Introduction

In 1987, a group of Asian/Asian North American women theologians contributed essays to a special section of Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion (JFSR). In that special section, entitled “Asian Women Theologians Respond to American Feminism,” a clear distinction was drawn between Asian feminist theologians and Western feminist theologians. In her introduction to the special section, Rita Nakashima Brock noted that many Western feminist theologians were “deeply ambivalent about Christianity,” whereas Asian women theologians tended to be “unapologetically Christian.”¹ Four Asian women theologians from Japan, Philippines, Hong Kong, and South Korea discussed theological issues that emerged from women’s experiences in their own contexts. In the same volume, two Asian North American women theologians, Naomi Southard and Rita Nakashima Brock, cowrote a piece entitled “The Other Half of the Basket: Asian American Women and the Search for a Theological Home,” which discussed four main areas of concern to Asian American women in theology. Brock and Southard pointed out that Asian women living in Asian countries have a community to speak with and for; but “Asian American women live in tension between several ‘worlds’—between Asia and the United States, between tradition and contemporary life, between religious institutions and secular society.”² Since then, there has been no roundtable discussion or special section that focuses on Asian/Asian North American women’s theo-ethical concerns and voices. However, Asian/Asian North American women scholar-teachers have not only forged a critical discourse on Asian/Asian North American feminist theologies but also critiqued, transformed, and contributed to theological discourse in general.

As we write this roundtable lead-in piece, we wonder if this lack of a platform for Asian/Asian North American women to come together to discuss their issues and concerns has been due to JFSR’s unawareness or to an unspoken state of the field since 1987 (almost three decades ago), in which feminist theological and religious studies in general have mirrored the prevalent racial dynamic in which Asian/Asian North Americans are rendered invisible. Reflecting on this absence, we wonder if Asian/Asian North American women’s theological voices have been viewed as an auxiliary to mainstream feminist theological and religious studies rather than as an integral and critical part of the discourse. We also wonder if the ways in which Asian/Asian North American women have been racialized has elided their presence in feminist reflections and analysis.

Moreover, we ask whether the theological issues and areas of concerns that Asian/Asian North American feminist theologians discussed in 1987 have changed or remained the same. Are today’s Asian/Asian North American feminist theologians responding to different concerns than they were back then? We recognize that the “tension between ‘several’ worlds” that Southard and Brock mentioned years ago has become even more complex for Asian American women as well as for Asian women living in Asian countries primarily due to increases in transnational connections and networks. Living with and negotiating these tensions, these multiple belongings and homes, are a few of the ongoing tasks of Asian/Asian North American feminist theologians.

While we do not offer in-depth analysis of these tasks, due to the nature of this roundtable discussion, we suggest several areas that need ongoing critical analysis and reflection and that significantly affect Asian/Asian North American feminist theological discourse. The overarching, recurring issues that frame many of the areas we mention below can be examined through frameworks acknowledging critiques of gender, sexuality, race, and class.

We seek to generate further conversation regarding to whom or to what Asian/Asian North American feminist theologians have responded, or should respond, since that first and only special section of JFSR. We also want to ask the following questions: To whom and to which position of power have we made our reference points? To what extent might Asian/Asian North American feminist theological reflections intersect, or not, with other feminist or womanist reflections? We Asian/Asian North American feminist theologians have certainly not limited our interlocutors to “American” feminism or “Western” feminist theologies. Asian/Asian North American feminist theologians continue to challenge imperialist and racist American...