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Irish Theological Quarterly

DOI: 10.1177/00211400060725592006; 71; 5Irish Theological Quarterly

Peter C. PhanTheological Epistemology

Whose Experiences? Whose Interpretations? Contribution of Asian Theologies to

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Irish Theological Quarterly71 (2006) 528 2006 Irish Theological QuarterlySage Publications [www.sagepublications.com]DOI: 10.1177/0021140006072559

5

Whose Experiences? WhoseInterpretations? Contribution ofAsian Theologies to TheologicalEpistemology

Peter C. PhanA contrast is evident between the historical, literary, and cultural criticism, which is dom-inant in Western academies and which privileges the written text, and the Asianhermeneutical method that takes into account the multifaceted sources and resources,written and unwritten, of the Asian context. In light of these sources and resources, theauthor introduces a number of Asian hermeneutics with a view to enriching the Westernhermeneutical methods.

When the apostle Philip asked the Ethiopian eunuch, who was read-ing the prophet Isaiah, whether he understood what he was reading,and the latter replied: How can I, unless someone guides me? (Acts 8:31),

the Christian science and art of hermeneutics was born. Of course, it isarguable that Christian hermeneutics enjoys a nobler pedigree than apos-tolic origin since the risen Jesus himself had interpreted ()the Hebrew Scriptures to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus,explaining the things about himself in all the scriptures (Luke 24:27).

Whatever the parentage of Christian hermeneutics, it is clear from thesetwo incidents that its primary focus is the written text and, more precisely,the Hebrew Scriptures. This emphasis on textual reading was continued inthe patristic era in which, inspired by Pauls statement that the letter kills,but the spirit gives life (2 Cor 3:6), theologians, especially Origen andAugustine, developed strategies to extract from the Bible the spiritual

sense, hidden behind or beyond the text, in addition to the literal sense,given in the very letter of the text. The medieval fourfold scheme of thesenses of the Bible (i.e. the literal, allegorical, tropological, and anagogical),summarized in Nicholas of Lyras mnemonic formula: littera gesta docet, quidcredas allegoria, moralis quid agas, quo tendas anagogia, perpetuated the trad-itional understanding of hermeneutics as interpretation of text. Thisemphasis on the text as the object of interpretation was strengthened bythe Reformers theological principle ofsola scriptura and their understand-ing of biblical inspiration as verbal dictation, with the attendant claim that

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the Bible requires its own interpretive method and strategies, a hermeneu-tica sacra distinct from the profane hermeneutics. Finally, even the modern

methods of historical, literary, and cultural criticisms, which rejectedOrthodox Protestantisms demand of a special status for the Bible anddeveloped techniques for reading the Bible as any other human document,still regarded the written text as the privileged if not exclusive object ofinterpretation.

The questions Whose experiences? and Whose interpretations? inthe title of this article intend to challenge, from the perspective of Asiantheologies, the customary practice of granting texts the monopoly of beingobjects of interpretation, especially when the function of interpretation isseen as supplying facts and data for systematic theology, as well as to ques-tion the hegemony of the modes of interpretive analysis and criticism cur-

rently regnant in Western academies.1 My aim is to explore the possibilityof expanding the sources and resources for theology and devising appro-priate methods for interpreting them. What will emerge is an enrichedtheological epistemology, or to put it simply, an Asian style of doing the-ology. I will begin with a brief presentation of how Asian theologiansunderstand the task and method of theology. Second, I will explain howdifferent strategies of interpretation are used in Asian theologies to gatherdata for systematic theology. Finally, I will illustrate these interpretivestrategies with a concrete example taken from a well-known Taiwanesetheologian.

Doing Theology, Asian Style

It is very significant that discourse on method, to parody Descartes, isnot, for Asian theologians, something that must be done at the outset oftheir theological work as its condition of possibility, as if it were the foun-dation on which the theological edifice is built.2 Rather, reflection on

6 IRISH THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY

1. The phrasing of the title of the essay is a faint echo of Alasdair MacIntyres WhoseJustice? Whose Rationality? (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1988) inso-far as it points out the connection between the way the text is conceived as the exclusiveinterpretandum of Christian theology and the various interpretive strategies of the currentlyregnant modes of hermeneutics in Western academies, just as MacIntyres book highlightsthe connection between different and incompatible conceptions of justice and different andincompatible conceptions of practical rationality.2. By Asian theologians I mean primarily the bishops as well as their theological advisorsworking in the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences and its various standing offices.The FABC was founded in 1970, on the occasion of Pope Paul VIs visit to Manila, thePhilippines. Its statutes, approved by the Holy See ad experimentum in 1972, were amendedseveral times and were also approved again each time by the Holy See. For the documentsof the FABC and its various institutes, see Gaudencio Rosales and C. G. Arvalo (eds), For

All the Peoples of Asia: Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences. Documents from 1970 to 1991(New York/Quezon City, Manila: Orbis/Claretian, 1992); Franz-Josef Eilers (ed.), For All thePeoples of Asia: Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences. Documents from 1992 to 1996,vol. 2 (Quezon City, Manila: Claretian, 1997); and id. (ed.), For All the Peoples of Asia:Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences. Documents from 1997 to 2002 (Quezon City,

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method, as Choan-Seng Song puts it, is an after-thought, as well as aforward-thought, since it is simply an attempt to understand what one

has been doing and a signpost guiding ones continuing theologicaljourney.3 This is so because theology in Asia is regarded not primarily asscientia or sapientia but, like Latin American liberation theology, it isviewed as a critical reflection on praxis in which praxis obtains primacyover and directs theorizing. To use Gustavo Gutirrezs memorable expres-sion, theology is only a second stepfollowingthe first act, which is activesolidarity with the poor and the oppressed.4

The Pastoral Cycle

Interestingly enough, when the Federation of Asian Bishops

Conferences (FABC) first developed a method of theological reflectionappropriate to the Asian context in 1986, it simply articulated the way ithad been theologizing since its foundation in 1970. The FABC called itthe pastoral cycle to show that theology is intrinsically connected withthe ministry of the church indeed, with what it proposed as a new wayof being church in Asia.

The pastoral cycle is composed of four interconnected steps. The first(exposure-immersion) exposes the theologians to and immerses them in theconcrete situation of the poor with whom and for whom they work:Exposure is like a doctors visit for diagnosis; immersion is like the visit ofa genuine friend entering into the dialogue-of-life. Exposure-Immersion follows the basic principle of the Incarnation.5 The aim of this first step isto provide the theologians with an experiential knowledge of and concretesolidarity with their suffering people. This is the perspective in which thetheological labor will be carried out, and not from some abstract doctrinalprinciples. To put it in Jacques Dupuiss language, this personal exposure-immersion will prevent theology from using a dogmatic and deductive

WHOSE EXPERIENCES? WHOSE INTERPRETATIONS? 7

Manila: Claretian, 2002). These will be cited as For All Peoples, followed by their years of pub-lication in parentheses. For a brief history of the FABC and a summary of its theological ori-entations, see Edmund Chia, Thirty Years of FABC: History, Foundation, Context and Theology.FABC Papers, no. 106 (Hong Kong: FABC, 2003). (eds), Peter C. Phan and Jung Young Lee3. See C.-S. Song, Five Stages Toward Christian Theology in the Multicultural World, in

Journeys at the Margin: Toward an Autobiographical Theology in American-Asian Perspective,(Collegeville, MN.: Liturgical Press, 1999), 1.4. See G. Gutirrez, A Theology of Liberation, rev. edn., trans. Sister Caridad and JohnEagleson (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988), 9.5. For All Peoples (1992), 231. This exposure-immersion should not be seen merely as atemporary phase, though often it takes place in a short period of time. The FABC repeat-edly insists that the church must share the lives and the poverty of the people to whom itproclaims the Good News: Quite clearly, then, there is a definite path along which theSpirit has been leading the discernment of the Asian Church: the Church of Asia mustbecome the Church of the poor (For All Peoples 1992, 145). This phase corresponds to

praxis which Latin American liberation theology insists is the methodological presupposi-tion for doing theology.



