When the Curry Runs Dry

Last weekend, Daniel and I dropped a very special episode of our podcast Awkward Asian Theologians, on the subject very close to the Asian’s heart.

Not real estate, but failure (something way more fundamental to Asian life).

Daniel and I explore why failure is one of the great Asian inheritances, before exploring of what provoked our discussion of the topic, namely an episode of The Pilgrim Soul on the subject of failure. That episode looked into the biblical exploration of failure, before very insightfully speaking about failure as a spiritual problem.

Still riffing on the Asian inheritance theme, Daniel and I ventured into adding to the insights of The Pilgrim Soul, by looking at the cultural dimensions of failure, and how these might also contribute to looking into failure as a spiritual matter. Central to this was the almost stereotypical cultural attitude of proving oneself through achievement. We suggested that this was more culturally widespread beyond the Asian, embodied in what Byung-Chul Han called in “the performance society”, in which we attach an almost existential weight to being able to produce results.

This then morphed into a discussion about how we (and by “we” I mean Christians, Asian and non-Asian alike) have slid into an easy equation between being faithful and being productive. In this context, we looked at how there is a (very qualified) sense in which the Christian life does have a dimension associated with action, which in turn is associated with fidelity rather than results.

When the Curry Runs Dry can be listened to in full on Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Podcasts.

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