Table Of Contentasian cHRistianity
in tHe diaspoRa
Religious
language
and asian
ameRican
HybRidity
Julius-Kei Kato
Asian Christianity in the Diaspora
Series Editors
Grace Ji-Sun Kim
Georgetown University
Bethlehem , Pennsylvania , USA
Joseph Cheah
University of Saint Joseph
West Hartford , Connecticut , USA
Asian American theology is still at its nascent stage. It began in the 1980's
with just a handful of scholars who were recent immigrants to the United
States. Now with the rise in Asian American population and the rise of
Asian American theologians, this new community is an ever-i mportant
voice within theological discourse and Asian American cultural studies.
This new series seeks to bring to the forefront some of the important,
provocative new voices within Asian American Theology. The series aims
to provide Asian American theological responses to the complex process
of migration and resettlement process of Asian immigrants and refugees.
We will address theoretical works on the meaning of diaspora, exile, and
social memory, and the foundational works concerning the ways in which
displaced communities remember and narrate their experiences. Such an
interdisciplinary approach entails intersectional analysis between Asian
American contextual theology and one other factor; be it sexuality, gen-
der, race/ethnicity, and/or cultural studies. This series also addresses
Christianity from Asian perspectives. We welcome manuscripts that exam-
ine the identity and internal coherence of the Christian faith in its encoun-
ters with different Asian cultures, with Asian people, the majority of whom
are poor, and with non-Christian religions that predominate the landscape
of the Asian continent. Palgrave is embarking on a transformation of dis-
course within Asian and Asian American theological scholarship as this will
be the fi rst of its kind. As we live in a global world in which Christianity
has re-centered itself in the Global South and among the racialized minor-
ities in the United States, it behooves us to listen to the rich, diverse and
engaging voices of Asian and Asian American theologians.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14781
Julius-Kei Kato
Religious Language
and Asian American
Hybridity
Julius-Kei Kato
King’s University College
Western University
London , Ontario, Canada
Asian Christianity in the Diaspora
ISBN 978-1-137-58214-0 ISBN 978-1-137-58215-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-58215-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016940642
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To my colleagues and friends at King’s University College, London,
Canada, especially those in the Department of Philosophy
and Religious Studies
As always, also to Del and Keitlyn Hajime
P
REFACE
Have you ever sat in a pew at church, read, or listened to the religious
language being expressed there and thought, “This is so not acceptable
anymore!”? This is a common experience for me and I have come to the
conclusion that the reason why religious language sometimes seems to
be inappropriate today is because many (most?) of us in this globalized
and postmodern world are turning more and more into hybrids. Hybrids
are people with many “worlds” within them. These “worlds” were once
thought of as separate and distinct from each other, but they have now
met, mixed, fused , a nd become part of the hybrid person’s inner self. In
contrast to that, much of the religious language, at least in the West, was
crafted in an earlier age when distinctions among worlds—national, cul-
tural, and even religious—were more marked and more valued, and it has
not been updated to refl ect the intermingling and fusion of once distinct
worlds that have been happening extensively in our globalized and post-
modern world.
We have to start somewhere to break down the thick wall between
“us” and “them” in religious language today, and I propose that we start
with conversation. After all, as the theologian David Tracy has said, “con-
versation is our only hope.” 1 Hybridity needs to converse with religious
language in order to explore possibilities by which traditional religious
language might become, once again, truly life-giving and empowering for
a new hybridized age. This is my hope for this book. Of course, I can only
deal with what I know, and hence, in this book, I try to make hybridity in
an Asian North American form converse with religious language in a bibli-
cal and/or Christian (oftentimes Catholic) form. Besides, I am located in
vii
viii PREFACE
Canada and will therefore use in the text the more inclusive term, “Asian
North American.”
I also have to add that this work makes no pretensions of being objec-
tive. The “readings” and interpretations of themes contained here are,
in a profound sense, subjective and even autobiographical. This work is
nothing more than the beginning of a conversation between an Asian
North American hybrid and selected themes from the New Testament
and the Christian theological heritage (my main fi elds of teaching and
research). As a conversation starter, it aims to begin (and at times even
provoke) an extended process that will involve some of these factors:
respectful exchange of ideas, clarifi cation, argumentation, agreement and/
or disagreement, further addition, further nuancing, concession, revision,
maybe even a future change of opinion, ( most probably) the pointing out of
the weaknesses and naiveté of ideas contained in this work , and so on—all of
which are part of the process of conversation.
Above all, I hope that this work would be a step toward a more pro-
found embrace of hybridity in the academy and in the world at large. I am
convinced that such an action will mean a further dissolution of the thick
wall separating “us” and “them” because what we typically consider the
“other” will become increasingly recognized within ourselves. God knows
how much we need that today!
London, Canada
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I turned fi fty in 2015. Family and friends told me then that turning fi fty
is a signifi cant milestone in life but I tried not to be melodramatic about
it, perhaps as a form of denial on my part. Since then, however, I have
noticed some signifi cant changes in myself so that I have to admit: fi fty
years d oes make a difference! One signifi cant change is that, now, I feel
that I have a deeper existential awareness that life—my life—is no longer
something that is just in front of me like a wide-open landscape. No,
much ground has already been covered. The journey is more than half-
way done. That heightened awareness of “limit” has in fact deepened my
sense of gratitude, particularly now as I fi nish this manuscript. I also real-
ize now, more than ever, how much I d o not know, how much I have yet
to learn. It sometimes feels, therefore, brazen, foolhardy, and audacious
that I could even propose to offer my research and thoughts on this or
any given theme. And yet I purport to do so, I guess, as a way of mark-
ing a half-century of living life and thinking about religion and theology
as a hybrid . At the same time, I would like to honor in a special way the
experiences and refl ections of so many others who are themselves living
consciously and refl ecting critically as hybrids.
It is with profound gratitude then that I acknowledge the many people
without whom I would not have completed this book. Dr. Peter Phan,
Dr. Kenan Osborne (also my D oktorvater ), and Dr. Fumitaka Matsuoka
have been my mentors and friends since my PhD student days. They have
always wholeheartedly supported me and my academic work. This time,
special thanks go to Dr. Phan of course who is not only the subject of
some topics in this book but is one of the greatest inspirations for me to
ix
