- Recollection and Reorientation of PTCA in the New Era for Asian Theological Education -
Program Committee Meeting and Consultation, PTCA
STS, Sabah, Malaysia
Jan. 15-17, 2012
by Huang Po Ho, Dean of PTCA
Introduction
The attempt to formulate theologies and to implement theological education in Asia can be dated back to the arrival and establishment of Christians of Oriental Orthodox tradition and multiplied with successive Christian sojourn to Asia of Roman Catholic and Protestant Christian missions from Europe and North America. Theological education as institutes of professional higher education has been operating in many of Asian countries for more than a century. Because of the Christian mission legacy, theological education systems implemented in Asia were/are mostly modeled after theological schools from western countries in all their structures, disciplines and curricula. Over the years, despite of many challenges and arguments for new form of theological education and many conferences which have been held to urge that transformation be made for traditional models of theological education, there is still ongoing search for appropriate theological education to meet the contemporary ministerial and societal challenges voiced both by theological faculties and students and church leadership.
Encouraged by the internal conditions of the church mission developments and the external challenges caused by the international power remapping, an identity awareness of being “Asian” Christian was begun to emerge in Asian Christian communities after Second World War. Theological educators in Asia came together to form associations for theological schools to encourage personnel exchanges, resources sharing, and shaping solidarity for theological development in Asia. Association for Theological Education in South East Asia (ATESEA) was formed in 1957 and increased its members from 16 in the beginning to 102 at its apex. Asian Theological Association (ATA) was formed in 1970 and has 128 accredited members and 64 associated members. Both associations are committed to the idea of “train Asian in Asia” while ATESEA has stressed on contextual orientation for theological construction.
It was in the midst of this background, that the Programme for Theologies and Cultures (PTCA) was given birth as a theological movement to the service of contextual theological formation and theological education in Asia.
The Creation of A Theological Movement in Asia
The Programme for Theologies and Cultures in Asia was first formed as a theological workshop in 1983, which was a joint program collaborated by Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), Association for Theological Education in Asia (ATESEA), South East Asia Graduate School of Theology (SEAGST), Tao Fong Shan and Kansai Seminar House. Its first workshop was hosted in Tao Fong Shan, Hong Kong. This theological initiative was given a mission of to do reorientation to the young faculties in the theological schools in Asia and doctoral candidates of SEAGST for a contextual awareness of doing theologies and theological education. It was thus considered a theological movement for contextual theologies in Asia.
Four years later in July 1987, an inauguration for the Programme for Theology and Cultures in Asia (PTCA) was formally held in Kansai Seminar House, Kyoto Japan to open a new era for this theological movement on doing theologies with Asian resources. This inauguration of PTCA has not only marked a milestone for the history of PTCA, but also initiated a new epoch for doing theologies in Asia. The common themes for the series consultations that held by PTCA in the following years on “Doing Theologies with Resources in Asia” has a significance of to steer the theological endeavors in Asia away from the theological methodology of “contextualization”, which was proposed by the third mandate of Theological Education Fund (TEF) of WCC.
Theological development in Asia has gone through different stages after it was introduced to Asian world by the missionaries, these stages are divided according to the theological methodologies applied to the theological construction and the essential role of Asia cultures as elements of theologies. These stages are: stage of theological indigenization, stage of contextualization and stage of doing theology with Asian resources. Generally speaking, the trend of indigenization has taken the people’s cultures of Asia as a tool to interpret the Christian faith and theologies that introduced from western churches, Kosuke Koyama can be seen as a representative Asian theologian for this method, in his book on “Waterbuffalo Theology” he explained that through his experiences confronted with the farmers and waterbuffaloes in the muddy paddy field where his church in Northern Thailand was situated, he was reminded the teaching of Paul about his adaptation and self-transfiguration to adjust the contexts given (1Cor. 9.22f), therefore he was inspired and convinced with a decision of to subordinate great theological thoughts like those Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth to the intellectual and spiritual needs of the farmers.[1]
Shoki Coe when served in TEF of WCC commends Koyama on his creative and courageous theological mind to take Asian realities and experiences into account for the theological endeavors. However, he also pointed out that the theological attempt to make use of indigenous cultures as mediums of interpretation for western theologies has its limitation of being static and past orientation. He proposed that theological formation should be done with dynamic and future orientation, through critical engagement with people’s life contexts, providing hope to the victims amidst of their struggles and sufferings. He thus, advocated theological method of contextualization, making an implication of “incarnation” he suggested that theologies done in different contexts need to engage critically Christian texts with people’s contexts. And as context is changing contextualization of theology should be a continual process of contextualizing.
It was derived from these continual theological joint efforts that Asian theologies have developed to its critical edge, the traditional divisive concept of Gospel and Cultures were called into question, an interesting development was also happened in WCC’s theological formation, an inter assemblies study topic was modified from the “Gospel and Cultures” which was proposed to be studied after the Vancouver Assembly (1983) to that of “Gospel in Diverse Cultures” after Canberra Assembly (1991). This thematic modification implies potent significance of theological transformation, cultures particularly cultures from the non Christian world are then no longer considered opposition or even not independent entities from the Gospel, but are seen as matrix of it. This revisit of relationship between Gospel and cultures has been understood in Asian contexts through its axiom and theological formula of “text” and “context”. CS Song the first dean of PTCA questioned the methodology of contextualization, he argues, that text can only be understood in its context, therefore no text can be isolated from its context, and to be contextualized into another context. He thus proposed the theme on “Doing Theology with Asian Resources” for a series of theological seminar workshop that were held jointly by CCA, ATESEA, SEAGST, Kansai Seminar House and Tao Fong Shan, for the purpose to orient and reorient those doctoral students of SEAGST and young faculties in the region. This series of theological workshop continued for 5 years and fruitfully equipped more than one hundred alumni through its annual workshops.
