Doctoral students meet for a colloquium
The ATU Doctoral Colloquium was held on July 2 to 5, 2018 at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Hong Kong. Thirteen (13) participants coming from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Myanmar engaged in the scholarly activities. The following were invited as mentors and facilitators:
Dr. Christina Ong from The Divinity School, Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong with specialization in History of Christianity in China, Women and Gender Studies;
Dr. Sung-Hyun Kim from Lutheran Theological Seminary, Hong Kong with specialization in Systematic Theology; and
Dr. Leo K-H Li from The Divinity School Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong with specialization in Biblical Studies.
One facilitator stressed, “Mutual learning is theological learning.” Each participant was given time to present his/her paper for critique. The sharing of ideas was a moment to empower each other. After reflecting on the reviews, the students were encouraged to rethink and reorganize their paper based on new perspectives. The dialogues inspired them to embrace a holistic approach to the subject matter considering that the South East Asia context is a pluralistic society and that theology is related to other fields of study. Furthermore, the importance of contextualization was also underscored in their research. In one of the morning reflections, one of the participants commented, “Theology is useful when it is sensitive to the social issues and tries to give any contribution that can enlighten and encourage change for the best of our society. …Through research efforts, it will obtain relevant data and information that will be analyzed to build constructive and contextual theological thinking. Thus, the result is a theology based on research data that address the needs of the context.”
The participants treasured the new friendships formed and fresh insights gained during the discussions. They recognized this scholarly exercise as valuable for doctoral students in their research paper writing.
