Evangelical or Mainline? Doctrinal Similarity and Difference in Asian American Christianity: Sketching a Social-Practical Theory of Christian Doctrine

Abstract

This article takes Asian American Christianity to be an analytically productive religion for advancing a theory of Christian doctrine. This is in large part due to the trans-Pacific character of Asian American Christians who, by virtue of their racialization, make explicit the different social circumstances—from Anglo-European Christians—as well as shared ends in which Christian doctrinal commitments operate. Asian American Christians problematize the conventional wisdom assumed in the academic and public discourses concerning Christianity in the US. One of the primary set of categories in the discourses about Christianity in the US is the theological difference between evangelical and mainline Protestants. Moreover, these theological and doctrinal categories are taken to describe and define these two social groups of Christians. By centering empirical studies of Asian American Christian faith and practice, this article claims that doctrinal similarity and doctrinal difference, such as that between evangelical and mainline Protestants, do not simply explain social group similarity or difference as assumed by conventional wisdom. Instead, these Asian American case studies point to the need for a new theory of Christian doctrine that can explain the normative significance of doctrinal similarity and difference in terms of the uses of doctrine.