Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Atola Longkumer hails from Nagaland, India, earned her doctorate from the Senate of Serampore,
and is currently Associate Professor in Religions and Sanskrit at the Leonard
Theological College, Jabalpur, India.
Presenting the theme “Doing Asian Women’s Theology” gives us an increased sense of
empowerment and confidence. Articulating doing Asian women’s theology here in
Korea could be a kairos moment. Many theological articulations from Korean women
theologians have contributed to the development of theology arising from Asian
women’s experience. These works have nurtured and continue to nourish my own
theological education. I remember reading Chung Hyung Kyung’s radical book Struggle
to be the Sun, books on contextual theologizing of shamanism emanating from Korean
theologians (fundamental resources to my study), as well as works of Namsoon Kang,
appearing in ecumenical journals, which in recent years have provided a fountain of
enriching theological motifs. Drawing from these works as well as other Asian women
theologians, I add to the ongoing conversation of Asian Women’s Theology and
highlight a theological posture necessary for justice, equality, and a healed creation.
1
Sections of this presentation come from two of my earlier writings: one on globalization and women to be published
in the Asian Christian Review, and from the history chapter of the book Putting Names with Faces: Women’s Impact in
Mission History, co-edited with Christine Lienemann-Perrin and Afrie Songco Joye (Abingdom Press, 2012).
DOI: 10.1111/erev.12084
82 Copyright © (2014) World Council of Churches. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Atola Longkumer Doing Asian Women’s Theology
I shall present this proposition in three parts. First, a brief discussion will clarify the
usage of the terms “Asian” and “women.” The second part will highlight contextual
conditions, which will also include dipping into historical resources to portray in broad
strokes the backdrop of the discussion. The final section identifies the areas where I feel
interrogation is necessary to articulate women’s theology in Asian today.
Terms of Clarification
The terms “Asia” and “women” each encapsulate multiplicity, diversity, and plurality of
conditions and cultures. To state the obvious, the conventional continent of Asia
encompasses a set of diverse and multiple contexts, representing a plurality of cultures,
languages, religions, historical epochs, and socio-economic realities. There is very little
cultural or political essence of “Asia,” except insofar as it is a term used by the Ancient
Greeks and popularized by European travellers, explorers, missionaries, and imperial-
ists.2 Asia comprises disparate countries from Japan to Sri Lanka, Nepal to Indonesia,
Philippines to Pakistan, and all the countries in between. Peter C. Phan has categorized
Asia into four parts: South Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri
Lanka); Southeast Asia (Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam); Northeast Asia (China [Hong Kong
and Macau included] Japan, Mongolia, Siberia, Korea, Taiwan, and Tibet); and South-
west Asia (the Near and Middle East).3
Asia is the largest and most populous continent. A myriad of indigenous religions and
world religions – Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Shintoism,
Buddhism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism – have their beginnings in the region and
have adherents in the continent. In recent years, another perception of Asia has
2
See Philip Bowring, “What Ïs Asia?” Far Eastern Economic Review 135:7 (February 1987), reprinted at http://
afe.easia.columbia.edu/geography/geo_whatis.html. See also Peter C. Phan, ed., Christianities in Asia (Oxford:
Blackwell, 2011), 2–8.
3
Phan, Christianities in Asia. For another categorization of the conventional geographical division of the continent
of Asia, see, Todd M. Johnson, and Kenneth R. Ross eds., Atlas of Global Christianity 1910–2010 (Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 2009).
evolved: the modern phenomenon of globalization, with both its ills and merits, has
contributed to the economic growth many countries in Asia have experienced. Yet this
perception is only a part; Asia is still home to a large population of people living in
abject poverty. Therefore, two economic extremities exist together in Asia: enormous
wealth and extreme poverty.
Asia, with its multifarious and heterogeneous cultures, also presents one of the most
diverse socio-economic and religio-cultural contexts pertaining to women in society.
