Church In Asia Research Articles

Toward a Global Church History

Thegreat new fact of our time, as Archbishop William Temple termed it, has been apparent for at least two generations; namely, the Christian church is established on all continents and in virtually all countries. Even now, however, the ramifications of this development are only imperfectly appreci­ ated. In this essay I wish to explore the implications of the geographic extension of the church over the past two centuries for the way we write the history of the church. In the West, the history of the churches in Asia, Africa, and Latin America is generally assumed to be a subcategory of Western mission history. The development of the non-Western churches is indeed intertwined with the modern mission move­ ment. However, the empirical reality of the Christian ecumene at the end of the twentieth century cannot be comprehended ad­ equately through the category of mission history per se-it is considerably more than that. We must recognize that the global extension of the church represents a different kind of history from what church historians in the West usually write and teach. Typically, they produce studies of the settled life of the church in a so-called Christian culture or where the church has existed for a long time. Such studies are predicated on a parochial and institutional view. We must move beyond the conventional framework, which is governed by the assumption that what happened in the course of Western Christendom is universally normative for Christian history. This assumption has been reinforced by what Theodore

A World Mission: Canadian Protestantism and the Quest for a New International Order, 1918-1939

Wright examines these churches' historical connections with the outside world and their newly cultivated interest in international politics. He argues that the clerical and missionary elite's vision of new internationalism was burdened by essentially Victorian ideas of the inherent superiority of Protestant Christianity, political democracy, and Anglo-Saxon race characteristics. Tensions between its traditional world view and the new realities of international and inter-racial relations eventually made this vision untenable. According to Wright, the Canadian churches of mainline Protestantism tried to find a middle ground. They relaxed the link between conversion and westernization and came to accept the legitimacy of indigenous churches in Asia and Africa. Although they ultimately stuck to their theme of Christian brotherhood and service, they confronted the theological challenges of reconciling Christianity with other belief systems and the intellectual revolution in the West. And, although they paid ritual respect to the League of Nations and collective security and accepted war in 1939 as necessary, they showed keen interest in disarmament. While the ambivalence of this middle ground had some tragic consequences, such as the incapacity of the Canadian Protestant leadership to lobby forcefully on behalf of either European Jewish refugees in the 1930s or Japanese- Canadians interred during World War II, there were successes in humanitarian, relief, and educational work abroad. The churches' activities also helped shape the international role of the Christian community and their eventual acceptance of both ethnic diversity and the developing nations' right to self-determination laid much of the groundwork for Canada's post-war approach to foreign aid and development.

Women In Roman Baths

In 177 CE Christians in Lugdunum and Vienna in Gaul were persecuted, and some were martyred. The survivors sent a letter by Irenaeus to the churches in Asia and Phrygia describing what happened. Among other things, they complained that they were excluded from the baths (βαλανεῖα). Later in hisAdversus haereses(ca. 190 CE) Irenaeus referred to a story he claimed stemmed from Polycarp of Smyrna, who died ca. 156 CE, about John the disciple going to the public baths (βαλανεῖον) in Ephesus where he saw Cerinthus. Tertullian of Carthage in hisApologeticum(197 CE) claimed that the Christians were no different from other people: they went to the forum, the food market, and the baths (balneia). These three passages, among the earliest references to Roman baths by Christians, suggest no ethical reservations about going to the baths. An interesting question arises: Were there women in these baths?

The Emerging Challenges to the Church in Asia and their Implications to Christian Education

The Emerging Challenges to the Church in Asia and their Implications to Christian Education

Emerging Images of the Asian Church

Emerging Images of the Asian Church

A Joint Statement on Dialogue by Protestant and Catholic Churches in Asia

A Joint Statement on Dialogue by Protestant and Catholic Churches in Asia

The Other Letters To the Churches of Asia: Apocalypse and Ignatius of Antioch

The Other Letters To the Churches of Asia: Apocalypse and Ignatius of Antioch

The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting

The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting

Book Review: The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting

Book Review: The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting

An Appeal to the Church: The Mission of the Church in Asia by Generoso M. Florez

An Appeal to the Church: The Mission of the Church in Asia by Generoso M. Florez

Book Review: The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting

Book Review: The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting

Le ministère des Successeurs de Pierre et le service de l'« unité universelle»

The harmony one wishes to see established between the Particular Churches of the five continents and the Universal Church, calls for the intervention of Peter 's successor. This note examines the spécifie rôle of Peter' s successor in maintaining the unity ofthe Universal Church. A rôle which has to be distinguished theologically from the one he exercises concretely with regard to the Latin Church or the Oriental Catholic Churches. A question which appears as important if one considers the future of Ecumenism and even the Churches in Asia and Africa.