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method that starts from general principles in order to apply themconcretely to problems of today and will make use of the inductive

method in which the problem is no longer that of coming down fromprinciples to concrete applications, but rather moving in the oppositedirection that of starting from reality as now experienced with all theproblems that it entails, in order to seek a Christian solution to suchproblems in the light of the revealed message and through theologicalreflection.6

The second step is social analysis. The objects to be investigated includethe social, economic, political, cultural, and religious systems in society aswell as the signs of the times, the events of history, and the needs andaspirations of the people. Indeed, without this technical analysis, as theFABCs International Congress on Mission in 1979 in Manila pointed

out, the naivety of all too many Christians regarding the structural causesof poverty and injustice often leads them to the adoption of ineffectivemeasures in their attempts to promote justice and human rights.7 TheFABC does not specify which method of social analysis is to be employed.However, it warns of the danger of deception either by ideology or self-interest and of incompleteness.8

This brings us to the third step, namely, integration of social analysiswith the religio-cultural reality, discerning not only its negative andenslaving aspects but also its positive, prophetic aspects that can inspiregenuine spirituality.9 This step requires contemplation in order to discoverGods active presence in society and preferential love for the poor. Thiscontemplative dimension brings the theologians into a sympathetic andrespectful dialogue with Asias great religions and the religiosity of thepoor. Through this double dialogue, the authentic values of the Gospel arediscovered and appreciated such as simplicity of life, genuine opennessand generous sharing, community consciousness and family loyalty.10

The fourth step is pastoral planning, which seeks to complete the firstthree steps by formulating practical and realistic policies, strategies, andplans of action in favor of integral human development. As these policies,


6. J. Dupuis, Christianity and the Religions, trans. Phillip Berryman (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis,2002), 8.7. For All Peoples (1992), 145. Indeed, almost all documents issued by the FABC and itsvarious institutes invariably begin with a careful analysis of the social, political, economic,cultural, and religious condition of Asia or parts of Asia as appropriate.8. For All Peoples (1992), 231. Implicitly, the FABC considers Marxist social analysis,which was favored by early Latin American liberation theology, insufficient for the Asiansituation. The FABCs Fifth Plenary Assembly says: Social analysis [must] be integratedwith cultural analysis, and both subjected to faith-discernment. See For All Peoples(1992), 285.9. For All Peoples (1992), 231.10. For All Peoples (1992), 232. Aloysius Pieris calls this step introspection: He argues thata liberation-theopraxis in Asia that uses only the Marxist tools of social analysis willremain un-Asian and ineffective until it integrates the psychological tools of introspectionwhich our sages have discovered. See hisAn Asian Theology of Liberation (Maryknoll, NY:Orbis, 1988), 80.



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strategies and plans of action are implemented, they are continuouslysubmitted to evaluation by a renewal of the first three steps of the pastoral

cycle. Thus the ultimate test of the validity of theological insightsis their ability to generate concrete actions in favor of justice andliberation.11

Doing theology in Asia, then, is much more than an academic enter-prise. Of course, theology always is intellectus fidei understanding of thefaith no matter where it is done. However, the starting point of Asiantheologies is, as we will argue below, neither the Bible nor ChristianTradition from which conclusions are drawn by means of deductive logicand then applied to particular situations and circumstances. Rather, Asiantheologians are implicated from the outset in the socio-political, eco-nomic, cultural, and religious conditions of their suffering and oppressed

people with whom they must stand in effective solidarity. It is from theperspective of thispraxis that Scripture and Tradition are read and inter-preted.

Asian Integral Pastoral Approach

Nearly a decade later, in 1993, at a consultation on integral formationin Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, this theological method was re-baptized underthe name of Asian Integral Pastoral Approach (ASIPA) in order to rootit more deeply in the new way of being church in Asia that had beenemerging in various documents of the FABC.12 This new ecclesiologyconsists mainly in making the Church, in the words of the Fifth Plenaryassembly of the FABC in 1990,

a communion of communities, where laity, Religious and clergy recog-nize and accept each other as sisters and brothers . a participatoryChurch where the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to all the faithful lay, Religious and clerics alike are recognized and activated. aChurch that faithfully and lovingly witnesses to the Risen Lord Jesusand reaches out to people of other faiths and persuasions in a dia-logue of life towards the integral liberation of all a leaven of trans-

formation in this world and a prophetic sign daring to point


11. See For All Peoples (1992), 232. There is a parallel between the FABCs pastoral cycleand the method of Latin American liberation theology. Clodovis Boff describes the methodof liberation theology as composed of three mediations: socio-analytic mediation ( socialanalysis), hermeneutic mediation ( contemplation), and practical mediation ( pastoralplanning). These three mediations are preceded and accompanied by praxis in favorof justice and liberation ( exposure-immersion). See Clodovis Boff, Theology and Praxis:Epistemological Foundations, trans. Robert R. Barr (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1987).12. On this ASIPA, see For All Peoples (1997), 10711 and 1379. The ASIPA was devel-oped along the lines of the Lumko Approach, a pastoral training program that Bishop FritzLobinger and Fr. Oswald Hirmer originated to promote lay participation through BasicChristian Communities in South Africa.



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beyond this world to the ineffable Kingdom that is yet fully tocome.13

By Asian in this approach is meant a deep sensitivity to the peculiarsituation of Asian countries: socio-political and economic conditions ofoppression, exploitation and poverty; religious pluralism; and rich culturaltraditions. Hence, the necessity of Christian mission conducted in themode of a triple, intrinsically connected, dialogue: with the poor and themarginalized people of Asia, in particular, women and youth (liberationand integral development); with Asian religions (interreligious dialogue);and with Asian cultures (inculturation). By integral is meant wholenessin communicating the contents of the Christian faith, collaborationamong all members of the Church, and coordination of Church structures

at different levels. Pastoral emphasizes the primary goal of being churchin Asia in a new way; that is, by becoming a participatory Church.Approach refers to a pastoral process made up of various but related pro-grams to realize this new way of being church in all the local Churches.

Hermeneutics: Whose Experiences? Whose Interpretations?

Underlying this Asian style of doing theology, epitomized by the twoslogans the Pastoral Cycle and the Asian Integral Pastoral Approach, isa distinctive understanding of what constitutes the text to be interpretedand of the interpretive methods and strategies that would be most appro-priate to this interpretandum. Before expounding the FABCs conceptionof text and hermeneutical procedures, it would be helpful to outline thevarious models or paradigms of biblical interpretation currently in wide-spread use in Western academies.14 This sketch will serve as a useful foilto limn the characteristics of Asian hermeneutics.

Historical, Literary, Cultural Criticisms

In Fernando Segovias reading, the history of Western biblical interpreta-tion can be summarized in three competing interpretive paradigms: historical


13. For All Peoples (1992), 2878.14. I am indebted to Fernando F. Segovia for the following summary. See his DecolonizingBiblical Studies: A View from the Margins (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2000). My own methodolog-ical reflections may be found in Christianity with an Asian Face: Asian American Theology in theMaking(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2002), especially Chapter 1: The Experience of Migration asSource of Intercultural Theology in the United States; Chapter 2: A Common Journey,Different Paths, the Same Destination: Method in Liberation Theologies; Chapter 3:Inculturation of the Christian faith in Asia through Philosophy: A Dialogue with John PaulIIs Fides et Ratio; The Wisdom of Holy Fools in Postmodernity, Theological Studies 62 (2001):73052; Doing Theology in the Context of Cultural and Religious Pluralism: An AsianPerspective, Louvain Studies 27 (2002): 3968; Multiple Religious Belonging: Opportunitiesand Challenges for Theology and Church, Theological Studies 64 (2003): 495519.



