Jacobsen outlines four regions in Asia to make it more easy to explain them with brevity: Islamic West Asia, Hindu South Asia, Buddhist/Secular East Asia, and Religiously Mixed Southeast Asia. Each of which are the settings of very different versions of the Christian experience. In Islamic West Asia the Christian community is minuscule comprising about 4 percent of the population, and many of those people are probably quite afraid of the thought of ISIS or another terrorist organization insisting that they leave their homes or stay and face violent persecution. I imagine it is extremely difficult to hold religious beliefs that clash with those who are in charge of the government (or more ominously, those who are in charge of the military). The demographics of that area do not bode well for the expansion of Christianity in that region, the governments are almost all intently Muslim and so any sort of resurgence in the Christian faith would have to come by way of the deposition of said governments which is not the right course of action (in my personal opinion). The situation is not much different in Hindu South Asia, the persecution is less publicized most likely because US media wants to frame Islam as the bad guys so they don’t pay any mind to persecution from other fronts but it is just as real for the people living in those areas. In Hindu South Asia the Christian population is about the same as Islamic West Asia, 4 percent, however sizable portion of the Christian population live “normal” lives in mostly Christian communities but a large majority of the Christians in this region, 75 percent, are Dalits, who in the old caste system would have been called “untouchables”, so their lives are much harder and they are subject to institution discrimination based on the families they were born into. It is because of the remnants of this archaic caste system that I don’t believe that we will see a large spike in christian converts in Hindu South Asia anytime soon, it would take almost wholesale cultural and systemic overhaul and that just can’t happen on a stage as large as India. One area where we could see a spike in Christianity is in Buddhist/Secular East Asia, Christianity in this region is growing faster than anywhere else in Asia and the population of Christians is at about 10 percent. The upside in this area is that Christians are not subject to violent persecution as they are in a few other places but the persecution they face is mostly political. Finally in Religiously Mixed Southeast Asia Christians have a sizable population, about 20 percent but on the whole in this region Christianity is overrepresented in minority groups and very underrepresented in majority groups, places like Thailand and Malaysia are only 2 and 1 percent Christian respectively. This over-saturation in the ethnic minority population has made it more difficult for widespread evangelism to take hold.

The triple dialogue consists of a balance of Christian convictions with civic loyalty, respect for members of other religions, and concern for the poor. The idea of civic loyalty stresses the focus on the positive and successful aspects of their cultures and nations in general, their respect for the practice of interfaith dialogue makes for a more religiously fluid society and a greater understanding of people as dynamic beings which helps us to sympathize and empathize with people in their communities. This is a huge aspect of Asian christianity and provides it with a much more communal feel than the Christianity most people experience elsewhere in the world.

I think the biggest thing that the West can learn from Asian Christianity is to redirect our focus from inwards to outwards. I see far too often people who are Christians because they think it will benefit them and very rarely do I see people who focus their faith on benefiting others with their actions. I think that if there was a more communal view of Christianity in the West it would not be mistaken for the bed of corruption and bigotry that’s taken for today.