The Thai Way of Meekness
Matt Owens Rees
Publisher: Matt Owens Rees
Summary
The Thai Way of Meekness is a commentary on a thesis by the Thai academic Dr Ubolwan on the reasons Christian evangelism failed in Thailand. That the early missionaries did not understand what she classified as the 7 main Thai characteristics is her conclusion for their failure to make even one conversion. This book concludes that understanding the native culture is a prerequisite to success. The Thai academic Ubolwan Mejudhon submitted her dissertation, “The Way of Meekness: Being Christian and Thai in the Thai Way” and was awarded her doctorate in 1997. It remains a model and thorough examination of the problems Christian missionaries faced when trying to spread the teachings of Christianity in Thailand. The Thai Way of Meekness is a commentary on her thesis and attempts to put some of the necessarily academic jargon into layman’s language. What was significant about Ubolwan’s writing was that it reinforced and confirmed the importance of understanding that Thailand’s culture is not the same as that of the West. Her purpose was to analyse, highlight those differences, and show that the failure of the early Christian missionaries in Thailand was due to their lack of that cultural awareness. These were lessons that the early missionaries failed to grasp to any degree. Dr Bradley, (1804-1873), one of the most notable of the early preachers, made just one convert. Thailand Take Two and A Thailand Diary can be read alongside The Thai Way of Meekness because all three books look at Thai lifestyles and how they are so dissimilar from our own. All three come to the same conclusion: that Thailand is a fascinating country in which to travel and live if the distinctive mind-sets of the Thai and the farang (white foreigner) are understood.