There\u2019s an old saying about how to eat an elephant: you have to do it, \u201cone bite at a time.\u201d\u00a0 A similar conundrum faces anyone who seeks to understand or explain Christianity in Asia in a comprehensive or all-encompassing way.\u00a0 The region is a behemoth that is home to 4.4 billion people, which makes it hard to give any single description that will always be true.\u00a0 It must be taken in in bite-sized portions.<\/p>\n
For this reason, Simon Chan writes Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up<\/em>.\u00a0 He readily acknowledges that, \u201cthis is not a systematic theology.\u00a0 My main focus is on how theology ought to be done.\u00a0 This book is as much concerned with the processes as the content of theology.\u00a0 Only the content that has a particular bearing on the Asian context is highlighted in each theological locus.\u201d<\/a>[1]<\/p>\n While he is in conversation with the larger Christian tradition, Chan is also trying to sketch out a distinctly \u201cAsian theology\u201d, which arises from the real, lived experience of Asian Christians. \u00a0One reviewer writes that Chan, \u201caims to shift the Asian theological discourse from \u2018elitist theology\u2019 (e.g., Minjung theology, Dalit theology, C. S. Song, Kosuke Koyama, etc.) towards \u2018grassroots theology\u2019.\u201d<\/a>[2]<\/p>\n For many Westerners, these names will be new, but they are the equivalent of what we might call \u201cthe elite establishment\u201d.\u00a0 These are the voices and movements that have largely defined what it means to be an \u201cAsian Christian\u201d, at least as far as the outside world is concerned.\u00a0 However, Chan is challenging their hegemony and relevance for today.\u00a0 He writes, \u201cfailure to take folk Christianity seriously, as we have seen in mainline Protestant Christianity, has resulted in either a fossilized tradition (mostly among the more conservative) or one that is subject to the whims of cultural changes (mostly among the more liberal).\u201d<\/a>[3]<\/p>\n Chan\u2019s book seeks to raise up an awareness of the \u201crealities on the ground\u201d for Christianity in Asia today.\u00a0He does that by exploring the theological implications from the Asian priority for the family, how \u201chonor and shame\u201d function in Asian cultures, and the third major theme of Chan\u2019s book is on the importance of Pentecostalism.<\/p>\n It must be noted that Simon Chan is himself a Pentecostal Christian, which may account for some of his fiery focus on it.\u00a0 However, this also puts him close to the primary sources as he works on a more contextualized Asian theology.<\/p>\n Chan writes that contextualization means \u201cChristianity cannot be reduced to a set of principles that could be replicated in any context without reference to their historical origins.\u201d<\/a>[4]\u00a0 So, a theology for Asian Christians will be part of a larger conversation, but is not simply imposed from the outside.\u00a0 At the same time, Chan wants to get closer to the ground, rather than relying on what he calls \u201celitist theologians\u201d<\/a>[5]who have acted as gatekeepers and tastemakers in the past.<\/p>\n In one beautiful description, Chan describes the work of theology involving the theologian and the faith community in a relationship something like a bishop with the laity.\u00a0 He says, \u201ctheology is ratified in the church by the laity\u2019s \u2018amen\u2019; without it, theology is merely the imposition of the theologian\u2019s own ideas.\u201d<\/a>[6]\u00a0 This would always be the danger and fear when it comes to \u201cdoing theology\u201d especially with context in mind.\u00a0 Chan\u2019s argument in this book is that the \u201clived experience\u201d or the real situation among churches and in them, is what must be accounted for in a contextualized theology.\u00a0 Otherwise, it is an imposition that will not take root or thrive.\u00a0 For contextualized theologies to seem like a foreign invasion keeps the confirming \u201camen\u201d from coming.<\/p>\n Of course, the gospel also has a prophetic aspect to it, which will challenge and push those who hear it out of easy answers or patterns.\u00a0 This is what Chan calls \u201ccultural bondage\u201d or the way that theology can be held captive by the host culture.\u00a0 He cites Karl Barth\u2019s writing about nineteenth century Protestant theology in Europe, which \u201cproduced a string of disastrous compromises with culture culminating in the un-critical acceptance of the policies of Wilhelm II which led to World War I and the hearty endorsement of Hitler\u2019s Third Reich.\u201d<\/a>[7]<\/p>\n Chan surveys the various approaches and the problems and pitfalls that come with each.\u00a0 In a way, he sets up his book to say: there is a \u201cgrassroots Asian theology, but it is probably not what you might think that it is\u201d.\u00a0He is anticipating the responses and questions that many will have about the very idea of contextualized theology.<\/p>\n This response is summed up in the long-simmering \u201cAll Lives Matter\u201d versus \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d debate in the United States.\u00a0 Here is the tension between the universal and the particular.\u00a0 The way that while it is true that \u201call lives matter\u201d, it can also be particularly helpful and important, given history, context and current events, to say that \u201cblack lives matter\u201d.<\/p>\n What is exciting about reading and thinking about contextualized theology in Asia is that Chan presents it as a living, moving, still-developing thing.\u00a0 The challenge for me, as a Western Christian, is to resist my urge to \u201cuniversalize\u201d everything.\u00a0 Not make it an \u201call lives matter\u201d moment, but rather than to appreciate and discover the distinctiveness of Asian Christian experience, and then, to build bridges with my own lived experience of the faith.<\/p>\n Even in this small introduction to the topic, it is clear there is a hearty theological meal on offer.\u00a0But it has to be received one bite at a time.<\/p>\n <\/a>[1]Simon Chan,\u00a0Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up<\/em>\u00a0(Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014), 8.<\/p>\n <\/a>[2]Alexander Chow, \u201cSimon Chan\u2019s \u2018grassroots Asian Theology\u2019 \u2013 a Book Review,\u201d www.alexanderchow.wordpress.com, July 24, 2014,\u00a0https:\/\/alexanderchow.wordpress.com\/2014\/07\/24\/grassroots-asian-theology\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/a>[3]Simon Chan,\u00a0Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up<\/em>\u00a0(Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014), 32.<\/p>\n <\/a>[4]Simon Chan,\u00a0Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up<\/em>\u00a0(Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014), 12.<\/p>\n <\/a>[5]Simon Chan,\u00a0Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up<\/em>\u00a0(Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014), 7.<\/p>\n