About this Blog

This project arises from religious education courses at the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University Chicago but can be opened to other programs as well. Interested professors of religious education or faith formation should e-mail edaily@luc.edu if they want their students to be included.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Review of ISAAC (Asian Americans)

www.isaacweb.org

ISAAC (acronym for Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity) is an organization created to uplift and strengthen Asian American Christian communities across the country. The website offers resources for communities as well as networking opportunities. There are also workshops and events across the country sponsored by ISAAC communities that are advertised on the site. The main foci of the organization are research, teaching, networking, and consulting. The hope is that Asian American congregations can be strengthened and that traditional seminaries, denominations, and organizations can increase diversity and ability to work with the Asian American community.

In his book Christianity With an Asian American Face, Peter Phan discusses three main factors necessary for evangelization and education of Asian American Christians. These are enculturation, dialogue with major Asian religions, and service to the poor.

ISAAC seems to have a great focus on enculturation. There are many resources reaching out to every kind of Asian Americans in an attempt to bring Church to who they are as a community. By serving the Asian American Christian community and providing networking opportunities ISAAC is making an effort to serve the poor of the Asian American community, but there are not many places on the website the provided opportunities for the communities to serve the poor. Lastly while there is not a sense of any dialogue with other Asian religions, there is a great sense of dialogue between the varied Christian religions with strong Asian American representation, including a forum with representatives from many major religions on Christian faith and activism.

No comments:

Post a Comment