ASIA ACROSS THE CURRICULUM 2006

GTU Partnerships hosted an Asia Across the Curriculum symposium for Asian and Asian North American theologians on March 18, 2006. GTU faculty and doctoral students who participated included: Dr. James Chuck, Dr. Peter Yuichi Clark, Dr. Russell Yee, and Dr. Timothy Tseng (American Baptist Seminary of the West); Dr. Tito Cruz and Joanne Doi (Franciscan School of Theology); Yeara Ahn-Park and Ofelia Villero (GTU); Dr. Mia Mochizuki (Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley); and Dr. Kah-Jin Jeffrey Kuan, Dr. Boyung Lee, Dr. Fumitaka Matsuoka, Dr. Choan-Seng Song, and Dr. Mai-Anh Tran (Pacific School of Religion). Among the participants were several Christian educators from Canada: Dr. Eddie Kwok, Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon; Dr. Alan Lai, Vancouver School of Theology; Dr. Wenh-In Ng, United Church of Christ in Toronto; and Dr. Nam Soon Song, Knox College in Toronto. Dr. Peter Cha of the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago was also present. Dr. Tito Cruz and Dr. Timothy Tseng facilitated the workshop, which was held at the Pacific School of Religion.

Program director Dr. C.S. Song gave an overview of the project, stressing the importance of creating a new theological climate in Asia and the Pacific that is currently “uncharted territory theologically.” He challenged the group to imagine new possibilities for equal partnership in teaching and learning that go beyond “being critical of past practices.”

In small groups, the participants addressed the following questions:

• What are you doing right now to attend to Asian issues, contexts, and perspectives in your teaching?
• What would help to enhance the current work that you are doing?

A common description of what they are doing as Asian and Asian North American scholars is bridge-making. For some, this means “crossing east and west boundaries.” For others, it denotes embracing a form of hybridity, whereby “we stretch ourselves in both ways,” and become part of both worlds. Bridge-making may also entail bridging diverse theological visions for our students, such as the perceived divide between evangelical and mainline Asian North American Protestants. This creates a dilemma to theological educators who face other issues and challenges: isolation; lack of affirmation; threat of being pigeon-holed; racism; lack of advocacy within and without institutions; Eurocentric seminaries; tokenism; the need to decolonize western pedagogy, and so forth. These issues and challenges have significant implications for curriculum.

At the GTU, courses on Asia are offered as electives; therefore, they have no impact on the overall curriculum of programs such as the Master of Arts or the Masters in Divinity. Institutional and structural reform is required. Professors have suggested ways of “repacking” electives to raise enrollment. Asian perspectives can be introduced in dialogue with Latino/a or African theologies. This approach may attract students who are not as familiar with the Asian context but are interested in new immigrant theologies. When teaching about the passion of Jesus Christ in a required Christology course, the perspective of Asian and Asian North American theologians can be introduced. However, such additive approaches fall short of “teaching Asia across the curriculum.” Some of the recommendations include:

• to establish an Asian theological seminary within the GTU
• to engage in conversation with global partners about course design and curriculum construction
• to offer a summer institute that will gather and mentor graduate students, especially at the doctoral level
• to form a network of Asian and Asian North American centers and institutes that confer degrees
• to develop collegiality beyond one’s home institution and address “internal” forms of diversity
• to encourage the participation of Canadian scholars and other conversation partners outside the GTU at future events
• to emphasize diasporic and transnational realities that inform, form, and transform theological education
• to provide faculty development opportunities for Asian and Asian North American scholars, particularly in congregational leadership and theological education

The participants underscored the importance of sustaining a critical mass of Asian and Asian North American scholars at the GTU that can create a network for ongoing collaboration and effective practice.

This symposium builds upon the a similar gathering of Asian theologians, which took place at Chung Chi College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in June 2005. Dr. Judith Berling, Dr. Philip Wickeri, and Dr. Tito Cruz of the GTU joined scholars from fourteen Asian countries at a consultation entitled Critical Engagement in the Asian Context: Implications for Theological Education and Christian Studies, which was held in conjunction with the Institute for Advanced Studies in Asian Cultures and Theologies (IASACT), an initiative of the United Board of Christian Higher Education in Asia. The participants at this workshop engaged in various teaching and learning activities to understand more fully the salient issues and challenges that they face today in teaching theology as a core subject in Asian seminaries, schools of ministry, college theology departments, and Christian studies.

- Faustino Cruz (Academic Dean and Executive Vice President, Associate Professor of Theology and Education, Franciscan School of Theology)