What people are saying about the reader…
While Americans in general know that there are many Asian American churches, that the number of individual Korean American and Chinese American Christians continues to grow, and that there is significant activity by Christian believers from other parts of Asia (especially the Philippines), detailed information has been scarce. It is, therefore, a real boon for understanding contemporary American religious life to hail this carefully selected and well organized collection of first-rate essays. For Christian believers, the book provides also spiritual nurture from the privilege it affords of looking over the shoulders of highly competent observers as they assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges among a wide diversity of Asian-American churches. – Mark Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame
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Studies of Asian American Christianity are blossoming across many fields of inquiry–theology, history, sociology, psychology, gender studies and ethnic studies. Finding the best current works can be a challenge. Editors Viji Nakka – Cammauf and Timothy Tseng have done interested readers a great favor by compiling this impressive collection. It belongs on many a scholar’s desk and in any library that supports religious studies. – Joel Carpenter, Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity, Calvin College
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Thanks for editing this splendid reader. It’s very comprehensive and diverse, the best presentation of Asian American theology so far. – Dr. Peter C. Phan, Ignacio Ellacuria, SJ Professor of Catholic Social Thought, Theology, Georgetown University
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Intersecting race-ethnicity and religion, this reader offers a comprehensive coverage of Asian American Christianity. By dividing the reader into four sections — contexts, sites, identity, and voices — it offers in-depth understanding of both Catholic and Protestant traditions, practices, theologies, and faith communities. It also highlights diversity and complexity across lines of gender, generation, denomination and ethnicity in Asian American Christianity. I strongly recommend this reader for anyone who wants to understand the dynamic process of (re)making religion in the United States. – Jung Ha Kim, Senior Lecturer, Georgia State University
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You have assembled a tremendous resource on Asian American Christianity. It is truly a comprehensive interdisciplinary collection of articles written by well-known scholars of Asian American religion. It places the history and current challenges of the Asian American church into the context of multiple Asian immigrants’ struggle to survive and flourish in the face of systematic forms of racial exclusion. I am heartened to see that considerable attention has been paid to Asian American women’s efforts to find both voice and agency within traditional patriarchal church structures. I am convinced that this will serve as a valuable resource to practitioners and scholars alike. – Helene Slessarev-Jamir, Mildred M. Hutchinson Professor of Urban Ministries, Claremont School of Theology
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This reader…brings together a wide range of historical, sociological, ethnographic, and theological material to provide an invaluable introduction to the broad spectrum of Asian American Christianity as well as the major researchers of, trends regarding, and methodological approaches to the topic. Students and scholars will learn a great deal, and no theological library should go without it. – Amos Yong, Associate Research Professor of Theology, Regent University School of Divinity
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This remarkable collection of essays serves several functions. It provides an introduction to the histories, major denominations, and social and ethnic contexts of various sorts of Asian American Christians. It explores individual religious experience and the relationship between identity and spirituality. It has an admirably wide-ranging theological section. And it is a practical manual for pastors, lay leaders, and others who serve or worship thoughtfully in Asian American settings. – Paul Spickard, Professor of History, Religious Studies, and Asian American Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
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This is a volume of excellent resources and reflections on Asian American Christianity by leading Asian American theologians. It fills a great need long felt by the Asian Christian communities in North America. It provides comprehensive resources, theological and practical, for pastors and lay leaders as well as theologians in those communities. Non-Asian American theologians and pastors in North America as well as the white leadership in the North American churches will also find valuable resources of information about what is going on in Asian Christian communities. I recommend it with great enthusiasm. – Anselm K. Min, Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Theology, School of Religion, Claremont Graduate University
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What a wonderful resource! Dr. Viji-Cammauf and Dr. Tseng have put together a tremendous collection of articles that will help anyone to better understand the nuances of ministering to the Asian American population. It gives great insights in wide range of issues and topics. Great job!!! – Charles J. Lee, DMin, Lead Pastor, Acts Fellowship Church, Austin, Texas
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This important and timely collection of essays reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ in the church and the academy who are working on issues of interest to Asian American Christianity. I am certain that my students will find it immensely helpful. – Grace Y. Kao, Associate Professor of Ethics, Claremont School of Theology
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This collection will be a must have for scholars of American religion. No other volume combines such a diverse array of Asian American historical, theological, sociological, and literary approaches to religion in America. This reader should become a standard of the classroom and the theological library. - Paul Harvey, Professor of History, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
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The study of Asian American Christianity has taken a giant leap forward with this reader. Both church and academy are indebted to Viji Nakka-Cammauf and Timothy Tseng for bringing together under one cover a range of essays that tell the story of immigration, assimilation, identity, and faith development among Asian American Christians. I suspect that this reader will be used in courses on American cultural religions for years to come. – F. Albert “Al” Tizon, Assistant Professor of Holistic Ministry, Director of Word & Deed Network (www.worddeednetwork.org), Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University, Wynnewood, PA
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You have drawn together the best and most well used articles on the history of Asian American Christianity. Together they give a rich picture of the development of this tradition, especially in the Pacific region and West Coast of North America. You have also added to the articles that have already shaped the field, some new material that provides a broader context for understanding Asian American Christianity. – Randi Walker, Associate Professor of Church History, Pacific School Of Religion, Berkeley, CA
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Since the groundbreaking work of Dr. Roy Sano’s The Theologies of Asian Americans and Pacific Peoples: A Reader in 1976, there has been no such resource collection of the conspicuous voices of Asian Americans as this Asian American Christianity Reader. This great chorus of many Asian American voices is the unmistakable new bench mark of new heights that Asian American Christianity has gained. For studying Asian American Christianity, this Reader is informative, inspiring, transformative, and indispensable. – Andrew Sung Park, Professor of Theology, United Theological Seminary, Dayton, OH
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This groundbreaking and insightful collection of interpretative essays on Asian American Religions will prove an indispensable resource for scholars, students, clergy, and lay leaders for years to come. It is an important contribution to the study of religion in the United States. Highly recommended. – Gastón Espinosa, Stoughton Professor of Religious Studies, Claremont McKenna College, President, La Comunidad of Hispanic Scholars of Religion, AAR & SBL, Co-Editor, Columbia University Press Series in Religion and Politics
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This important volume on Asian American Christianity comes at an important historical moment. In this time of changing understandings of race and ethnicity in American life this volume provides essential reflections for interpreting what this moment means for the Christian faith in the United States. By inviting us to understand the multivalent expressions of Asian American Christianity, the pieces in this book help readers to move beyond simplistic categories of missionary and immigrant experience which always render Asian descent Christians as objects of the Christian faith and never subjects. In the contemporary context this is a needed work that will contribute to both academic and ecclesial conversations about how Asian descent communities are shaping the new reality of the Church in the 21st century! – Stephen G. Ray Jr., Professor of Systematic Theology, Neal and Ila Fisher Chair of Theology, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, IL
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This anthology provides an essential introduction to Asian American Christianity that many of us have been waiting for! It comprises an outstanding collection of essays that challenges the Orientalist perception of Asian Americans and the assimilationist readings of Asian American Christianity. The seminal works in this volume clearly exemplify the importance of religion/theology as a factor in the analysis and understanding of both Asian American experience and Asian American Christianity. It is an indispensable reader for not only students in theology and religious studies but also Asian American Studies and ethnic studies. Scholars in these fields will find this volume a valuable resource as well. – Joseph Cheah, OSM, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Saint Joseph College, West Hartford, CT