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criticism, literary criticism, and cultural criticism, henceforth designated forconvenience as first, second, and third. Each of these modes of discourse con-

ceives the six categories of hermeneutics as follows:

(1) With regard to the nature of the text and its meaning, the biblical textis approached in the first as the means to reconstruct the worldbehind the text as well as its author to determine its meaning; in thesecond, as the medium or the message between the author and thereader to determine the aesthetic character and formal features ofthe text; in the third, as both the means and the medium to delineatethe texts broader cultural and social dimensions.

(2) As for reading strategies, they consist for the first in an archeological,vertical excavation of the text regarded as the result of a long process

of accretion and redaction full ofaporias and ruptures; for the second,in a horizontal, from beginning to end reading of the text regarded asa unified and coherent whole whose rhetorical and thematic harmonyis often ascribed to the authorial intention itself; for the third, in nei-ther a diachronic nor synchronic reading but in the proper decodingof the economic, social, and cultural codes contained in the textregarded as sociocultural entity within a larger sociocultural context.

(3) Concerningphilosophical foundations, the first is heavily influenced bypositivism and empiricism according to which the meaning of thetext is univocal and objective, and hence in principle retrievable bymeans of historical research. The second is also influenced, albeitsomewhat less than the first, by positivism and empiricism and there-fore still holds that the meaning of the text is univocal and objective,and hence in principle retrievable but now by means of literary or psy-choanalytic analysis. The third is also influenced by positivism andempiricism, perhaps more so than the first two, and firmly holds thatthe meaning of the text is univocal and objective, hence in principleretrievable but now by means of the methods of the social scienceswhich are regarded as more scientific and rigorous than the tools ofhistorical and literary analysis.

(4) With regard to the readers of the text, in the first, they are regarded as

faceless, universal, and informed critics who should assume a position ofneutrality and objectivity, and hence enjoy a high degree of authority. Inthe second, they are also regarded as universal, informed, technicallyproficient, and ideologically neutral, and hence also enjoy a highdegree of authority. In the third, readers are by contrast regarded asinformed, interested, and engag critics (in neo-Marxist criticism) or asfaceless, universal, and informed critics (in a sociological approach),and as informed and culture-specific critics but able to transcend thelimitations imposed by their cultures (in an anthropological approach).

(5) Concerning theological orientation, the first has a strong theologicalstance, regarding itself either as an exercise distinct from theology




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proper but providing it with facts and data for theological systemati-zation or as part of fundamental theology. The second conceives itself

less as a theological enterprise and more as an exercise in literary his-tory, though very helpful to the appreciation of the beauty and powerof the Word of God. The third also sees itself as less directly involvedin theological reconstruction and more directed toward socio-politicaland economic transformation and liberation (in neo-Marxist criti-cism) or as completely divorced from any type of theologizing (insociological and anthropological approaches).

(6) Concerning academic training andpedagogical method, the first puts apremium on the acquisition of linguistic skills and the mastery ofhistoriography and its preferred teaching method is learned imparta-tion and passive reception, highly hierarchical and authoritative in

character. The second emphasizes academic training in literary,psychoanalytic, structuralist, and rhetorical theories, and its preferredpedagogical model is also sophisticated impartation and passiveacquisition, highly authoritative and hierarchical in character. Thethird equally requires high-powered training in the social sciencessuch as politics, economics, sociology of religion, and anthropology,and its mode of teaching is also learned impartation and passiveabsorption, and highly authoritative and hierarchical in nature.

Whose Experiences?

In spite of their different reading strategies and their acrimonious bat-tles to dislodge each other from their entrenched positions in academicinstitutions, the three interpretive paradigms described above share cer-tain basic convictions such as their empiricist and positivistic foundations,their demand for scientific and scholarly training as a sine qua non pre-requisite for the interpretive task, and their authoritative and hierarchicalpedagogical methods. They differ of course most conspicuously in theirreading strategies which are borrowed from other academically respectabledisciplines.

But even in their methodological differences there are several funda-

mental common, unquestioned, and non-negotiable assumptions. First,the privileged and quasi-exclusive object of interpretation, the immediateinterpretandum, is the written text (e.g. the Bible). Second, the meaning ofthe text, however discovered, is an objective, universally valid, and per-manent entity, resident in the text and in principle retrievable from thetext. Third, the product of the interpretive act is another written text, usu-ally a learned commentary. Fourth, the presumed reader is a universal andinformed critic or at least potentially so by means of appropriate training.Even in the reader-response school of literary criticism, where a moreactive role is assigned to the reader in the production of meaning, thereader is still an abstract, bloodless, ethereal ghost for whom, in spite of




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the assertion of the polysemic nature of language and the plurality ofinterpretations, the meaning of the text is already permanently inscribed

and circumscribed in the text, which consequently imposes certain con-straints on the readers interpretation.To put it differently, whose experiences are to be taken as the interpre-

tandum to be decoded and interpreted? Are they those of people of thepast and are they now to be accepted as normative because they areinscribed in the written text declared divinely inspired and sacred? Theresult of this deeply ingrained bias in favor of the written is that only whatis written down (the Scripture) can count as normative and worthy ofinterpretation, and other media of communication such as visual and dra-matic productions are dismissed as unscholarly and popular interpretiveinstruments, unworthy of serious attention, as any member of committees

for tenure and promotion can readily attest. As a consequence, a host ofexperiences are eliminated from the realm of resources and sources fortheological reflection, or if they are admitted at all, they are relegated tosecondary status.

An even more deleterious consequence of the privileging of the writtentext as the interpretandum is the exclusion of non-readers and non-literatesfrom the process of interpretation, and in Asia this means a majority ofpeople, in particular, women, among whom illiteracy is disproportionatelygreater than among men. This is an unfortunate impoverishment, espe-cially for religious experiences.

As is well known, religious experiences are told primarily in myths.Mythos can mean simply anything delivered by word of mouth, narrative,and conversation. In contemporary parlance it tends to signify a fiction,but a fiction that conveys a truth too deep to be communicated adequatelyby means of discursive reasoning.15 It is this sense of myth that is of inter-est to us here. It refers to story-telling not just as an art form but as epis-temology and rhetoric, a way of knowing and communicating truths thataffect human living so profoundly and extensively philosophic and reli-gious truths that cannot be fully known and conveyed by logic and con-cepts. It is the vehicle of ultimate meaning about the divine, the world,the self, and other selves. Rather than relying on discursive reason, myth

makes use of the imagination as a means of access to reality. Through its


15. Not all theorists of myth accept the explanatory function of myth. Whereas there arescholars who insist on the explanatory power of myth, though not in the literalist way, othersprefer to emphasize the social and psychological functions of myth (e.g., B. Malinowskis func-tionalism), or to regard myth as a kind of language with a surface and deep structure composedby invariant features. E. Thomas Lawson groups recent explanatory approaches under fourtypes which he terms the theory of formal continuity but idiomatic discontinuity, the the-ory of conceptual relativism, the theory of rational dualism, and the theory of situationallogic. See his The Explanation of Myth and Myth as Explanation, Journal of the American

Academy of Religion XLVI/4 (1978): 50723. See also Jack Carloye, Myths as ReligiousExplanations,Journal of the American Academy of Religion XLVIII/2 (1980): 17589.



