Vietnamese Conversion to Christianity

Religious conversion and crisis often go hand in
hand. One often precipitates and/or results from the
other. War and its aftermath is often the context in
which crisis and religious conversion take place. To
hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees who
fled Vietnam after the Vietnam War, their escape
experience is an indelible part of their life. This
book explores the relationship between the
Vietnamese refugees escape experience and their
experience of conversion to and within Christianity.
Three themes emerged: (1) The escape experience was
both a crisis and a context in which religious
conversion took place; (2) It was in the Christian
ethnic community that the new-found or renewed faith
was nourished and developed; (3) Gratitude to God,
Mary, and sponsors/ministers played a major role in
the process of conversion. This book will be of
interest to teachers, social workers and
researchers, pastoral ministers and anyone who work
with/among Vietnamese people. It can help them
understand Vietnamese people better, work with
them more effectively, and develop a culturally
sensitive ministry to migrants and refugees.

Autorentext

A Roman Catholic priest and a member of the Divine Word Missionaries (SVD); he obtained his Ph.D. in Theology (Religion & Psychology) at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, USA; he presently spends 6 months each in Vietnam and Korea, teaching and working in pastoral ministry for migrants.

Klappentext

Religious conversion and crisis often go hand in hand. One often precipitates and/or results from the other. War and its aftermath is often the context in which crisis and religious conversion take place. To hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees who fled Vietnam after the Vietnam War, their escape experience is an indelible part of their life. This book explores the relationship between the Vietnamese refugees' escape experience and their experience of conversion to and within Christianity. Three themes emerged: (1) The escape experience was both a crisis and a context in which religious conversion took place; (2) It was in the Christian ethnic community that the new-found or renewed faith was nourished and developed; (3) Gratitude to God, Mary, and sponsors/ministers played a major role in the process of conversion. This book will be of interest to teachers, social workers and researchers, pastoral ministers and anyone who work with/among Vietnamese people. It can help them understand Vietnamese people better, work with them more effectively, and develop a culturally sensitive ministry to migrants and refugees.