The Need for Asian American Theological Scholarship

By Chiwon Kim

White Male Normativity in Conventional Theological Scholarship

It was the 2019 Welcome Week at Fuller Theological Seminary, and as a new student, I participated in the orientation program with the hope and expectation of my journey at Fuller Seminary. In the afternoon orientation session, the ethnic centers at Fuller were introduced. After the introduction of the William E. Pannell Center for Black Church Studies and Centro Latino, Dr. Daniel Lee presented the Center for Asian American Theology and Ministry. Dr. Lee started his presentation by asking a question to the participants: “Do you know why there are many ethnic centers at Fuller?” Then Dr. Lee replied, “Because conventional theology is White male theology!” 

Conventional theology that is traditionally taught and accepted in academia is White male theology. In seminaries and churches, conventional theology is often considered normal, objective, and universal. However, conventional theology is developed in its White European contexts. It attempts to articulate who God is and how God works in its particular context, answering its own pressing issues theologically. Indeed, I appreciate some conventional theological scholars, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Søren Kierkegaard, and Karl Barth. They navigate their White European context well and illuminate God’s identity and work revealed in Jesus Christ insightfully. But their theological insights do not directly speak to the heart of Asian American communities.

Asian American Context

The Asian American context is a complex and particular reality. As Korean American theologian Namsoon Kang points out, Asian Americans hold heterogeneous and hybrid ethnic heritages within Asian American communities although it is often overlooked (“Who/What Is Asian: A Postcolonial Theological Reading of Orientalism and Neo-Orientalism”). For example, finding commonalities between East Asian and South Asian heritage is difficult. Not only that, but Asian Americans also have a variety of migration stories; some migrated to the United States as colonized people during the colonial period, and others came as refugees, adoptees, workers, and international students.

As heterogeneous ethnic heritages and diverse migration stories confluence with their racial reality, Asian American contexts become more complex. Asian Americans are often exposed to blatant racism—such as violence and hate crimes—and racial microaggressions, including perpetual foreigner and model minority stereotypes, Orientalism, and invisibility. Asian Americans navigate their racial reality in a variety of ways while holding onto their ethnic heritage and migration stories. It creates particular and complex stories for Asian Americans.

This complex reality of Asian Americans is where God encounters us. Through the incarnation of the Son of God, God is revealed in the particular context of Jewish people under Rome as one who brings healing, transformation, and justice amid their lives. Jesus Christ intimately mentored his disciples, calling them in their life situation. He had table fellowship with the sinners and tax collectors and fed many people. He encountered those who were sick and healed them. He challenged and scolded a religious leadership co-opted with Roman power. Through Christ the incarnate Son, we recognize God who enters into people’s chaotic lives and proclaims the good news. God reveals God-self in the particular context of Asian Americans and brings about healing, transformation, and justice as part of God’s work witnessed in Jesus Christ. Accordingly, God works in the particular realities of the Asian American context.

Seminary Context

However, in a seminary context, Asian American theological scholarship that arises from and speaks to Asian American context is often invisible. Conventional White male theological scholarship is considered universal and even superior, but Asian American theologies are devalued as particular and eccentric. So, Asian American theological scholarship is not emphasized enough in some seminaries. In this case, although Asian American seminarians come to seminary with the calling to serve Asian American communities with God’s heart, they would not have opportunities to theologically engage in Asian American contexts throughout their degree program.

This lack of Asian American theological scholarship in seminaries has negative effects on Asian American ministries. Asian American pastors and leaders may struggle to apply conventional White theology in Asian American contexts. In this case, their ministries may not be able to illuminate how God is revealed and intimately works in Asian American communities. Moreover, their ministries cannot develop spiritual disciplines that guide the communities to witness God's work in the middle of their lives.    

The Need for Asian American Theological Scholarship

Accordingly, we need robust Asian American theological scholarship for Asian Americans. Asian American theological scholarship should name and challenge the White normativity of conventional theological scholarship. It must allow Asian American seminarians to critically engage conventional theological scholarship instead of passively absorbing it as if it is objective and universal. More importantly, Asian American theological scholarship should encourage Asian American seminarians to better understand their own context and to discern how God works in Asian Americans’ lives. In this way, Asian American theological scholarship will empower Asian American seminarians to participate in God’s heart and work for Asian Americans and invite them to experience God’s work of healing, transformation, and justice in the middle of their context.

I serve as a pastoral apprentice for adolescent Sunday schoolers at a Korean American church in Los Angeles. Through my interaction with my Sunday schoolers, I have listened to their stories. I have learned about their family dynamics and their relationships in school. Some of the Sunday schoolers shared how they felt when they witnessed anti-Asian racism during Covid-19. I also encountered their parents’ life journey, struggles in the church, and economic difficulties. Because I believe that God meets us in all these particular stories, many questions have arisen to me. How does God work in our family and church dynamics? How does God speak to the authority figures in our family and church? How does God shed light on our practices in the church, such as sharing food and table fellowship? How does God’s grace penetrate pain and suffering from our socio-economic difficulties? How does God address racial trauma and encourage us to establish love and justice in our lives? These are important topics that Asian American theology can speak to and provide answers.

Thus, we need Asian American theology so that pastors and churches are equipped to show how God speaks into their particular experiences, struggles, and needs. So let us develop the type of scholarship that can better serve Asian American communities and help them witness and experience God in their lives. 

For more articles in our Asian American’s in Seminary series:

“An Asian American Seminarians Journey Homeward” by Derek Wu.

“The State of Asian American Theology in Seminary: Thoughts from an Outgoing Graduate” by Justin Nitta.

Photo by Gülfer ERGİN on Unsplash

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Chiwon Kim is a current Masters of Divinity student at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is also a pastoral apprentice at a Korean American Church in Los Angeles and serves Sunday schoolers. Kim envisions his calling as cultivating a Jesus-following community that genuinely loves God and neighbors in his context. He is interested in pastoral ministry, contextual theology, church planting, theology of the family, and the integration of theology and psychology. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking for his loved ones, singing songs with a small group of people, and watching K-dramas.