ASIAN LIBERATION THEOLOGY 

DR. JUAN A. CARMONA 

The vast, sprawling continent of Asia, exhibits even more variety than do Africa and Latin America.  Each country has its own distinctive history and traditions, and each has had its own unique encounter with Western colonialism.  More than 85 percent of all Asians suffer from abject poverty and oppression (Dean William Ferm, Third World Liberation Theologies: An Introductory Survey. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1986, p. 76.)

An added ingredient in the Asian setting is the living presence of many major religions competing for the allegiance of humankind.  To be sure, Latin America has its indigenous religions-heretofore ignored by their liberation theologians-but Catholicism has been the dominant faith there for the past four centuries. Native American religions have not only survived the aggression of Christian and Muslim invaders, but have become a rich source of of spiritual insight for African theologians.  The situation in Asia is unique, however, for here we find Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism Jainism, and other religious traditions coexisting in an infinite variety, compounding rather than alleviating certain forms of human oppression-for example, discrimination against women.  A further complicating factor is that Asian Christians are a tiny minority, but with 3 percent of Asians identifying themselves as Christians and with only the Philippines claiming a majority of Christians.  It is ironic that most contemporary Asians consider Christianity, despite its roots in the Middle East, a foreign religion, a product of Western colonial expansion (There are important exceptions -e.g. the Orthodox churches).

Asian liberation theology has thus had to contend with two additional components that set it apart from most forms of liberation theology in Latin America and Africa.  First, it daily encounters other major living religions. Secondly, in most Asian countries, Christianity is a very small minority group.  Both of these factors have had a profound impact on the content and methods of liberation theology in that part of the world (Ferm, op. cit.).  

Christianity-Protestantism in particular-had very little impact in Asia until the nineteenth century, which witnessed the rapid growth of First World missionary societies that established outposts throughout the continent.  Like their African and Latin American counterparts, most Western missionaries stressed the importance of individual conversion to Christ, with little emphasis on the social dimension, and with even less appreciation for the positive values to to be found in other religions.  In the twentieth century, the burgeoning of anti-colonial, anti-Western sentiment has seen the development of forms of Christianity divested of foreign cultural baggage baggage and leadership, a step vitally necessary to the survival of Christianity in Asia (Ibid., p. 77).  

U Ba Hmyn of Burma set the future course clearly at the third Assembly of the World Council of Churches in New Delhi in 1961 when he said: No theology will deserve to be called ecumenical in the coming days which ignores Asian structures.  It may use the term "ecumenical," but it will really be parochial and Western only (Hans-Ruedi Weber, Asia and the Ecumenical Movement, 19895-1961. London, SCM, 1966, p. 15). 

There is no adequate way to give even a postcard summary of developments in recent Asian theology that have led to the emergence of liberation theology. Asia is a many-splendored continent. It demands many distinctive strategies tailored to the indigenous specifications of particular areas (Ferm, op. cit., p. 77).

Asian liberation theology is a rapidly growing, multifaceted phenomenon similar in its basic aspirations to African and Latin American liberation theology,  yet distinctive  in its pluralistic religious setting (Important Asian liberation theologians include Koson Srisang of Thailand,  Khin Maung Din of Burma, James A. Veitch of Singapore, Vitalino r. Gorospe of the Philippines, and C.S. Song of Taiwan). 

One should not even begin to speak with a shred of confidence about the "pros and cons" of Third World liberation theology until one gains some degree of sensitivity to and appreciation for its multiple Asian versions.  Asian liberation theology is original, complex, rich bewildering, and immensely fertile.  It provides important models for liberation, not only for the Third World, but also for the First World (Ferm, op. cit., p. 99).

This essay is submitted in the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen!

Dr. Juan A. Carmona 

Past Professor of Theology

Tainan Theological College/Seminary                              

THE ASIAN ORIGINS OF LATIN AMERICA

DR. JUAN A. CARMONA 

These next two essays will focus on Liberation Theology from an Asian context.  We begin by talking about the Asian origins of Latin America.

