Review of Dallas Willard's Renovation of the Heart

Blogpastor wrote an excellent review of this book over at his blog. He brought out many points which are my concerns too when I first read this book.

The approach of breaking down all the human elements that need transformation is also a very Western and scientific approach. It helps me to understand each particular part and how it functions together and deepens my understanding, but it also overwhelms the individual with too much applications, and it feels quite cumbersome. It may be better if he had taken a more Asian or holistic and biblical approach and viewed the human being as a whole and demonstrated how Christ’s death and resurrection has provided a basis for the renewal of my whole being and how the church needs to provide a conducive context where all its members can better predispose themselves to the ongoing grace of sanctification.

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Karl Barth, Confucius and Korean Theology

Myers in his blogpost

On Korean theology, and Karl Barth's reception in Korea

in Faith and Theology gave a fascinating perspective of Karl Barth and his influence on Korean theology.

There’s an extremely valuable analysis of all this in the excellent study by Young-Gwan Kim, Karl Barth’s Reception in Korea: Focusing on Ecclesiology in Relation to Korean Christian Thought (Peter Lang 2003). Kim provides a broad account of the institutional and denominational contexts of Barth’s reception in Korea. He argues that the distinctiveness of Korean Barth-reception has much to do with the culture’s deep Confucian heritage, and with the intimate connection between Confucianism and the rise of Christianity in Korea. (It was Confucian scholars who first translated the Bible into Korean: Confucianism is already entwined with the roots of Korean Christianity.) After tracing the broad history of Barth’s reception in Korea, Kim provides an extensive analysis (pp. 225-324) of the work of Sung-Bum Yun. Although he is critical of Yun’s tendency towards philosophical abstraction (it becomes hard to see where the salvation-event fits into his elaborate system of Tao, jen, and filial piety), he concludes: “we cannot deny Yun’s insistence that Korean Christianity is strikingly a Confucian-influenced Christianity and that therefore the indigenization of Karl Barth’s theology within the Korean Confucian context is a viable theological enterprise” (p. 324).

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Barth Nearly Broke My Back

yes, I nearly broke my back carrying this box of Karl Barth's 14 volumes Church Dogmatics from the post office to my car and from my car to my study.

I intend to join Prof Daniel Kirk blog reading club on Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics. We aim to finish reading the whole series in about 11 years!

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Tending the Seedbeds of Theological Education in Asia

I am honoured to have contributed a chapter to this volume (2010, Philippines) published by the Asia Theological Association (ATA). I am humbled to be listed as contributors with all the well-known names in Asian theological education.


CONTENTS

1 How Asian is Asian Theological Education?
Larry W. Caldwell

2 ‘New Treasures with the Old’: Addressing Culture
and Gender Imperialism in Higher Level Theological Education
Perry W.H. Shaw

3 The Rise of the Net-Generation: Implications for Educational Renewal in the Seminary Classroom
Calvin Chong

4 De-schooling the Theological Seminary: An Appropriate Paradigm for Effective Pastoral Formation
Allan Harkness

5 Non-formal Faculty Development in Theological Seminaries: An Adult Educational Approach
Arun K. Sarkar

6 Vygotsky Visits Calvary Seminary: Sociocultural Theory in Dialogue with Asian Theological Education
Rosalind Lim-Tan

7 Reproducing Leaders through Mentoring
Ian Payne

8 Christian Leadership Development and the Spiritual Disciplines
Kwai Lin Stephens

9 Social Concern and Theological Education: A Philippines’ Perspective
Lydia Mapile

10 Surfing the Tsunami of Change: Problem-Based Learning in Theological Education in Asia
Alex Tang

11 Time to Leave the Wilderness? The Teaching of Pastoral Theology in South East Asia
David Burke

12 Towards Perspective Transformation: Adopting Jesus’ Use of Questions in the Seminary
Lee Wanak

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