An Asian Pneumatology of the FABC and the Re-imagining of Spirituality in Asia

Abstract

The Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) has reimagined spirituality in Asia by removing the perception of the church in Asia as “foreign” through interreligious dialogue and inculturation. It has done this by pursuing a threefold dialogue, consisting of dialogue with the local cultures, peoples, and religions. The interreligious component of the Triple Dialogue is based on the premise that the Holy Spirit or the Divine Spirit is operative in non-Christian religions (BIRA IV/2, art. 8.5, in Rosales and Arevalo 1997, 253). Indeed, the FABC document, The Spirit at Work in Asia Today (SWAT) issued by the Office of Theological Concerns, begins not with the teaching of the episcopal magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church, but with how the Spirit has functioned in the lives of Asian people within their historical and religio-cultural contexts. In this paper, I examine some of the ways in which the bishops at the FABC have reimagined spirituality in Asia.

KEYWORDS: Divine Spirit, FABC, hospitality, inculturation, pneumatology