Kwok Pui-Lan emphasizes this diversity and cautions against a “generalized, monolithic
and ahistorical” image of Asian Woman.4 Women in Asian countries represent multiple
socio-economic indexes in development. Asian women are to be found in equal
measure as unskilled workers in the labour market and as highly educated and active
participants in elite, industrialized spheres in society. Hence, the phrase “Asian women”
cannot represent one homogeneous context. Namsoon Kang proposes that the term
“Asian women” be problematized to avoid “stereotyping of Asian women” and mis-
representation of Asian women as a category that is “culturally essentialized.”5
Hence, the term “Asian women” at best can be employed as an umbrella term to represent
the multi-layered, multi-dimensional experience and its implications of being a woman in
primarily patriarchal society, which is common among Asian cultures manifested across
disparate socio-economic sections. It is important to underline the fact that the experi-
ence of oppression in patriarchal domination is itself manifested in different forms.
Asian Century?
Asian countries, cultures, and peoples are experiencing the effects of a world which,
aided by the technological revolution, is undergoing changes at an unprecedented scale
4
Pui Lan Kwok, Introducing Asian Feminist Theology (Cleveland: Pilgrim, 2000).
5
Namsoon Kang, “Re-constructing Asian Feminist Theology: Toward a Glocal Feminist Theology in an Era of
Neo-Empire(s),” in Christian Theology in Asia, ed. Sebastian C. H. Kim, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2008), 205–226.
and speed. In fact, Asia is a major force behind the enormous socio-economic shifts and
a centre of unfolding global trends, especially in the areas of economic growth and
demographic transition. Asia is the region in which the two fastest growing economies
with the highest population are located. This also means there is a growing middle and
consumer class. In a discussion of demographic shifts, it is important to note that about
60 percent of the Asian population is made up of young people,6 which in itself has
major implications for global labour force as well as consumption and demands on
resources. This also means we see in Asia a growing middle and consumer class. Hence,
in recent days, the media in some places has used the phrase the Asian Century7 in
reference to the rising Asia, during which, arguably, the global economy will have its
axis, which in turn will tilt the global political power to the Asian continent. Indeed, this
palpable confidence in an emerging Asia as best exemplified through the title of the
book The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East, authored
by Kishore Mahbubani, a former Singaporean diplomat.
The continent of Asia today, indeed, presents both enormous opportunities and, at the
same time, large-scale deprivation. There is growing wealth, yet crippling poverty
persists; we see development and progress in many of the Asian nations, yet depletion
of natural resources remains at a critical level. Human development indexes indicate an
increase in equality, but human exploitation in various forms is a reality that cannot be
ignored. These contextual generalities are manifested in particular contexts at the local
and national levels. The contemporary Asian context is multilayered and multidimen-
sional, composed of a heterogeneous substratum. Each nation in the continent faces its
own challenges presented by different aspects of society.
Wee see major challenges of human rights violations, globalization and its impacts, human
trafficking, environmental degradation, ethnic and religious conflicts, migration, gender
violence, religious fundamentalism, crass consumerism. The cumulative impact of these
phenomena entail major paradigmatic shifts in the ways of life and cultures in Asia.
6
http://www.un.org/events/youth98/backinfo/yreport.htm 9 October 2013.
7
This phrase apparently emerged during a meeting between Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping and Indian Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi and was formally employed by US Foreign Affairs. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Asian_Century, 31 January 2013.
If Asia is the cradle of most world religions,10 wherein encounters and interactions
between different ways of life took place, it has also witnessed contestations and
conflicts arising out of these different civilizations. The conflict between the three
Abrahamic faiths, accentuated by certain political interests at different times, the sim-
mering tension between right-wing Hinduism and Islam in South Asia are conflicts
sourced and fed by interpretations of sacred texts of these ancient traditions. While
the conflicts cannot be ignored and without trivializing the suffering and destructions
these conflicts inflict upon communities in Asia, it is important to recognize a marked
feature shared by communities in Asia: that is, endurance of difference. Undoubtedly,
conflicts between traditions exist; nonetheless, a feature of Asia is its ability to tolerance
and even accommodate other ways of life and religion. Some examples include
Buddhism, whose beginning can be traced to India/Nepal border, flourishes
today beyond its homeland; the Sufi (Islam)/Bhakti (Hindu), who have a thin line of
8
Wendy Doniger, The Hindus: An Alternative History (New York: Penguin Group, 2009); Sidney Griffith, The Church
in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008);
Ninian Smart, The World’s Religions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
9
Andrew F. Walls, “The Nineteenth-Century Missionary as Scholar,” in The Missionary Movement in Christian History:
Studies in the Transmission of Faith, ed. Andrew F. Walls (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books; Edinburgh: T & T Clark,
1997).