A Signpost for the Journey of Asian Theologies
When the PTCA was founded it was clearly announced that there is no intention to establish a new organization or an institution, rather it was an inception of a theological movement. CS Song echoed with the founding participants of the inauguration to describe this inception of PTCA as “a fresh beginning” and call upon a collective works for a creative theological community in Asia. He commented on the inauguration consultation of PTCA held in Kansai Seminar House after the meeting, said:
This is a fresh beginning in Christian theology, theology not dictated by western theology, but by what has been disclosed and yet to be disclosed in the Bible, by lived and living experiences of people and nations of Asia. the main question is how to bring about this fundamental theological reorientation....The key to the question of how, the consultation concluded, was to be found in the “resources in Asia” - resources related to the lives of people, resources from cultures, religions, histories, in short, resources that reveal the struggles and aspirations of peoples and nations of Asia throughout the centuries. Such resources, abundant and varied, deeply rooted in Asian humanity hold the key to creative living theology in Asia. To affirm these resources as integral parts not only of Asians but of Asian Christians is the beginning of Christian theology in Asia.[2]
The communiqué issued by the participants after the inauguration consultation has stated the aim, mission and its future works expected. It is worthwhile for us to revisit this original motif of the creation of this theological movement when we are to do the re-engineering of future PTCA in this strategic meeting. The full text of the communiqué is quoted below:
Communique of Inaugural Consultation (PTCA)
Our aim, affirmed at the Inaugural Consultation in Kyoto, July 7-11, 1987 is “to strengthen through concentrated joint efforts the formation of living theology and to facilitate the growth of a creative theological community in Asia.” In Doing Theology with Resources in Asia, we are also firmly committed to solidarity in the causes of peace and justice in the region. In order to realise this aim we are committed to:
a. helping equip younger theologians and church leaders, women and men, lay and clergy, in a theological reorientation for their various ministries.
b. recovering our own cultural and spiritual resources in Asian countries and making these available for the doing of living theology in Asia.
c. promoting creative, indigenous theological writing within the concrete experiences and heritages of the Asian area.
d. facilitating active theological interactions within Asia and between Asia and other parts of the world.
The Programme for Theology and Cultures in Asia is not designed to establish a new organisational structure, but:
to strengthen a network for theological efforts and partnership,
to provide a base for a mobile programming throughout the region,
to stimulate activity for a new patterns and methods for doing theology locally,
to serve regional associations for theological schools and seminaries,
to stimulate common efforts among Christians in Asia to be effective agents for the mission of God in the region and in the world,
to facilitate the emergence of theology from women’s perspectives,
to bring about theological expressions from minority groups, and
to discern the insights and aspirations of people in struggle.
The Asian Setting Despite the diverse and unique features of life in Asian countries, and their rich racial, linguistic and cultural heritages and historical backgrounds, Christians in this area have long looked to the West for leadership and for theological in sights, neglecting their own resources in culture, history, and spiritual expression.
With an extensive ground-work laid before the Inaugural Consultation, which was held at Kansai Seminar House in Kyoto, Japan 7 - 11, 1987, the Programme for Theology and Cultures in Asia· has awakened among the 133 participants the awareness that God has always worked and is still working in Asia today, providing gifts of resources for discipleship and theological dynamics for mission. It· was affirmed by the gathering that it is crucial to act on this awareness and to be imaginative in cultivating the resources we have so that there will be an authentic living theology firmly rooted in the concrete life of all Asian societies and histories.
Doing Theology in Asia, The phenomenon of Asian ways of doing theology is not a recent one for there has been unique theological thinking and exploration in the past. But the dominant influence of Western theologies has often created a blockage to indigenous theology and at times hampered creative efforts for living theology in our own ways, style and method. Theological minds in the region were not meeting other thoughts and realities within the area, but tended to look westward for growth, for appreciation and stimulation. .
The groundwork of the Programme can be traced to 1983 when the first theological seminary-workshop was held in cooperation with the Ecumenical Study Centre at Tao Fong Shan in Hong Kong, in search for ways of doing theology with Asian resources; Another workshop the following year focused its attention on doing theology with folk literature; The third workshop was held in Kyoto on doing theology with people's movements and the fourth workshop dealt with. doing theology with the. religions of Asia. In each case participants prepared papers beforehand and worked intensively upon them during the seminar-workshop. Selections were later published in the East Asia Journal of Theology (EAJOT), and Association for Theological Education in South East Asia (ATESEA) Occasional Papers.
These workshops provided participants with opportunities for in-depth study and theological reflection upon the realities of Asia today. There were also opportunities for finding new comrades and partners in Christ for future interaction and theological grappling. The almost 100 participants are now dispersed over many part of Asia, engaged in doing living theology locally. The Programme itself will be coordinated initially in Kyoto and Singapore with activities also based in Jogjakarta and Hong Kong. Related Partners, Ecumenical bodies and organisations are thus important bases for this Programme. Involved in the Programme at this stage are:
The South East Asia Graduate School of Theology
The School of Theology, Doshisha University
The Pacific School of Religion
The Association for Theological Education in South East .Asia (ATESEA)
The Korean Association of Accredited Theological Schools (KAATS) ,
Kansai Seminar House (Nippon Christian Academy)
Council for Mission and Ecumenical Cooperation (New Zealand)
Association of Christian Institutes for Social Concern in Asia (ACISCA)
Asian Christian Art Association (ACAA)
Working relationships are now being established with the Christian Conference of Asia, the Northeast Asia Association of Theological Schools, the Board of Theological Education of the Senate of the Serampore College (India) as well as other ecumenical bodies. But the catalytic function of the Programme will be important not only for Asian countries and churches but also for Pacific and other regions.
