The document discusses the complex and multifaceted nature of identity for Asian Americans. It explores how identity can be shaped by factors like ethnicity, culture, religion and community. While some Asian American Christians see their spiritual and ethnic identities as separate, the document cites other scholars arguing that embracing Christian theology should not require erasing ethnic identities. It stresses that Asian American biblical interpretation should move beyond oversimplified notions of cultural experience and emphasize the particularity and complexity of individual identities.

1. Asian American Identity
for A3MNet
2.13.09
Monday, February 16, 2009

2. Identify Yourselves
Monday, February 16, 2009

3. To Be Asian American...
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4. subjective identity
objective identity
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5. sub
ject
ive
identi
ty
objective identity
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6. sub
ject
ive
id enti
ty
ity
nt
de
i
ve
ti
c
je
ob
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7. profession
nation
gender culture
spiritual
race
ethnic age
familial
economic
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8. you = collection of identities?
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9. spiritual
or do you have a master identity?
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10. you = blend of identities?
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11. larger larger
larger
community community
community
does the community define identity?
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12. larger larger
larger
community community
community
or is there a dialogue?
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13. ethnic
culture race spiritual
which identity do our churches promote?
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14. Russell Jeung “observes that many Asian American Evangelicals tend to
view their racial-ethnic identity as separate from their spiritual
identity...’At times, Asian American Christians may have to renounce
Asian cultural practices that are unhealthy dysfunctional. They can then
affirm their “true” identities and gain freedom as children of God.’”
Monday, February 16, 2009

15. Anthony Alumkal asserts that “second generation Asian American
Evangelicals have assimilated uncritically the same worldview of
their white counterparts by accepting ‘mainstream American
evangelical theology as synonymous with ‘Christianity.’”
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16. Timothy Tseng states “many Asian American Christians view
questions of race, racial identity, and racial discrimination not in
structural or institutional terms, but as personal and attitudinal
issues....the “popular Evangelical viewpoint universalizes
Christian identity while erasing particular ethnic identities.”
“This popular thinking is rooted in gnostic dualism between spirit
and flesh...”
Monday, February 16, 2009

17. While ethnic and racial identities may not be rigid and
fixed, nonetheless they are still part of who we are as
humans, created by God, such that ethnic and racal
identities have intrinsic value to God.
– Timothy Tseng
Monday, February 16, 2009

18. “The primary concern of the Bible is our
identity formation, that is, who we are in the
grace of God rather than moralistic
exhortation for what we must do.”
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19. Asian American Biblical Interpretation must move beyond
idealized and essentialist notions of culture and a tendency
to utilize the immigrant experience of marginality and
liminality as normative of all Asian Americans to emphasize
particularity, contradiction, and complexity in order to
counter oversimplified personifications of what constitutes
Asian American.
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20. the missiology of identity
“The scandal of particularity is at the center of the
question of missions.” – Newbigin
Monday, February 16, 2009