The scene: A group of Asian students sit on couches and chairs, most of which show damage from a recent monsoon. The group is mixed gender and the students range in age from late teens to early 50s. On one couch, two young ladies flank an American female. In the middle of the room is a coffee table.
I did not know what to expect when I arrived in Asia to spend time with the students whom I had been teaching via video for one year. Our relationship via video had become deeper than what I could have expected, but I still had much to learn about their culture and what they might put aside in order to relate to me as a person who is blind.
When I began teaching courses in biblical studies via video for a school of theology in South Asia, I was challenged with the task of teaching them to think critically. They were accustomed to learning facts by rote. My task as an educator would be to teach them to apply the Bible in a ministry context.
The school did not have an adequate library, though students had Bibles in their language. I adopted a perennialist model of teaching in which the Bible was our “great text” and gave us foundations for discussions. (Cardoza, p. 38) A portion of class was devoted to lecture, especially in the beginning when the students were learning to trust me. Later, I began to ask questions so that they would consider and discuss questions of interpretation. I challenged them to think about faith as a choice and not simply as the thing they were born to. This was especially relavant as we discussed questions of baptism. (Cardoza, p. 41)
In the country where my students live, people are not permitted to proselytize. One is born into the family of their religious heritage and this is their lifelong heritage. So these theological discussions happen in a very different context with my Asian students than they do with American students.
Throughout my interactions, I was acutely aware of my American bias and the fact that my students’ Asian perspective was something I must respect and learn from. In forming my questions, I intentionally asked for their perspective about topics that I knew I had no experience with. How did they feel about the passages in Revelation where the Holy Spirit speaks to the churches about suffering? How did they feel about Paul being taken away to prison? For that matter, how did they feel about a former persecutor coming back to share the Gospel?
By the time I arrived in Asia, my students had begun to have lively debates during class and even to ask their own questions. But this did not tell me how we would interact once I was there.
We sat together in silence for several minutes. My translator said to me that silence is an attitude of respect for the teacher. The silence felt lake a holy moment to me. I had recently experienced some personal difficulty of which the students were aware; and I felt their love and prayers without the need for words.
I asked if the students had questions they wanted to ask. They said, “We would like for you to tell us your testimony.”
My testimony is unusual and begins with the concept of sibling rivalry. I explained this and related it to some topics we had studied in class. One student spoke up and said, “It happens here too.” The ice was broken and the students laughed.
As I shared my testimony, we all realized that the human condition toward anger and sin is the same across cultures. And so is God’s grace.
My students often had deeper thoughts about the Bible than many Americans I know. I wished that I could talk to Americans about the way that my Asian students read the Bible. Perhaps America has been too comfortable for too long.
Even on a Christian campus, I could not recall my students asking me to share my testimony. Hector Avalos argues that the Bible is not relevant in today’s culture and thus the discipline of biblical studies should end. (pp. 249-250) I think that my Asian students would disagree; and perhaps if we spent time with the Bible as text we would find that the Bible is still relevant. Americans are in a privileged place in which we have the tools that assist us in interpreting the Bible in light of historical research and new linguistic knowledge; but it is useful to remember that we are first pastors who interpret with the hearts of the community near to us.
Sources
Avalos, Hector. 2007. The End of Biblical Studies. Amherst, NY: Prometheus.
Cardoza, Freddy. 2019. Christian Education: A Guide to the Foundations of Ministry. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
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