Latest classes

The Harvest Group Presents

Asian American Christianity
- A new study

What can an Asian American perspective add to our understanding and sense of calling for Christian work, ministry, and mission? How might we read Scripture with Asian American “eyes,” proclaim the Gospel and worship with an Asian American “voice,” and serve others with Asian American “hands”? These classes will explore Asian American faith, culture, identity and calling as essential matters of both personal and corporate discipleship. All four teachers are from the Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity (ISAAC). These classes will make use of ISAAC’s Asian American Christianity Reader (2009)

There are not enough accessible resources to help educators, students, and church leaders understand and teach about Asian American Christianity. This class will provide an accessible introduction to Asian and Asian American Christianity. We hope that such an introduction will enhance knowledge about Asian and Asian American Christianity, and lift up the voices of Asian and Asian American Christians, and equip leaders to serve the emerging community both here in the United States and in Asia.

Many consider Christianity a Western religion that is foreign to Asians and Asian Americans. Asian American Christianity lacks a sustained treatment despite the high percentage of adherents. This course will provide both the Asian and Asian American community with resources for renewal and transformation. Asian American Christians can understand themselves better and therefore more effectively work towards the common good of in a rapidly changing and religiously pluralistic world.

This course will help revise and renew our definition of what America is and, in particular, what American Christianity is. It will also contribute to an increasing awareness of the globalization of Christianity.

The lectures will address: History, Scripture, Culture, and Worship context of Asian and Asian American Christianity. It will give you a window into the Asian and Asian American experience of encountering Christianity and raise awareness of the unique experiences and challenges faced by the Asian and Asian American peoples. It will give you the opportunity to engage and learn from the richness of the Asian and Asian American experience of Christianity.

The Reader is divided into four parts - Context - an introduction to the historical and social contexts of Asian American Christian communities. This part concludes with an overview of Asian American religious history which represents a preliminary attempt at developing a comprehensive history.

The second section, Sites, explores the organizational settings of contemporary Asian /Asian American Christians and proposes strategies for sustaining healthier communities. Here the focus is on Asian /Asian American Christian congregations and their practices. The third section, Identity, highlights the importance of how Asian American Christians negotiate the question of identity. The fourth section, Voices, offers a variety of interpretive reflections on Christian Scriptures and theology that relate to Asian American contexts. These reflections offer lens that balance the Asian and Asian American context with inherited Western Christian traditions.