Like it happens often-times with other parts of history, especially North American history, the approach that has been taken traditionally-speaking, is to write history from the standpoint of the conquerors. altogether ignoring the conquered, or, at the very least, relegating them to secondary status in terms of their contribution to civilization and historical development.  In this essay, we will deal with Asian origins of this region, for as Dr. Ivan Van Sertima points out, there were people of both African and Asian descent here, thousands of years before the European colonizations of the West.  We will view, even if in summary fashion, the pre-European presence in the Americas in order to understand the thrust of Liberation Theology.

Marshall C. Eakin, Professor of History at Vanderbilt University gives us a gist of this pre-European presence in the Americas. He states, "The 'first Americans' arrived in a series of migrations from the Asian continent across the Bering Straight possibly far back as 40,000 years ago.  The last wave of migrants was the Eskimo or Inuit, who traveled across the frozen expanses of the Arctic about 4,000 years ago.  Archaeologists have long debated the dates of the earliest arrivals, with more traditional and conservative scholars arguing against any clear proof of migration before about 12,000 years ago.  Although not an archaeologist, I believe that there is growing evidence, especially from Chile, that the dates should be pushed back at least 20,000 years ago.  All agree, however, that by 10,000 years ago, humans occupied most of the Americas from Canada to Tierra del Fuego.  The islands of the Caribbean and the plains of Southern South America were probably the last major regions to be populated, only about 2,000 years before the arrival of Columbus.  In contrast to the striking diversity of their languages, Native Americans were extraordinarily homogenous in genetic or biological terms.  The blood type of most Native Americans, for example, is O, a type common to more than 80 percent of them.  For reasons that are not entirely clear, these early migrants did not bring with them the diseases of the Old World.  Some have hypothesized that the cold Arctic passage served as a type of 'filter,' killing of dangerous microbes.  None of the Native American populations had exposure to diseases that ravaged the Old World: influenza, smallpox, measles, malaria, yellow fever, plague, typhus.  For this lack of exposure and immunity, they would pay a very high price during the European invasion and the conquest  which went along with the invasion (Marshall C. Eakin, The History of Latin America: Collision of of Cultures. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2007, p.27)."

When Columbus arrived in the Caribbean in 1492, he believed that he had reached the 'Indies,' something of a generic term for Asia in his day.  He called the natives 'Indios," and this work stuck, entering into the vocabulary of many languages.  The term 'Native American' has gained wide acceptance in the last few decades, but it is also problematic.  The term 'America' is also Euro-centric.  It is a name given to the New World by a German cartographer in the early sixteenth century to honor Amerigo Vespucci, one of the best-known early explorers.  Most native groups before the Conquest simply called themselves 'the people' and they saw the rest of the population around them as the 'Other,' to use the parlance of contemporary academics.  There is no 'politically correct' term to be employed. One of the  most radical groups of the 1970's,  for example, were called 'the American Indian Movement.'  One growing movement now promotes the term 'indigenous peoples.'  It is one of the great ironies of the early twentieth century that the term 'Indian' has now become a generic label adopted by native peoples all across the Americas to create a sense of solidarity. In effect, they have accepted the  lumping of all native peoples together, something the Europeans artificially did in the sixteenth century to peoples supposedly no sense of common identity or solidarity (Ibid. p. 28).

Whether these pre-European trans-oceanic contacts were fundamental to cultural developments is a matter of debate.  There are some who hold to the view that the native peoples of the Americas were too ignorant and unfit to have produced what were clearly the remains of incredibly sophisticated civilizations. They also tend to believe that the Native Americans were incapable of creating great cultures on their own (Ibid., p. 29).

I conclude by stating that we can no longer subscribe to the notion that Latin American came into 'civilization' as a result of and after the European conquest.  The African and Asiatic origins of Latin America need to be weighed if we are to talk about a theology which deals with the oppression of the people of this region during and after the European conquest.  The notion of white 'cultural superiority' needs to be deconstructed, demythologized, and dismissed for once and for all.  The theology that we are dealing with did not emerge from the European ivory towers of comfort and speculation, but rather from the colonization and subsequent subjugation of the people of Latin America.  

In the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen.  

Dr. Juan A. Carmona 

Past Professor of Theology

Tainan Theological College/Seminary 

 THE AFRICAN CONTEXT OF LIBERATION THEOLOGY 

I have often times stated that Liberation Theology is not a school of thought, but rather a movement.  It is a historical movement that dates back many centuries, even before the Christian era.  It did not begin in Latin America, but in the African continent.  

