SINGAPORE (UCAN): A group of scholars and researchers based in Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, the United States and France together with the National University of Singapore launched the Initiative for the Study of Asian Catholics [ISAC) on October 1.
The initiative will research the role of Catholics in shaping socio-cultural developments in Asia.
The Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore hosts the new platform that seeks to foster social scientific research on Catholics in contemporary Asia, organisers said.
Catholic scholars say that over the past decades, universities around the world have shown an interest in studying the role that religions play in the shaping of Asian societies.
In multiple places, research centres have appeared to investigate the influence of Hinduism, Shintoism, Islam, or Chinese Buddhism in contemporary Asia.
However, “social scientists have paid little attention to Catholicism. Academia is acting as if this religion is not relevant to understand the transformations of Asia,” said French theologian, Michel Chambon, who is part of the initiative, which seeks to help researchers from various places and disciplines to generate new collaborations and research projects.
Besides organising conferences and workshops to discuss the lived realities of Asian Catholics, ISAC will also offer small research grants to early career researchers, generate a searchable database on Asian Catholicism, and support the digitisation of historical material that matters to Asian Catholics.
‘Even if Catholics are numerous in some parts of Asia, their regional and global influences can remain difficult to perceive. Yet, they are part of one of the largest and most institutionalised religions that actively influences world affairs’
Michel Chambon
ISAC aims to become a platform for social scientists to exchange ideas, seek collaborations, and offer advice to enhance the collective understanding of Asian Catholics and global Catholicism.
It also seeks to stand as a resource for researchers, students, journalists and the general public, offering up-to-date information on scholarly activities and scientific publications relating to Asian Catholics.
In partnership with UCAN, Asia’s largest independent Catholic news service, it also produces a podcast series bringing scholarship on Asian Catholics to non-academic audiences.
Chambon, also a cultural anthropologist and writer, said the important role that Catholicism and Catholics have played in Asia remains largely unexplored and unknown, prompting the idea of ISAC.
He said multiple pressing issues “provide an impetus for the academic community to study how Asian societies and global Catholicism intersect. Even if Catholics are numerous in some parts of Asia, their regional and global influences can remain difficult to perceive. Yet, they are part of one of the largest and most institutionalised religions that actively influences world affairs.”
Chambon said that Asian Catholics are embedded in networks that transcend national, linguistic and regional boundaries, adding that they often face various forms of hostility and discrimination calling for international attention.
“They question how Asian nation-states define themselves and construct frameworks of coexistence for religious and ethnic diversity,” he said.
Chambon added that in addition to manifesting the rich and complex history of Christianity as well as the current mutation of world Catholicism, Asian Catholics are actors in contemporary globalisation and they stand as unique witnesses to understanding the current evolution of Asia and the Church.
