lives in Nanning, China. He moved there a number of years ago because he was unsatisfied with the American way of life. Just a year after living in China we weren’t too surprised to learn he had gotten married. His wife is a school principal and it appears he will spend the…
By: Phillip Struckmeyer on May 6, 2015
Grassroots . . . the hope of the Church! If the Bible fell onto a planet that knew nothing of orthodox Christianity, would orthodox Christianity be discovered by the reading and living out of the text? Would the Jesus of an orthodox Christianity be made known? Would the Church of orthodox Christianity be made known?…
