Tapestry of Grace
Book Look
Tapestry of Grace: Untangling the Cultural Complexities in Asian American Life and Ministry
Benjamin C. Shin and Sheryl Takagi Silzer. Publisher: Wipf & Stock, 2016.
Reviewed by Natalie Hsieh, PhD student in Marital and Family Therapy at Loma Linda University.
Synopsis
Many families find the Asian immigrant church to be a rich source of cultural and spiritual community, a new “extended family” and “home within a home” in America. Yet all too often, Asianized Americans (first-generation Asian language speakers) and Americanized Asians (second-generation and succeeding English speakers) experience frustration, conflict and broken relationships in the church. Ben Shin and Sheryl Silzer propose that much of the felt pain and “silent exodus” of younger generations from the Asian immigrant church is rooted in a lack of cultural self-awareness, which keeps Asian American Christians from experiencing God’s transforming grace.