Liturgical Prayer and the lgnatian Exercises

The contemporary world is characterized by rapid and intense activity. Yet, sometimes as an understandable reaction to the feverishness of haste, at other times for the very success of activity, there are worldwide manifestations of a drive towards greater interiority.Asia today is an interesting example of the activity-interiority tension. Even apart from the too facile generalizations of comparative sociology, Asia remains the place where of set purpose interiority is passionately sought, even at the expense of activity. Yet Asia today is one of the most exciting fields of the action-conquest of reality. Asian action is therefore distinguished by its inherent reference to concomitant reflective interiority.It is against this background that the Church has to work out its corporate renewal and reform. And in summary form the theme of the present article is that a continuing interaction of liturgy and a system of interiority-seeking, such as the Ignatian Exercises, provides the ideal framework for the renewal of the Church in Asia, as indeed anywhere else.The liturgy is the most potent means of spiritual renewal for both individual Christians and for communities. This is so all over the world, but is particularly true in Asia, where the external sign and symbol have always had an important pageant value in themselves, even apart from the reality they indicate.But in order to lead to effective and drastic renewal and reform the liturgy must proceed from the deepest inner realization and acceptance of all that it implies. It is here that the Ignatian Exercises can play a powerful role in the action-reflection dialectic by leading to a greater interior preparedness for meaningful liturgy. And fortunately the Exercises seem to be gaining ground on Asian soil.

Ceylon and the Search for an Asianized Church

If the present writer could have been suspected of megalomania for his earlier article on The Role of the Church in Asia (New Blackfriars, January 1970), he should at least not be guilty of inconsistency. And so, in this sequel, on the one hand, the minimum view is advanced that the little island of Ceylon is an interesting case-study of the contemporary Church in Asia and, on the other, the maximum view that Ceylon’s place is crucial in the role-context of the Church in Asia and the World.The basic figures of Ceylon’s demographic and geographic littleness are quickly enumerated. In the early 1960s, in a total Asian population of nearly 1,800 million, Ceylon had a population of nearly 11 million. In Asia’s total Christian population of 73 million, the Catholics numbered a little more than three-quarters of a million, while the other Christians numbered a little more than 100,000. Geographically, Ceylon is a small island, 25,332 square miles in area, situated at the southern tip of the Indian sub-continent and separated from it by a narrow strip of shallow water.Yet, Ceylon has an importance far greater than its size would warrant. Her people have a higher degree of literacy than in most other countries of Asia. The standard of living, though very low in comparison with Western attainments, is high for Asia. Her educational, political and religious institutions and her tri-lingual press are highly developed. Her systems of easy island communication and her position as a sea and air port of call between Europe and the East have made her important for world trade and have turned her capital city, Colombo, into a large and crowded cosmopolitan and commercial centre.

The Role of the Church in Asia

There is no easy way of resisting the impression that of the five continents the Asian has been the least responsive to Christian missionary endeavour. While in Africa the Christians today account for over 20 per cent of the total population, in Asia not even 4.5 per cent are Christians. Yet Asia has a population which is nearly three times that of Europe and Russia, and nearly twice that of Europe, Russia and the Americas. Over Asia’s vast and densely inhabited territory, seventy-three million Christians live (except perhaps in the Philippines) in a diaspora situation—scattered, small in relative number, seemingly of little civic consequence. The question then is whether these Christians who form the Church in Asia have any relevant function towards their far more numerous non-Christian fellow citizens, and whether, beyond the boundaries of Asia, they have anything to say and to contribute to the Church Universal and to the world.Since it is such a little flock, it may seem futile and pretentious to speak of the role of the Church in Asia. Indeed, the claim is advanced—even though the title of this paper may be misleading—that this role spans not only Asia, but the whole world. The title might of course have been framed less ambiguously as the Role of the Asian Church. But this could have carried certain never-intended separatist overtones. For it is the one Church of God which exists in Asia as in all the other continents.

