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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\u2019t too surprised to learn he had gotten married. His wife is a school principal and it appears he will spend the remaining of his life in China. I kept thinking of Uncle Mike as I read Simon Chan\u2019s Grassroots Asian Theology.<\/em><\/p>\n I appreciated Chan\u2019s look at Asian theology and the voice he gives to the grassroots movement, \u201cMuch of what the West knows as Asian theology consists largely of elitist accounts of what Asian theologians are saying, and elitist theologians seldom take grassroots Christianity seriously. Yet it is at the grassroots level that we encounter a vibrant, albeit implicit, theology. It is this theology that I wish to highlight.[1]<\/a>\u201d There is no doubt a vibrant Asian theology and much for me to learn. Yet, while the point in reading a book like Chan\u2019s is to broaden my perspective and deepen my thinking, I struggled to connect with some of Chan\u2019s comments on egalitarianism.<\/p>\n Chan states, \u201cThe problem for egalitarians is that they begin by assuming the truth of egalitarianism and then proceed to read the Bible in the light of this overarching idea.[2]<\/a>\u201d Chan goes on to share how the Asian priority given to the family should play a part in shaping Asian theology. For example, the ordered relationships in the Asian family reflect ordered relationships in the Triune family. And Chan states \u201cthe monarchy of the Father means the Father is the sole source of the Trinity.[3]<\/a>\u201d This line of thinking doesn\u2019t fall in line with my understanding of the life my Uncle lives and the values he and his wife share about the community they are involved in. Yet, I know my perspective is limited and this is an important conversation to have. I appreciated reading Richard Mouw\u2019s statements about Chan when he says, \u201cOf course, to the degree that we egalitarians can simply be seen as imposing \u201cWestern\u201d biases on other cultures, we should pursue this conversation. But it\u2019s also necessary to look at the diversity within Asia itself. Through the difficult years of China\u2019s Cultural Revolution, for example, many rural churches survived under the gifted preaching and teaching of \u201cBible ladies.\u201d That pattern of strong women\u2019s leadership in church and family persists as an important reality in grassroots Chinese Christianity[4]<\/a>.\u201d This is a good conversation to have and I know I still have a lot to learn.<\/p>\n All in all I enjoyed reading Grassroots Asian Theology. <\/em>Chan shows us that the Lord is doing some wonderful things in local communities in Asia. And reading his book challenged me to keep looking for ways to faithfully serve the cause of the gospel in my own cultural context.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Simon Chan,\u00a0Grassroots Asian Theology<\/em>\u00a0(Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2014), under \u201c45\u201d Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Ibid., Loc. 1139<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Ibid., Loc. 1155<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Richard J. Mouw, \u201cHow Theologians Have Failed Asian Christians\u2014and How They Can Do Better,\u201d August 25, 2014, accessed May 6, 2015,\u00a0http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2014\/august-web-only\/how-theologians-have-failed-asian-christians-and-how-they-c.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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\u2019t too surprised to learn he had gotten married. His wife is a school principal and it appears he will spend the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[634],"class_list":["post-4810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chan","cohort-lgp5"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4811,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4810\/revisions\/4811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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