Future Work
The Inaugural Consultation called for bold and extensive cultivation and exploration of Asian cultural heritages and resources in order to appropriate the freshness and imaginative approach of Jesus Christ to people in response to their needs and creativity. Some 50 people from 15 countries, lay and clergy, women and men, Catholic and Protestant, were present at the Inaugural Consultation. One of the joys shared by the participants was the arrival of Korean delegates on time for a full presence, at a time of the people's struggle for democratization in Korea.Future programme will include annual seminar workshops in various parts of the region, the first of which will be held in Jogjakarta, Indonesia, May 29 - June 12,1988, with the theme: Doing Theology with People's Symbols/Images in Asia. This begins the Second Series. Other theological seminar workshops will deal with spiritual life and empowerment, history and mission, creative forms of preaching, the Bible, and so on. Smaller work groups will be involved in research and writing projects and the Programme also plans to offer consultative services. A fresh beginning has been made. Let us work together for a creative theological community in Asia.
July 11, 1987 in Kyoto
This inauguration communiqué has well sketched the nature, its mission and programs of PTCA, it can serve even today as a road map or a foundation for us to work on for our recollection, reflection and envisioning PTCA.
Revisiting PTCA Ministries
As mentioned in the communiqué, the major program of PTCA was to continue the theological workshops dealing with different sorts of people’s resources in Asia such as folk literature, people’s movement, religions, people’s symbols/images, spiritual life and empowerment, history and mission etc., in addition to these workshops, small working groups was formed for research and writing projects, and a Journal for Theologies and Cultures in Asia (JTCA) were also planned and implemented.
Viewing from the vision and mission of this PTCA movement, as the inaugural consultation indicated, a key to highlight this new initiative theological attempts is the “Resources in Asia”, resources related to the lives of people. The question to the mission of PTCA thus, was/is how to theologize the non-Christian cultural resources in Asia, and this was indeed become one of the major contributions that PTCA has offered to the theological world in past thirty years. CS Song the first dean of PTCA advocated for story theology, he has proposed a method of storytelling that considers theology as story of people that tells the passion and hope of people who struggles to understanding the meaning of life through their faith in loving redemption of God. Following CS Song, Archie Lee the second dean of PTCA has laboured for a “cross textual reading of the scriptures” method, which argues no text can be read isolated when the world is so much interconnected. The cross textual reading method has deliberately bring together the text A (Asian text) and text B (Biblical text) for mutual illumination through reading both texts compassionately. Another theological method proposed to deal with the Asian resources is method of “re-confessing” that is suggested by this writer. “Re-confessing” method considers theology as a confession of Christian identity, that involves both one’s native cultural values and faith traditions, in another word, theology has to do with critical engagement of gospel within diverse cultures.
All these theological endeavors laboured by PTCA colleagues are based on a common concern of the identity issue that Asian Christian confronted after being evangelized to bear their Christian identity. A vital theology thus, has to do with the cultural values and the life struggling and hope of people in Asia. Therefore a theological reflection upon these cultural resources has become essential task for doing theologies in Asia. Over last 30 years PTCA has been working through different methods to promote this doing theologies with Asian resources. These working methods can be divided to five stages which have been timely respond to the changing circumstances of Asian theological development and church conditions. These stages are targeting on younger theologians especially those who are in the final stage of their doctoral program or those who have just joined in teaching ministry in the theological institutes in the region and beyond[3]:
1. Seminar Workshops (1983-1987)
2. Regional Consultations (1987-1994)
3. National Consultations (1994-2000)
4. Regional Conference (Call for papers 2000-2007)
5. Sub-regional consultations and Inter-sub-regional doctoral students Colloquiums (2007- )
Changing Contexts of Asia and Re-engineering PTCA
When PTCA was just formed, there was hardly higher theological institution in Asia that was capable to offer Master and Doctoral programs. Theological educations were implemented primary as training programs rather than true academic studies. The theological education format, theological curricula and theological contents operated in theological institutions reflected mostly Western fashion. To re-orient Asian theological scholars for doing theology with Asian resources was then urgent and necessary. It is however, the scenario has been changed today; the following phenomena are just highlights of them:
● Rapid growth of theological education institutions. ATESEA was formed with 16 member institutes half a century ago, it has now grown to 102 members, ATA has almost the same numbers of membership, not counting those independent theological institutes.
● Quality upgrade of theological education. With hundred years’ labours of theological educators, theological education in many countries of Asia have been vastly upgraded with regard to their quality and quantity particularly over the last decades. Many theological schools initially established to train catechists and evangelist with minimum academic qualifications, are now upgraded to degrees awarding institutions. The qualifications for admission, appointment of faculty, teaching and practical training, library, dormitory facilities are carefully planned to assure quality in theological education.
● Establishment of Advanced degree programs. Although lack of credible accreditation in the region, there are quite a few theological institutions start to confer doctoral degrees and many more to start Master degree programs in Theology in Asia today.
● New initiatives created to share common theological concerns and tasks: The Conference for Asian Theologians (CATS) formed under the supports of CCA, providing fellowship for theological scholars and forum for theological exchanges within Asia region. The Institute for Advance Studies of Asian Theologies and Cultures (IASACT) created by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA), has acted to provide young theological scholars an open forum for exchanges and orientation. It is however, the CATS is operated more as a platform for fellowship. And the IASACT of United Board does not particular focus on orientation for contextual theological methodology.
● The attitude of state toward theological education in many Asian countries: Theological associations such as ATESEA, Senate of Serempore and ATA have grown in their membership rapidly and work on accreditation services to their member schools. However a regretful factor is that the care that is taken to upgrade the facility for training and the demanding work of accreditation done by theological associations in Asia (except that of Senate of Serempore) are excluded from any state recognition and public acceptance in most of the Asian countries. This state attitude is not only affecting the credibility of church’s mission and witness in relation to public issues concerning the whole of society, but also restricts the potential resources to be assessed by the theological schools and the scholarly challenges and mutual enhancement of theological science with other disciplines.
Nevertheless, This situation has been corrected recently in many Asian countries, as governments of Indonesia, Thailand and Taiwan have recently become open for different degrees of the seminaries or divinity schools to be registered in the state education systems and their degrees to be included in the list of academic recognition. If we add those countries which already allow theological degrees to be admitted and recognized by state authorities such as: Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines, the map and landscape of theological education in Asia regarding this concern has already radically changed.