Shorter Notice: Stranger in the Land: A study of the Church in Japan. By Robert Lee. Lutterworth Press, 1967. xiv + 216 pp. 21S.; Mission, Unity and Truth: A Study of Confessional Families and the Churches in Asia. By Michael Hollis. Lutterworth Press, 1967. 138 pp. 10S. 6d.; The Message and its Messengers: Missions today and tomorrow. By Daniel T.

Shorter Notice: <scp>Stranger in the Land</scp>: A study of the Church in Japan. By Robert Lee. Lutterworth Press, 1967. xiv + 216 pp. 21S.; <scp>Mission, Unity and Truth</scp>: A Study of Confessional Families and the Churches in Asia. By Michael Hollis. Lutterworth Press, 1967. 138 pp. 10S. 6d.; <scp>The Message and its Messengers</scp>: Missions today and tomorrow. By Daniel T.

STATEMENTS ISSUED BY A CONSULTATION ON CONFESSIONAL FAMILIES AND THE CHURCHES IN ASIA

International Review of MissionVolume 55, Issue 218 p. 189-194 STATEMENTS ISSUED BY A CONSULTATION ON CONFESSIONAL FAMILIES AND THE CHURCHES IN ASIA CONVENED BY THE EAST ASIA CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE DECEMBER 6–8, 1965, KANDY, CEYLON First published: April 1966 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6631.1966.tb01921.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume55, Issue218April 1966Pages 189-194 RelatedInformation

Reviews of Books

Book reviewed in this article:MAN THE ANSWERER: The Responsible Self: An Essay in Christian Moral Philosophy. By H. Richard Niebuhr.THE AGE OF TECHNOCRACY: Christianity in World History: The Meeting of the Faiths of East and West. By Arend Th. van Leeuwen. With a Foreword by Dr Hendrik Kraemer. Translated by H. H. Hoskins.A FAITH FOR THE WORLD: The Pelican History of the Church. Vol. 6: A History of Christian Missions. By Stephen Neill.CONSERVATIVE EVANGELICALS AND MISSION: Facing Facts in Modern Missions: A Symposium.Strategy of Missions: An Evangelical View. By Harold R. Cook.History of Missions. A Study‐Graph. By Harold R. Cook.PERSPECTIVE IN MISSION: Perspective in Mission. By Max Warren.FROM CREATION TO CONSUMMATION: God's Mission: The Epistle to the Ephesians in Mission Perspective. By Edwin D. Roels.MAN'S SEARCH FOR SALVATION: Religions de Salut.OTHER PEOPLE'S VIEWPOINTS: Understanding Other Cultures. By Ina Corinne Browne. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. and London: Prentice‐Hall, 1963.BEING THE CHURCH IN ASIA: Christian Issues in Southern Asia. By P. D. Devanandan.Branches of the Banyan: Observations on the Church in Southern Asia. Edited by Addison J. Eastman.The Church on Asian Frontiers. By Gilbert Baker.CHRISTIAN PRESENCE IN NEW INDIA: India's Religious Frontier. Christian Presence Amid Modern Hinduism. By William Stewart.THE CHURCH IN CHINA, 1948–1962: Documents of the Three‐Self Movement: Source Materials for the Study of the Protestant Church in Communist China.AS BRIGHT AS GOD'S PROMISES: Burma Baptist Chronicle. By Maung Shwe Wa and Genevieve and Erville Sowards.TRAINING FOR THE MINISTRY: Training for the Ministry in East Africa. By F. G. Welch.CHURCH AND SOCIETY IN GHANA: The Churches and Ghana Society, 1918–1955. By Robert T.IN SONG AND DANCE: Church Law and Bantu Music: Essential Documents and Law on Sacred Music as applied to Bantu Music. By Stephen B. G. Mbunga.A. L. WARNSHUIS: Christian Ambassador: A Life of A. Livingston Warnshuis. By Norman Goodall.

ISSUES ON “CONFESSIONAL FAMILIES AND THE CHURCHES IN ASIA”

The following statement was received by the East Asia Christian Conference Assembly at Bangkok last February and remitted to a working committee set up to convene a Consultation which it is planned to hold in Asia.

Anglicanism and the Catholic Church in Asia

Anglicanism and the Catholic Church in Asia