Searching for a New Paradigm of Church and Mission in a Secularized and Postmodern

8/8/2019 Searching for a New Paradigm of Church and Mission in a Secularized and Postmodern

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SEARCHING FOR A NEW PARADIGM OF CHURCHAND MISSION IN A SECULARIZED AND POSTMODERN CONTEXT IN KOREA

HONG EYOUL HWANG*

1. Introduction

William Blair, a Christian missionary to Korea in the early 20th century, once

remarked that gold in Korea was "not in its mountains and sandy soil, but inthe hearts of the Korean people", and their "humble hearts, ready and willingto receive the Gospel."1

Through the miraculous economic growth that has taken place since the beginning of the 1960s, which has also led to the rapid industrialization, and urbanization, ofthe country, Korean people have managed to overcome many of thedisadvantages of poverty that had troubled them in the past. However, as thewealth of the nation has increased, new cultural and sociological phenomena,common also to wealthier Western nations, have complicated the search forfaith among Korean people. These phenomena include individualism, rationalism, scientific positivism, and the technology of modernity.2 Modernizationmeant to Korean people westernization so that Korean traditional cultures andreligions were regarded as pre-modern and inferior to Western ones.

Even though modernity with its positive side has yet to be fully adapted intoKorean culture, the forces of postmodernism and globalization seem to havebecome increasingly attractive to Korean people since the early 1990s. On theone hand, such a rapid cultural change, or rapid mixing of different kinds ofcultural values, can cause a culture to experience a crisis of identity. On theother hand, this seeming contradiction of values could contribute to a deeper

and more complex understanding of human reality, and the natural world.3 Ifwe understand the "postmodern" as the relativization of standards, and values,then centrifugality is one of the typical tendencies in a postmodern culture.

4

According to a Chinese proverb, the new comes out of learning the old. Toillustrate this, I will consider the mission of the minjung5 church movement(MCM) in Korea. This will show how the church and missionaries experienced identity crises because of swift cultural change, and how they havebegun to recognize "spirituality" and "life" as key words for the new paradigm of church and mission. From this case study we can also learn about the

missiology of the minjung church (MC). Then I will try to identify the keyquestions related to.gospel and culture for the Korean church. Finally I will


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VOL. XCII No. 364 SEARCHING FOR A NEW PARADIGM

highlight some emerging frontiers in the mission of the Korean church, andthe major challenges facing the church in the postmodern or neoliberal andglobal capitalistic context.

2. Case study : the mission of the minjung church movement6

a) Historical background (early 1980s)

Christians, especially participants of the Urban Rural Mission, led the democratization movement in the 1970s. The assassination of the dictator ParkChung-hee in 1979 offered an opportunity for the democratization of the

country. However, this opportunity was thwarted by general Chun Doo-hwan's military coup of May 1980. The quashing of the Kwangju minjunguprising on 27 May 1980 forced the leaders and intellectuals of the democratization movement, to recognize the importance of the influence of the USmilitary in the Korean peninsula. Their solution to overcoming the powerfulinfluence of the US military and US political hegemony on the Korean peninsula, was Marxism. Marxism had been a significant influence on the leadersof the liberation movement, under Japanese colonial oppression, during the1930s. The revival of Marxism's influence on the thinking of leaders of thedemocratization movement is one of the main criteria for distinguishing

between the nature of the movement in the 1970s and that of the 1980s.During the early 1980s, several thousand university students gave up theirstudies to become factory labourers, in order to change the social and politicalsystem through the organizing of trades unions.

b) Formational period (1983-1987)

The minjung church (MC) was a grouping of Christian congregations founded in the urban industrial/urban poor areas of Korean cities. In the beginning,MCs were based on minjung theology through participating in the democratization movement, and through advocating for the reunification of the country,the renewal of the church, and for the realization of the kingdom of God. Inpractical terms, this was achieved during the 1980s and 1990s through livingin community with minjung people, working for their welfare, and makingthem the subjects ofhistory. The majority of MCs belonged to three, mainlineProtestant denominations, viz. the Presbyterian Church in the Republic ofKorea, the Presbyterian Church ofKorea, and the Methodist Church of Korea.

