A Theological Understanding of Power for Poverty Alleviation in the Philippines

This book calls attention to the sense of powerlessness of everyday people in the Philippines, and to the missional agency of US-based Filipino Protestants. Through a variety of sociological-theological-missiological perspectives, this book guides you to a journey of discovering what kind of power is in play, how the fallen powers can be named and made visible, and then ultimately the ways through which power should be restored. In this process, the voices, perceptions, stories, and insights of US-based Filipino Protestants are referred to. Filipino American Protestants are no longer “forgotten Asians” in the US. Instead, they actively perceive, negotiate, and exercise power in everyday life, and strive to wield their missional agency in response to God’s calling for the transformation of their homeland Philippines, which has been seldom investigated in the academia of Diaspora Missiology and Intercultural Studies.

Yohan Hong did mission works in the Philippines for four and a half years. He holds a PhD in Intercultural Studies from Asbury Theological Seminary, Kentucky and is currently serving as an Elder in Full Connection in the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Gregg A. Okesson is Dean of the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism. He received a BA from Wheaton College (Psychology and Bible), a MA from Wheaton Graduate School (Biblical Studies), a MA from Wheaton Graduate School (Intercultural Studies), and a PhD in Theology and Religious Studies from University of Leeds, UK (African Christianity). Before coming to Asbury in July 2011, Dr. Okesson was a faculty member at Scott Theological College/Scott Christian University, Kenya, East Africa for ten years where he served as Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Prior to this, he was a pastor in upstate New York, worked in Student Development at Wheaton College, and was a church-planter among a Muslim people-group in north-central Tanzania. He and his family lived in East Africa for thirteen years. Dr. Okesson has authored numerous articles and serves on the editorial committee for the Africa Journal of Evangelical Theology. He is the author of Re-Imaging Modernity (Wipf & Stock, 2012) and is currently working on projects that deal with ecclesiastical theologies emergent within African Christianity, doxology and development, along with a co-authored book on the subject of evangelical advocacy. More broadly, Dr. Okesson is interested in attending to linkages between theology and global realities, particularly those dealing with poverty, development, power, and multiple modernities.