To provide opportunities for its Asian international students to theologize in the Asian context and in their own Asian languages, Loyola School of Theology has instituted its “Theology in an Asian Language Series” by offering theology and spirituality courses in Vietnamese, Bahasa Indonesian and Korean. Non-LST students and participants are welcome to these courses.
For the First Semester of Academic Year 2019-2020 (August to December 2019), LST is considering to offer a course in Mandarin Chinese if at least 10 participants would express interest and actually enroll in the course. Prospective professor is Fr. Luigino Marchioron of the Xaverian Missionaries, former professor of Biblical Theology at Fujen Catholic University in Taipei.
Class schedule will either be Monday or Friday, 9:00 am to 11:50 am, depending on which day most prospective enrollees will be available. If interested to enroll, email vpadmin@lst.edu expressing preferred class day. Definitive schedule will be announced in June 2019.
Reading the Scriptures from a Chinese Perspective
This course introduces students to a reading of the inspired written Word of God from a Chinese perspective. How can one read the Old Testament, as well as the New Testament, as an experience of an encounter of cultures? The course explores various challenges that arise from the Chinese cultural perspective in the reading of Scriptures: objective challenges, the morality of some great biblical protagonists, “divine” violence in some biblical narratives and contradictory attitudes. Utilizing the principles of biblical interpretation, an attempt is made to offer answers to some questions raised by the reading of the Old Testament, in particular the narratives of Genesis 37-50, Esdras, Nehemiah, Judith and Esther.
The course also includes some examples of exegesis of selected New Testament texts that reflect efforts at adaptation to Chinese culture by foreign missionaries. A case in point are the works of the Jesuit Manuel Dias during the Ming Dynasty.
從中國文化的角度來閱讀聖經
本課题向學生們介紹從中國的角度去閱讀被啟發的天主聖言。一個人怎麼能夠把《舊約》，《新約》亦然，作為一種文化相遇的經驗來閱讀呢？本課程從中國文化的角度探討了在讀經過程中所面臨的各種挑戰：客觀的挑戰，一些偉大的聖經人物的道德準則，一些聖經敘述中的“神聖的”暴力以及衝突的態度。運用聖經解釋的原則，特別是使用在《創世紀》37-50章、《厄斯德拉上》、《厄斯德拉下》、《友弟德傳》、《艾斯德爾傳》的敘述方式中，嘗試回答在閱讀《舊約》過程中浮現出來的一些問題。
本課程同時也包括了一些特選新約經文的注釋範例，這些經文的注釋反映了外國傳教士們在適應中國文化方面所做出的種種努力。一個非常好的典範就是明朝耶穌會士陽瑪諾 (Manuel Dias SJ)的作品
