Video: Asian-American Ecumene? On ‘Inculturation’ into Too Many Cultural Worlds—Spring 2017

Dr. Justin Tse joins North Park Theological Seminary for Spring 2017’s Westerdahl Lectures. Dr. Tse is a visiting assistant professor in the Asian American Studies Program at Northwestern University. He served as lead editor of Theological Reflections on the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement (Palgrave, 2016) and also blogs for Patheos Catholic as Eastern Catholic Person. He is working on a book manuscript on how Cantonese-speaking Protestants engage Pacific Rim civil societies.

In Part 1, Tse reframes “inculturation”—theologizing the gospel within a particular culture—by asking what happens when Asian-American Christians move among many overlapping worlds (ethnic, national, denominational, classed). Drawing on his geography-of-religion lens, he proposes “ecumene” as a better analytic: not a single host culture to be entered, but a lived network of places, institutions, and publics that Asian-American believers already inhabit and stitch together. That networked view helps explain why worship, ethics, and church politics often feel cross-pressured: believers are constantly negotiating expectations from Asian diasporic communities, American racial orders, and multiple Christian traditions at once.

Tse uses this frame to critique tidy assimilation stories and narrow “contextualization” models. Instead, he shows how Asian-American Christian life is made in transit—through coalitions and frictions with evangelical, mainline, Catholic/Orthodox, and immigrant congregational spaces; through property, family, and schooling concerns; and through transpacific ties that complicate what counts as “local church” or “mission field.” The ecumene metaphor, then, is pastoral as well as scholarly: it gives ministers and congregations language for why ministry among Asian-American publics can feel like “too many worlds,” and it suggests that faithfulness means learning to navigate networks rather than choosing a single cultural home.

Timestamps

• Framing the question: from “inculturation” to “ecumene” 00:00

• Asian-American plurality: too many cultural worlds at once 02:15

• Method: geography of religion and networked publics 07:20

• Case illustrations: congregations, property, and place-making 12:30

• Cross-pressures in family, schooling, and class 19:10

• Transpacific ties and what counts as “local church” 25:40

• Ministry implications: navigating networks vs. assimilating 31:10

• Q&A takeaways and practical cautions 36:30

Watch Part 2