I began this series of essays (based on my lectures delivered at the Tainan Theological College/Seminary in Taiwan during the academic years 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 while serving as a Visiting Professor of Theology).  I deliberately initiated these lectures focusing on Latin America and the Latinx Diaspora in the U.S.A. because I am a Latino (specifically Afro-Puerto Rican) scholar/theologian.  As such, my theology is based on the experience of oppression and suffering on the Caribbean, Latin America, and what I call for lack of a better term, "Slave Town, U.S.A."

Having said that, I will note that technically speaking, Liberation Theology began in Africa, which historians consider the cradle of human civilization.  It began when Yahweh God (the God of Israel) said to Moses, "I have heard the cry of my people and am concerned about them."  This encounter between Moses and Yahweh lead to the eventual emancipation of the Hebrew people from Egyptian bondage.  

If, indeed, the African continent is the cradle of human civilization, then it is apropos that our study of theology (God-talk) should begin there.  This is not say, however, by any stretch of the imagination, that there was no dealing with God and other human civilizations outside of Africa prior to the birth and coming of Moses.  God is not limited to any cultural, ethnic, national, racial, or social group.  God is a cosmic and transcendent God, who is not confined to any geographical area of the world, or to any national or racial group.  I respectfully submit that wherever there has been oppression and suffering, that this is where we find and experience the divine presence.

African Liberation Theology is not a mere clone of Latin American Liberation Theology.  The diverse and rich culture of Africa, in addition to its unique experience of Christianity, represents a fresh challenge to those seeking to understand African notions of liberation (Dean William Ferm, Third World Liberation Theologies: An Introductory Survey.  Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1986, p.59).

As is well known, the Christian Church as existed in northern Africa since early times.  Especially prominent was the Christian community in Alexandria at the time of Clement and Origen in the second and fourth centuries.  Later, in the fifth century, the Coptic Church of Egypt, which still flourishes today, emerged as an Egyptian nationalist movement, opposing Byzantine imperialism.  By the nineteenth century, Christian missionaries were spreading throughout sub-Saharan Africa, usually joining forces with Western colonial powers in exploiting the inhabitants, their lands and resources, with a "pro white, anti-black, we have the truth, you don't" attitude.  As a result, racism and the aftertaste of slavery have deeply infected relationships between blacks and whites throughout Africa from the first colonial settlements to the first generation (Ibid.). 

Thus, although stressing liberation from social, economic, and political oppression like its Latin American obverse, African Liberation Theology is deeply concerned with racial oppression.  This component is especially strong in South Africa, where racism in the form of apartheid has been extremely virulent.  Both African and North American black theologians have faulted Latin American theologians for failing to take the racial component seriously (Ibid.).  

James Cone, considered to be the "Father" of African American Liberation Theology, is one of the black American theologians who makes this critique.  He says, "The Latin American theologians' emphasis upon the class struggle, with almost no mention of race oppression, made black theologians suspicious of their white European identity (Sergio Torres and John Eagles, eds., The Challenge of Basic Christian Communities (Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 1981, p. 266)."

Ruvimbo Taker of Zimbabwe also notes: The fact that the cultures of the Indians and black have been ignored seems to indicate why they are absent from the larger participation in Latin American life. The rich cultural attributes of the Indians and the blacks have been ignored by the Church in conformity with the ruling dominant class (Ibid., p. 258).

But in other countries other than South Africa, the racial component is not important.  John Pobee points out that "With the exception of the Republic of South Africa, racial prejudice is not so bad in Africa as it is in America.  Consequently, African theology, though interested in liberation, is not preoccupied with liberation as much as black theology is (Toward an African Theology. Nashville, Abingdon, 1979, p. 39). 

In addition, African theologians have in recent years had a far greater appreciation for indigenous religions than have their Latin American counterparts.  Even the African Christian churches have begun to show a willingness to incorporate indigenous beliefs and practices into their teachings.  This, however, has not always been the case.  The early missionaries who came from the First World brought with them a westernized version of Christianity that looked upon the African blacks as heathen, and Africa itself as the "empire of Satan."  These missionaries were convinced that either the Africans had  no religion at all or what religion they had was pagan.  In fact, perhaps the most potent factor in the development of independent churches throughout Africa was the failure of mission programs of the established churches to come to terms with the African religious heritage (Ferm, p. 60). 