10
Peter C. Phan, Being Religious Inter-religiously: Asian Perspectives in Interfaith Dialogue (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books,
2004).
The phenomenon of growing Christianity is also another aspect of Asia that needs to
be recognized within the historical, socio-economic, and religio-cultural backdrop that
mediate Asia today.
As noted in the preceding discussion, the contexts and backdrop of Asia and its
plurality of cultures and peoples are multilayered and multidimensional; by extension,
then, Asian women’s theology is marked by diversity of socio-economic, religio-
cultural, political, and ecclesial contexts and a plurality of experiences that are not only
of being victims, poor, and marginalized. Asian women occupy multiple identities –
modern, postmodern, liberated, creative, and powerful, as well as excluded, exploited,
and vulnerable. While it is agreed that there is no homogeneous identity encapsulating
the experiences of women in Asia, there is, however, a larger population that can be
categorized as “the margin.” The term “margins” is used advisedly to draw attention to
the millions of women in Asia who remain excluded and exploited through the rigid
structure of patriarchy enforced by manifold inter-related dimensions of society. The
new mission document, Together towards Life, defines the margins as those who are
excluded from the centre, wherein power, influence, and possibilities reside. The
margins are thus those who reside in the periphery, characterized by struggle, vulner-
ability, negation, and powerlessness.11 The marginalized are those people whose dignity
and human rights are negated, those excluded from the table of decision-making
because of their gender, caste, or sexuality. Life in the margins is characterized by
struggle, hunger, suppressed voice, neglected gifts, exploited bodies, humiliation, and
the denial of human rights and the freedom to own agency of self.
Given these predominant circumstances for many in Asia today, a theology arising from
the conditions and contexts of women in Asia needs to posit critical questions. There
are too many unfulfilled dreams, too many limitations, too much exclusion, too many
incidents of violence. What has gone wrong? Who is responsible? What are the alter-
natives? The persistent condition of vulnerability and exclusion requires answers,
11
Jooseop Keum, ed., Together towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Contexts – with a Practical Guide, sections
36–42.
directions, and visions. Doing women’s theology in Asia today, therefore, calls for an
interrogative posture, a position that raises critical questions and makes it imperative to
translate eloquent pronouncements into lived realities. It is noteworthy that the organ-
izers have employed the term “doing” with theology – there is an urgency for action, for
a theology that is not limited to mere reflection and rhetoric but that incites active
participation and translation of these reflections to practical implementation in the
communities.
Among the many contexts that require interrogation from the margins, I identify four
areas: ecclesial exclusion, economic development, peace building, and inter-religious
encounters. To be sure, these four areas are not in any way exhaustive of the areas of
concern faced by women in Asia.
Ecclesial Exclusion
The volume Asian Handbook for Theological Education and Ecumenism contains three essays
by Asian women church leaders and theologians: Angela Wong Wai Ching, Moon-sook
Lee, and Aruna Gnanadason. It provides an excellent resource on the historical devel-
opment and salient features of Asian women’s movements, particularly of institutions
and networks (e.g., Asian Women’s Resource Centre for Culture and Theology [AWRC],
Asian Church Women Committee [ACWC, Women’s Commission of the EATWOT)
initiated by women on the continent. These essays highlight the concerns of “bringing
women out from invisibility to visibility in ecumenical organisations”12 and participation
in the church as equals with male counterparts. Since the last quarter of the 20th
century, conversation and theological articulation for women’s equal participation in the
church has continued. The WCC has provided support for women’s equal participation
with initiatives such as the Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women (1988–1998).
