Finding God in my Roots: A Multicultural Spirituality for Taiwanese Americans

The purpose of this dissertation is to look at spiritual formation from a cultural perspective. Traditional spiritual formation is the study and teaching of formation practices like prayer, meditation, reading, worship, and community that are meant to nurture our spiritual growth. These practices, however, can look radically different in different cultural contexts. This study specifically explores the process of spiritual
formation for second generation Taiwanese American Christians. Three stages of research are presented in this study. In the first stage, participants were presented with a curriculum of spiritual formation meant to guide the participants to integrate their faith identity with their cultural identity. In the second stage, participants were interviewed on their experiences in integrating faith and culture. The third stage involved second generation high school students in a focus group discussion on faith and ethnic identities.

The results of the study show that second generation Taiwanese Americans need formal guidance on how to integrate their ethnic traditions with their Christian faith. This integration means dealing with the challenges when culture and faith are in conflict. This also means learning a biblical understanding of culture. Finally, this study encourages the formation of creative liturgy. By exploring cultural traditions like language, hospitality, history, family, and celebration, participants began to see these traditions as also practices of spiritual formation. It is hoped that the reader will have a new understanding through this study of how a Taiwanese identity can be holistically integrated into a Christian identity.