Book Review

Tim Madigan 한국민중신학회 2020 Madang: Journal of Contextual Theology Vol.0 No.33

A Study on the Establishment of Korean Identity in Korean Lutheran Worship Books

홍경만 한국민중신학회 2021 Madang: Journal of Contextual Theology Vol.- No.36

The aim of this thesis is to study the establishment of Korean identity within Korean Lutheran church worship books that have inherited the spirit of the Reformation movement in the 16th century. The research method traces the development process of all the books of worship in the history of Lutheranism in Korea, organizes them in a chronological manner, and analyzes the contents. The scope of the study is all worship books, including the publication and process of the first worship book in 1960, the establishment of the Lutheran Church in Korea (LCK) General Assembly in 1972, and the revision process of the worship book, and the worship book published in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. The specific details are about the first worship book made by Koreans, worship book developed with Korean traditional music, small community worship book containing the Korean situation, worship book that achieves complete use of Korean (‘Hangul’). From the first worship book in 1960, LCK has established a Korean identity with the missionary principle of American missionaries of “the base of the native land.” As LCK revised and developed its first worship book, it further solidified its Korean identity, from theology to music and professional human resource participation. As a result, a Sunday worship service was created for Koreans by Koreans according to Korean traditional music made with Korean traditional music and lyrics. LCK created a worship book for small communities that positively approached the reality of today’s small Protestant churches in Korea. And in 2017, the LCK published the 500th anniversary commemorative worship book of the Reformation, achieving complete Korean transcription. This thesis has an important achievement in that it has researched and summarized the entire history of worship books of the Lutheran Church in Korea from the perspective of establishing Korean identity. This thesis can contribute to the study of liturgical history in the field of liturgy in Korean Protestant Church.

Francis of Assisi: An Invitation to “ Brotherhood/Sisterhood ” as an Alternative to the Profit Economy of Medieval Europe

장윤재 한국민중신학회 2014 Madang: Journal of Contextual Theology Vol.0 No.21

This article investigates the life, faith and work of Francis of Assisi who lefta great legacy to Western Christianity. For this purpose, the author firstexamines the socio-religious context of St. Francis and the meaning of“brotherhood/sisterhood”and“obedience”in Franciscan movement. Theauthor then discusses the significance, implications, and limits of St. Francis' understanding of poverty as evangelistic ideal of Christiandiscipleship. After interrogating thoroughly, the author concludes that thevoluntary poverty of St. Francis was a call to give away one’s possessionsin order to share with those in need, that this was indeed an expression ofsolidarity with the poor, but that by not resisting unmistakably the forcedpoverty, his spirituality of poverty, which was an invitation to an authentic“brotherhood/sisterhood”as the alternative way of life to the profiteconomy of medieval Europe, remained unfinished. Before the PopeFrancis’visit to Korea in August 2014, however, the author hopes that thePope’s visit could serve as momentum to raise awareness of KoreanChristians, who are enslaved to economic neo-liberalism and addicted to the“prosperity theology,”with the significance of Christian spirituality ofpoverty.

Rereading the Infancy Narrative in Matthew for a Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace in Asia and in the World

배현주 한국민중신학회 2016 Madang: Journal of Contextual Theology Vol.0 No.25

The infancy narrative in Matthew describes the glory and the wonder surrounding the nativity of Jesus in the context of the brutal historical reality of political oppression, dislocation, infanticide, and people’s “wailing and loud lamentation” (Mt 2:18). This ancient account in the New Testament has manifold resonances in the grave challenges of the contemporary world: the refugee crisis and the migrant crisis remind us of the plight of the Holy Family; the victimized people’s pain and suffering are captured in the image of “Rachel weeping for her children” (Mt 2:18); and the violence in the contemporary Bethlehem evokes the hopes and fears of the ‘little town of Bethlehem’ where the infanticide took place. These echoes between then and now prompt this study to attempt to investigate the infancy narrative in Matthew from an Asian feminist perspective in the ecumenical context of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace in Asia and in the world. Chapter 2 explores Matthew 2 in particular which depicts the clash between the Roman imperial domination and the divine politics. While King Herod, ‘all the chief priests and scribes,’ and the death squad are the loyal minions of the hegemonic system, Joseph, Mary and the magi are the faithful followers of the divine initiative. The story portrays Jesus the King as a vulnerable child, and this motif presents profound theological challenges. Chapter 3 discusses an Asian feminist engagement with the Matthean infancy narrative. Despite his androcentric and patriarchal assumptions, Matthew’s theological construction introduces an alternative reality. This distinctive trait can be detected in the way he portrays Mary’s birth-giving as well as the action of Joseph the husband of Mary which conjures up what is called a healthy, positive, or transformative masculinity in the present ecumenical movement. In the infancy narrative of Matthew, the feminine and maternal images of God can be traced through intertextual readings. Chapter 3 appropriates the fertile meanings of a variety of motifs such as dream, hope, imagination, faith, and love that abound in the text for those who embark on the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace in Asia and in the world encountering the unprecedented challenges. In conclusion, the infancy narrative of the first evangelist emerges as a story of birth possibly opening up the imaginary of natality, as well as a tale of star or light, rising above the threats of death and darkness and twinkling with hope.

