We Mend with Gold - by Kristin T Lee (Hardcover)

About the Book

Being a Christian has nothing to do with being Chinese American-that's what Kristin T. Lee learned as a child. Fissures between the script she was given, her ethnic identity, and the inclusivity of Jesus opened wide. But what if we can repair the divide? In We Mend with Gold, Lee describes the breaking of faith and the sacred art of repair.

Book Synopsis

A daughter of the Asian American church wrestles with faith, exile, and belonging.

Being a Christian has nothing to do with being Chinese American--that's what Kristin T. Lee learned as a child. A fissure between her identity and what she was told to believe opened wide. In We Mend with Gold, she asks: What if we can bridge the divide?

Lee describes both the breaking of her young faith and the sacred art of repair. She examines how immigrant churches often assimilate to Western theology, even as they offer crucial spaces of belonging. Through lyrical storytelling about her upbringing in Asian immigrant churches as well as in white evangelicalism, Lee wrestles with history, ancestral stories, and what it means to follow Jesus. What might it look like to expand beyond the scripts we've been given and bring our questions to God--as well as building solidarity with the marginalized?

Drawing on Black, Asian, and other minoritized theologians, Lee separates the theology of empire from what Jesus preached and lived. Writing of the fractures in our families, churches, and the world, Lee relies on the Japanese art of kintsugi to describe the resplendence of a faith that repairs but doesn't paper over. And she offers pieces of the Asian American experience--such as liminality, displacement, and exile--that attend to the breaking and the mending, the wounding and the healing. How might marginality bring us closer to God and others? What do we lose when we "make it"? And when we expand our notion of who belongs to our family, what do we gain?

We can repair the seams between our cultural identities and our faith, Lee claims. By leaving room for mystery, we encounter God's love. We mend the fractures--between and within us--with gold.

Review Quotes

"We Mend with Gold offers bold testimony and good news, particularly for Asians reared in American evangelicalism. Kristin Lee's brave curiosity and enduring love for God and neighbor shine through in these pages. By day, she's a medical doctor; in this book, she heals aching hearts. Her search for wholeness, belonging, and a deeper understanding of God's wide embrace isn't just a personal quest; it's also an invitation for readers to experience such goodness for themselves." --Jeff Chu, author of Good Soil and Does Jesus Really Love Me?

"A brave and beautiful reckoning with what it means to inherit a fractured faith--and to mend it not by hiding the brokenness but by illuminating it. Kristin Lee writes with the meticulous clarity of a physician, the sweet honesty of a daughter, and the profound wisdom of one who has wrestled with God in the shadow of both immigrant churches and white evangelicalism. Drawing richly from her own story and the stories of others, Lee offers readers a vision of Asian American Christianity that is both deeply rooted and gloriously expansive. This book is not only a balm for the disillusioned--it is a theological invitation to all to rebuild with grace, solidarity, and shimmering hope." --Mihee Kim-Kort, pastor and author of Outside the Lines

"We Mend with Gold beautifully articulates the inner work required to faithfully and soberly follow Jesus. As we spiritually mature from milk to solid food, we embrace the countercultural ethics and baptismal belonging modeled by Jesus in a world hell-bent on stratification, othering, and pitting us against each other. Kristin Lee offers us a prophetic gift in this book, ripe with boundless possibilities and a tangible blueprint for how we move forward together in solidarity." --Dominique DuBois Gilliard, author of Subversive Witness and Rethinking Incarceration

"Kristin Lee has given us both a love letter and a wisdom guide. With courage and clarity, Lee bears witness to the reality that coming to the end of ways of seeing and thinking that no longer work does not have to mean the end of the journey. Rather, it can be the beginning of a new journey toward more wholeness and beauty." --Drew Jackson, poet and author of God Speaks Through Wombs and Touch the Earth

"Kristin Lee offers a distinctly Asian American Christian story, but also an authentically American church story. Many Christians exhibit anxiety about the future of the American church. The decline of the church in America is not simply a numerical decline; it is also a moral and theological decline. Unless we heed the prophetic voices of lament and renewal from the margins, the American church could face a bleak future. Lee does not hesitate to offer a prophetic pronouncement in this important and timely work. This book tells the truth of the harm that the church can do, but also the healing that the church can provide." --Soong-Chan Rah, professor at Fuller Theological Seminary and author of The Next Evangelicalism and Prophetic Lament

"A fellow Hakka guest of God's gracious hospitality, Dr. Kristin Lee has beautifully crafted a piece of lived theology, accessible and relevant to all of us. In We Mend with God, she artfully weaves together the best of Asian American theology with real-life examples from Asian American followers of Jesus. Together, they offer us a compelling vision of what the kingdom of God looks like." --Dr. Russell Jeung, professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University and author of At Home in Exile