History, Theology, and the Asian Church

Knowing history is essential to studying theology and understanding the church. The more I have studied and taught theology, the more I have realized the importance of two very basic questions: “Why?” and “How?” Why are things the way they are? How did they come to be? Such questions are fundamental to the process of theological self-understanding, which is a major goal in theological education.

Why Study History?

My own journey into advanced-degree theological studies was fueled by this curiosity, by a desire to answer such questions. I specifically chose historical theology and patristics because I wanted to know how theology was formed in context, why we believe what we believe about topics like Trinity, Christ, and Scripture. My training has in turn engendered a historical mindedness in my own thinking and scholarship, as well as a sensitivity to cultural and other socio-political factors that shape theological formation. To put it simply, studying history has helped me to better understand myself and my own faith, to be more aware of how I have been shaped by my context.

Understanding history does not only mean familiarity with the major thinkers or watershed events of church history, that is, Western church history. It also means knowing our own local histories and how we have been shaped by them. One issue facing the Asian church is that most Asian Christians are not very historically minded. As one Asian theologian puts it, Christianity in Asia “has become a largely ‘a-historical’ religion with an almost exclusive stress on the salvation of individual souls, leaving the world around it to fight for or its salvation.”¹

Why Study Our Own History?

In addition to not being familiar with the broader strokes of church history, Asian Christians often lack awareness of their own local church histories and traditions. Local church histories are told in hagiographic and missionary-centric ways rather than recognizing the many and often unnamed local figures who contributed to the growth of Christianity in their regions. There is still a lack of integration between these local stories and the broader sweep of church history. As a result, Christianity is still seen and framed as a Western religion, despite the fact that the numbers today say differently.²

Part of this is simply the legacy we have received. Evangelical Christianity has often been criticized for its lack of historical groundedness, envisioning theology and Bible exegesis as an objective and universal process in which meaning is extracted from the biblical text.³ The goal of Christianity has often been framed as saving souls for the next world, rather than the church living out the gospel in a dark world. Many pastors and even theologians are unaware of how theological or biblical positions they take for granted are shaped by particular historical and cultural forces.

When All Theology Is Contextual

My point here is not that we need to remove all cultural influences and lenses—this is impossible. Rather, the awareness that all theology is contextual and that we are shaped by historical and cultural forces should lead us to better understand what those forces are, to be more historically and culturally aware.

This tension has been more poignant for me as I prepare to teach Asian Church History for the first time. It is not difficult to persuade students that understanding the Christological controversies of the early church or the major points of the Reformation is important, given their theological influence on the broader Christian and Protestant tradition. But how do you convince students that their own local church histories and traditions are important too? Augustine and Luther are clearly theological and have impact on the broader church tradition, regardless of denomination. But how important to the broader Christian tradition is a local pastor or revival movement in the Indonesian or Chinese countryside?

As esteemed church historian Justo González has observed, church history continues to be taught in a two-tiered manner, in which universal and West-centric “church history” is distinguished from “mission history”, which takes place outside of the West.⁴ As long as we continue to perpetuate such narratives, Asian Christians will continue to be second-class citizens in the Christian faith.

How To Study Asian Church History

How do we reclaim our local church histories? How do we raise their importance to the level of “church history”? These are questions that I am wrestling with in the book I am working on, which I hope to have completed by the time this article is out.

González has argued that the history of Christianity must be taught with a new cartography and a new topography, meaning it must be portrayed as a polycentric phenomenon, emphasizing the centrality of the history of mission and the deeds of ordinary people.⁵ Renie Chow Choy has advocated for Majority World Christians’ renegotiation of terms like “Christian heritage” and “tradition” through more familial terms rather than through lineage, which ultimately centres the West.⁶ In my book, I argue that an important step in redefining Asian theology and in reclaiming Asian church history is to recognize the lived theological character that our histories possess—that Asian church history can be studied as Asian historical theology, emphasizing the innate theological character that our church histories and traditions possess. If you are interested in learning more, please check out my book when it comes out!

How To Do Asian Theology

In any case, as Christians, it is important for us to know who we are, where we came from, and why we do what we do. Our God and the message of his gospel are universal and powerful. But the Christian faith and theology have always manifested in different ways in different contexts (i.e., contextual), contributing to the broader mosaic of who God is and how God has worked in the world.

The vision of Revelation 7:9–10 is not of one homogenized people, but a great multitude from every tribe, nation, people and language, praising God together. This means that we can and should emphasize what makes us and our local traditions unique. We must continue to tell the stories of how God has worked in our midst, like how Israel was told to remember the Exodus and celebrate God’s mighty works (cf. Exod 13:3).

To do theology is not only to think in complex and philosophical ways about God. It is also to tell the stories of how our God has worked in our midst and how we as a people have responded to that work. Do we know how to tell such theological stories?

FOR DISCUSSION

1. Why do you think local church histories are de-emphasized or viewed as lesser than Western church history? How might we change such attitudes?
2. Do you have any examples of local theological stories that have shaped faith and practice in your own denomination, tradition, or even local church?

Footnotes

¹ C. S. Song, Jesus, the Crucified People (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1996), 125.

² According to the most recent figures, non-Western Christians now make up more than two-thirds of the global Christian population. See https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/christian-population-
change/.

³ On the topic of tradition, see especially D. H. Williams, Retrieving the Tradition and Renewing Evangelicalism: A Primer for Suspicious Protestants (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999).

⁴ Justo L. González, The Changing Shape of Church History (St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2002), 21–22.

⁵ González, Changing Shape, 20–21.

⁶ Ancestral Feeling: Postcolonial Thoughts on Western Christian Heritage (London: SCM Press, 2021).