Critical Asian Principle (CAP) as fundamental cornerstone for doing theology in Asia

The Critical Asian Principle or in short CAP is something Union Theological Seminary, Philippines will be proud of for years to come. It was formulated and introduced by the former president Emerito P. Nacpil. Since its inception and eventually adopted as a basis for doing theology in Asia, CAP has been a vital part in unearthing the richness of Asian thought. Today, we can see the objective of CAP being realizing each day in many Asian nations by way of promoting theological education which is basically and fundamentally Asian.

Our uniqueness of Asian; our cultures, religious needs and questions, our experiences etcetera etcetera, are distinct from the thoughts and experiences of other parts of the world. Our distinctiveness and uniqueness necessitate CAP. It addresses the issues and concerns of the Asian community effectively. Having subscribed to CAP doesn’t necessarily exclude other school of theologies or thoughts as many would opined. However, this principles provide a platform for asians and those interested in asians to do theology that will help the churches in Asia. There has been a gap or missing link in addressing the issues and challenges of the asian churches with the theology which was basically developed to address churches in different cultural context and experience. Though, not in its entirety, the ideas and thoughts of the western scholars are hard to apply in the Asian context. Borned and developed from different perspectives and world, most of the time, western school of thought could not effectively or failed to address the issues and concern of asians in many ways. If our forefather could came up with something like CAP two hundred years ago, it would have been a different story altogether today. CAP is daring endeavor! We decided to stand neck and neck with the ‘already popular-and-settled’ theologies of the developed nations. The gift of doing theology among the asians are nothing less than any other parts of the cosmos; for God created us equally. Who is more? And who is less? It will be too late if we continue to expect others to go ahead all the time. Asians has the tendency to expect others to give new ideas and thoughts. Many of us will comfortably sit back and wait for others to come up. The inferiority complex seems to be taking its tool in doing theology, thinking that we are no comparison to others. CAP is a stepping stone to break away from such feeble mind, which is deeply implanted by others and sometime by ourselves. Now is the time to work earnestly, laying the foundation for the generation to come.

The strength lies in the rich experiences of our people. Asian are religious in nature. We can observe from the fact that all the major religions known today were born from Asia. Therefore, it won't
be far from the truth that it is an indication that Asians are religious by nature.
Due to ignorance of our learned people, we don’t have enough scholars and literature to do theology in compare to the myriads of western scholarships. The mindsets of the students also post a huge challenge for the CAP. Western ideas and thoughts are readily accepted without much debate or sometimes we debate over western thoughts upon western thought. In one way, it is the weakness of CAP in her inability to capture the mindsets of the students.