Foundation Academy lecturer, Hadje Sadje (Ph.D. researcher) has recently published two books, Theology at the Border (Pandora Press, 2022) and Grassroots Asian Theologies (Ekpyrosis Press 2022).
Theology at the Border explores how CPT (Community Peacemaker Teams) Europe' work can inform a contextually sensitive, socially relevant, and liberating form of Christian faith that is immersed in the everyday lives of people, especially refugee lives. Although it is not solely a Christian organization, the work of CPT rests on a strong theological affirmation of immersion as a concrete approach to doing theology at the borders of this world. The work of CPT Europe shows how theological reflection at the borderland should not remain an academic exercise, but instead, it ought to emerge in the context of common people, especially the poor, the vulnerable, and the oppressed.
In brief, this booklet argues that theology cannot be done without taking lived realities into account, and it demonstrates this conclusion by showing how CPT Europe provides a paradigm for doing theology – seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching God – at the borderland. Read here for more information
Grassroots Asian Theologies: The need for a holistic grassroots theology becomes more urgent as Filipino Christians wrestle to come up with a truly Filipino faith-based understanding of Philippine social problems. In the last three decades, while liberation theologians have been preoccupied with engaging in the social and political changes of the country, many Filipino Christians are increasingly polarized over whether theologies of liberation or theology of struggle is biblical or unbiblical. Meanwhile, Filipino Pentecostalism/Charismatic movements, which focused on numerical growth and church planting in the Southeast Asian region, have often been accused of being withdrawn from political and social concerns. In the middle of this, Singaporean theologian Simon Chan argues that Asian Pentecostal movements attracted people who define their ethnographic concerns (healing, financial breakthrough, deliverance from evil spirits) that is so different from what (elitist) liberation theologians do. This book attempts to answer the following questions: How relevant and accurate is Simon Chan’s notion of ‘grassroots Asian theology’ in the Philippine context? What is Chan’s notion of “ecclesial experience” as a concrete form of grassroots Asian Theology? What factors might be vital in doing grassroots theology in the light of Philippine experience? What possibilities arise from a comparison among the approaches of Simon Chan, Wonsuk Ma, and Eleazar Fernandez in the broader context of doing a grassroots Filipino Pentecostal public theology? Read here for more information