The Jesus of Asian Women (review)

This helpful survey and justification of Asian women's theological perspectives is part of the Orbis Books 'Women from the Margins' series. It is written by a professor of religious studies in the Philippines, who has done a thorough job of entering into the lives and thoughts of her Asian sisters in India, Korea and Hong Kong as well. For the reader new to this field, Orevillo-Montenegro sets her work in the context of Asian initiatives in theology in general. The book is not fixated on methodology but fills out the content of women's theologies, particularly as they relate to indigenous beliefs and images. Sometimes these suggest original lines of interpretation of Bible passages or doctrines; for example, the discussion of the bleeding bodies of women and of Jesus (p. 72).

The author's approach is greatly influenced by postcolonial literature. It is doubtful how much this 'women's theology' reflects the actual belief systems of the majority, poor Asian women, who are more likely to practise some kind of faith of blessing. But the images drawn of Jesus – for example as Shakti in India – are embedded in Asian cultures, and probably do suggest popular understanding. Orevillo-Montenegro recognises a diversity of approaches and covers a large number of different contemporary perspectives in each chapter. The sources she uses are mostly available in English in the West but it is useful to have them distinguished according to their national contexts. Understandably, the chapter on the Philippines itself is the most profound reflection, and the most evocative of the life-experiences which shape self-consciously women's theology.

In my view, Orevillo-Montenegro rather overstates the impact of women's theology in the Korean churches (p. 112). Largely because the lives of women and men are so separated in Asia (religiously as well asin other spheres of life), Asian women theologians use a differentlanguage from 'mainstream' (male) theological discourse. It is important for women to do theology in their own theological language but Orevillo-Montenegro, and other women theologians, will need to find ways of engaging with the 'mainstream' more constructively if their work is really to change it. I suspect that, as it is, the 'Jesus of Asian women' will remain 'on the margins', to be discovered only by those who seek it out.