Indeed, there certainly have been changes and progress made for the equal participation
of women. However, it has been limited at best – and mere tokenism at worst. Women
for the most part continue to be those filling the pews, active only in the peripheral
functions of the church. Women are the resource generators who are dismally under-
represented in the decision-making processes and church leadership, which are still
dominated by men. This is not a new observation. In recent years, many works have
12
Kang, “Re-constructing Asian Feminist Theology.”
lamented the persistent exclusion of women from the ecclesial space.13 Given the
persistent exclusion and marginalization of women, a fundamental question from an
interrogative posture arises: Should there be certain radical mechanisms to ensure
practical realization of the articulations, pronouncements, and recommendations?
Excellent analyses highlighting the rigid and intricately connected matrix of patriarchal
dominance are available in almost every micro contexts in Asia. It is important that
these are translated into practices that truly manifest equal participation and equal
acceptance of women in the church.
Economic Development
Globalization has certainly had a diverse impact on Asia and its countries. The modern
phenomenon of globalization cannot be measured using a single perspective; its effects
are manifold, containing both bad and good outcomes. Globalization has generated
wealth, emancipated some from extreme poverty, and, aided by the technological
revolution, brought communities into closer interaction as never before. The beneficial
produced by globalization cannot be ignored: employment, entrepreneurial opportu-
nities, and empowerment through education are some merits of globalization that have
included women.
Globalization, nevertheless, has another side, which is seen in the exploitation of people
and degradation of the environment. Particularly, globalization that is focused on
market expansion and is profit oriented has generated more inequalities. Profit-oriented
globalization generally functions in hegemonic and exploitative ways, oblivious to the
well-being and survival of the masses and the protection of the environment. Profit-
making globalization feeds upon the most vulnerable individuals and systems, wherein
lies the vicious intersection of patriarchy and economic growth, resulting in the vic-
timization of women and other vulnerable members of society. A major consequence
of globalization on women in Asia is the multibillion-dollar industry of human traf-
ficking for forced labour and sexual slavery. Human trafficking takes place both within
nations and beyond national boundaries. Entrenched patriarchy makes women the most
13
CATS/CCA 2012, Seoul) Fulata L. Moyo, “ ‘Who Is Not at the Table?’ Women’s Perspectives of Holistic
Mission as Mutually Inclusive,” in Edinburgh 2010: Witnessing to Christ Today, Vol. 2,. ed. Daryl Balia and Kirsteen
Kim (Oxford: Regnum Books International, 2010), 245–261; Monica Jyotsna Melanchthon, “Feminist Theolo-
gizing: Rethinking Theological Education in India,” Lecture 3, Bishop and Mrs. S.K. Parmar Mission Lectures 2010
(Leonard Theological College, Jabalpur, MP, 2010); Namsoon Kang, “The Centrality of Gender Justice in
Prophetic Christianity and the Mission of the Church Reconsidered,” International Review of Mission 94:373 (April
2005), 279–289.
Despite its potential for empowerment and emancipation from poverty, the economic
development ushered in by economic globalization has rendered many more vulnerable,
especially women, as indicated by the increase in human trafficking and labour move-
ment. Doing Asian women’s theology requires us to engage this issue in earnest and
explore creative ways to manage16 globalization and economic development that ensure
quality and dignity of life to all. Are there cultural community values that will aid in
negotiating between the potential perils of exploitation and the empowerment that
globalization affords women?
Peace Building
Regions in Asia have seen conflicts and continue to be ravaged by conflicts based in
religious, ethnic, class, and caste hierarchy. There is a complex intersection of religion,
ethnicity, caste, and gender victimization in conflicts that is manifested in varying forms.
As evident in the statistics and media reports of rape, forced prostitution, and other
gender-based violence in conflict zones, conflicts create fertile situations in which
women and children are made most vulnerable. In recognition of the vulnerability of
women in conflicts and the need to involve women in peace building, the UN Security
14
Gemma Tulud Cruz, “Between Identity and Security: Theological Implications of Migration in the Context of
Globalization,” Theological Studies 69:2 ( June 2008), 356–375.
15
Moon Sook Lee:2013) Hope S. Antone, “Asian Women and the Globalization of Labor,” Journal of Theology and
Culture in Asia 2 (2003), 97–111.
16
(Stiglitz: 2006).
Council passed Resolution 1325 in 2000,17 which requires the inclusion and participa-
tion of women in processes of peace building and reconciliation. Resolution 1325 is a
crucial step towards sensitization of a gendered perspective and experience of conflicts.