The average number of members belonging to most MCs was between twenty to

forty. The typical style of Bible study, and even sometimes worship, in most MCsat this time followed the model of Ernesto Cardenal's, The Gospel in Solentiname


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INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF MISSION

The MC was a missionary church in that it emphasized missionary activitiesin the local community, and also on the national scale. The church developedseveral kinds of mission programmes. There were evening classes for Koreanlanguage and history ; health education and labour rights education ; day-carecentres, after school programmes, and Sunday health care clinics for the welfare of the general community. The church also held prayer meetings and fasts,and made statements on the current social and political issues, as well asengaging in political activities.

What was the result of the MCM? A strange phenomenon took place. Duringthe weekdays many minjung people visited MCs and participated in theiractivities. However, only a few minjung people attended worship services on

a Sunday. MC pastors expected that minjung people would voluntarily attendSunday worship after coming into contact with the church's activities, as theMC was the "true" church. It did not take long for the pastors to discover theiroptimism was unfounded. They began to recognize the gap between theirexpectations and "self-understanding" of the MCM, and the reality that facedthe MC at that time.

In spite of the many problems it encountered, the MCM was a Christianresponse to the social reality in Korea at the time, and especially the minjungmovement in general. The MCM developed a model for church renewal

founded on the everyday reality experienced by minjung people. The MCplayed an important role as the bulwark of the Korean labour movement,through supporting, and organizing trade unions, which was nearly impossibleto do outside of the protection of the MC during the military dictatorship era.

c) Developmental period (1988-1992)

The attempts by the Chun Doo-hwan regime (1980-1987) to perpetuate itspower met with vigorous protests from the people. From 10-26 June 1987,

approximately four to five million protesters, consisting of minjung, middleclass intellectuals and office workers, participated in daily democratizationprotests nationwide. What became known as the June DemocratizationMovement resulted not only in the institution of a process for the direct election of the president, but also the recovery of civil society, which had almostbeen destroyed by the policies of the US military administration (1945-1948),and the military dictatorship (1961-1987).

The policies of the semi-military Roh Tae-woo regime (1988-1992) dividedthe unity of the minjung and the middle class displayed during the June 1987Democratization Movement. The regime ruled the country by supporting thecivic movement and suppressing the minjung movement. From the early


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The characteristics ofthe MCM in this period were "formal development" and"actual stagnation". The former meant the birth of the Association of the min-

jung Church in Korea, in 1988, which organized fifteen regionally based associations and three denominationally based associations. The stagnation thatfollowed shows that the formation of those within the movement in its firstphase were not able to sustain it later on.

Many MC pastors realized that they were not well prepared to perform all theduties that were expected of them. Also, a majority of MC laity were new tothe Christian faith and young, being in their twenties and thirties. AlthoughMC pastors tried to focus on their ministry to minjung, they were also askedto do many jobs in the local community, the nation, and the wider church.Under these circumstances, the stagnation in the number of new MCs beingestablished was inevitable.

During this period MC pastors understood the MC to be a faith communityrather than a political movement. MC pastors suffered from "wrong inertia",which meant that they were either consciously or unconsciously dominated bytheir self-understanding of the MCM from the formational period. They alsowrestled with the identity crisis of the MCM. Some of them began to be moreinterested in the spirituality, rather than the ideology, of their founding identity. From the 1980s onwards, the pastors questioned how they should relate theChristian faith to Marxist ideology. Before they were able to solve this prob

lem, the end of the cold war made this issue irrelevant.

By participating in the minjung Hymn Festival, the MC published 5,000copies of a minjung hymnbook in 1990. MC mission programmes such as:day-care centres and after school programmes, paved the way for the establishment of a national social welfare system in the early 1990s. Some members ofthe MC were elected as representatives in local government authoritiesso that the MCM became increasingly involved in the "little politics" of thelocal community.

d) Transformational period (1993 -present)

As the Kim Young-sam "civilian government" (1993-1997) began its"reforms" ofthe social system, the sociological basis ofthe MCM came underthreat. From 1993 onwards, the minjung movement in general gave up its"revolutionary" character.

The "civilian government", however, was an amalgam of elements of the oldmilitary dictatorship/chaebol

7power elite, and conservative moderates from

the democratization movement of the 1970s and 1980s. This seriously compromised the government's attempts at reform, and made the failure of its


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success. The government's failure to reform the corrupt yet chaebol-friendlyeconomic system resulted in the onset ofa disastrous economic crisis at the endof 1997 and the eventual IMF bail-out of the Korean economy.

