Toward Reconstruction of Asian Faces of Jesus Christ: A Review of Some Asian Contextual Liberation Theologies

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The third world Christians, suffering for a long time under colonialism, neo-colonialism, poverty, exploitation, militarism and the like human tragedies, re-image the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Among them, Asian theologians also reformulate their Asian Christology based on their Asian context. They show that there can be no contextless Christologybut only contextual Christology. Asia, though it is one continent, is diverse into cultures and religions, ethnicities, classes and so on. Asia is a museum of religions and cultures. This plurality of context leads the Asian theologians into diverse understandings of and answers to the question of Jesus, who do you say that I am?Asian liberation theologians advocate that Jesus Christ is not the exclusive saviour only for Christians. He is sent for the salvation or liberation of the whole world. His liberation and salvation transcend the category of religion, ethnicity and culture. To claim him as saviour only for a single religion means to put him in religious prison. His work and ministry are for the transformation of all oppressive and suffering communities regardless of religion, ethnicity and culture. He invites every kind of people to be his co-workers and co-liberators for the Asian community.