Abstract
This chapter discusses the authors’ understanding of identity as theological students studying in the United States from the Kachin tribe, which is one of the eight tribes in Myanmar. They discuss their encounters with Asian and Asian American scholars and students in the United States, which help them to reflect on their identity as Asian women. Asian feminist theology emerged out of the political, social, and cultural contexts of Asia. They discuss the contributions of Asian feminist theologians, focusing on the work of Myanmar theologians. Finally, they reconstruct Christ’s image as life-giving spirit, Samphwi Nang Majan, in the Kachin Christian context to destabilize gender representation of women by patriarchal and androcentric ideologies.
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Notes
- 1.
Kachin is one of the eight major ethnic groups in Myanmar. In 1837, American Baptist missionaries arrived and worked among the Kachins. Kachins became Christians due to the work of these missionaries and local workers. The country was named Burma by British colonists, who came in 1824 and was renamed Myanmar by the military government after the country regained its independence. The country’s name is as complex and problematic as its history. We will use “Myanmar” in this chapter.
- 2.
Kwok Pui-lan, “Womanist Theology: Rooted in History and Open to Dialogue,” Union Seminary Quarterly Review 58, no. 3–4 (2004): 193–97.
- 3.
Chung Hyun Kyung, Struggle to Be the Sun Again (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990), 11–21.
- 4.
Chung, Struggle to Be the Sun Again, 17.
- 5.
Kwok Pui-lan, “The Emergence of Asian Consciousness of Culture and Theology,” in We Dare to Dream: Doing Theology As Asian Women, ed. Virginia Fabella and Sun Ai Lee Park (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990), 93.
- 6.
Chung, Struggle To Be The Sun Again, 11.
- 7.
Kwok, Introducing Asian Feminist Theology (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 2000), 32.
- 8.
Kwok, Introducing Asian Feminist Theology, 36–37.
- 9.
Anna May Say Pa, “Birthing an Asian Feminist Theology in the Face of the Dragon: A Burmese Perspective,” Rays: MIT Journal of Theology 3 (February 2002): 13–19, discussed in Htoo Htoo, “Feminist Theologies,” in Rice Salad Table: Myanmar Women Doing Theology Together, ed. Anna May Say Pa (Yangon: Association for Theological Education in Myanmar, 2013), 30–31.
- 10.
Mary Dunn, “The Image of Women in Myanmar Context,” In God’s Image 19, no. 2 (June 2000): 26, discussed in Htoo Htoo, “Feminist Theologies,” 32.
- 11.
Naw Eh Tar Gay, “Authority and Submission in Some New Testament Letters: Postcolonial Feminist Reading from Myanmar,” PhD diss., University of Birmingham, 2011, 5.
- 12.
Kwok Pui-lan, Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 171.
- 13.
Under the political rule of the British, the American Baptist Foreign Mission (ABFM) sent missionaries to the Kachin land in 1877 after an advance team of missionaries scouted the situation of the Kachin and reported to ABFM.
- 14.
Charles Gilhodes, Religion and Customs (Calcutta: Catholic Orphan Press, 1922), 3.
- 15.
Gilhodes, Religion and Customs, 5.
- 16.
Herman G. Tegenfeldt, A Century of Growth: The Kachin Baptist Church of Burma (South Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1974), 45.
Bibliography
Chung, Hyun Kyung. Struggle to be the Sun Again: Introducing Asian Women’s Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.
Gay, Naw Eh Tar. “Authority and Submission in Some New Testament Letters: Postcolonial Feminist Reading from Myanmar.” PhD diss., University of Birmingham, 2011.
Gilhodes, Charles. Religion and Customs. Calcutta: Catholic Orphan Press, 1922.
Htoo, Htoo. “Feminist Theologies.” In Rice Salad Table: Myanmar Women Doing Theology Together, edited by Anna May Say Pa, 18–33. Yangon: Association for Theological Education in Myanmar, 2013.
Kwok, Pui-lan. “The Emergence of Asian Consciousness of Culture and Theology.” In We Dare to Dream: Doing Theology As Asian Women, edited by Virginia Fabella and Sun Ai Lee Park, 92–100. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.
———. Introducing Asian Feminist Theology. Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 2000.
———. Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005.
———. “Womanist Theology: Rooted in History and Open to Dialogue.” Union Seminary Quarterly Review 58, no. 3–4 (2004): 193–97.
Tegenfeldt, Herman G. A Century of Growth: The Kachin Baptist Church of Burma. South Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1974.
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Lu, H.S., Htang, B. (2020). Inheriting Our Sisters’ Wisdom: Kachin Feminist Theology. In: Kwok, Pl. (eds) Asian and Asian American Women in Theology and Religion. Asian Christianity in the Diaspora. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36818-0_10
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