In this episode, Matt and Dan do what good Catholics do: overthink their vocations. But this time, they’re not just being Catholic laymen but being Chinese Catholic laymen (yes, it matters, and yes, we’ll unpack that). Matt goes off about the Church’s unspoken two-track economy - one clerical and another lay, while Dan wonders aloud if theology has a built-in side-eye for the laity as “the non-ordained”.Then the two wander into the papal magisterium (because we contain multitudes) and discover not just a grudging nod toward the idea of a theologically trained laity, but an actual theology of the laity. Wild. So why, they ask, do we still act like being lay is a consolation prize and not an actual calling? Finally, in a rare moment of optimism, they look back at moments in Church history when it was precisely the laity who held things together - the unsung, unpaid, unordained backbone of Catholic life – and they ask what that history might mean for how the laity live out the Church’s mission today. Come for the ecclesiology, stay for the low-key identity crisis.Resources:John Paul II: Christafidelis LaiciLumen Gentium Ch. IV: The Laity
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S2E8 Heaven's Tiger Mum: Mary
Matt and Dan (yes, the Asians) go full Catholic and talk about Mary, “the tigerest of tiger mums”. The one who said “yes” to God with the kind of fierce loyalty that only an Asian mum could pull off. They dive into how Mary's fiat isn't just a theological yes, it’s the ultimate immigrant mum move: sacrificial, strategic, and quietly revolutionary. From knockoff Marian statues in Chinatown shrines to Our Lady rocking hanfu, we unpack how Mary becomes a cultural chameleon, enfleshing the Gospel in a thousand tongues and ten thousand images. They also chop through some of the bad theology out there: no, Mary isn't the fourth person of the Trinity. Yes, she matters deeply in salvation history. And yes, Protestant friends, you can talk about her without spontaneously combusting. In the end, we find that Mary is the kind of figure who doesn't just belong in Catholic kitsch or incense-soaked altars - she offers Good News to all Christians. With tiger stripes and tenderness, Mary mothers us into mystery.ResourcesDicastry for Promoting Christian Unity: Mary - Grace and Hope in Christ
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S2E7 Woe is (Hokkien) Mee: Suffering (Part II)
Matt and Dan are back at it again — stir-frying their brains in the theological wok of suffering. This week, they dig deeper into Pope John Paul II’s Salvifici Doloris, a document with more spiritual depth than your Ah Ma’s silent judgment. Why do humans not just suffer, but also spiral into deep thoughts about suffering? Is this a grace, or just another form of divine trolling?Matt and Dan chew over how pain forces us to ask life’s big, messy questions — like char kway teow: greasy, satisfying, but maybe a little too real at 2am. And here's the kicker - suffering, when seen through Christ, isn’t just a pit of despair; it becomes part of our salvation.So, grab a plate, bring your chilli oil, and join these two Awkward Asian Theologians as they sweat through the divine mystery of pain - one existential noodle strand at a time.Resources:John Paul II: Salvifici Doloris
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S2E6 Lotus in the Fire: Suffering (Part I)
It’s September which, as every Chinese auntie knows, means ghost month is over but the suffering of the long year has just begun. In this episode, Matt and Dan slip into the bitter oolong of theological reflection and sip slowly on the paradox of suffering: the kind that doesn’t go away when you pray harder, and the kind that doesn’t get prettier when you quote Romans 8 at it. Framing the conversation between the minimisers, who deny the pangs in stoic detachment, and the maximisers, who build Chinese altars to their affliction, we look at suffering as an inevitable and indispensable dimension of the Christian journey. What does Christ’s victory on the cross actually do with our pain – and what does it very much not do? Matt and Dan warn the Christian against making a fetish of suffering or pretending it doesn't exist at all. Instead, they suggest something stranger and more relational: suffering as a place of encounter. A furnace, yes, but one where another stands with you. So boil your tea, light your incense, and prepare to get awkward. Suffering is on the table in this double episode bonanza, and maybe, just maybe, grace is hiding in the steam.ResourcesJohn Paul II: Salvifici Doloris
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S2E5 Love in Translation: Feels
Welcome to Awkward Asian Theologians, where Matt and Dan embark on their most swoon-worthy, heart-fluttering episode yet - a theological deep dive into love. They unpack why a band called Foreigner penned the immortal anthem “I Want to Know What Love Is” - because, spoiler alert, someone else might just have a better grip on love than we do. But beyond the catchy chorus and cheesy 80s power ballads, Matt and Dan plunge headfirst into the depths of Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas Est — his first encyclical, the love letter to love itself.They’ll swirl through the poetic Chinese brushstrokes ofecstasy, eros and agape, revealing how divine love is essentially ecstatic in structure, a dance that lifts us beyond ourselves like a kite caught in a sudden breeze over a lotus pond. This ecstatic love is not just heavenly fluff; it’s the blueprint for how Christians should love, in a way that embraces paradox and mystery. So, get ready for a journey that’s equal parts romance and theology, awkward confessions and ecstatic revelations. Because how we understand love — or fail to — shapes the very way we follow Jesus and live as disciples in this messy, beautiful world.ResourcesBenedict XVI: Deus Caritas EstJohn Paul II: Redemptor Hominis
Awkward Asian Theologians is the audio project of AwkwardAsianTheologian.com, and is a collaboration between Matthew Tan (Dean of Studies at Vianney College Seminary in the Diocese of Wagga Wagga) and Daniel Ang (Director of the Archdiocese of Sydney's Centre for Evangelisation).
Each fortnight, the podcast brings academic theology to lived life as seen through the eyes of two Australian Catholic laymen, and doing so asianly.
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