I have just completed what I think is the final editing of my doctoral dissertation entitled The New Asia, and will be handing it in this weekend.

I’m told that my examiners will be a professor of Divinity from Cambridge University (external examiner), an associate professor of History from the National University of Singapore (external examiner), and a professor of Systematic Theology from Trinity Theological College Singapore (internal examiner).

Results are to be known in a couple of months’ time, while a publisher for the dissertation is already at hand.

Sure, it makes me shiver and quiver. But honestly, even if I failed, I wouldn’t regret the past nine years of my theological journey. Every bit of it has contributed to the very convictions I embrace today; from the elementary learning of Greek alphabets to the philosophical articulations of theological discourses.

Also, it’s not often that seminarians get to say that they’re glad they read Theology in the seminaries they've graduated from. But I’m truly privileged to be able to say with a deep measure of healthy pride that I read Theology at the feet of some truly brilliant and competent minds, as well as some deeply spiritual people. I’m proud of my alma mater.

Ironically, my theological journey has taken me to a place where I least expected I’d be at when I first stood before the starting line. It has shocked many, and will continue to shock more others.

But here I stand, more confident than ever about what I believe in.

The past six months has seen me engaging in one of the most intensive and extensive theological research efforts throughout my spiritual and intellectual journey. I’ve studied Theology in the past six months as if it was an issue of life or death – because I believed it was so. Had it not been owing to a crucial faith decision that stood before me, it would’ve probably taken me two years to attain all this understanding. It’s strange what conviction does to a person.

And in just six months, my framework of understanding has been further revolutionised, my depth of wisdom challenged, my discernment of life and spirituality deepened. I’ve studied like never before, prayed like never before, queried like never before, and found answers like never before. I look backward and I see a helpless juvenile standing in the shadow of the past.

There is only one way to move on from here: forward.

Looking ahead, I'll be working on the editing of a book on Malaysian contextual theology, the co-writing of another book on Asian theologies, and the possible co-writing of yet another book on the social teachings of the Church.

Yet with much fear and trembling, and with much fervent prayer.

For the rest of this journey, I invoke the prayers of the Holy Mother, the saints from the past, the Fathers and the Doctors of the Church: ora pro nobis.

May I embark on these new challenges with a spirit of awe at God's veritatis splendor.

The end is but a new beginning.