● Cross boundaries cooperation and sharing of education resources among theological institutes from evangelical and ecumenical groups. With the increased numbers of theological institutions in the continent, which are not only divided by the different traditions of their founding denominations, but often also split by the division which exists between the so called ecumenical and evangelical (Pentecostal) camps and the unique Asian phenomenon of ethnic and regional loyalties. The divisions have not only weakened the competence of theological schools to react to the challenges faced; they have also consumed the limited resources for theological education in this continent. Efforts to bring these institutions together to enhance theological education in the region and for sharing fellowship, resources and exchange of theological findings are crucial and really meaningful.
● Challenges from globalization versus quest for local authenticity. Traditional theological education which the Asian world imitated from western churches, in general, is a product of Enlightenment. It was predominantly perceived as academic discipline. Therefore, mastering theology as an academic discipline was considered as sufficient tool for managing the Christian communities and their affairs. The contextualization has challenged this presupposition, and theological education that is based on that premise even in the West. It calls for a program of theological education which equally takes into consideration the experience of human communities from where the candidates are recruited for training and are sent to serve. The globalization, a renewed contemporary force which tries to homogenize the human cultures and traditions has given further boost for the search for contextualization from the perspectives of retaining and preserving the local identity and priority. The Charismatic and Neo-evangelical Christian movements inspired from outside Asia as well as those originated within Asia have induced new forms of faith expressions and Christian community ethos posing new challenges to prevailing traditional theological education in Asia.
● Increasing financial challenges for the long-term viability of institutions of theological education. There are increasing signs that several Asian institutions of theological education are facing a crisis in terms of their long-term financial viability as the culminating effects of global recession and rising prices of energy and electricity as well as limitations of churches to provide appropriate salaries for theological professors are affecting theological colleges in Asia.
It is in the midst of these changing contexts that we are challenged to revisit PTCA ministries and seeking a possible re-engineering of this important theological movement in Asia. Due to the resources limitation, we have decided to suspend the regular publication of our historical Journal of Theology (JTCA), and changed it to an occasional issue. For last couple of years, in collaboration with Senate of Serempore, we have struggled to continue our movement by focusing our labours particularly on sub-regional consultations and the “Inter-sub-regional doctoral students colloquium in Asia”[4] in responding to current theological concerns and its methodological accounts in Asia, hoping to bring together the upcoming young scholars to share a community fellowship as well to shape common theological voices from Asia. It is a time for us to review and re-assess these works together and seeking direction and ways to carry forward our future ministry.
Moving Ahead Towards Deeper Waters
As this strategic committee meeting is held to revisit and re-engineering PTCA, I would rather keep the future open, and humbly listen to your wisdom and work collectively together to shape future PTCA. However, I am happy to report also on the recent developments and some new initiatives relate to theological education in our continent, providing tokens of discussion for our brainstorming.
1. Mapping Theological Education in Asia in the Changing Context: A research proposal is ongoing discussion with ETE/WCC and FTESEA for mapping theological education in our continent to discover how responses being taken by theological institutions in Asia toward the challenges that confronted today. (details see attachment 1) This Research project can be collaborated with the recent project launched by ETE-WCC on “Survey for Global Theological Education”.
2. The Attempt to form a new Asian Forum for Theological Education (AFTE), this is also an attempt under the auspices of ETE-WCC. Its first meeting of preparation was held in Singapore last June and the second meeting will be held in Indonesia in the end of August.(details see attachment 2)
3. In responding to the changing attitude of state toward theological education in many Asian countries. Theological education is gradually accepted to the university system. While the European theological educations are struggling to re-assess and identifying problems created by this public theological education system, how can Asian theological education to create a new model of theological education that is able to assess public resources, enhance cross disciplinary learning while not to be duplicate the weakness that European sisters and brothers are faced is of an urgent task. A small scale university divinity schools deans consultation is planned to be held in Chang Jung Christian University sponsored by FTESEA in collaboration with Formosa Christianity and Culture Research Center (FCCRC) in the coming June. (details see attachment 3)
Can PTCA find its role in the midst of these developments and new initiatives? Thanks for your attention.
Current Officials of PTCA
● Dean: Huang Po Ho
● Committee members:
Dr. Archie Lee (Chair)
Dr. Wati Longchar (secretary, India)
Dr. Thu En Yu (Malaysia)
Dr. Hisako Kinukawa (Japan)
Dr. Waiching Wong (Hong Kong)
Dr. Yeong Mee Lee (Korea)
Dr. Daniel Nuhamara (Indonesia)
● International Consultant:
Dr. Jeffrey K. J. Kuan (USA)
● JTCA Editor: (the journal has been proposed to be suspended)
Dr. Wati Longchar
[1] Kosuke Koyama, Waterbuffalo Theology (great Britain: SCM Press Ltd, 1974) p. viii
[2] C.S. Song, Fresh Beginning for Christian Theology, unpublished paper dated July 15, 1987
[3] These stages are no necessary clear cut division, but overlapped and some time mixed together.
[4] These sub-regional consultations and inter-sub-regional doctoral students colloquiums include:
1) 2009 South Asian sub-regional consultation on “Religious Fundamentalism, Minorities and Interdisciplinary Education”, Kolkata, India Nov. 25-28, 2009
2) 2010 South East Asia Sub-regional Consultation on “Religious Fundamentalism, Minorities and Interdisciplinary Education”, CJCU, Tainan, Taiwan. April. 1-4, 2010
3) 2010 Inter-sub-regional doctoral students colloquium on “Ecumenical Response to Ecological Crisis” Kolkata, India, Dec. 7-11, 2010
4) We have recently submitted another proposal to ETE-WCC for the second Inter-sub-regional doctoral students colloquium on “Environmental, Marginalized Communities and Commercial Tourism”, which is yet to be discovered its result.