Under these circumstances, MC mission was regarded as unnecessary or outof date. MC pastors were also challenged to solve the identity crisis of themovement. Some of them were interested in "spirituality" and half of themmet together for spiritual exercises in 1998.

The Korean church declared 1995 to be a year of Jubilee to mark the passingof fifty years since the division of the Korean peninsula, at the conclusion ofthe second world war. As part of the events of the Jubilee year, the MC published a Declaration of Jubilee. This included an expansion ofthe definition of

the word "minjung" to include labourers, the urban poor, farmers, the disabled, women, prisoners of conscience, and migrant workers.

At the same time, the unitary characteristics ofthe MCM were dissipating dueto a strengthening of centrifugal forces and the diversification of the MC mission. As the organizational centripetal points, such as ideology, and the definition of the word "minjung", were weakened, MCs began to involve themselves in different issues, including the treatment of migrant workers, youthministry, the rights of the disabled, and the status of women in society. Therewas an emerging tendency for the minjung to build a bridge between urbanand rural areas through the establishment of organic farming producers' andconsumers' cooperatives. Some MCs stuck to their original concerns ofdemocratization, reunification, and labour rights, while others were challenged by unexpected encounters with new social issues (homeless teenagers,migrant workers and the disabled). This diversification of the MC missionresulted partly from an inner development of the MCM, and partly from theresult of the MCs unexpected encounters with others.

After the economic crisis of 1997, the MCM led the way in providing socialservices and care for the homeless and the unemployed. However, greaterfocus on the traditional areas of MC mission is still required.

Historical events such as the end ofthe cold war and the "reforms" ofthe KimYoung-sam "civilian government", helped minjung pastors to be liberatedfrom their "wrong inertia" and "optimism". Minjung pastors now understandthat the word "life" is more inclusive than the word "minjung", and haveturned to spirituality rather than ideology as the foundation of their identity.However the meaning of "spirituality" and "life", in the Korean context is stillto be identified.

3. Minjung missiology : missiology as an encounter with others, and theOther

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and also that a tension exists between them. According to this definition, mission depends on a Christian community's understanding of God's will and thecommunity's own context.

Missiology occurs when Christian communities/missionaries reflect on theirencounters, as witnesses of Christ, with others and the Other (God). Thus, themissiology of the MCM is the product of reflection by MC pastors and MCsthemselves, on their encounter with minjung people, others, and the Otherduring the process of bringing a witness of Christ to the world. Mission beginswith the attempt to achieve the will of God in a human context. However,Christian communities/missionaries should be open to encounters with othersand the Other, and to unexpected responses from them.

In other words, the former understanding of the will of God and the humancontext should be changed through the encounters with others and the Other.In this way, Christian communities/missionaries can change their identity andreceive a new identity. Because of this aspect, the precondition of mission isvulnerability or weakness. The centre of spirituality is the crucified ChristJesus. In this respect, MC pastors' incarnation, i.e. their living alongside min-

jung people, was not sufficient for the success of MCM. Without the MC pastors' crucifixion (self-denial), the mission of the MC could not be carried out.One of the main points of MC missiology was that MC mission was impossible to perform without the pastor/community changing their will, and them

selves.

We can point out some elements of MC missiology from a change/transformation perspective :

i. In the beginning, the subjects of change were missionaries (MC pastors),and minjung people were the object of MC mission. The aim of mission(change) was the liberation of minjung (MC pastors' understanding of thewill of God in minjung context).

ii. MC mission could evolve only when missionaries (MC pastors) changedthemselves through encounters with others (minjung), and the Other, aswell as through meeting unexpected challenges from minjung, and unexpected works from God. Through their encounter with others and the Other,the missionaries' understanding of mission changed. Further, through thisprocess, the missionaries themselves were changed and received a newidentity. Only when missionaries meet others as partners of missio Deirather than as objects of mission, can mutual transformation take place. Thismutual transformation could be interpreted as the work of the Holy Spirit.The "Holy Spirit is the invisible third party who stands between me and the

other, making us mutually aware."

10

However we "shall probably neverunderstand exactly what the Spirit is doing in others."11


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iv. As missionaries should be challenged to change themselves, missiologyshould be challenged to change Christianity13, or theology, or religiouscommunities, as an action of self-criticism similar to the action of a"boomerang"14.

