“Phuc Luu powerfully presents a Christian foresight of holistic healing communities for the traumatized, the unanswerably suffering, and the brokenhearted from sin, sickness, racism, impoverishment, and war. Although Luu came to the United States at the age of four, he reverberates a collective memory of the effect of the Vietnam War and of unresolvable wounds of that tragedy, providing an Eastern vision of Jesus’ message. A moving, thought-provoking, and transformative book for all suffering people.”
~ANDREW SUNG PARK, professor of theology and ethics at United Theological Seminary and author of Triune Atonement
“Phuc Luu writes between multiple worlds of citizenship, nationality, ethnicity, and God’s kingdom. The richness of his testimony reroots us into our bodies and reminds us of God’s incarnation. Capturing Jesus’ invitation to move out of ‘othering’ and into presence, Luu drives home that Christianity is not meant to be a spiritual exercise alone. In Jesus of the East, Luu pulls on the strands of secular gnosticism found in Cartesian thought, and weaves the text with personal stories and holy narratives, revealing the deep woundedness in humanity and God’s intentional liberation. From the misty mountains of Vietnam to the fog of culture, we are pulled by this brilliant text to make space for our own emerging narrative of beautiful rebirth.”
~C. ANDREW DOYLE, Episcopal bishop of Texas and author of Citizen: Faithful Discipleship in a Partisan World
“Phuc Luu has written an insightful, provocative study that challenges many of the presuppositions of dominant theology among us. Luu judges that Western theology offers a misguided, distorted vision of God and of humanity. Informed by insights from Korean Minjung theology and the powerful restorative work of han, Phuc Luu sees that the gospel is not about pardon from sin but about restoration of the wounded. This in turn leads to a focus on the human body, not the soul, and especially on the bodies of the broken and wounded, whom God restores and permits to grow fully into God’s own image. The outcome is a deeply different theology that assigns very different work to God and that affirms a very different prospect for humanity. In the grip of Constantine and Descartes, we in the West have so much to unlearn and so much to learn afresh from the Asian church. What we may learn afresh is indeed good news for us all, and for the church as a carrier of that good news.”
~WALTER BRUEGGEMANN, professor emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary
“While reading Jesus of the East, I was swept away on an incredible theological journey where the author, Phuc Luu, integrated deep research and thought, woven together with his personal narrative, creating a compassionate theology as inspiring, skillful, and accessible as a great work of art or a grand poem. Such a gift is rare in the field of theology. I am thankful for the opportunity to be exposed to such a hopeful and helpful book, and you will be too!”
~RANDY WOODLEY, distinguished professor of faith and culture at Portland Seminary of George Fox University and author of Shalom and the Community of Creation
“For those seeking to disentangle Jesus from Western captivity and see faith through new eyes, Jesus of the East is your book! Phuc Luu draws from a wide variety of sources, Western and non-Western, to put forward a compelling vision of Jesus through frameworks of justice. An important read!”
~ADAM CLARK, associate professor of theology at Xavier University
“In this book we glimpse Phuc Luu as he wrestles his Christian faith away from the colonizer’s grasp. Luu invites us to trust in a God who offers healing to a wounded world.”
~ISAAC VILLEGAS, pastor at Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship
“Phuc Luu’s work is both personal and prophetic. His lived experience and theological insight raise challenging questions of faith. Part poetry, part theology, and part invitation, Jesus of the East offers the possibility of a faith constituted of all three. What shines is that his theology, if put into practice, could be truly healing for people both inside and outside the church.”
~JEREMY RUTLEDGE, senior pastor at Circular Congregational Church, Charleston, South Carolina