Program Committee Meeting and Consultation, PTCA
STS, Sabah, Malaysia
Jan. 15-17, 2012
by Huang Po Ho, Dean of PTCA
Introduction
The attempt to formulate theologies and to implement theological education in Asia can be dated back to the arrival and establishment of Christians of Oriental Orthodox tradition and multiplied with successive Christian sojourn to Asia of Roman Catholic and Protestant Christian missions from Europe and North America. Theological education as institutes of professional higher education has been operating in many of Asian countries for more than a century. Because of the Christian mission legacy, theological education systems implemented in Asia were/are mostly modeled after theological schools from western countries in all their structures, disciplines and curricula. Over the years, despite of many challenges and arguments for new form of theological education and many conferences which have been held to urge that transformation be made for traditional models of theological education, there is still ongoing search for appropriate theological education to meet the contemporary ministerial and societal challenges voiced both by theological faculties and students and church leadership.
Encouraged by the internal conditions of the church mission developments and the external challenges caused by the international power remapping, an identity awareness of being “Asian” Christian was begun to emerge in Asian Christian communities after Second World War. Theological educators in Asia came together to form associations for theological schools to encourage personnel exchanges, resources sharing, and shaping solidarity for theological development in Asia. Association for Theological Education in South East Asia (ATESEA) was formed in 1957 and increased its members from 16 in the beginning to 102 at its apex. Asian Theological Association (ATA) was formed in 1970 and has 128 accredited members and 64 associated members. Both associations are committed to the idea of “train Asian in Asia” while ATESEA has stressed on contextual orientation for theological construction.
It was in the midst of this background, that the Programme for Theologies and Cultures (PTCA) was given birth as a theological movement to the service of contextual theological formation and theological education in Asia.
The Creation of A Theological Movement in Asia
The Programme for Theologies and Cultures in Asia was first formed as a theological workshop in 1983, which was a joint program collaborated by Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), Association for Theological Education in Asia (ATESEA), South East Asia Graduate School of Theology (SEAGST), Tao Fong Shan and Kansai Seminar House. Its first workshop was hosted in Tao Fong Shan, Hong Kong. This theological initiative was given a mission of to do reorientation to the young faculties in the theological schools in Asia and doctoral candidates of SEAGST for a contextual awareness of doing theologies and theological education. It was thus considered a theological movement for contextual theologies in Asia.
Four years later in July 1987, an inauguration for the Programme for Theology and Cultures in Asia (PTCA) was formally held in Kansai Seminar House, Kyoto Japan to open a new era for this theological movement on doing theologies with Asian resources. This inauguration of PTCA has not only marked a milestone for the history of PTCA, but also initiated a new epoch for doing theologies in Asia. The common themes for the series consultations that held by PTCA in the following years on “Doing Theologies with Resources in Asia” has a significance of to steer the theological endeavors in Asia away from the theological methodology of “contextualization”, which was proposed by the third mandate of Theological Education Fund (TEF) of WCC.
Theological development in Asia has gone through different stages after it was introduced to Asian world by the missionaries, these stages are divided according to the theological methodologies applied to the theological construction and the essential role of Asia cultures as elements of theologies. These stages are: stage of theological indigenization, stage of contextualization and stage of doing theology with Asian resources. Generally speaking, the trend of indigenization has taken the people’s cultures of Asia as a tool to interpret the Christian faith and theologies that introduced from western churches, Kosuke Koyama can be seen as a representative Asian theologian for this method, in his book on “Waterbuffalo Theology” he explained that through his experiences confronted with the farmers and waterbuffaloes in the muddy paddy field where his church in Northern Thailand was situated, he was reminded the teaching of Paul about his adaptation and self-transfiguration to adjust the contexts given (1Cor. 9.22f), therefore he was inspired and convinced with a decision of to subordinate great theological thoughts like those Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth to the intellectual and spiritual needs of the farmers.[1]
Shoki Coe when served in TEF of WCC commends Koyama on his creative and courageous theological mind to take Asian realities and experiences into account for the theological endeavors. However, he also pointed out that the theological attempt to make use of indigenous cultures as mediums of interpretation for western theologies has its limitation of being static and past orientation. He proposed that theological formation should be done with dynamic and future orientation, through critical engagement with people’s life contexts, providing hope to the victims amidst of their struggles and sufferings. He thus, advocated theological method of contextualization, making an implication of “incarnation” he suggested that theologies done in different contexts need to engage critically Christian texts with people’s contexts. And as context is changing contextualization of theology should be a continual process of contextualizing.
It was derived from these continual theological joint efforts that Asian theologies have developed to its critical edge, the traditional divisive concept of Gospel and Cultures were called into question, an interesting development was also happened in WCC’s theological formation, an inter assemblies study topic was modified from the “Gospel and Cultures” which was proposed to be studied after the Vancouver Assembly (1983) to that of “Gospel in Diverse Cultures” after Canberra Assembly (1991). This thematic modification implies potent significance of theological transformation, cultures particularly cultures from the non Christian world are then no longer considered opposition or even not independent entities from the Gospel, but are seen as matrix of it. This revisit of relationship between Gospel and cultures has been understood in Asian contexts through its axiom and theological formula of “text” and “context”. CS Song the first dean of PTCA questioned the methodology of contextualization, he argues, that text can only be understood in its context, therefore no text can be isolated from its context, and to be contextualized into another context. He thus proposed the theme on “Doing Theology with Asian Resources” for a series of theological seminar workshop that were held jointly by CCA, ATESEA, SEAGST, Kansai Seminar House and Tao Fong Shan, for the purpose to orient and reorient those doctoral students of SEAGST and young faculties in the region. This series of theological workshop continued for 5 years and fruitfully equipped more than one hundred alumni through its annual workshops.