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distinctive form, that is, narratives and symbols, it points to a realitybeyond itself and thus contains in itself a surplus of meaning.16

As a way of knowing, myth-making or story-telling presents the wisdomof the community not as a system of clearly and definitively formulatedtruths that can be written down in a book but as a dance of metaphors thatguide the communitys thinking and acting. Story-telling resists allattempts to encapsulate wisdom in timeless propositions and freeze themin a fixed time and space. Story-tellers do not prize uniformity, consist-ency, and linearity. No story is told the same way twice; rather, the shapeof the story depends on the audience, the context, and the purposes forwhich the story is told. In some way, the story is the common creation ofits teller and listeners. The very act of story-telling and myth-makingassumes that change, emendation, revision, expansion, and plurality are

the stuff of life. Story-telling also presupposes that human beings are pri-marily agents or doers story-making and story-telling within the con-tinuum of past, present, and future and that who they are is revealed intheir actions that make up their life stories.

If human beings are myth-making and myth-telling animals; if the sym-bol gives rise to thought (Paul Ricoeur); and if human understanding isinevitably an essentially temporal event, a dynamic and open-endedprocess of interpretation upon which history exercises its influence,17

what has brought about the depreciation ofmythos as a way to wisdom inthe West? Contrary to popular perception, the cause of the eclipse of mythas a way of knowing reality and hence as a path to wisdom is not the con-trast between mythos and logos as epistemological instruments, the formerallegedly naive and archaic and the latter critical and scientific.

It is true that the distinct form ofmythos is narrative and that oflogos isdiscursive reasoning. However, this difference did not by itself lead to thedepreciation ofmythos as a way of knowing. Rather this was due primarilyto the move from orality to literacy. With the rise of writing and literacy,orality, through which myths and stories are transmitted, declined and, asthe result of this decline, the way of thinking in abstract terms and thetendency to view the world in mutually exclusive terms increased sub-stantially. Not only the knower became separated from the known, but

also the literate from the illiterate. With Gutenbergs invention of theprinting press, this separation became vastly exacerbated. As Walter Onghas shown, the printing press diffused knowledge as never before, set


16. For this concept, see the works of Paul Ricoeur, in particular, his The Symbolism of Evil,trans. Emerson Buchanan (Boston: Beacon, 1967) and Hermeneutics and the HumanSciences, ed. and trans. John B. Thompson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981).17. For this notion ofWirkungsgeschichte, see the works of Hans-Georg Gadamer, especiallyhis Truth and Method, 2nd rev. edn., trans. Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall (NewYork: Crossroad, 1989). For helpful general studies of Gadamers hermeneutics, see ThePhilosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer (Chicago: Open Court, 1997); Jean Grondin,Introduction Hans-Georg Gadamer (Paris: Cerf, 1999); and Lawrence K. Schmidt, TheEpistemology of Hans-Georg Gadamer: An Analysis of the Legitimation of Vorurteile (New York:

Peter Lang, 1987).



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universal literacy as a serious goal, made possible the rise of modern sci-ence, and altered social and intellectual life.18

The invention of the printing press aided and abetted the rise of modern-ity. In return, modernity favored reading and writing over story-tellingand listening; information and proofs over stories; texts, preferablyportable (e.g. pocket edition and paperback) that can be read in privateand controlled over the free and unpredictable to-and-fro of conversation;the written contract over an oral agreement. The printed text becomesthe privileged path to knowledge and wisdom. The truth is now inscribedand located in the text, and because it is written down, the truth remainsunchangeable and permanent. Indeed, unless recorded in texts, nothing isreliable, authoritative, and true, as the expression as it is written (today,the equivalent expression is as seen on TV!) suggests. Furthermore, those

who can read texts are authorities and have power over the illiterate.The latter are dependent on the former to know what the text says, ormore precisely, what they say that the text says.

In the process, the written text itself becomes the channel of truth andwisdom and the source of power and privilege. Coming to know the truthis made possible only though an objective and scientific interpretation ofthe text, especially classics and sacred scriptures. No wonder, in manyEuropean languages, to read means to interpret, as in the question: Whatis your reading of this situation or this person? As a consequence, truthbecomes a commodity at the disposal of the intellectual elite and the pow-erful class, and logos is an instrument for reasoned and discursive argu-ment. By the same token, oral myth-making and story-telling areconsidered an inferior, imprecise, primitive guide to truth and wisdom. Itis no accident that since the 19th century, myth has often been sharplydistinguished from history which alone concerns reality. Mythic con-sciousness is judged to represent an inferior and primitive stage of mentaldevelopment incapable of expressing an abstract philosophical truthwhich should now be made accessible by means of demythologization.19

Resources for Asian Theology

In light of what is said above about the manifold resources for theologybesides the written text, sacred or otherwise, it is interesting to note that


18. See Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (London: Routledge,1988), 11718. See also his Worship at the End of the Age of Literacy, in Faith & Contexts,vol. 1: 19521991 (Atlanta: Scholars, 1992), 17588; Writing, Technology, and theEvolution of Consciousness, in Faith & Contexts, vol. 3: 19521990 (Atlanta: Scholars,1995), 20214; Interfaces of the Word: Studies in the Evolution of Consciousness and Culture(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982); and The Presence of the Word: SomeProlegomena for Cultural and Religious History (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1967),19. On demythologization, see Rudolf Bultmann, Jesus Christ and Mythology (London:SCM, 1966) andNew Testament and Mythology and Other Basic Writings, selected, ed. andtrans. Schubert M. Ogden (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress, 1984). See also Hans WernerBartsch (ed.), Kerygma and Myth: A Theological Debate (New York: Harper & Row, 1961).



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when the FABCs Office of Theological Concerns describes the sourcesand resources of theology in the Asian context, they do say that as

Christians, we rely first on the Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture buthasten to add that as Asian Christians, we do theology together withAsian theologies, insofar as we discern in them Gods presence, action andthe work of the Spirit. We use these resources in correlation with theBible and the Tradition of the Church. The Office of TheologicalConcerns points out the important fact that use of these resources impliesa tremendous change in theological methodology.20 As to the resourcesthemselves, the document lists them briefly:

The cultures of peoples, the history of their struggles, their religions,their religious scriptures, oral traditions, popular religiosity, eco-

nomic and political realities and world events, historical personages,stories of oppressed people crying for justice, freedom, dignity, life,and solidarity become resources of theology, and assume method-ological importance in our context. The totality of life is the rawmaterial of theology. God is redemptively present in the totality ofhuman life. This implies theologically that one is using context (orcontextual realities) in a new way.21

In contrast to the common use of context to mean merely the back-ground against which theology is done and to which the Christian messageis adapted, the Office of Theological Concerns holds that context, or con-textual realities, are considered resources for theology (loci theologici)together with the Christian sources of Scripture and Tradition. Contextualrealities become resources of theology insofar as they embody and manifestthe presence and action of God and his Spirit.22 These contextual realitiesas resources for Asian theology include, among others, the following.23

The first resource is billions of Asian people themselves with their sto-ries of joy and suffering, hope and despair, love and hatred, freedom andoppression, stories not recorded in history books written by victors but keptalive in the dangerous memory (Johann Baptist Metz) of the underside ofhistory (Gustavo Gutirrez). Preferential love is reserved for the migrants,

refugees, the displaced ethnic and indigenous peoples, exploited work-ers, especially the child laborers.24 In recent years, people as doers of


20. Office of Theological Concerns, Methodology: Asian Christian Theology: Doing Theologyin Asia Today. FABC Papers, no. 96 (Hong Kong: FABC, 2000), 29. Henceforth cited asMethodology.21. Methodology, 29.22. Methodology, 30.23. For the following paragraphs, see P. Phan, Doing Theology in the Context of Culturaland Religious Pluralism: An Asian Perspective, 547.24. Christian Discipleship in Asia Today: Service to Life. Final Statement of the FABCs SixthPlenary Assembly, 1995, in For All Peoples (1997), 4.