Even today, the "indigenization" issue has not failed to generate controversy.  On the one hand, the Christian churches would have difficulty coming to terms with certain African customs-for example polygamy.  On the other hand, some theologians, especially in South Africa, have complained that the return to African roots has amounted to a digression from the burning social, racial, and economic issues of the day.  Unlike most of their Latin American counterparts, African theologians have been more sharply divided between those who favor indigenization as a way of retrieving their African heritage, and those who favor indigenization as a way of liberating the oppressed.  Indeed, the latter group would not consider the former group to be liberation theologians in the true sense of the term.  It is surprising to discover that many African theologians, for whom indigenization is so important in liberating African religion from intrusion, are less involved than most South African theologians in the social problems that impede human liberation (Ibid.).

Gwinyai Muzorewa  states that " It is not clear why most Africans tend to shy away from politicizing their theology.  In my opinion, both theologies are concerned about restoring the proper image of black humanity, an image which had been grossly distorted by Europeans and white Americans (Gwinyai Muzorewa, The Origins And Development of African Theology. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1985, p. 55)."

Ruvimbo Tekere says in his criticism of Latin American Liberation Theology: A marriage of these cultures, traditional and Christian, is critical for Latin American Liberation Theology. Traditional or native culture is not opposed to the Gospel.  Only in such a marriage, when the oppressed and dominated feel they have a heritage that contributes positively to the present, will they participate fully in the Christian Church without a schizophrenic identity of "Christian" and heathen (Torres and Eagles, op. cit., p. 259)."  

How can we even begin a discussion of African Liberation Theology?  The discussion cannot be confined exclusively to any geographical region of the African continent.  

The relationship between the Christian faith and African beliefs remains a troubling issue for many of the Christian churches, particularly when such beliefs and practices go against the grain of "normative" Western teachings.  It is assumed that the Western-imposed Christianity is universally valid "in all times and in all places.  It is treated as "God-given," and African spirituality is considered "diabolical."  

As we can see, Latin American Liberation Theology can no more be exported to Africa than it can be imported to North America.  Emphases will be different and will reflect varying stages of growth in the development of a full-blown, all embracing Liberation Theology (Ferm, op. cit., p. 75).

To learn from others: "This is a call to transcend our cultural limitations and congenital blindness. To do this, even partially, is to achieve a measure of liberation, a new vantage point, a broader horizon, a fresh vision of the world, a better look at humanity and what it means to be human (Polygamy Reconsidered: African Plural Marriage and the Christian Churches: Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1979, p.  60)"

In closing, I reiterate what I intimated at the beginning of this essay, i.e. that since Africa is considered the cradle of human civilization, that any talk of Liberation Theology should begin by a focus on the oppression and suffering of the people in that continent.  I also end by saying, that whatever good and positive there may be in Western theology (European and American), and that whatever we can learn by engaging in it. that it is not "normative" for our African theology.  If anything, we might just consider African theology as "normative" for in defining Christian theology not only for the African Christian community, but for the world-wide Christian community as a whole.  We should drink from the wells of the cradle of human civilization.  

This essay is submitted in the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen.

Dr. Juan A. Carmona

Past Professor of Theology

Tainan Theological College/Seminary 

 THE LATIN AMERICAN CONTEXT OF LIBERATION THEOLOGY

One of the most important things that  must be taken into account with any given stream of theological thought is its historic context.  Close attention must be paid to the geographical soil in which a particular theology emerged, and also, how the history of the region played a role in the development of that particular theological system.  Liberation Theology is no different.  It emerged and developed within the geographical and historical confines of a certain region and a certain people.  And while there are different "Liberation Theologies," which are unique to certain regions and certain social classes, we will pay particular attention to the Latin American context.

A Euro-centric approach to the history of Latin America has dominated the majority of the literature relative to this region.  It is as if Latin America were dormant, waiting for the Europeans to come and "discover" it in order to be even mentioned in the history books.  It would be very easy to assume that prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, that there was  nothing of significant historical significance taking place in that part of the world.  Since the history of the Americas has been written for the most part from the ethnocentric standpoint of Europe, it is necessary to debunk and demythologize the notions that accompany this mindset.