A Signpost for the Journey of Asian Theologies
When the PTCA was founded it was clearly announced that there is no intention to establish a new organization or an institution, rather it was an inception of a theological movement. CS Song echoed with the founding participants of the inauguration to describe this inception of PTCA as “a fresh beginning” and call upon a collective works for a creative theological community in Asia. He commented on the inauguration consultation of PTCA held in Kansai Seminar House after the meeting, said:
This is a fresh beginning in Christian theology, theology not dictated by western theology, but by what has been disclosed and yet to be disclosed in the Bible, by lived and living experiences of people and nations of Asia. the main question is how to bring about this fundamental theological reorientation....The key to the question of how, the consultation concluded, was to be found in the “resources in Asia” - resources related to the lives of people, resources from cultures, religions, histories, in short, resources that reveal the struggles and aspirations of peoples and nations of Asia throughout the centuries. Such resources, abundant and varied, deeply rooted in Asian humanity hold the key to creative living theology in Asia. To affirm these resources as integral parts not only of Asians but of Asian Christians is the beginning of Christian theology in Asia.[2]
The communiqué issued by the participants after the inauguration consultation has stated the aim, mission and its future works expected. It is worthwhile for us to revisit this original motif of the creation of this theological movement when we are to do the re-engineering of future PTCA in this strategic meeting. The full text of the communiqué is quoted below:
Communique of Inaugural Consultation (PTCA)
Our aim, affirmed at the Inaugural Consultation in Kyoto, July 7-11, 1987 is “to strengthen through concentrated joint efforts the formation of living theology and to facilitate the growth of a creative theological community in Asia.” In Doing Theology with Resources in Asia, we are also firmly committed to solidarity in the causes of peace and justice in the region. In order to realise this aim we are committed to:
a. helping equip younger theologians and church leaders, women and men, lay and clergy, in a theological reorientation for their various ministries.
b. recovering our own cultural and spiritual resources in Asian countries and making these available for the doing of living theology in Asia.
c. promoting creative, indigenous theological writing within the concrete experiences and heritages of the Asian area.
d. facilitating active theological interactions within Asia and between Asia and other parts of the world.
The Programme for Theology and Cultures in Asia is not designed to establish a new organisational structure, but:
to strengthen a network for theological efforts and partnership,
to provide a base for a mobile programming throughout the region,
to stimulate activity for a new patterns and methods for doing theology locally,
to serve regional associations for theological schools and seminaries,
to stimulate common efforts among Christians in Asia to be effective agents for the mission of God in the region and in the world,
to facilitate the emergence of theology from women’s perspectives,
to bring about theological expressions from minority groups, and
to discern the insights and aspirations of people in struggle.
The Asian Setting Despite the diverse and unique features of life in Asian countries, and their rich racial, linguistic and cultural heritages and historical backgrounds, Christians in this area have long looked to the West for leadership and for theological in sights, neglecting their own resources in culture, history, and spiritual expression.
With an extensive ground-work laid before the Inaugural Consultation, which was held at Kansai Seminar House in Kyoto, Japan 7 - 11, 1987, the Programme for Theology and Cultures in Asia· has awakened among the 133 participants the awareness that God has always worked and is still working in Asia today, providing gifts of resources for discipleship and theological dynamics for mission. It· was affirmed by the gathering that it is crucial to act on this awareness and to be imaginative in cultivating the resources we have so that there will be an authentic living theology firmly rooted in the concrete life of all Asian societies and histories.
Doing Theology in Asia, The phenomenon of Asian ways of doing theology is not a recent one for there has been unique theological thinking and exploration in the past. But the dominant influence of Western theologies has often created a blockage to indigenous theology and at times hampered creative efforts for living theology in our own ways, style and method. Theological minds in the region were not meeting other thoughts and realities within the area, but tended to look westward for growth, for appreciation and stimulation. .
The groundwork of the Programme can be traced to 1983 when the first theological seminary-workshop was held in cooperation with the Ecumenical Study Centre at Tao Fong Shan in Hong Kong, in search for ways of doing theology with Asian resources; Another workshop the following year focused its attention on doing theology with folk literature; The third workshop was held in Kyoto on doing theology with people's movements and the fourth workshop dealt with. doing theology with the. religions of Asia. In each case participants prepared papers beforehand and worked intensively upon them during the seminar-workshop. Selections were later published in the East Asia Journal of Theology (EAJOT), and Association for Theological Education in South East Asia (ATESEA) Occasional Papers.
These workshops provided participants with opportunities for in-depth study and theological reflection upon the realities of Asia today. There were also opportunities for finding new comrades and partners in Christ for future interaction and theological grappling. The almost 100 participants are now dispersed over many part of Asia, engaged in doing living theology locally. The Programme itself will be coordinated initially in Kyoto and Singapore with activities also based in Jogjakarta and Hong Kong. Related Partners, Ecumenical bodies and organisations are thus important bases for this Programme. Involved in the Programme at this stage are:
The South East Asia Graduate School of Theology
The School of Theology, Doshisha University
The Pacific School of Religion
The Association for Theological Education in South East .Asia (ATESEA)
The Korean Association of Accredited Theological Schools (KAATS) ,
Kansai Seminar House (Nippon Christian Academy)
Council for Mission and Ecumenical Cooperation (New Zealand)
Association of Christian Institutes for Social Concern in Asia (ACISCA)
Asian Christian Art Association (ACAA)
Working relationships are now being established with the Christian Conference of Asia, the Northeast Asia Association of Theological Schools, the Board of Theological Education of the Senate of the Serampore College (India) as well as other ecumenical bodies. But the catalytic function of the Programme will be important not only for Asian countries and churches but also for Pacific and other regions.