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theology have assumed a special role in Asian theology.25 Korean theolo-gians have developed a distinctive theology called minjungtheology as a

faith reflection of, by, and for the mass in their struggle against oppression.26

In India, there is Dalit Theology, a liberation theology that incorporates thesufferings of the people known as the casteless, the fifth caste, the sched-uled caste who form the majority of Indian Christians.27 In addition, thereis also in many Asian countries Tribal Theology which calls attention to theoppression of the indigenous peoples.28

The second resource is a subset of the first, namely, the stories of Asianwomen and girls. Given the pervasive patriarchalism of Asian society, thestories of oppression and poverty of Asian women occupy a special place inAsian theology. As Chung Hyun Kyun has said, womens truth was gener-ated by their epistemology from the broken body.29 First, the womens stories

(Korean minjungtheologian Kim Young Bok calls them socio-biography)are carefully listened to; a critical social analysis is then carried out to


25. For reflections on theology by the people, see S. Amirtham and John S. Pobee (eds),Theology by the People (Geneva: WCC, 1986); F. Castillo, Theologie aus der Praxis des Volkes(Munich: Kaiser, 1978); and Ernesto Cardenal, The Gospel in Solentiname (Maryknoll, NY:Orbis, 1976).26. Minjung, a Korean word, is often left untranslated. By minjungare meant the oppressed,exploited, dominated, discriminated against, alienated and suppressed politically, econom-ically, socially, culturally, and intellectually, like women, ethnic groups, the poor, workersand farmers, including intellectuals themselves. See Chung Hyun Kyun, Han-pu-ri:Doing Theology from Korean Womens Perspective, in Virginia Fabella and Sun Ai Lee

Park (eds), We Dare to Dream (Mary Knoll, NY: Orbis, 1990) 1389. For a discussion ofminjung theology, see Jung Young Lee (ed.), An Emerging Theology in World Perspective:Commentary on Korean Minjung Theology (Mystic: Twenty-Third, 1988); and David Kwang-sun Suh, The Korean Minjung in Christ (Hong Kong: Christian Conference of Asia, 1991).27. The Dalits (literally, broken) are considered too polluted to participate in the sociallife of Indian society; they are the untouchable. Between two-thirds and three-quarters ofthe Indian Christian community are dalits. On Dalit theology, see Sathianathan Clarke,Dalit and Christianity: Subaltern Religion and Liberation Theology in India (New Delhi: OxfordUniversity Press, 1998); James Massey, Towards Dalit Hermeneutics: Re-reading the Text, theHistory, and the Literature (Delhi: ISPCK, 1994); id., Dalits in India: Religion as a Source ofBondage or Liberation with Special Reference to Christians (New Delhi: Mahohar, 1995); andM. E. Prabhakar, Towards a Dalit Theology (Madras: Gurukul, 1989).28. On Tribal Theology, see Nirmal Minz, Rise Up, My People, and Claim the Promise: TheGospel among the Tribes of India (Delhi: ISPCK, 1997) and K. Thanzauva, Theology ofCommunity: Tribal Theology in the Making(Aizawl, Mizoram: Mizo Theological Conference,1997). See also Frontiers in Asian Christian Theology: Emerging Trends , ed. R. S.Sugirtharajah (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1994), 1162. The FABCs Seventh PlenaryAssembly (January 312, 2000) draws attention to the plight of the indigenous people:Today, in many countries of Asia, their right to land is threatened and their fields are laidbare; they themselves are subjected to economic exploitation, excluded from political par-ticipation and reduced to the status of second-class citizens. Detribalization, a process ofimposed alienation from their social and cultural roots, is even a hidden policy in severalplaces. Their cultures are under pressure by dominant cultures and Great Traditions.Mighty projects for the exploitation of mineral, forest and water resources, often in areaswhich have been the home of the tribal population, have generally worked to the disad-vantage of the tribals. SeeA Renewed Church in Asia: A Mission of Love and Service. FABCPapers, no. 93 (Hong Kong: FABC, 2000), 11.29. Chung Hyun Kyun, Struggle to Be the Sun Again: Introducing Asian Womens Theology(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1990), 104.



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discern the complex interconnections in the evil structures that producewomens oppression; and finally, theological reflection is done on them

from the relevant teachings of the Bible.30

The third resource is the sacred texts and practices of Asian religionsthat have nourished the life of Asian peoples for thousands of years beforethe coming of Christianity into their lands and since: the Hinduprasthanatraya (triple canon) of the Upanishads, Brahma Sutra, and theBhagavadgita; the Buddhist tripitaka (the three baskets) of the vinaya pitaka,the sutta pitaka, and the abhidhama; the ConfucianAnalects and the FiveClassics; and the Taoist Tao Te Chingand Chuang Tzu, just to mention thebest-known Asian classics. These writings, together with their innumer-able commentaries, serve as an inexhaustible fountain of wisdom forChristian theology.

Intimately connected with these religious texts is the fourth resourceknown as philosophy, since, in Asia, religion and philosophy are inextrica-bly conjoined. Philosophy is a way of life and religion is a worldview, eachbeing both darsana (view of life) and pratipada (way of life). To explicateChristian beliefs, Asian theology makes use of, for instance, the metaphysicsofyin and yangrather than Greek metaphysics or process philosophy.31

The fifth resource is Asian monastic traditions with their rituals, asce-tic practices, and social commitment. This last element, namely, socialcommitment needs emphasizing. Pieris has consistently argued that themost appropriate form of inculturation of Christianity in Asia is not theLatin model of incarnation in a non-Christian culture nor the Greekmodel of assimilation of a non-Christian philosophy nor the NorthEuropean model of accommodation to a non-Christian religiousness. Whatis required of Asian Christians is the monastic model of participation in anon-Christian spirituality. However, this monastic spirituality is not to beunderstood as a withdrawal from the world into leisurely prayer centersor ashrams. Asian monks have always been involved in socio-politicalstruggles through their voluntary poverty and their participation in socialand cultural activities.32 At any rate, interreligious dialogue in all itsmultiple forms is an essential element of an Asian theology.33


30. See Chung Huyn Kyun, Struggle to Be the Sun Again, 1039.31. See, for instance, Jung Young Lee,A Theology of Change: A Christian Concept of God

from an Eastern Perspective (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1979) and The Trinity in Asian Perspective(Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1996).32. See Pieris, An Asian Theology of Liberation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988), 518 andLove Meets Wisdom (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988), 6172, 8996.33. The Vatican has spoken of four forms of interreligious dialogue: dialogue of life, dialogueof action, dialogue of religious experience, and dialogue of theological exchange. See thedocument Dialogue and Proclamation jointly issued by the Pontifical Council for InterreligiousDialogue and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (June 20, 1991) James A.Scherer and Stephen B. Bevans (eds).New Directions in Mission and Evangelization I: BasicStatements 19741991 (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1992). For a discussion of the method of inter-religious dialogue as theological exchange, see Peter C. Phan, The Claim of Uniqueness andUniversality in Interreligious Dialogue, Indian Theological Studies 31/1 (1994): 4466.



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The sixth resource is Asian cultures in general with their immensetreasures of stories, myths, folklore, symbols, poetry, songs, visual arts,

architecture, music, and dance. The use of these cultural artifacts adds avery distinctive voice to Christian theology coming from the deepestyearnings of the peoples of Asia. For example, minjungtheology has madea creative use of real-life stories and folktales. These stories are narratedand sung at Korean mask dances (talchum), opera (pansori), or shamanis-tic rituals (kut).

