Day Three, Asian Theological Summer Institute

One of the books I brought with me was One With God: Salvation as Deification and Justification. While this is not my normal fare, I'm reading it for my class on Christology, Soteriology, and Pneumatology. One of the bigger arguments according to the author is that Lutheranism totally misunderstood Luther in justification and sanctification. Luther thought the two were united, while the latter Lutherans separated the two, as evidenced in The Book of Concord. This made me seriously wonder about something I was asked my first day at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary: "What is Lutheran identity?"  I even went to the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia's library during my lunch hour to reread Luther's "The Freedom of a Christian" to make sure that the author's argument (and that I myself) wasn't totally bonkers. I think Kärkkäinen (the author of One of God) has something vital to say to the present-day Lutheran tradition...

What did my professors mean by asking, "What is Lutheran identity?" Hasn't the denomination been around the United States for a few hundred years? Why is there yet again an obsession with identity? Yet again, in conversation with the faculty advisers of the Asian Theological Summer Institute, there is a similar obsession with Lutheran identity as there is with Asian American identity. There is a need for immigrant communities to know a sense of self in a different context. Part of the struggle with Lutheran identity is coming from a rich western European background; but how is that background then compared with the immigrant experience to a foreign land (in this case, the United States)? How does the Lutheran struggle with finding a sense of identity then relate to an Asian American sense of finding identity? Is there then potential for creativity in liminal spaces? Or are there going to be the concrete restrictions of borders of definition?

Speaking of definition concerning borders and restrictions, this then leads me to a presentation made today by Dr. Frank Yamada of McCormick Seminary. He spoke to pedagogy, and I was quite intrigued by his three questions in what he titles "The 'Culture' Exercise." I will leave you with the three questions of "The 'Culture' Exercise" and hope that you will take the time to think about these three questions:

1. What is your culture?

2. In what ways do you reflect and resist your culture?

3. How does your culture influence your reading of biblical text?

This led to interesting discussion. My discussion partner was Lucia, a Catholic sister who just successfully completed her PhD. She mentioned something insightful that I would like to leave with you. She stated that there is a need to learn about other voices in order to better understand our own voice. Somethings are starting to click, while somethings are becoming increasingly complicated.