4. Key questions on gospel and culture

Korea has a two thousand year old tradition of Shamanism, a one-thousand-year-old tradition of Buddhism, a five-hundred-year-old tradition ofConfucianism, a two-hundred-year-old tradition of Roman Catholicism, and aone-hundred-year-old tradition of Protestantism. A Western observer once

remarked that a Korean carried, "a Confucian head, a Buddhist heart, and aShamanistic belly"15. In 1907 a Christian missionary, Homer B. Hulbert,observed, "The all-round Korean will be a Confucianist when in society, aBuddhist when he philosophizes, and a spirit-worshipper when he is in trouble"

16. As can be surmised from this anecdote, Korean people enjoy religious

plurality within themselves. However, churches and even seminaries have notallowed Korean Christians to develop a positive or even a neutral attitudetoward syncretism. The theology of indigenization of the 1960s was criticized,for regarding Korean culture and religions as objects of theological study, andbecause it focused on the similarity between rather than any exclusivity of

Christianity and traditional religions17. Kim Yong-bock suggested that syncretism became a problem, not because religions were plural but because theyoppressed the lives of minjung18. Western Protestant mission of the late 19thcentury was criticized from the perspective of cultural imperialism in that,through establishing Western-style schools and hospitals, the traditionalframework ofepisteme was replaced by a Western one

19. Lee Jung-Bae maintained that Korean theology should develop a multi-religious, ecologicallysound, and feminist, theological orientation for the sake of cosmic life20. Sincethe early 1990s, there have been new tendencies toward the theology of lifeand the theology of culture, with an increasingly positive attitude toward traditional cultures and religions. In other words, theologians have tried to discern God's work of salvation among traditional religions and cultures.

The influence of rapid economic growth has created a society almost unrecognizable from the one that existed just fifteen years ago. However, two thirdsof people think that the gap between rich and poor is worse than it was fiveyears ago before the economic crisis of 1997.

Not only the political division of North and South divides the Korean people,so too does the social division of East and West (i.e. regionalism). Many forms

of social discrimination exist based on factors such as place of birth, theschool at which people were educated, gender and age. These types of socialdiscrimination penetrate the whole of society including even the church


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Such decisions have raised heated arguments, both within the church and inthe general community, and have discredited the church for following the

same kinds of outdated management practices adhered to by the "chaebol"conglomerate companies. Korean churches, whether they be MC or mega-churches, are much more likely to be influenced by their surrounding culture,be it Marxist ideology or capitalism, than to influence the surrounding culture.

How can we challenge this inverse relationship between the church/gospel andsociety/culture? Now, more than ever, Korean Christians have to develop atruly Christian way of life so that the division : between word and deed, worship and everyday life, faith and action, and between "to be church" and "todo mission" can be overcome. "We find a bridge between ecclesiology andethics in our experience of worship and the deepening of spirituality".

21

Neither spiritualism nor activism will heal our divided churches and our divided nation. On the one hand, Korean Christians need to understand the kingdom of God and shalom not only from a personal perspective but also from asocio-economic, political, and ecological/cosmic dimension. On the otherhand, minjung cannot continue their struggle against social injustice, oppression, alienation, and exploitation without being supported by their faith. Thebattleground ofthe cultural war between the minjung/people and the powerful"is the consciousness, mind, senses, heart and spirit" of the minjung/people,so that human subjectivity "is the final territory being conquered through cul

tural processes of communication and information"

22

in order to control theconsciousness ofthe minjung/people for their domination by the Western free-market system. The emphasis on "spirituality" by the MC means that the min-

jung need to negate themselves (Mark 8:34) in faith, in order to protect creation, instead of subjugating themselves to the ruling systems such as freemarkets, transnational capital and corporations, nation states and the media.

One of the most important questions related to gospel and culture is how tomake the victims of neoliberal global capitalism

23good stewards of God's cre

ation not through imposing ideologies from outside on the church but bydrawing on the traditions of their own religious and cultural heritage. At thesame time, also significant is the need to identify the negative aspects of traditional religions and cultures, for the sake of nurturing a spirituality of "keno-sis" and encouraging a life-oriented way of thinking and living.

However, it needs to be remembered that "intercultural encounters nearlyalways involve an unequal distribution of power"

24. If we understand salva

tion as "the relational healing process, and perspectival alteration between thewronged and the wrongdoers", the initiative for salvation and forgiveness onthe part of humankind is not as the wrongdoer but as the wronged. For thewrongdoers are like those who are "locked in a room where the door has noknob". Only the wronged, or "han-ridden"25 people (minjung) can open thedoor to salvation

26. On the other hand, the wronged have to take action to mit


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have the initiative for the salvation ofthe oppressor, they have to keep in mindthat humankind and the whole creation are interdependent, and minjung are tobe suffering servants for the sake of the salvation of all.