Asian theologies can make full use of these and other contextual reali-ties of Asia because of two theological convictions. As the Office ofTheological Concerns has pointed out, First, Christian faith considersthe whole universe, all of creation, as a manifestation of Gods glory andgoodness, and secondly, Christian faith affirms that God is the Lord of

history. that God, who created the universe and humankind, is presentand active in and through his Spirit in the whole gamut of human history,leading all to the eschaton of Gods kingdom.34

Whose Interpretations?

In his evaluation of historical, literary, and cultural criticisms, FernandoSegovia argues that their most serious lacuna is a lack of an adequateunderstanding of the real reader, or in his words, the flesh-and-bloodreader. Except for the neo-Marxist view of the text as an ideological prod-uct, of the world behind the text as a site of struggle, and of the reader asa committed critic, the ideal reader is conceived as an objective, detached,neutral critic since the meaning of the text to be deciphered is an object-ive, stable, and permanent entity resident in the text itself. Such a view ofthe reader, Segovia points out, grows out of the classic ideals of theEnlightenment: all knowledge as science; the scientific method as appli-cable to all areas of enquiry; nature or facts as neutral and knowable;research as search for truth involving value-free observation and recoveryof the facts; and the researcher as a champion of reason who surveys thefacts with disinterested eyes.35

However, these ideals of the Enlightenment have been effectively

challenged by the emerging and ever-increasing voices of real, flesh-and-blood readers who are not exclusively male, clerical, and Western: voices ofWestern women, lay people, non-Western (Third-World) critics and theolo-gians, and non-Western minorities in the West. These new arrivals to thehermeneutical domain, like immigrants in a new country, disturb the intel-lectual ethos and change the sacrosanct rules and practices of the academy.


34. Methodology, 38. The text adduces two celebrated statements of John Paul II. First, TheSpirits presence and activity affect not only individuals but also society and history, peo-ples, cultures and religions (Redemptoris Missio, 28). And second: Every authentic prayer isprompted by the Holy Spirit, who is mysteriously present in every human heart(Redemptoris Missio, 29).

35. F. Segovia, Decolonizing Biblical Studies, 36.



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The new mode of discourse may be called ideological criticism. Interms of the six categories of hermeneutics, it may be described as

follows:36

(1) The text and its meaning do not exist out there, independently ofbeing actually read or seen or contemplated or performed or cele-brated, to include non-literary interpretanda. Rather the text is a con-struct that becomes text in the encounter between text and reader.As Segovia puts it, meaning emerges, therefore, as the result of anencounter between a socially and historically conditioned text and asocially and historically conditioned reader.37 Consequently, the textcan be viewed as a means to reach the world behind it (as in histori-cal criticism), or as a message between an author and a reader (as in

literary criticism), or as a construct created by the interactionbetween the text and its reader (as in cultural criticism). Moreprecisely, any interpretation of the text is both re-construction of itscontext and re-creation of its meaning by real, flesh-and-bloodreaders from within their specific social locations and with specificinterests in mind.

(2) Its reading strategies can comprise vertical, from-the-bottom-up exca-vation to highlight the aporias of the text (as in historical criticism)or horizontal, from-beginning-to-end reading to illustrate the coher-ence of the text (as in literary criticism), or a neither-synchronic-nor-diachronic decoding of the economic, social, and cultural codesof the text (as in cultural criticism). The important point here is notwhether a specific reading strategy is used, but rather the reason whyand for what purpose a particular interpreting strategy is employedrather than another.

(3) Concerning philosophical foundations, ideological criticism rejectsboth empiricism and positivism. It does not accept the existence of aunivocal, universal, stable, independent meaning of the text. There isnot, nor can there be, a final and definitive recreation of meaning andreconstruction of history. All recreations of meaning and reconstruc-tions of history are products of real, flesh-and-blood readers who are

differently situated and engaged, and all recreations and reconstruc-tions must be subjected to critical analysis for their meaningfulnessand validity.

(4) As to the reader, his or her face and voice must be foregrounded withtheir social locations, commitments, and interests. Their voices arenot neutral nor impartial but positioned and engaged. Furthermore,all voices must be heeded to seriously, whether learned or uneducated,


36. The following six points are developed along the lines proposed by F. Segovia,Decolonizing Biblical Studies, 4250.37. F. Segovia, Decolonizing Biblical Studies, 42.



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academic or popular, high or low. No voice is granted a special statusmerely because of its socio-economic class, sexuality and gender, race

and ethnicity, political and religious affiliation, etc.(5) As to theological presuppositions, ideological criticism explicitly andself-consciously acknowledges that all interpretations are theologicalin nature, both because of the religious nature of the text and becauseof the goal of the interpretive enterprise which may be yielding newdata for theology, or leading to a deeper appreciation of the Word ofGod, or contributing to the liberation of the poor and the oppressed.

(6) Concerning training and pedagogical method, ideological criticismabandons the highly authoritative and hierarchical mode ofteacherstudent learned impartation and passive assimilation. Ratherit calls for a critical, multicentered, multilingual, multiperspectival

dialogue among all real, flesh-and-blood readers.

An Asian Multi-Pronged Hermeneutics

In practice, such ideological criticism makes use of historical, literary,and cultural criticisms, with two conditions, namely, that the interpretan-dum be not restricted to or composed mainly ofwritten texts; and that allthe voices of real, flesh-and-blood interpreters be truly and seriouslyvalorized. With regard to Asia in particular, in addition to these criticisms,three modes of interpretation have been urged as highly appropriateand urgent: multifaith, postcolonial, and people-based. A brief wordabout each.38

Multifaith Hermeneutics

The first important hermeneutical approach of Asian theologies is whathas been called multifaith or multireligious or cross-cultural or cross-textual or comparative or contextual reading. As the Office of TheologicalConcerns puts it, Asian interpreters of the Bible, both at the scholarly andthe popular levels, search for the meaning of biblical texts: (1) in relationto Asian worldviews and cultures which are cosmic, Spirit-oriented, family

and community-oriented; and (2) in relation to Asian situations in thesocio-economic, political and religious fields.39 This approach obviouslyrequires a competent knowledge of how other religions interpret their ownsacred scriptures: If Christians wish to understand and dialogue with peo-ples of other faiths, it is important they understand how they have inter-preted their text down the ages.40


38. For a more detailed exposition, see P. Phan, Doing Theology in the Context ofCultural and Religious Pluralism: An Asian Perspective, 5967.39. Methodology, 412.40. Methodology, 3940.



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Concretely, there must be an effort in Asia to learn about how Hindus,Buddhists, Muslims, Confucians, and Taoists read their own sacred scrip-

tures.41

In familiarizing themselves with these interpretative methods,Asian theologians may learn that not only are there striking parallelsbetween these methods and the traditional Christian approach to theBible but also that these methods are more in tune with the Asian world-views and mode of knowing and speaking than the Western ones andtherefore can enrich Christian hermeneutics. Thus, for example,Christian theologians can learn from classical Vedantas teaching on thethree steps in the process of moving from the desire to know Brahman tothe liberating experience of Brahman in the perfect integration (samadhi)of the self (atman) and Absolute Reality, that is, hearing (sravana),reflecting (manana), and meditating (nididhyasana), each containing in

itself various acts of interpretation. From Buddhism, Christians will learnthe necessity of taking refuge in the Three Jewels, that is, the Buddha,the Dharma (his teaching), and the Sangha (the community) and its fourrules of interpretation.42 In relation to Islam, Asian theologies can bene-fit from the Sunnite emphasis on exegesis through the traditions (hadith),from the Shi.ite stress on allegorical interpretation (tawil), and from theSufi preference for mystical interpretation.43 Confucianism teachesChristian interpreters the necessity of linking knowledge with action andthe use of images, stories, parables, and dialogues as ways to convey truths.Finally, from Taoism, Asian theologians learn the mode of apophaticthinking appropriate to dealing with the eternal and nameless Tao, themystery upon mystery.