A theological articulation arising from an Asia that is witnessing increasing clashes
and conflicts needs to consider women’s role and participation in peace building
on the continent. Isabel Apawo Phiri, in the context of the KwaZulu-Natal people,
identifies the sangomas – indigenous women active in community peace making and
reconciliation.18 Can we identify local resources such as cultural practices, religious roles,
and stories that motivate women to be active agents for peace building?
Inter-religious Dialogue
As noted earlier, the continent of Asia is the cradle of almost all world religions, along
with the many unstructured, non-institutionalized, and oral indigenous religiosities. The
heritage of these is both of accommodation and acrimony between the disparate beliefs
and ways of life. The repositories of history provide ample examples of enriching
interactions as well as of enraging conflicts; fortunately, the former has dominated the
interest of scholars and theologians. Thus, Asia, with its heritage of plurality in reli-
gions, has provided a vibrant resource along with empirical context towards a global
discourse of inter-religious dialogue. Yet, for a long time, inter-religious dialogue has
been a gendered conversation, in which androcentric perspective, experience, and
preference have dominated. The woman question, the woman’s voice in religions, and
women’s interactions are beginning to be identified and asserted.19 A dialogue that is
focused on religious sacred texts, interpretations, rituals, spirituality, and theology,
forging convergences and identifying divergences between religions, would be limited if
the woman question were ignored. For instance, religious fundamentalism and its
vicious effect on women is not an isolated instance but rather a common phenomenon
among religions, not least among contemporary Asian religions. A theology from the
Asian women’s perspective interrogates the exclusion of the woman’s voice, experi-
ence, and role in religions. Furthermore, an active theology of inter-religious dialogue
ensures that justice for women is a crucial focus point in a common project for a global
peace that dialogue between religions aspires to foster.
17
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/wps/
18
Isabel Apawo Phiri, “Peacemaking and Reconciliation: The Contribution of African Indigenous Religious
Women in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 123 (November 2005), 84–92.
19
Ursula King, “Gender and Interreligious Dialogue,” at: http://eapi.admu.edu.ph/eapr007/ursula.htm; Maura
O’Neill, Mending a Torn World: Women in Interreligious Dialogue (Maryknoll, N.Y. Orbis Books, 2007).
Apart from the above-mentioned concerns, there are other areas requiring critical
inquiry of women’s role, equal participation, and experience, such as environmental
degradation, theological education, and writing local history. Surely, at this point in time,
there is much to celebrate of progress achieved, measured through the multi-
dimensional lens of Asian women. It cannot be denied that the organizational efforts,
theological articulations, and passionate advocacy of earlier generations of men and
women theologians have borne fruits. That women and their perspectives and experi-
ences are not recognized and included is not the problem; rather, it is the fact that
recognition, acceptance, and equality are still limited and that patriarchal hierarchy
continues to powerfully define the roles and participation of women in many commu-
nities in Asia, including churches. Women continue to form the vulnerable group, and
are marginalized by attitude, policies, and cultural practices derived from a deeply rooted
patriarchal substratum.
Questions, critical inquiry, and an interrogative posture are required to translate elo-
quent theologizing into lived reality. Writing in the context of predatory and exploitative
globalization, Zygmunt Bauman asserts, “Questioning the ostensibly unquestionable
premises of our way of life is arguably the most urgent of the services we owe our
fellow humans and ourselves.”20 Doing women’s theology from the perspective of
women in Asia requires bold and courageous interrogation of the sources, structures,
and ways of life that remain rigidly oppressive and unreasonably exclusive, to ensure an
alternative, radically equal, and healed community. Cultural practices in communities in
Asia have embedded in them the mechanism for collective conversation, characterized
by deliberation, questions, assertions, opinions, and interrogations – the practices of
madang (Korean), talakayan (Tagalog), zuki/morung (Ao-Naga) provide the space to
initiate community conversation. And community conversation entails honest discus-
sions, risky encounters (Konrad Raiser), and unsettling questions.
20
Zygmunt Bauman, Globalisation: The Human Consequences (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).