5. Emerging frontiers in mission and major challenges to churches

One of the common problems that all Korean churches face is the rapiddecrease of teenagers and young adults who attend church. Since the mid-1990s, the number of church members has begun to decrease. This could beinterpreted as the church's failure to wrestle with the new circumstances ofKorean society as described in section four.28

Ten years ago, Korean people did not pay attention to the plight of migrantworkers. Since the mid-1990s, however, the migrant workers issue hasbecame one of the hot topics facing the nation. Common forms of migrantworker exploitation include non-payment or overdue payment of wages, andbeing subject to sexual, physical and verbal violence. Most migrant workersdo not have enough time to learn Korean or about Korean culture. One resultis that there is a high incidence of industrial accidents in factories. Manychurches and mission centres have become involved in mission to migrantworkers. The main tasks of this mission are counselling, providing medical

care and resolving claims for overdue payment of wages.Two thirds of the migrant workers in Korea are Korean Chinese. They oftencomplain that they are more discriminated against by Koreans than othermigrant workers. Although Korean Chinese think of themselves as being thebrethren of Koreans, most Koreans regard them as poor, uneducated andunwanted. So, Christians have to challenge the meaning of nationalismbecause nationalist ideology plays an important role in discriminating againstmigrant workers of other ethnic backgrounds. Migrant workers, however, arecarrying and spreading "the seed of (cultural and religious) diversity, throughhuman misery and suffering", so that they "are the agents of change in boththeir countries of origin, and of adoption", and are building a "bridgebetween the two lands". Migrant workers are truly "people who have comeof age".29 "Resident alien"30 is an important biblical metaphor for migrantworker mission.

During the mid-1990s, in North Korea over two million people died of hunger.So, many North Koreans try to defect to South Korea via China. Fewer thanten North Koreans a year defected to South Korea before 1994. That numberincreased from 148 in 1999 to 312 in 2000, and to 583 in 2001. About 50,000North Koreans have fled to China, where they suffer from severe human rightsabuses. South Korean and international missionaries and mission organizations try to help North Koreans in China get to South Korea, but the Chinese


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VOL. XCII No 364 SEARCHING FOR A NEW PARADIGM

on the peninsula, for they have been brought up in North Korean "Juche" (self-reliance) thought and culture, and have now adapted to a capitalist culture.31

In May 2002, full-time workers accounted for just 47.6% of the 13.9 millionpaid employees in Korea. Temporary and casual daily workers accounted for52.4 % of the workforce. Such figures indicate that obtaining job security isstill a huge problem. These statistics are not unique to Korea. Neo-liberal andglobal capitalism has forced many people to become part-time workers in thename of achieving labour market flexibility. A report by the InternationalLabour Organization estimates that, "about 30% of the world's labour forcewas unemployed in January 1994, and was unable to earn enough money tomaintain a minimum standard of living. This 'long-term' persistent unemployment is a crisis on the scale of the Great Depression".32 How to challengethis situation in Korea and how to make international solidarity with theseworkers is also an urgent and important mission frontier for the church inKorea, as well as in the rest of the world.

The church is given a healing and reconciling task from Jesus Christ on thepeninsula.

33In 1997, Korea experienced a peaceful handover of political

power for the first time since 1948. Because of the effects of the economic crisis, the new government was not able to develop society within the principlesof justice and peace. Finally, the government established the Presidential TruthCommission on Suspicious Deaths in 2000, based on the model of the Truthand Reconciliation Commission of South Africa. Its aim is to find out the truthabout the deaths of people who were involved in the democratization movement against past authoritarian military regimes. Unfortunately, the work ofthe Commission is not well known by society as a whole, or within the church.Also, in the postmodern and secularized context, most people are not interested in the "past". However, can people survive in this situation of rapid socialchange without having a memory of the "past" ? Such is important for establishing our present and future identities. Is it possible for the nation to accomplish the reunification of Korea without healing South Korea's inner wounds,

as well as other ones produced by the Korean war?According to a recent survey, there are sixteen million Internet users in Korea.This is the fifth largest usage in the world, and Koreans are the largest users inAsia of Internet shopping websites. Furthermore, one out of three KoreanInternet users is addicted to the Internet. There are tens of thousands of Internetcafes and computer gaming rooms. Communication by Internet can be a usefulway for achieving inter-subjectivity between partners. Nobody can exactly predict how this new trend will affect the current political system. Presently, thereare about 83,000 Christian cyber communities, and around 9,400 churches

maintain their own Internet home page. The younger generation uses cyberspace as a tool ofmission. This really is a new frontier for mission.