This interfaith or multifaith hermeneutics abandons the earlier apolo-getical approach of using the Bible as a yardstick to judge the sacred textsof other religions. Rather it reads the Bible in light of the other sacredtexts and vice versa for mutual cross-fertilization.44 The purpose of such


41. For a helpful overview of these five hermeneutical methods, see Methodology, 4384.42. The four rules are: The doctrine (dharma) is the refuge and not the person; the mean-ing (artha) is the refuge and not the letter; the sutra of precise meaning (niartha) is the refuge,not the sutra the meaning of which requires interpretation (neyartha); direct knowledge(jnana) is the refuge and not discursive consciousness (vijnana). See Methodology, 556.43. Methodology highlights the following three Islamic hermeneutical principles: i. that themeaning should be sought from within the Quran, and never should a passage be interpretedin such a manner that it may be at discrepancy with any other passage; ii. no attempt shouldbe made to establish a principle to establish on the strength of allegorical passages, or ofwords liable to different meanings; iii. when a law or principle is laid down in clear words,any statement carrying a doubtful significance, or a statement apparently opposed to the lawso laid down, must be interpreted subject to the principle articulated. Similarly, that whichis particular must be read in connection with and subject to more general statements (63).44. For examples of interfaith hermeneutics, see the brilliant essays of Samuel Rayan,Reconceiving Theology in the Asian Context, in Virginia Fabella and Sergio Torres (eds).Doing Theology in a Divided World (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1985), 1349; Wrestling inthe Night, in Marc H. Ellis and Otto Maduro (eds) The Future of Liberation Theology: Essaysin Honor of Gustavo Gutirrez (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1989), 45069; Peter K.H. Lee,Re-reading Ecclesiastes in the Light of Su Tung-pos Poetry, Ching Feng 30, 4 (1987):



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reading is not to prove that the Christian Bible and the sacred scripturesof other religions are mutually compatible, nor to find linguistic and the-

ological parallels between them for some missiological intent, but toenlarge our understanding of both, to promote cross-cultural and cross-religious dialogue, to achieve a wider intertextuality.45 To carry out thisexercise successfully, what is needed is what Kwok Pui-lan calls the dia-logical imagination. She explains the implications of this dialogicalmodel:

A dialogical model takes into consideration not only the writtentext but also oral discussion of the text in different social dialects. Itinvites more dialogical partners by shifting the emphasis from onescripture (the Bible) to many scriptures, from responding to one

religious narrative to many possible narratives. It shifts from a single-axis framework of analysis to multiaxial interpretation, taking intoserious consideration the issues of race, class, gender, culture, andhistory. It emphasizes the democratizing of the interpretativeprocess, calling attention to the construction of meanings bymarginalized people, to the opening up of interpretive space forother voices, and to the creation of a more inclusive and justcommunity.46

In this way Kwok Pui-lan suggests that the Bible be seen not as a fixedand sacred canon giving rise to one normative interpretation but as atalking book the juxtaposition oftalkingwith book highlighting the richconnections between the written and the oral in many traditional cul-tures. The image of the Bible of a talking book puts the emphasis not onthe text but on the community that talks about it; not on the written butthe oral transmission of the text; not on the fixed but the evolving mean-ing of the text; not on one canonical but many voices, often suppressedand marginalized, in the text; not on the authoritarian decision about thetruth of the text but on the open, honest, and respectful conversationabout what is true.47


21436; id., Ta-Tung and the Kingdom of God, Ching Feng31/4 (1988): 22544; id., TwoStories of Loyalty, Ching Feng32/1 (1989): 2440; Choan-Seng Song, Tell Us Our Names:Story Theology from an Asian Perspective (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1984). See also the essaysin the fourth part ofVoices from the Margin, ed. R. S. Sugirtharajah, 299394 and Frontiersin Asian Theology, ed. R. S. Sugirtharajah, 65137.45. George M. Soares-Prabhu, Two Mission Commands: An Interpretation of Matthew18: 1620 in the Light of a Buddhist Text, Biblical Interpretation 2/3 (1994): 282. See alsoArchie Lee, Biblical Interpretation in Asian Perspective, Asia Journal of Theology 7/1(1993): 359.46. Kwok Pui-lan, Discovering the Bible in the Non-Biblical World (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis,1995), 36.47. Discovering the Bible in the Non-Biblical World, 42.



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Postcolonial Hermeneutics

Because most countries of Asia have been devastated by a long historyof Western colonialism and imperialism, a reading of the Bible in relationto their socio-economic and political situations inevitably leads to a post-colonial hermeneutics. As R. S. Sugirtharajah has amply demonstrated inthe Indian context, historical-critical methods were not only colonial inthe sense that they displaced the norms and practices of our indigenousreading methods, but in that they were used to justify the superiority ofthe Christian texts and to undermine the sacred writings of others, thuscreating a division between us and our neighbors. Such materials functionas masks for exploitation and abet an involuntary cultural assimilation.48

In contrast, a postcolonial scriptural reading is marked, according to

Sugirtharajah, by five features. First, it looks for oppositional or protestvoices in the text by bringing marginal elements to the front and, in theprocess, subverts the traditional meaning. Second, it will not romanticizeor idealize the poor. Third, it will not blame the victims, but will directthe attention to the social structures and institutions that spawn victim-hood. Fourth, it places the sacred texts together and reads them within anintertextual continuum, embodying a multiplicity of perspectives. Fifth, itwill address the question of how people can take pride and affirm theirown language, ethnicity, culture, and religion within the multilingual,multiracial, multicultural and multireligious societies.49

People-Based Hermeneutics

Kwok Pui-Lans image of the Bible as a talking book mentioned abovebrings us to the third track of Asian interpretive method, namely, people-based hermeneutics. In Asia, the biblical interpreters are not only profes-sionally trained scholars, whose work is of course important for thecommunity, but also the ordinary believers themselves, especially as theygather in basic ecclesial communities for Bible study and worship.Furthermore, people-based hermeneutics makes extensive use of popularmyths, stories, fables, dance, and art to interpret biblical stories. The mostprominent advocate and practitioner of this hermeneutics is Choan-SengSong, a Taiwanese Presbyterian.50 To one of his justly celebrated


48. R. S. Sugirtharajah, Asian Biblical Hermeneutics and Postcolonialism: Contesting theInterpretations (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1998), 127. See also F. Segovia, Decolonizing BiblicalStudies, 11942.49. See R. S. Sugirtharajah,Asian Biblical Hermeneutics and Postcolonialism, 204.50. The following are Songs most important works: Third-Eye Theology, rev. edn(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1990); The Compassionate God (London: SCM, 1982); Tell Us Our

Names: Story Theology from an Asian Perspective (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1984); Theologyfrom the Womb of Asia (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1986);Jesus, the Crucified People (New York:Crossroad, 1990);Jesus and the Reign of God (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1993);Jesus in thePower of the Spirit (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1994); and The Believing Heart: An Invitationto Story Theology (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1999).



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exemplifications of Asian hermeneutics we now turn in concluding thesereflections on Asian contributions to theological epistemology.

