Transpacific Political Theology: Perspectives and Methods

This roundtable is based on a forthcoming book Transpacific Political Theology: Perspectives and Methods, which brings together Asian theologians, Asians in the diaspora, and Asian American scholars. Since US political and military strategies pivoted to Asia, tensions between the US and Asian and Pacific countries have escalated. It is urgent to reflect on the theological and the political from a transpacific perspective. A transpacific political theology problematizes essentialized accounts of continents and regions and reflects on the transpacific circulation of peoples, cultures, commodities, and ideas. Its goal is to interrogate the relationship between the state and the political, nationalisms, old and new orientalisms, and U.S. colonial and military presence in Asia and the Pacific. It challenges and queers the construction of nation, empire, race, caste, gender, and sexuality by presenting grounded historical analyses. The roundtable offers examples of how faith communities have been involved in people’s struggles and movements across the Pacific.