Dr. Hyung-nong Park(1897-1978) is the greatest apologist and theologian of Korea. He was one of the foremost leaders in the succession of missionaries’ faith and theology to the Korean Church. He wrote many articles defending historic Christianity a...
Dr. Hyung-nong Park(1897-1978) is the greatest apologist and theologian of Korea. He was one of the foremost leaders in the succession of missionaries’ faith and theology to the Korean Church. He wrote many articles defending historic Christianity and Christian faith and wanted to inherit the faith that the missionaries had introduced to Korea while serving as a professor at The Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Pyongyang, Korea, from 1928 to 1938, when the Seminary was closed. The purpose of this paper is to examine Dr. Hyung-nong Park’s writings from 1928 to 1960. Among them, his writings in the Shinhak Jinam from 1928 to 1940, his writings in the Shinhak Chungron from 1949 to 1953, and his writings in the Shinhak Jinam from 1954 to 1958 will be reviewed.
It was his conviction that the Bible was the inspired and inerrant Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice. His criticism of various modern thoughts including liberal and neo-orthodox theology was intended to defend the plenary-verbal-organic inspiration and the infallibility of the Bible. Dr. Park defended the orthodox theology against various liberal and neo-orthodox theology and WCC ecumenical movement throughout his life. The theology he defended was ‘orthodox theology,’ ‘evangelical faith,’ and Calvinism. Dr. Park hoped to rebuild the seminary that inherited the theological tradition of the Pyongyang Seminary after returning to Korea in 1947 after 10 years of exile. He made great efforts to implement this theological tradition. It was why he published The Shinhak Chungron in 1949 and republished The Shinhak Jinam in 1954.
Just as Philip Melanchthon(1497-1560) gave John Calvin(1509-1564) the title ‘The Theologian,’ it would be a good match for Dr. Park. He deserves such honors.