Future Work
The Inaugural Consultation called for bold and extensive cultivation and exploration of Asian cultural heritages and resources in order to appropriate the freshness and imaginative approach of Jesus Christ to people in response to their needs and creativity. Some 50 people from 15 countries, lay and clergy, women and men, Catholic and Protestant, were present at the Inaugural Consultation. One of the joys shared by the participants was the arrival of Korean delegates on time for a full presence, at a time of the people's struggle for democratization in Korea.Future programme will include annual seminar workshops in various parts of the region, the first of which will be held in Jogjakarta, Indonesia, May 29 - June 12,1988, with the theme: Doing Theology with People's Symbols/Images in Asia. This begins the Second Series. Other theological seminar workshops will deal with spiritual life and empowerment, history and mission, creative forms of preaching, the Bible, and so on. Smaller work groups will be involved in research and writing projects and the Programme also plans to offer consultative services. A fresh beginning has been made. Let us work together for a creative theological community in Asia.
July 11, 1987 in Kyoto
This inauguration communiqué has well sketched the nature, its mission and programs of PTCA, it can serve even today as a road map or a foundation for us to work on for our recollection, reflection and envisioning PTCA.
Revisiting PTCA Ministries
As mentioned in the communiqué, the major program of PTCA was to continue the theological workshops dealing with different sorts of people’s resources in Asia such as folk literature, people’s movement, religions, people’s symbols/images, spiritual life and empowerment, history and mission etc., in addition to these workshops, small working groups was formed for research and writing projects, and a Journal for Theologies and Cultures in Asia (JTCA) were also planned and implemented.
Viewing from the vision and mission of this PTCA movement, as the inaugural consultation indicated, a key to highlight this new initiative theological attempts is the “Resources in Asia”, resources related to the lives of people. The question to the mission of PTCA thus, was/is how to theologize the non-Christian cultural resources in Asia, and this was indeed become one of the major contributions that PTCA has offered to the theological world in past thirty years. CS Song the first dean of PTCA advocated for story theology, he has proposed a method of storytelling that considers theology as story of people that tells the passion and hope of people who struggles to understanding the meaning of life through their faith in loving redemption of God. Following CS Song, Archie Lee the second dean of PTCA has laboured for a “cross textual reading of the scriptures” method, which argues no text can be read isolated when the world is so much interconnected. The cross textual reading method has deliberately bring together the text A (Asian text) and text B (Biblical text) for mutual illumination through reading both texts compassionately. Another theological method proposed to deal with the Asian resources is method of “re-confessing” that is suggested by this writer. “Re-confessing” method considers theology as a confession of Christian identity, that involves both one’s native cultural values and faith traditions, in another word, theology has to do with critical engagement of gospel within diverse cultures.
All these theological endeavors laboured by PTCA colleagues are based on a common concern of the identity issue that Asian Christian confronted after being evangelized to bear their Christian identity. A vital theology thus, has to do with the cultural values and the life struggling and hope of people in Asia. Therefore a theological reflection upon these cultural resources has become essential task for doing theologies in Asia. Over last 30 years PTCA has been working through different methods to promote this doing theologies with Asian resources. These working methods can be divided to five stages which have been timely respond to the changing circumstances of Asian theological development and church conditions. These stages are targeting on younger theologians especially those who are in the final stage of their doctoral program or those who have just joined in teaching ministry in the theological institutes in the region and beyond[3]:
1. Seminar Workshops (1983-1987)
2. Regional Consultations (1987-1994)
3. National Consultations (1994-2000)
4. Regional Conference (Call for papers 2000-2007)
5. Sub-regional consultations and Inter-sub-regional doctoral students Colloquiums (2007- )
Changing Contexts of Asia and Re-engineering PTCA
When PTCA was just formed, there was hardly higher theological institution in Asia that was capable to offer Master and Doctoral programs. Theological educations were implemented primary as training programs rather than true academic studies. The theological education format, theological curricula and theological contents operated in theological institutions reflected mostly Western fashion. To re-orient Asian theological scholars for doing theology with Asian resources was then urgent and necessary. It is however, the scenario has been changed today; the following phenomena are just highlights of them:
● Rapid growth of theological education institutions. ATESEA was formed with 16 member institutes half a century ago, it has now grown to 102 members, ATA has almost the same numbers of membership, not counting those independent theological institutes.
● Quality upgrade of theological education. With hundred years’ labours of theological educators, theological education in many countries of Asia have been vastly upgraded with regard to their quality and quantity particularly over the last decades. Many theological schools initially established to train catechists and evangelist with minimum academic qualifications, are now upgraded to degrees awarding institutions. The qualifications for admission, appointment of faculty, teaching and practical training, library, dormitory facilities are carefully planned to assure quality in theological education.
● Establishment of Advanced degree programs. Although lack of credible accreditation in the region, there are quite a few theological institutions start to confer doctoral degrees and many more to start Master degree programs in Theology in Asia today.
● New initiatives created to share common theological concerns and tasks: The Conference for Asian Theologians (CATS) formed under the supports of CCA, providing fellowship for theological scholars and forum for theological exchanges within Asia region. The Institute for Advance Studies of Asian Theologies and Cultures (IASACT) created by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA), has acted to provide young theological scholars an open forum for exchanges and orientation. It is however, the CATS is operated more as a platform for fellowship. And the IASACT of United Board does not particular focus on orientation for contextual theological methodology.
● The attitude of state toward theological education in many Asian countries: Theological associations such as ATESEA, Senate of Serempore and ATA have grown in their membership rapidly and work on accreditation services to their member schools. However a regretful factor is that the care that is taken to upgrade the facility for training and the demanding work of accreditation done by theological associations in Asia (except that of Senate of Serempore) are excluded from any state recognition and public acceptance in most of the Asian countries. This state attitude is not only affecting the credibility of church’s mission and witness in relation to public issues concerning the whole of society, but also restricts the potential resources to be assessed by the theological schools and the scholarly challenges and mutual enhancement of theological science with other disciplines.
Nevertheless, This situation has been corrected recently in many Asian countries, as governments of Indonesia, Thailand and Taiwan have recently become open for different degrees of the seminaries or divinity schools to be registered in the state education systems and their degrees to be included in the list of academic recognition. If we add those countries which already allow theological degrees to be admitted and recognized by state authorities such as: Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines, the map and landscape of theological education in Asia regarding this concern has already radically changed.