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between the Korean church and her partner churches. Until the mid-1980s,mission programmes focused on the Korean Diaspora were the predominantmission activity of the Korean church. Since the late 1980s, cross-culturalmission has become the Korean church's prevailing mission activity.Ecumenical mission has emerged since the mid-1990s as the newest trend inthe Korean church's mission activities.

All three of these types of mission activities can be complementary to eachother, so that in the future they may be integrated into a new style of mission.As the second and third generations of Korean Diaspora adjust to the languageand culture in their country of migration, they will become potential resourcesfor mission.34 For example, the Korean church trains some Korean Americansto work as missionaries among the African American, Hispanic and other

minority groups in Los Angeles, with the collaboration of the Americanchurches.

Another new trend emerging in minjung mission is the active sharing of itsexperiences with the world church. For instance, a minjung pastor was sent toCambodia to work as a missionary in 1996, and another went to Rwanda in2001. Also, the Yong Dong Po Urban Industrial Mission established the"Asian URM-Diakonia Training Center" in 2001 to spread democracy andbuild-up the grassroots of the URM movement throughout Asia. NineteenURM activists and church leaders from Asia participated in the centre's pro

grammes last year. This year it is scheduled to train another 74 persons.

As the mission ofthe MCM developed during the 1980s and 1990s, some MCpastors decided to leave behind their city parishes in order to move to thecountryside and become farmers. One of the motivations behind this exoduswas to learn an alternative view of the world and civilization from farmers oragriculture. This trend coincided with the global trend towards endeavouringto learn more about aboriginal and indigenous cultures.,For too long, thesecultures had either been neglected, or regarded as objects of exploitation. Nowthere is a growing awareness that the poor are, "the proud bearers of cultural

and religious traditions"35

with a truly holistic life-oriented worldview.

6. Concluding remarks

The church growth movement focused on the church by using world missionas a tool for church growth. The MCM was an ideologically oriented movement; therefore its Christian identity was sometimes questioned. Both of thesegroups, however, suffered from the dichotomy between their words and deeds.Though the church growth movement suggested its aim was to build the king

dom ofGod, it actually emphasized the church. Though the MC was a church,it stressed mission activities outside the visible church. Eventually, however,


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new way of relating church and mission, and "a new model for ecumenicalmission".

37This development began to emerge in the early 1990.

38

The word for "economy" in Greek is oikonomia, which consists of: oikos(house) and nomos (law) and means household management. According to thecreation story in Genesis, God created humankind to govern creation as asteward/stewardess. Therefore, in God's economy, humans should carry outtheir stewardship of God's household as suffering servants, or messianic people. Therefore, Christians would do well to learn about the concepts of stewardship, creation in God's image, and the suffering servant, from the perspective of indigenous cultures, religions, and history, and how these indigenousconcepts can best be applied to the postmodern, or neoliberal and global capitalist world. This task must aim at creating "fullness of life for all" (John10:10). For this to be achieved, food as the basis of life, human dignity as thegift of life, justice as the rule of life, and shalom as the goal of life

39should be

integrating factors, for various kinds of approaches to solve the problems andissues mentioned in the previous sections of this presentation.

NOTES1

Blair, William, Gold in Korea, Topeka, Kansas, H. M. Ives and Sons, Inc., 1947/1957, p. 2.2 Van Engen, Charles, Mission on the Way: Issues in Mission Theology, Grand Rapids, Michigan,Baker Books, 1996, pp. 210-229.

3Gnther, Wolfgang, "Postmodernism" in IRM, vol. LXXXVI, No. 343, October 1997, pp. 425-426.

4Marty, Martin E., "From the Centripetal to the Centrifugal in Culture and Religion" in TheologyToday, Vol. 51, No .l , April 1994.

5"Minjung" is a Korean word for people, mass, or the masses of people, but it refers specifically to the oppressed vis--vis the oppressors or the poor over against the rich and powerful. Thus,minjung theology may mean a theology by the people, for the people, and of the people."

Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement, WCC Publications, Geneva and William B. EerdmansPublishing Company, Grand Rapids, 1991, p. 998.

6Hwang, Hong Eyoul, The Mission of the Minjung Congregation Movement in South Korea

from 1983 to 1997. (Unpublished Ph D thesis at the University of Birmingham, 2000.)7

"Chaebol" means the economic conglomerate, consisting of various kinds of companies led byone president.

8Missiology as encounter with others is based on Theo Sundermeier, "Missiology Yesterday andTomorrow" in Missonalia no. 18/1. See also Hong Eyoul Hwang's thesis, chapter X, section 5.4(cf. note 5).

9Bosch, David, Witness to the World: The Christian mission in theological perspective, London,Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1980; Saayman, W., "Missiology in the Theological Faculty," in

Mission Studies, vol. XV-1, 29, 1998. pp. 66-78; Kritzinger, J. N. J. (Klippies), "StudyingReligious Communities as Agents of Change : An agenda for missiology," in Missionalia 23:3,November 1995, pp. 366-96.

10Taylor, John V., The Go-Between God: The Holy Spirit and the Christian Mission, London,

SCM Press Ltd., 1972, p. 19.11Comblin, Jos, The Holy Spirit and Liberation, Translated from the Portuguese by Paul Burns,Maryknoll, New York, Orbis Books, 1989, p. 161.


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15Suh, David Kwang-sun, The Korean Minjung in Christ, Hong Kong, CCA, 1991, p. 107.

16Ibid.

17Choi, Joon-Sik, "Hanguki jongkyojk ipjanges bara bon kidokkyo tochakhwa shinhak"

(Incultural Theology from the Perspective of Korean Religions", in Shinhaksasang (TheTheological Thought), Vol. XXI, No.3, Autumn, 1993, pp. 96-128.

18Kim, Yong-bock, "Tochakhwa shinhakkwa minjungshinhak" (Theology of indigenization andminjung Theology), in Christian Thought Editorial Committee, ed., Hanguki munhwawa shinhak (Korean Culture and Theology), Seoul, Korean Christian Literature Society, 1992, p. 123.

19Kim, Yoon Sung, "Kaeshinkyo snkyowa munhwa jekukjui" (Protestant Mission and CulturalImperialism) in Hyunsangkwa inshik (Phenomena and Episteme), Vol. 74, Winter, 1997.

20Lee, Jung-Bae, "Tochakhwashinhakkwa saengmyngshinhak" (Theology of Indigenization andTheology of Life) in Korean Culture and Theology, pp. 125-143.

21WCC, "Costly Unity" para. 9. in Best, Thomas F., & Robra, Martin, eds, Ecclesiology and

Ethics : Ecumenical Ethical Engagement, Moral Formation and the Nature of the Church,Geneva, WCC Publications, 1997, p. 7.

22

Kim, Yong-Bock, Messiah and Minjung, Hong Kong, CCA, Urban Rural Mission, 1992, pp.116, 118.23

See Duchrow, Ulrich, Alternatives to Global Capitalism : Drawn from Biblical History, Designed for Political Action, Utrecht/Heidelberg, International Books/Kairos Europa, 1995/1998;Chomsky, Noam, World Orders, Old and New, London, Pluto Press, 1994; Waiden Bello, Brave

New Third World: Strategies for Survival in the Global Economy, London, Earthscan PublicationsLtd., 1990; Comblin, Jos, Called for Freedom: The Changing Context of Liberation Theology,translated by Phillip Berryman, New York, Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 1998.

24WCC, "On Intercultural Hermeneutics" in Scherer, James A. & Bevans, Stephen B., eds, New

Directions in Mission & Evangelization 3 : Faith and Culture,Maryknoll, New York, OrbisBooks, 1999, p. 192.

25"Han is an underlying feeling of Korean People. On the one hand, it is a dominant feeling ofdefeat, resignation and nothingness. On the other, it is a feeling with a tenacity of will for lifethat comes to weaker beings. The first aspect can sometimes be sublimated to great artisticexpressions and the second aspect could erupt as the energy for a revolution or rebellion." Nam-dong, Suh, "Toward A Theology of Han" in Yong Bock, Kim, ed., Minjung Theology: People

As the Subject of History, Hong Kong, Christian Conference of Asia, 1983, p. 58.26

The contention that the wronged holds the initiative for reconciliation between the wronged andthe wrongdoer coincides with the position suggested by Schreiter's theology of reconciliation.According to him, reconciliation is possible only when the victim is free from their traumaticpast, heals his/her damaged humanity, and decides to achieve a different kind of future.Accordingly, the initiative for reconciliation is held by the victim. However, Schreiter emphasizes the initiative of God in the process of reconciliation, so that reconciliation is more a spirituality than a strategy. To cut han can be interpreted as to negate oneself, so that self-negatingspirituality is essential for reconciliation. In this case, however, the will of the victim is stressed.

