How does the experience of being an immigrant, an ethnic minority person on the margins of society, affect one's way of doing theology? In Journeys at the Margin prominent Asian-American theologians reflect on how being an Asian and a North American has shaped the way they understand the Christian story. Asian Americans, having roots in Asia, do not fully belong either to America or Asia. They find themselves straddling two different world cultures, sharing something of both but belonging entirely to neither. Thus, their marginality can best be understood in terms of their experience of living "in-between" two cultures, that of the immigrant and that of the dominant group, and being "in-both" of these cultures-and, ultimately, being "in-beyond" the two cultures altogether. Coming from different parts of the Far East and nourished by diverse Christian traditions, the contributors to Journeys at the Margin bring to their work richly divergent perspectives, resources, and methods. More than an anthology of personal stories, this collection of essays develops the emerging theological themes (including the contributors' visions of a new America) out of their experience. What binds these highly varied essays is their authors' common journeys at the margin. As the United States becomes increasingly multiethnic and multicultural at the threshold of a new millennium, Journeys at the Margin offers useful suggestions on how to meet the challenge of cultural diversity in both Church and society. Articles and their contributors are "An Asian-American Theology: Believing and Thinking at the Boundaries," by Peter C. Phan; "Five Stages Toward Christian Theology in the Multicultural World," by Choan-Seng Song; "A Life In-Between: A Korean-American Journey," by Jung Young Lee; "The House of Self," by Julia Ching; "A Japanese-American Pilgrimage: Theological Reflections," by Paul M. Nagano; "A Path of Concentric Circles: Toward an Autobiographical Theology of Community," by David Ng; "'But Who Do You Say That I Am?' (Matt 16:15): A Churched Korean American Woman's Autobiographical Inquiry," by Jung Ha Kim; "Betwixt and Between: Doing Theology with Memory and Imagination," by Peter C. Phan; "From Autobiography to Fellowship of Others: Reflections on Doing Ethnic Theology Today," by Anselm Kyongsuk Min; and "Church and Theology: My Theological Journey," by Andrew Sung Park.

Western Christians often despair of finding meaning in the paradoxical statement that God is both "One" and "Three". The problem, says Jung Young Lee, is not with the doctrine of the Trinity itself; rather, it is with the Western conceptual tendency to view reality in exclusive, "either/or" terms. The Trinity is at its heart an inclusive doctrine of one God who is nonetheless three distinct persons. In order to grasp this fact, we need different conceptual categories, not only with which to view God, but all of reality. The Asian philosophical construct of yin and yang can offer a way out of this problem, with its inherently "both/and" way of thinking. Drawing on a variety of East Asian religious traditions, Lee offers a creative reinterpretation of this central Christian doctrine. He shows how a global perspective can illuminate Western theological constructs as he establishes the necessity of a contextual approach to the doctrine of the Trinity.

"To transcend or to live in-beyond does not mean to be free of the two different worlds in which one exists but to live in both of them without being bound by either of them." - Jung Young Lee In this work Jung Young Lee proposes a framework that justifies and undergirds development of contextual theologies without becoming itself dominating. Lee aims to address the dilemmas of contextual theology not by moving one or another group from the margin to the center, but by redefining marginality itself as central. Marginality, he contends, is not only the experience of being outside the dominant group or in-between groups, but also "in-beyond"-a holistic, process-oriented definition that highlights the catalytic, transformative potential of living at the creative nexus of worlds. Lee's insight into marginality leads him directly into a new model for contextual theologies that focuses not on historical experience but on creative potential. His chapters work out concretely what such a notion can mean culturally, methodologically, and doctrinally to a movement that professes to follow the very paradigm of creative marginality, Jesus Christ.