● Cross boundaries cooperation and sharing of education resources among theological institutes from evangelical and ecumenical groups. With the increased numbers of theological institutions in the continent, which are not only divided by the different traditions of their founding denominations, but often also split by the division which exists between the so called ecumenical and evangelical (Pentecostal) camps and the unique Asian phenomenon of ethnic and regional loyalties. The divisions have not only weakened the competence of theological schools to react to the challenges faced; they have also consumed the limited resources for theological education in this continent. Efforts to bring these institutions together to enhance theological education in the region and for sharing fellowship, resources and exchange of theological findings are crucial and really meaningful.
● Challenges from globalization versus quest for local authenticity. Traditional theological education which the Asian world imitated from western churches, in general, is a product of Enlightenment. It was predominantly perceived as academic discipline. Therefore, mastering theology as an academic discipline was considered as sufficient tool for managing the Christian communities and their affairs. The contextualization has challenged this presupposition, and theological education that is based on that premise even in the West. It calls for a program of theological education which equally takes into consideration the experience of human communities from where the candidates are recruited for training and are sent to serve. The globalization, a renewed contemporary force which tries to homogenize the human cultures and traditions has given further boost for the search for contextualization from the perspectives of retaining and preserving the local identity and priority. The Charismatic and Neo-evangelical Christian movements inspired from outside Asia as well as those originated within Asia have induced new forms of faith expressions and Christian community ethos posing new challenges to prevailing traditional theological education in Asia.
● Increasing financial challenges for the long-term viability of institutions of theological education. There are increasing signs that several Asian institutions of theological education are facing a crisis in terms of their long-term financial viability as the culminating effects of global recession and rising prices of energy and electricity as well as limitations of churches to provide appropriate salaries for theological professors are affecting theological colleges in Asia.
It is in the midst of these changing contexts that we are challenged to revisit PTCA ministries and seeking a possible re-engineering of this important theological movement in Asia. Due to the resources limitation, we have decided to suspend the regular publication of our historical Journal of Theology (JTCA), and changed it to an occasional issue. For last couple of years, in collaboration with Senate of Serempore, we have struggled to continue our movement by focusing our labours particularly on sub-regional consultations and the “Inter-sub-regional doctoral students colloquium in Asia”[4] in responding to current theological concerns and its methodological accounts in Asia, hoping to bring together the upcoming young scholars to share a community fellowship as well to shape common theological voices from Asia. It is a time for us to review and re-assess these works together and seeking direction and ways to carry forward our future ministry.
Moving Ahead Towards Deeper Waters
As this strategic committee meeting is held to revisit and re-engineering PTCA, I would rather keep the future open, and humbly listen to your wisdom and work collectively together to shape future PTCA. However, I am happy to report also on the recent developments and some new initiatives relate to theological education in our continent, providing tokens of discussion for our brainstorming.
1. Mapping Theological Education in Asia in the Changing Context: A research proposal is ongoing discussion with ETE/WCC and FTESEA for mapping theological education in our continent to discover how responses being taken by theological institutions in Asia toward the challenges that confronted today. (details see attachment 1) This Research project can be collaborated with the recent project launched by ETE-WCC on “Survey for Global Theological Education”.
2. The Attempt to form a new Asian Forum for Theological Education (AFTE), this is also an attempt under the auspices of ETE-WCC. Its first meeting of preparation was held in Singapore last June and the second meeting will be held in Indonesia in the end of August.(details see attachment 2)
3. In responding to the changing attitude of state toward theological education in many Asian countries. Theological education is gradually accepted to the university system. While the European theological educations are struggling to re-assess and identifying problems created by this public theological education system, how can Asian theological education to create a new model of theological education that is able to assess public resources, enhance cross disciplinary learning while not to be duplicate the weakness that European sisters and brothers are faced is of an urgent task. A small scale university divinity schools deans consultation is planned to be held in Chang Jung Christian University sponsored by FTESEA in collaboration with Formosa Christianity and Culture Research Center (FCCRC) in the coming June. (details see attachment 3)
Can PTCA find its role in the midst of these developments and new initiatives? Thanks for your attention.
Current Officials of PTCA
● Dean: Huang Po Ho
● Committee members:
Dr. Archie Lee (Chair)
Dr. Wati Longchar (secretary, India)
Dr. Thu En Yu (Malaysia)
Dr. Hisako Kinukawa (Japan)
Dr. Waiching Wong (Hong Kong)
Dr. Yeong Mee Lee (Korea)
Dr. Daniel Nuhamara (Indonesia)
● International Consultant:
Dr. Jeffrey K. J. Kuan (USA)
● JTCA Editor: (the journal has been proposed to be suspended)
Dr. Wati Longchar
[1] Kosuke Koyama, Waterbuffalo Theology (great Britain: SCM Press Ltd, 1974) p. viii
[2] C.S. Song, Fresh Beginning for Christian Theology, unpublished paper dated July 15, 1987
[3] These stages are no necessary clear cut division, but overlapped and some time mixed together.
[4] These sub-regional consultations and inter-sub-regional doctoral students colloquiums include:
1) 2009 South Asian sub-regional consultation on “Religious Fundamentalism, Minorities and Interdisciplinary Education”, Kolkata, India Nov. 25-28, 2009
2) 2010 South East Asia Sub-regional Consultation on “Religious Fundamentalism, Minorities and Interdisciplinary Education”, CJCU, Tainan, Taiwan. April. 1-4, 2010
3) 2010 Inter-sub-regional doctoral students colloquium on “Ecumenical Response to Ecological Crisis” Kolkata, India, Dec. 7-11, 2010
4) We have recently submitted another proposal to ETE-WCC for the second Inter-sub-regional doctoral students colloquium on “Environmental, Marginalized Communities and Commercial Tourism”, which is yet to be discovered its result.
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