DinhAnhNhue NGUYEN and Jude WINKLER, Editors, Franciscan Asian Biennial Book 2016-2017. Rome: Casa Editrice Miscellanea Francescana, 2017. Pp. 230. ISBN-13: 978-88-87931-74-7. NP. Reviewed by Peter C. PHAN, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. 20057.

This volume is the second publication of the Franciscan Institute for Asian Theological Studies (FIATS). The first volume is The Bible and Asian Culture, already reviewed on this website.)   The Institute was founded in 2015 at the Pontifical Theological Faculty St. Bonaventure (the Seraphicum), Rome, with the aim to “coordinate, encourage and promote reflections on the Christian life of faith and Franciscan spirituality in Asia as well as on the dialogue between Christianity and Asian Cultures.”

This book, composed of three sections: Studies, Reflections, and Reports and Book Reviews, is a fine fruit of the Institute’s scholarship on its twin areas of research. On Christian and Franciscan life in Asia, there are four essays in Section I, “Studies.” Richard Shields provides a programmatic essay on practical theology as inculturation mediating between the universality of the Gospel and the particularity of cultures. At this intersection, practical theology in Asia, Shields suggests, must be empirical, interreligious, and ecclesial. GiaAnh Cao offers an exegesis of Mt 9:36-38, showing how Jesus’ compassion should be the inspiration and model for Christian mission in Asia. DinhAnhNhue Nguyen explores how Mt 10:7-13 and the missionary instructions of the RegolaBollataprovide a way of understanding the nature and goal of Christian missions and of doing them in Asia. KhuongDuy Nguyen explores the meaning of “silence” in Shusaku Endo’s novel Silence, boldly suggesting that the silence of Rodrigues, Kichijiro, and Ferreira may be ways of witnessing to the silence of God.

On interreligious dialogue, there are two essays. A lengthy essay on the dialogue between Christianity and Hinduism by Louis Panthiruvelil provides an overview of the encounter between Hinduism and Christianity in India and suggests that an effective dialogue between the two religions should begin with Christians “living” rather than “preaching” Christ and that the dialogue should be imbued with understanding, respect, and friendship. Alfonsus Panaligan compares Confucius and St. Bonaventure under the category of “virtue ethics” with a comparison between jen/zelusiustitiae, yi/discretio, and li/devotio.

Section II, “Reflections,” comprises two short pieces: A reading of Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ and Matsuoko Bashō’s Complete Haikuby Tomasz Szymczak, and a perspective of a Conventual Franciscan on Asia by Jaroslaw Wysoczanski. Section III contains reports on Christianity in Sri Lanka by Sumaltriloshan Madawala Liyanage and in Vietnam by Luke Vu. The book ends with two book reviews.

Franciscan Asian Biennial Book 2016-2017 is an interesting mixture of scholarly studies, practical reflections, and field reports. Some of the scholarly studies tend to be rather programmatic and generic overviews, the substance of which is already familiar to most scholars. The reflections and reports tend to be reportorial snapshots rather than sociological and anthropological field research. Nevertheless, I would like to draw the attention of North American readers to this new effort at contextualizing Christianity in Asia, especially because it represents the work of Franciscans that is little known in the United States. May their tribe increase and multiply.