The project on Christianity in Asia, in the Centre for Advanced Religious and Theological Studies (CARTS) at the University of Cambridge with Professor Archie Lee on loan from the Chinese University, Hong Kong, will concentrate on the following areas over the next three years: 1. Asian Biblical Hermeneutics, 2. Reinterpretation of the History of Asian Christianity, 3. Contemporary Construction of Asian Theology, 4. Asian Women and Feminist Theology, 5. Christianity and Asian Living Religions.
The Ecumenical Institute at Bossey will concentrate on 1. A Revised approach to Religions and Cultures, 2. The Challenges of Globalisation for the Christian Faith and the formulation of Ethical Criteria.
The following were decided after a further meeting in Hong Kong, September, 1998:
CWM & CCA to sponsor research followed by a theological round-table on mission looking towards the 21st Century. The preliminary documentation and research to be completed by the end of June 1999. A period of three months for sifting out the major missiological issues as identified in the research. The theological round-table to take place in Hong Kong in October 1999. (This project fulfills the expectation in CWM that the general secretary of CWM will follow up the CWM workshop on mission in October 1998 with a consultation on mission in 1999 that would include CEVAA and other mission organisations that are working with the concept of partnership in mission.)
For preliminary documentation and research the following areas were identified, concentrating on the last 20-30 years, and the persons who would oversee the work. Other scholars would be drawn in by these persons to get the work done.
It was agreed that this project should be the first priority for the Asian scholars and institutions as it will address all the major issues envisaged for theological enquiry in NOTE, and be of immediate concern and benefit for churches and Christian groups as they look for a new framework for mission. This round-table would also serve to sharpen the issues for further research that are given below.
Since the end of the cold war, the geo-political situation has changed several times. Part of the reason is the role played by the USA as the only super-power and the various reactions to the role played by this country as a global purveyor of standards and values of all kinds – military, political, economic and moral. The second reason is the impact of the world market on global and national political structures and values both through its operation and through its advocacy of neo-liberalism as a political philosophy. An in-depth study of the geo-political situation of North-East Asia (North Korea, South Korea, China and Japan), where all of these factors operate, would provide a way of understanding how the new geo-political situation is manifested in a particular area and what the Christian response could be. This case-study would also be of help in formulating similar enquiries in other parts of the world, especially South Asia and the Middle East.
Ninan Koshy is to be asked to provide a 'map' of the present geo-political scene. This material will be made available to churches by the middle of next year. (Kim Yong-bock)
CWM has supported a project in this area lodged with the Ecumenical Institute, Bossey. Without duplicating the work, it was decided that the Asian contribution could be research on the Asian experience of religious and cultural plurality.
Persons involved in the study at Bossey will be asked to provide a 'map' of the issues in this. (Fely Cariño, Preman Niles)
With regard to the Asian contribution to this subject, Archie Lee and Wong Wai Ching will be doing several historical studies on the impact of Christianity on Chinese cultural identities.
K C Abraham will undertake a project on dimensions of Christian identity/identities focusing on pluriformity. It was felt that the quest for Christian unity, in itself a proper concern, has often tended to abort the discussion on Christian identities and their specificities by trying to submerge them in an assumed unity that has not given enough space for the religio-cultural expressions of the Christian faith.
The general enquiry into Christian identity/identities focussing on pluriformity will be preceded and supported through two projects. One on the contribution of Dalit theology, especially with the on-going dialogues with Minjung theology, and the other will be theology from a North-East Indian tribal perspective. It is clear that these projects while being culture-specific should not be culture-bound, so that they may make contributions to a global discourse, to follow, on the nature of Christian identity in the midst of religio-cultural pluralities.
Rob van Drimmelen's book, Faith in a Global Economy, is a comprehensive study of the global economic situation and what shape Christian faith responses could take. Kim Yong-bock will seek a shorter 'map' of the issues in this area from the Dutch economist, Bob Goudzwaard.
The NOTE project on 'economics is more than capital' will seek alternatives to present economic thinking by concentrating on the contributions of various religious traditions that speak of economics as having to do with life and the quality of life and not just the accumulation of capital. Kim Yong-bock is working on Confucian philosophical contributions. K C Abraham is to get persons to work on Buddhist and Hindu contributions.
Mission projects on diakonal mission (Kim Yong-bock through Hanil) and alternative micro-financing (Preman Niles through CWM) are also to be undertaken.
The expectation is that all of this research will be processed at a later stage to be shared with churches and Christian communities.