Liberation And Harmony

김주한 한국민중신학회 2014 Madang: Journal of Contextual Theology Vol.0 No.22

This article is an attempt to dialogue between the Korean indigenousliberation theology, minjung theology, and process theology, chieflyWhitehead’s philosophy of organism. Minjung theology and processtheology have commonalities and similarities, especially with respect to theconcept of God. Despite their common interest in creative transformation ofthe existing social order, however, minjung theology and process theologyhave not been in dynamic interaction with each other. Process theologians are occupied with solving broad metaphysicalquestions connected with the creation of a new-world relationship and toolittle concerned with the day-to-day problems of people in contemporarysociety. Minjung theologians, on the other hand, are so involved in thestruggle for freedom and justice that they have effectively neglected thedeeper theoretical implications of their praxis-orientation to theology. Hencecreative dialogue between these theological systems will help overcomethese theological weaknesses. In order to carry out the task for the dynamic dialogue between processtheology and minjung theology, I will try to show that God in minjungtheology is fundamentally relational, participatory, and immanent inminjung’s suffering and hope as process theology emphasizes God’srelationship with the world.

Creator ‘God the Mother as Land’ in the Trinity: Reinterpreted from Feng Shui Cosmology

강현미 한국민중신학회 2021 Madang: Journal of Contextual Theology Vol.- No.35

This article suggests an eco-feminist divine model of ‘God the Mother as Land (Terrain)’ reinterpreted from ‘God the Father’ in the Trinity in Korean context. The purpose of this theological endeavor is a devout hope for a theological solution to the all-pervading patriarchy in the contemporary Korean Protestant Church, where sexism and eco-antipathy are at its heart. This model takes an eco-feminist approach and employs a Feng Shui cosmology from an East Asian perspective, through a way of new hermeneutics and reconstruction theology. This attempt goes beyond the scope of the traditional hermeneutical theology of Christian language and challenges to break away from the patriarchy of traditional Christianity through an ecofeminist theology. This adopts a contextual approach to an eco-feminist imagining of God, based on the yin and yang symbolic thinking of Feng Shui, and aimed at being inclusive and restorative towards Korean women, and nature.

The Origin, History and Future of Minjung Theology: An Outline

Yong Bock Kim(Yong Bock Kim) 한국민중신학회 2022 Madang: Journal of Contextual Theology Vol.- No.37

The Minjung Theology in Korea has complex and multiple roots what are integrated in the “Socio-Zoegraphy1 of the Minjung” in the history on earth. The emergence of the Minjung theology in 1970’s in Korea was only a tiny moment in history. We shall trace its immediate background in this essay.

Some Tasks of Minjung Theology in the Age of Globalization

강원돈 한국민중신학회 2014 Madang: Journal of Contextual Theology Vol.0 No.22

In the article I ask whether the basic concerns of minjung theology that werearticulated within the political boundary of a national state are stillsignificant in the age of globalization. If we can answer this questionpositively, then we have to ask how to elaborate and materialize thoseconcerns in post-national constellations. With such a question in mind, first, I explain three current trends ofminjung theology, those are, 1) critical and creative succession to theachievements of the first-generation minjung theologians, 2) post-modernreconstruction of minjung theology, and 3) theological-missiologicaldiscourse on the reality of minjung and their liberation praxis. Second, I characterize the process of globalization as spread ofcapitalism with insane plunder and oppression and suggest that minjungtheology in search for an alternative world should again integrate Marx’scritique of political economy into theological reflection. Third, I highlight the subject status of minjung as one of the mostsignificant themes of minjung theology. I distinguish three paradigms forthe subject status of minjung from one another, namely, socio-biographicalparadigm, class struggle paradigm, and network movement paradigm. Inthe age of globalization I accept that social movements must shapenetworks, but accentuate that it is empty to separate the issues of gender,race, and generation from class issue, while it is blind to reduce suchcultural issues to the issue of class. Fourth, I deal with how to conceptualize the question of nation (inKorean ‘minjok’) in the age of globalization. I pay attention to the dangerof considering nation as substance and suggest that minjung theologyshould make an open approach to the question of nation. Only with such apremise minjung theology can contribute to shaping a peace nation on theway to national reunification. Fifth and finally I suggest key agendas that minjung theology shouldengage in the age of globalization: economic democracy, welfare, globalcitizenship and property order reform.

Let the Dead Speak: What Does the Resuscitation Miracle Story Teach?

박태식 한국민중신학회 2021 Madang: Journal of Contextual Theology Vol.- No.36

Although 8 years have passed, the cruel memories of the Sewol ferry still remain. What will Jesus say about the tragedy of the Sewol ferry? This is what I thought while reading the story of raising the daughter of Jairus. Jesus often encountered the dead. There was the dead daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue (Mark 5:21-23.35-43), the son of a widow who was taken out of the coffin (Luke 7:11-17), and Lazarus, who had been dead for four days, was in the tomb with a stench (John 11:1-46). Jesus saves them all. These stories are divided into a literary genre called ‘resuscitation miracle story’. Firstly, the resuscitation miracle story contained in the Gospels was used as a tool of the proclamation of gospel in first century Christianity. Secondly, we can trace back to Jesus at his time through the tradition criticism. Jesus may have heard voice from the Dead. And we need to hear it too, he says, “Do not miss a single word from those who have died in misery. Wash their sorrows carefully with all your heart. Bring them out of the darkness. Let the dead speak.” The resuscitation miracle stories are also well worth reading over and over again.

A Theology from our Own Resources: toward an Asian Story Theology

권진관 한국민중신학회 2016 Madang: Journal of Contextual Theology Vol.0 No.26

Author examines two stories and attempts at interpreting them theologically. They are the Story of Hong Gildong of the 17th century story provides us with a vision of an alternative world that would replace the discriminatory and oppressive world. He also claims that the modern tragedy of the Sewol ferry is fundamentally a story of discrimination in the time of neo-liberal capitalism. Author tries to point to differences between the two stories and emphasizes that the Story of Hong Gildong is a fictitious and fantastic story and the magic of Gildong plays an important role in the plot, while in the stories of the Sewol ferry and Jesus suffering and solidarity of people play the most crucial role.