Schreiter, Robert J., The Ministry of Reconciliation : Spirituality & Strategies, Maryknoll, NewYork, Orbis Books, 1^98, pp. 57-58; Reconciliation: Mission and Ministry in a ChangingSocial Order, Maryknoll, New York, Orbis Books, 1992, pp. 59-60.

27Park, Andrew Sung, The Wounded Heart of God: The Asian Concept of Han and the Christian

Doctrine ofSin, Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1993, p. 107, 151.28

Young-Gi Hong pointed out that the stagnation of church growth in Korea was partly due tonew contexts such as religious pluralism, social mobility, the economic prosperity of Christians,political and social stability, the success of Buddhism and an increased range of leisure activities. It was also partly due to the downgrading of social credibility and the phenomenon of nominalism. See Hong, Young-Gi, "Revisiting Church Growth in Korean Protestantism: ATheological Reflection" in IRM, Vol. LXXXIX No. 353, April 2000.

29Oh, Jae Shik, "People are on the Move : The Asian Churches' Response in Historical Context"

in CCA, WCC, Uprooted People in Asia, Hong Kong, CCA, 1995, p. 51 .30Shenk, Wilbert R., Changing Frontiers of Mission, Maryknoll, New York, Orbis Books, 1999,p. 121; Wang, Tae-II, "The GER in the Old Testament: Socio-Literary and Theological


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movement), in Center for Theological Studies of Peace and Reunification of Korea,Pyunghwawa tongilshinhak I (Peace and Reunification Theology I), Seoul, HandulPublications, 2002, p. 45.Chomsky, Noam, WorldOrders, OldandNew, London, Pluto Press, 1994, p. 188.See Schreiter, Robert J., Reconciliation : Mission and Ministry in a Changing Social Order, The

Ministry ofReconciliation : Spirituality & Strategies, op. cit. ; Baum, Gregory & Wells, Harold,eds, The Reconciliation of Peoples: Challenge to the Churches, Geneva, WCC Publications,1997 ; Mller-Fahrenholz, Geiko, The Art ofForgiveness : Theological Reflections on HealingandReconciliation, Geneva, WCC Publications, 1997, See also the special edition on "Health,Faith and Healing" in IRM, Vol. XC Nos. 356/7, January/April 2001.Suh, Jung-woon, "Hangukkyohoewa hangukin diasporaui uimi" (The Korean Church and theMissionary Significance of the Korean Diaspora) in Publication Committee of Memorial forRetired Honorary President Rev. Suh Jung-woon, Hananim narawa sunkyo (The Kingdom ofGodandMission), Seoul, Korean Christian Literature Society, 2001, pp. 98-100.Matthey, Jacques, "Milestones in Ecumenical Missionary Thinking from the 1970s to the1990s" in IRM, vol. LXXXVIII No. 350, July 1999, p. 302.

Matthey, Jacques, "Missiology in the World Council of Churches: Update, Presentation,History, Theological Background and Emphases of the most Recent Mission Statement of theWorld Council of Churches" in IRM, Vol. XC, No. 359, October 2001, p. 430.Skreslet, Stanley H., "Networking, Civil Society, and the NGO : A New Model for EcumenicalMission" in Missiology, Vol. XXV No. 3, July 1997.Some "conservative" Christian groups participate in the civic movement through organisingNGOs/NPOs. However, they belong to the minority of Christians. Some minjung missionworkers do not want to co-operate with the civic movement. Others have a positive attitudetoward the civic movement. However, the division of Korea limits all spheres ofsociety, so thatthe civic movement is called the civic-social movement because the political parties do not fullyrepresent the interests of the public.Ariarajah, S. Wesley, "Time for Fullness of Life for All" in CTC Bulletin, Vol. XVII, No. 1,

January 2001. pp. 7-10.


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Searching for a New Paradigm of Church and Mission in a Secularized and Postmodern

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