To the archives!

Did you know Asian American liberation theology was a thing in the past? Well, it was. Alongside Black liberation theology, Latin American liberation theology, and white feminist liberation theology. What’s left of it is hidden in dusty archives, most of it in the Graduate Theological Union archives. I’ve managed to get some of them digitised. The second reader is done by myself, with thanks to the Vancouver School of Theology, and the rest are thanks to D. Stiver at the GTU, posted with permission of Roy I. Sano.

• Amerasian Theology of Liberation: A Reader (1973)
• Autobiographical Reflections for Amerasian Theology of Liberation (1973)
• East Asian and Amerasian Liberation: Second Conference on East Asian and Amerasian Theology (1975)
• The Theologies of Asian Americans and Pacific Peoples: A Reader (1976) (warning: 62 MB!)

For some context, check out:

• Roots: Asian American Movements in Los Angeles, the zine accompanying the “Roots: Asian American Movements 1968-80s” exhibit at the Chinese American Musuem, LA in 2017. The name harkens to the out of print 1971 Roots: An Asian American Reader edited by Amy Tachiki
• Gidra, the revolutionary newspaper-magazine, from 1969 to 1974 is available at the Densho Digital Repository.
• Liberation Theology: Religion, Revolution, Reform April 1986 declassified CIA (Directorate of Intelligence) research paper

Some books on the Asian American history of that era:

• Serve the People: Making Asian America in the Long Sixties, Karen Ishizuka
• Legacy to Liberation: Politics and Culture of Revolutionary Asian Pacific America, Fred Ho (ed)

and for Asian American histories at large:

• American History Unbound: Asians and Pacific Islanders, Gary Y. Okihiro
• Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People, Helen Zia
• Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans, Ronald Takaki
• The Making of Asian America: A History, Erika Lee

Finally, some things I’ve written:

• Asian American Liberation Theology: A past we never knew was ours, Inheritance
• Asian American Liberation Theology Now!, Inheritance
• Why We Need A Theology of Protest, Sojourners
• Love Letter to Hawai’i, Puerto Rico, and Hong Kong, Sojourners
• Unsettling Asian American Theology, Diverging
• Who’s Afraid of Liberation Theology? A Call to Liberation, Reformed Margins
• Rearticulating an Asian American Theology of Liberation, American Academy of Religion
• Asian American liberation theology: Searching for an Asian radical tradition, Gidra March 2020 Issue on Asian Americans and Blackness in America
• A Pandemic Passover: An invitation to Asian American Liberative Praxis, Diverging
• Asians in Black Riots, Inheritance
• Black liberation is Asian Liberation Lausan

Now here’s where you come in. I’ve put together a User’s Guide below as a template for you to kick off discussion and build an Asian American theology of liberation for the next generation. It is as much yours as it is mine. Have at it!

• A User’s Guide to Asian American Theologies of Liberation (alpha version, 2019) [docx] [pdf]

UPDATE: See this post for my manuscript of Liberation Theology Unbound: An Asian American theology of liberation.