Towards a Truly Catholic and a Truly Asian Church

by Jukka Helle

Overview

“The future of the Church is in Asia.” (Pope Francis to the Philippine Cardinal Tagle.) Asian Catholic bishops have taken up this challenge since 1970; they show how the Asian Church navigates itself in the midst of Asian religious and cultural plurality. An image of a harmonious, dialogical and inclusive church with its wayfarer’s theology emerges in the theological thought of Asian bishops. This book also shows that the Asian Catholic Church is a lively and vibrant communion of local Churches, whose fresh and inspiring theological thought should be studied and welcomed outside of Asia as well.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789004509641
Publisher:	Brill Academic Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/28/2022
Series:	Theology and Mission in World Christianity , #22
Pages:	348
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.76(d)

About the Author

Jukka Helle, Ph.D (University of Helsinki, Finland, 2018), is a Lutheran pastor. He served 17 years as a missionary in Thailand where he has taught at many theological seminaries and colleges in Thailand. He has co-authored many books in English/Thai for the use of Thai churches, and also many articles on Asian contextual theology (mainly in Finnish). He is a member of International Association for Mission Studies (IAMS), International Association of Catholic Missiologists (IACM), and Asian Liturgy Forum. Currently he serves as Executive Secretary for Mission and International Work in the Diocese of Kuopio, The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations

1 Introduction
 1 The Search for a New Identity – The 1970 Asian Bishops’ Meeting as the Beginning of the FABC
 2 Features of the Development of Contextual Theologies
 3 A Few Pioneering Asian Catholic Contextual Theologians
 4 Task of This Study and Its Method and Sources
 5 Motivation of This Study and Earlier Research on the FABC’s Theology

2 Asian Contexts Challenge the Christian Gospel in Asia
 1 Towards Being Asian
 2 Harmony as a Major Element of an Asian Worldview

3 Towards an Asian Understanding of Truth
 1 Asian Truth: Universal, Practical, and Non-exclusivist
 2 Dialogue as a Means towards a Better Understanding of Truth
 3 The Asian Wayfarer on the Way towards Truth
 4 The FABC’s Wayfaring Theology Challenges Traditional Understanding of Church’s Tradition

4 The FABC’s Encounter with Asian Contextual Realities
 1 Word of God/Logos spermatikos as a Bridge-Builder between the Universal and the Local
 2 The FABC in Dialogue with Asian Religions
 3 The FABC in Dialogue with Asian Cultures
 4 The FABC in Dialogue with Asian Socio-Political Realities (the Poor)
 5 The Question of Sin with Regard to Asian Contextual Realities
 6 Logos, Christ, and the Spirit

5 The Local Church in Service of Asian Peoples
 1 Searching for Asian Faces of Jesus
 2 An Asian Church with an Asian Face of Jesus: What Kind of Community, What Kind of Mission?
 3 A Theological Methodology Compatible with Asia

6 Postscript: The FABC during the Pontificate of Pope Francis

7 Conclusions: The Journey Continues
 1 Conclusion Based on the Postscript Chapter
Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index