The collision of the peoples-Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans-gave birth to Latin America.  For thousands of years prior to the European arrivals, the Native Americans had lived in isolation from the inhabitants of what became known as the "Old World."  The peoples of Africa, Asia, and Europe had fought, traded, and otherwise intermingled since the rise of the human species throughout these regions (Marshall C. Eakin, The History of Latin America: Collision of Cultures.  New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, p.1). It is claimed that in spite of this, however, that they had lost any sustained contact with the populations of the Americas for millennia (Ibid.).  Eakins is of the position that on October 12, 1492, Columbus "reunited" the inhabitants of the Old World and the New World and initiated an ongoing exchange of humans, plants, animals, and microbes that created (and continually recreates) Latin America.  The collision of Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans, like three powerful streams converging to produce a roaring river, mixed the three peoples into a dazzling variety of combinations, producing something new and unique in world history.  As the decades and centuries passed, the turbulent river gradually split into many different streams, but all had their origins in the great waterway formed by the initial clash of these three groups (Ibid.).

On one of Columbus's voyages, he came upon evidence of the contact between Guinea an d the New World.  From a settlement that along the South American coast, on which his companions landed on August 7, 1498, the natives brought handkerchiefs of cotton very symmetrically woven and worked in colors like those brought from Guinea, from the rivers of Sierra Leone, and of no difference (John Boyd Thatcher, Christopher Columbus: His Life, His Work, His Remains.  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1903, Vol. 1, p 392).  Not only were they alike in style and color, but also in function.  These handkerchiefs, he said, resembled almayzars-Guinea  headdresses and loin cloths.  "Each one is a cloth so woven in colors that it appeared an almayzar with one tied on the head, and the other covering the rest (Ibid., p. 393)." 

These were among the earliest documented traces of the pre-Columbian African presence.  Within the first and second decades of the so-called "discovery," African settlements and artifacts were to be sighted by the Spanish.  When they were not reported as mere asides, they were ignored or suppressed.  But history is not easily buried.  In the oral traditions of the Native Americans, and the Guinea Africans, in the footnotes of the Spanish and Portuguese documents, part of the story lies.  Another part lies embalmed under the American and African earth.  As this earth is now being lifted by archaeological picks and trowels, a new skeleton emerges of the  history of these adjacent worlds (Ivan Van Sertima, They Came Before Columbus. New York: Random House, 1976, p. 16).  

Inspired by his encounter with the southern sea, Vasco Nunez de Balboa and his companions decided to push further south along the isthmus.  They came upon an indigenous settlement where to their astonishment, they found a number of war captives who were plainly and unmistakably African. These were tall black men of military bearing who were waging war with the natives from settlement in the neighborhood.  Balboa asked the natives whence they got them, but they could not tell, nor did they know more than this, that men of color were living nearby, and that they were constantly waging war with them.  These were the first blacks that had been seen in the Indies (Lopez de Gomara. Historia de Mexico. Anvers, 1554).

Peter Martyr, one of the earliest historians of America reports on this remarkable encounter between the Spanish conquerors and the blacks.  "The Spaniards" wrote Martyr, "found Negroes in this province. They only live one day's march from Quarequa and they are fierce.  It is thought that Negro pirates from Ethiopia established themselves after the wreck of their ships in these mountains.  The natives of Quarequa carry an incessant war with these Negroes.  Massacre or slavery are the alternate fortunes of these peoples (F.A. Mac Nuts, ed. and trans. De Orbo Novo: The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr d'Anghera. . New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons (1912)." 

An encounter with New World Negroes was also reported off Colombia.  Fray Gregoria Garcia, a priest of the Dominican order who spent nine years in Peru in the early sixteenth century, pinpoints an island off Cartagena, Columbia as the place where the Spanish first encountered blacks in the New World. Once again, the blacks were found as captives among the natives.  In a book silenced by the Spanish Inquisition, Garcia wrote, "Here we found slaves of the lord-Negroes-who were the first our people saw in the Indies (Alexander von Wuthenau. The Art of Terracotta Pottery in Pre-Columbian Central and South America. New York: Crown Publishers, 1969, p. 167)."  

