Asia Journal Theology

Spirituality of Struggle

2023-05-30T10:05:58+00:00

The Philippines is known to be the only predominantly Christian country in Asia. Christianity in both Catholic and Protestant forms came with the Western colonizers. However, despite its identification with the colonizers, Christianity became the faith of the ordinary Filipinos. Western Christianity, the religion of the colonizer, became Filipino Christianity, the religion of the struggling people for independence and self-determination. Philippine Christianity developed an anti-West and anti-colonial character. It became part of the Filipino postcolonial national identity. However, neocolonialism and globalization are undermining and eroding Philippine Christianity’s anti-colonial tradition. Philippine Christianity continues to emulate Western spirituality, such as the prosperity gospel and the health and wellness movement. The paper argues for a spirituality using the perspective of the Theology of Struggle (ToS) developed by Filipino Christian activists. The paper claims that ToS can foster a spirituality of resistance, repentance, solidarity, and renewal in the struggle against globalization and neocolonialism.

Disciples of the Green Spirit

2023-12-24T00:14:17+00:00

This essay pursues the subject of eco-justice spirituality by offering a critique of our ecological crisis in the context of predatory capitalism. Predatory capitalism is the socioeconomic and political system that is driving this rapacious pursuit of profits at the expense of people and the ecosystem. But our ecological crisis is also a matter of faith, particularly of toxic theologies and spiritualities. It is for this reason that we must detoxify toxic theologies and spiritualities. Beyond the call for detoxification, we must articulate theologies or ways of knowing and pursue spiritual practices that promote ecological sensibility. Central to this articulation is the reclaiming of the identity of the church as an embodiment of the green spirit and as followers of the green Christ. Finally, it calls us to action by practicing green spirituality.

Exploring Indigenous Spirituality

2024-03-07T19:12:39+00:00

The indigenous peoples in Sabah, Malaysia, who comprise diverse ethnic communities such as the Kadazandusun, Murut, Rungus, Lundayeh, and Bajau are identified as bumiputera (Sanskrit: bhumiputra), which means “sons of the land” or “sons of the soil.” There are many traditional stories about the belief systems of the indigenous peoples of Sabah which are not documented but only transmitted through oral tradition. These stories are quite similar and yet distinct from one another depending on each particular ethnic group. This article discusses the religious and cultural background of the indigenous peoples of Sabah, specifically the Eastern Kadazandusun, in an attempt to explore their spirituality.

Politics of Spirituality

2023-05-26T02:48:35+00:00

Interethnic communion is very much desired in the multiethnic and multireligious society of Malaysia. However, minority ethnic and religious groups experience the political climate dominated by the majority race and religion of the country as threatening. Interethnic relationships are often disturbed by tension due to the sense of insecurity among different ethnic and religious groups, which gives rise to fear and distrust. The frequent use of the politics of emotion to provoke the majority group is definitely not helpful in promoting interethnic communion. In this article, we analyze the Malaysian situation and propose a model of public theology for Malaysian Christians to engage the multiethnic society they are living in with a politics of spirituality in the everyday life of the Malaysian setting.

Authentic Being

2023-05-15T04:16:51+00:00

This article discusses the theme of authentic being based on Ki Ageng Suryomentaram’s notion of Kawruh Jiwa (self-knowledge), which is rooted in Javanese wisdom raos (intuitive inner feeling), and Bernard Lonergan’s notion of conversion with its three aspects: intellectual, moral, and religious. This research analysis employs the method of hermeneutic phenomenology, which is based on lived experience. Both Kawruh Jiwa and conversion focus on the fulfillment of authentic beings through mystical transformation in daily life. The encounter of the spiritual paths of Ki Ageng Suryomentaram and Bernard Lonergan will be discussed in relation to contemporary studies on spirituality that give serious consideration to lived experience in which authentic being is the core of spirituality itself. This new perspective contributes to harmonious coexistence in a highly pluralistic context such as Asia.

Meditations on Asian Christian Spiritualities

2024-04-07T21:13:41+00:00

This essay addresses the question, “Under what conditions is it possible to think about how one might address the challenges confronting the diverse descriptions, explanations, and understandings, as well as practices of Asian Christian spiritualities?” In seven intentionally unsystematic but related “meditations,” and with the Asian Christian diaspora as its normative discursive horizon, the essay (1) addresses the multiple personal, political, historical, and religious contexts, locations, perspectives, and commitments of the author, (2) identifies some dilemmas, challenges, and perspectives in which the discourses of spirituality in Asia are embedded, (3) provides a diasporic perspective of “the body” as a metaphor for thinking through the notion of an Asian Christian spirituality, (4) explores the importance of social totalities, subjectivities, and practices for such discourses, (5) offers methodological and dispositional rituals to inform, orient, and emblematize practices for the reflective process (deliberation, embodying the res publica, and commitment to truthfulness), (6) explicates a materialist understanding of spirituality, and (7) proposes a detached transgressive spirituality with specific attention given to concerns about histories (time), geographies (space), and contextualities (place) of Asia- in-the-world. While not explicitly stated, the purpose of the essay is unabashedly partial: to reflect on the transformative significance of transcultural discourses for Asian Christian spiritualities, where transformation is understood as “the creation of the fundamentally new that is also fundamentally better.”