The Tears of Lady Meng

The Tears of Lady Mengis a folktale known to every Chinese child underthe title The Faithful Lady Meng. The story is short and can be citedin full:

This happened in the reign of the wicked, unjust Emperor ChinShih Huang-ti. He was afraid at this time that the Huns would breakinto the country from the north and not leave him any peace. Inorder to keep them in check, he decided to build a wall along the

whole northern frontier of China, but no sooner was one piece builtthan another fell down, and the wall made no progress. Then a wiseman said to him: A wall like this, which is over ten thousand mileslong, can be built only if you immure a human being in every mileof the wall. Each mile will then have its guardian. It was easy for theemperor to follow this advice, for he regarded his subjects as so muchgrass and weeds, and the whole land began to tremble under histhreat.

Plans were made for human sacrifices in great numbers. At the lastminute an ingenious scholar suggested to the emperor that it wouldbe sufficient to sacrifice a man called Wan since Wan means tenthousand. Soldiers were dispatched at once to seize Wan who wassitting with his bride at the wedding feast. He was carried off by theheartless soldiers, leaving Lady Meng, his bride, in tears.

Eventually, heedless of the fatigues of the journey, she traveledover mountains and through rivers to find the bones of her husband.When she saw the stupendous wall she did not know how to find thebones. There was nothing to be done, and she sat down and wept.Her weeping so affected the wall that it collapsed and laid bare herhusbands bones.

When the emperor heard of Meng Chiang and how she was seek-

ing her husband, he wanted to see her himself. When she was broughtbefore him, her unearthly beauty so struck him that he decided tomake her empress. She knew she could not avoid her fate, and there-fore she agreed on three conditions. First, a festival lasting forty-ninedays should be held in honor of her husband; second, the emperor,with all his officials, should be present at the burial; and third, sheshould build a terrace forty-nine feet high on the bank of the river,where she wanted to make a sacrifice to her husband. Chin ShihHuang-ti granted all her requests at once.

When everything was ready she climbed on to the terrace andbegan to curse the emperor in a loud voice for all his cruelty and




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wickedness. Although this made the emperor very angry, he held hispeace. But when she jumped from the terrace into the river, he flew

into a rage and ordered his soldiers to cut up her body into littlepieces and grind her bones to powder. When they did this, the littlepieces change into little silver fish, in which the soul of the faithfulMeng Chiang lives for ever.51

The Tears of Lady Mengwas originally C.-S. Songs D. T. Niles MemorialLecture entitled Political Theology of Living in Christ with People at theGeneral Assembly of the Christian Conference of Asia held in Bangalore,India, May 1828, 1981. Published later, it was subtitled A Parable ofPeoples Political Theology.52 Though quite short (some 30 pages), thetext represents Asian hermeneutics at its most distinctive and arguably at

its best. In it Song hopes to show that theology is a synthetic art, as it were,projecting a picture, an image, a symbol, about reality on the basis of theBible and out of life that flows in our veins and in the veins of our people.The Story of God this is what theology essentially is is the story ofpeople, not just of Jewish-Christian people, but of millions and tens ofmillions of people here in Asia.53

This is not of course the place to make an extended commentary onSongs interpretation of the Chinese folktale. Suffice it to highlight somekey features of Songs reading of the story as exemplifications of the artof Asian hermeneutics expounded above. First of all, Songs political the-ology begins and is rooted in a folktale: Folktale political theology is con-ceived in the womb of peoples experience. In the darkness of that womba new life is hatched in peoples tears and laughter; it struggles to grow inpeoples hope and despair. It is this kind of political theology that wefind in some of the finest folk literature, folk songs, folk dance, and folkdramas.54 By making use of these resources including non-literateones Songs hermeneutics is not only liberated from the Western bias forthe written text but also becomes multicultural and multifaith.

Second, as reader, Song is no neutral and objective critic. Rather he isa real, flesh-and-blood reader. He makes his social position as a ChristianTaiwanese explicit, his theological commitments plain, and his political

interests obvious. Though historical, literary, and cultural criticisms are byno means absent, they function at the service of ideological criticism. It issignificant that the original title of the folktale is changed from TheFaithful Lady Meng to The Tears of Lady Meng. The interest is not in reit-erating the moral lesson on marital fidelity (which, in a patriarchal cul-ture, may lead to abuses of women) but in showing the political power of


51. Folktales of China, ed. Wolfram Eberhard (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965),256.52. The Tears of Lady Meng(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1982).53. The Tears of Lady Meng, vii.54. The Tears of Lady Meng, 29.



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the tears of the people that is, their suffering and hope. It is this dou-ble significance of tears that Song highlights throughout his lecture.

Third, the meaning of the folktale is not something fixed, stable, per-manent, and universal, forever inscribed in the text. Rather it is recreatedand reconstructed in the encounter between the historically positionedand conditioned text and Song as a positioned and conditioned reader.The socio-political situation in which the text was read (and also illus-trated with drawings by the Brazilian artist Claudius Ceccon) was that ofAsia in the 1980s when many of its countries were suffering from dicta-torship and economic poverty: the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan,Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, mainland China. It is in this cauldron ofwidespread injustice and oppression that Song forged, through the story ofthe victory of female weakness (Lady Meng) over male power (Chin Shih

Huang-ti), of people over autocratic regime, his critique against the ide-ology of national security, and his appeal to the people to speak truth topower.

Fourth, in developing his argument, Song makes ample use of biblicaltexts and non-canonical materials, from the prayer of a Korean motherwhose two sons were arrested for speaking out for human rights anddemocracy, to a Vietnamese poem on a statue that does not shed tears, tostatements about the Buddhas being moved to compassion and pity, to aKorean Christian lay mans meditation on strength in weakness, to aTaiwanese ministers poem on imprisonment, to a Peking undergroundpoem. These and other texts are not used simply as illustrations for thebiblical texts; rather they and the biblical texts are interlaced together tothrow light on and enrich each other.

Finally, implicit in Songs reading is a postcolonial hermeneutics. Hemakes clear that the sufferings of the Asian people are not caused simplyby individual ill-will and cruelty but are deeply embedded in structures ofeconomic exploitation and political oppression from which Westerncountries stand to benefit. On the other hand, Song does not blame thevictims but encourages them to rise up and confront the powers with theirtears and their truth.

In retrospect, Asian hermeneutics does not stray very far from the way

the apostle Philip and Jesus himself interpreted the Scripture. Philip,impelled by the Spirit, approached the Ethiopian and inquired whether heunderstood what he was reading. Unfortunately, Acts does not report whatPhilip told the Ethiopian except saying that starting with this scripture, heproclaimed to him the good news about Jesus (Acts 8:36). It is very import-ant to note that this scripture that Philip expounded on is Isaiahs text aboutthe Suffering Servant who like a sheep was led to the slaughter and inwhose humiliation justice was denied him. Asian hermeneutics, too,focuses on the injustices and sufferings of the Asian people and sees thereinGods good news about liberation and salvation. In the story of the two dis-ciples on the way to Emmaus, Jesuss interpretation of the Scripture made




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their hearts burn within them (Luke 24:32) but they did not recognize Jesusuntil he broke bread and shared it with them: Then their eyes were opened,

and they recognized him (Luke 24:31). In Asia, too, hermeneutics of thewritten text is necessary and useful, and it may warm the hearts of manyAsians. But by itself it is important to make Asians recognize the face ofJesus in their daily sufferings. Only a hermeneutics of solidarity and sharing,part of what the FABC calls pastoral cycle or Asian Integral PastoralApproach, can achieve what interpreting the Bible is all about.

PETER C. PHAN, Ignacio Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought,Theology Department, Box 571135, Georgetown University, Washington,DC 20057, USA. [email protected]
