All JST Faculty Profile Cards

As Associate Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at JST, Professor Tran teaches core courses in systematic theology and interreligious studies. His teaching interests include Christology, theological anthropology, ecclesiology, missiology, theology of religions, interreligious dialogue with Confucianism and Buddhism, comparative theology, Asian theologies and World Christianities, and history of Christianity in Asia. Professor Tran's research interests involve ecumenism, intercultural dialogue, comparative religion/theology, Asian theology and Christian missions in Asia.

Cross-trained in various fields from electrical engineering to medical ethics to theology, Professor Tran enjoys "being a bridge for students and colleagues from various academic fields, cultures, institutions and religions."

• Introducing Systematic Theology
• Trinity: God in Christian Tradition
• Christology: Ancient and Modern
• Introducing Ecclesiology  
• Theological Anthropology
• Theology of Religions and Interfaith Dialogue
• Asian Christianities: History and Theology
• Cross-cultural Christologies
• Missiology: Insight and Prospect

• “From Competition to Collaboration: Four Hundred Years of Buddhist-Catholic Engagement in Vietnam, 1620-2020” in Routledge Handbook of Buddhist Christian Studies, ed. Thomas Cattoi (London: Routledge, 2022), 112-129.
• “The Developments of the Vietnamese Alphabets, 1620-1898” Journal of Vietnamese Studies 17-2 (May 2022), 9-37.
• “Being Church Among Asians: Perspectives and Insights of the Asian Theology of FABC” in Theology Without Borders, ed. Leo Lefebure (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2022), 29-46.
• “Strangers or Co-Pilgrims? Interreligious Dialogues among Migrants in the U.S.” in Migration, Mission and Ministry: An Introduction, ed. Robert Chau Romero and Stephen E. Burris (Urban Loft Publisher, 2022), 305-326
• “From an Indian Bodhisattva to a Chinese Goddess: The Transformation of Guanyin in Chinese Buddhism” in The Wheel And The Cross. Jesuits And Friends On Buddhism And Dialogue, ed. Cyril Veliath (Pnom Penh and Manila: MAGGA Jesuit Research Center, 2021), 101-124. Available as an online book: https://jcapsj.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2021/12/The-Wheel-The-Cross.pdf
• “Becoming a Shengren: A Confucian-Christian Appraisal of the Sage/Saint,” in Confucianism and Christianity: Interreligious Dialogue on the Theology of Mission, ed. Edmund Chia (New York: Routledge, 2020), 112-133.
• “When Christian Devotion Meets Confucian Piety: The Doctrine of Three Fatherhood as Theological Accommodation in Pre-modern Vietnam” in Confucian & Catholicism: Reinvigorating the Dialogue, ed. Michael Slater, Erin Cline, and P.J. Ivanhoe (Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 2020), 34-60.
• “Being-in-Relationship: A Dialogue between Karl Rahner and Confucian Views on the Human Person,” Journal of Ultimate Reality and Meaning, V. 37, nn. 1-2 (2014), published 2020. Online journal, access at: https://doi.org/10.3138/uram.37.1-2.1
• “Meeting Other on Their Holy Ground: The Intercultural Context of Interreligious Education” in A New Mystagogia: Lessons from Doing Contextual Theology, ed. Deborah Ross and Eduardo Fernandez with Stephen Bevans (New York: Crossroad, 2019), 181-197.
• “Experience Seeking Faith: From Theology of Religions to Interreligious Theology,” in Christian Mission, Contextual Theology, Prophetic Dialogue: Essays in Honor of Stephen B. Bevans, ed. Dave Irvin and Peter Phan (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books: 2018), 209-228.
• “Contextual Theology as Dialogue: An Asian Catholic Approach to Shoki Coe’s Theological Legacy,” in Wrestling with God in Context: Revisiting the Theology and Social Vision of Shoki Coe, ed. M.P. Matthews, Po-ho Huang, Victor Hsu (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2018), 143-160.
• “The Historiography of the Jesuits in Vietnam: 1615-1773 and 1957-2007,” in Jesuit Historiography Online Reference (October 2018). Online reference:  https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/jesuit-historiography-online/the-historiography-of-the-jesuits-in-vietnam-16151773-and-19572007-COM_210470