Darien and Columbia were easily accessible to African-ship wrecked mariners.  These places lie within the terminal area of currents that move with great power and swiftness from Africa to America.  These currents may be linked to marine conveyor belts.  Once you enter them, you are transported (even against your will, even with no navigational skill), from one bank of the ocean to another.  It is important to point out how many small, isolated black communities have been found on the American seaboard at the terminal points of these currents.  Alphonse de Quatrefagas, professor of anthropology at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, noted in his study, The Human Species (published in 1905) that "black populations have been found in America in very small numbers and as isolated tribes in the midst of different nations. Such are the Charuas of Brazil, the black Caribees  of Saint Vincent in the Gulf of Mexico, the Jamassi of Florida, etc.  Such again is the tribe of which Balboa saw some representatives in his passage of the Isthmus of Darien in 1513).  Yet it would seem, from expressions made use of by Gomara, that these were true Negroes.  This type is well-known to the Spanish (Alphonse de Quatrefages, The Human Species. New York: Appleton, 1905, p. 200)."

De Quatrefages shows how the location of these African New World communities coincides with the terminal points of Africa-to America currents or sea roads.  "We only find these black men in America in those places washed by Kouro-Siwo, a Pacific current known as the 'black stream,' and the Equatorial current of the Atlantic or its divisions.  A glance at the maps of Captain Kerhallet will at once show the rarity and distribution of these tribes.  It is evident that the more or less pure black elements have been brought from Africa through some accident at sea; they have there mixed with the local races, and have formed those small isolated groups which are distinguished by their color from the surrounding tribes (Ibid., pas. 201-202)."

These Spanish sightings of Africans in the New World and the later discovery by anthropologists of distinctive black settlements along the American seaboard (outside of the mainstream of the post-Columbian slave complex) constitute only one strand of the evidence of pre-Columbian contact between Africa and America.  An overwhelming body of new evidence is now emerging from several disciplines, evidence that could not be verified and interpreted before, in the light of the infancy of archaeology and the great racial and intellectual prejudice.  The most remarkable examples of this evidence are the realistic portraitures of Negro-Africans in clay, gold, and stone unearthed in pre-Columbia strata in Central and South America (Van Sertima, p. 26).

It has only been in recent decades, however, that this evidence has begun to filter down the general public.  When in 1862, the head of a black man was found in the Canton of Tuxtla, near the place where the most ancient of pre-Columbian statuettes were discovered, the historian Orozco y Berra declared in his History of the Conquest of Mexico that there was bound to be an important and intimate relationship between Mexicans and Africans in the pre-Columbian past (M. Orozco y Berra. Historia Antigua y de la Conquista de Mexico. G.A. Esteva: 1880, Vol 1, p. 109).

In his time, however, the Negroid heads could not be conclusively dated.  We know now, without a shadow of a doubt, through the most modern methods of dating, that some of the Negro stone heads found among the Olmecs and in other parts of Mexico and Central America, are from as early as 800 B.C. to 700 B.C.  Clearly American history has to be reconstructed to account for this irrefutable piece of archaeological data.  Explanations, not excuses, have got to be found.  The time has come to disperse the cloud of silence and skepticism that has settled over this subject for over a century (Van Sertima, p. 26).

The purpose of this essay has been to present a non-European approach to Latin American history.  The primary reason for this is to dispel the notion of Caucasian cultural superiority.  Further research and study will reveal that the Africans and their descendants in pre-Columbian America were not brute savages as has been depicted in American history books, nor were they intellectually underdeveloped.  The reader/researcher  will discover that they were a people who were very skilled and that together with the indigenous people of the Americas, they built up a great civilization.  

For Liberation Theology to be understood in the Latin American context, one must take into account the history of the groups who lived and worked in this context.  One must also understand the impact of European colonization on this region of the world in order to know and understand why a movement such as Liberation Theology developed in the first place.  Only as one studies these facts, can a non-colonial theology be understood and properly evaluated.  

This essay is submitted in the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen.

Dr. Juan A. Carmona 

Past Professor of Theology

Tainan Theological College/Seminary