Minjung theology

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Minjung theology (Korean: 민중신학; RR: Minjung Sinhak; lit. the people's theology) emerged in the 1970s from the experience of South Korean Christians in the struggle for social justice.^[1] It is a people's theology, and, according to its authors, "a development of the political hermeneutics of the Gospel in terms of the Korean reality."^[2] It is part of a wider Asian theological ferment, but it was not designed for export. It "is firmly rooted in a particular situation, and growing out of the struggles of Christians who embrace their own history as well as the universal message of the Bible."^[3]

Minjung theology first began in South Korea in the 1950s and 1960s after the Korean War,^[4] and was preached in a minority of Protestant churches.^[5] The theology gained popularity in the 1970s during the dictatorship of Park Chung Hee and the Third Republic of Korea.^[6] The two Protestant theologians considered to be the creators of minjung theology are Ahn Byung-mu and Suh Nam-dong, who were both Kijang pastors that joined the minjung movement after the death of Jeon Tae-il.^[7] Jeon Tae-il was a factory worker and union organizer who had burned himself to death along with a copy of South Korea's labor laws in an act of political and religious protest.^[8] In 1972, Ahn Byung-mu wrote his first article on minjung as a theological theme, which he called "Jesus and Minjung."^[9] A Catholic writer and artist named Kim Chi-ha is credited with inspiring much of minjung thought with graphic depictions of the Korean Christ suffering alongside the minjung.^[10] Ahn Byung-mu, Suh Nam-dong, Hyun Young-Hak, and Kim Yong-Bock are considered first generation minjung theologians.^[11][12]

As South Korea has grown to be more a prosperous nation, later generations of minjung theologians have needed to reevaluate who are the poor and oppressed minjung of Korea.^[13] As such, a number of minjung theologians such as Park Soon-kyung have focused on questions of reunification with North Korea, identifying the minjung as all those oppressed in both Koreas.^[14] The Catholic Priests' Association for Justice (CPAJ) and Fr. Park Chang-Shin are associated with liberation theology in Korea.^[4]

In the 1970s theologians began exploring the theme of minjung liberation and many were removed from their positions at universities and seminaries for coming to the defense of those who were oppressed and imprisoned by the Park Chung Hee regime and the Korean Central Intelligence Agency.^[15] Minjung movements that are important for understanding the Korean context include the Tonghak Peasant Revolution, the March 1st Movement, and the April Revolution.^[16]

Theology develops out of a human analysis of God's interactions with the world in a given historical and cultural context, and Christian theology has predominately been defined and expressed within a Western context. Minjung theology asserts that God speaks to all historical and cultural contexts including the conditions of Korea.^[17] Proponents of Minjung theology believe that the context of Korea is similar in many ways to the stories found in the bible, and that God is demonstrably on the side of the poor and oppressed throughout the books of the Bible.^[18] The word Minjung translates literally as "the mass of people," but a more comprehensive definition of the term is "those who are oppressed politically, exploited economically, alienated socially, and kept uneducated in cultural and intellectual matters." Another way of putting it is that the minjung are han-ridden people, which is a Korean word that roughly translates as resentment.^[19]

Minjung is contrasted by the paeksung who accept oppression and the word inmin meaning a national identity.^[20] The Old Testament was written from the perspective of people in positions of power, but the stories are often about the liberation of the minjung. For instance, the Exodus, a story told from the perspective of Moses, is about the liberation of the Hebrew people from the oppressive rule of the Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses II.^[21] The Exodus story has parallels to Korean history because Koreans have endured under brutal governments for most of its history.^[22]

The first Protestant missionaries in Korea such as Horace Newton Allen, Henry Appenzeller, and Horace Grant Underwood began their missions among the lower classes. For instance, in 1885 the Protestant missions opened a school for girls that was attended by minjung but was dismissed by the yang ban. These missionaries discovered that the Chinese language was being used by the upper-classes, so the missionaries began using Hangul and translated the Bible into Hangul between 1887 and 1900.^[23] In January 1893, the Nevius Plan was adopted by Protestant missions, which stated that:

1. It is better to aim at the conversion of the working classes than that of the higher classes.

2. The conversion of women and the training of Christian girls should be a special aim, since mothers exercise so important an influence over future generations.

3. The Word of God converts where humankind is without resources; therefore it is most important that we make every effort to place a clear translation of the Bible before the people as soon as possible.

4. The mass of Koreans must be led to Christ by their own fellow country men; therefore we shall thoroughly train a few as evangelists rather than preach to a multitude ourselves.

— Cyris H. S. Moon and Mun Hŭi-sŏk, A Korean Minjung Theology: An Old Testament Perspective, Chapter 2, Page 11

During the Tonghak rebellion, the minjung held the belief that "humanity is heaven" and that the lower classes were subjects of history rather than simply objects being acted upon. However, in the early 1900s Protestant missionaries became disconnected from the minjung and after the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905, Protestant churches no longer focused on the political oppression of the minjung and were more concerned with the saving of souls.

Once Korea was officially annexed to Japan in the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 Koreans were expected to recognize the Imperial Rescript on Education and the divinity or Arahitogami of the emperor. Korea under Japanese rule led to the persecution of Christians who began to interpret the bible within the context of their struggle for independence by turning to the Exodus story and would culminate in the March 1st Movement. Twenty-two percent of the participants in the movement and much of the leadership consisted of Christians, but the movement was crushed by the Japanese military. Christian missionaries found it necessary to collaborate with Japanese authorities, and between 1920 and 1945 Korean churches became fundamentalist and focused on Western theology while also giving into Japanese demands to recognize the divinity of the emperor. At the end of World War II, in 1945, the Korean minjung achieved independence from Japan in much the same way that the Hebrew people liberated themselves from the Egyptians.^[24]

The word multitude is uniquely important within minjung theology. Minjung theology is a belief that is concerned with the experience of the lower classes or the multitude.^[25] Ahn Byung Mu viewed Jesus as a collective event wherein Jesus comes as the Messiah for the poor and oppressed masses of people.^[26] Minjung theology is a postcolonial theology. When the life of Jesus is interpreted within different Asian contexts he is often cast in a subversive light, defying both locally established and colonial powers. In Korea, Jesus took on the role of the suffering and impoverished of the democratization movement.^[27] Minjung theology focuses on Jesus being the friend of the poor and his powerlessness during crucifixion leading up to his resurrection.^[28] Minjung theology was inspired by the liberation theology being preached in Latin America.^[29] Ahn Byung Mu is the biggest proponent of minjung theology.^[30] Minjung theology was influenced by Shamanism and Messianism.^[31] Minjung theology views the oppressed masses as subjects of change rather than objects of history.^[8]

In his book Grassroots Asian Theology, Simon Chan criticizes minjung theology for being an elitist interpretation of grassroots theology in South Korea that ignores the actual beliefs of the minjung.^[32]

William Huang of the conservative MercatorNet has criticized believers in minjung theology for supporting restrictions on beef imports from America, encouraging peaceful dialogue with North Korea, and calling for the National Security Act to be repealed.^[4]

Hyunsook Park of Christian Today has criticized believers in minjung theology for not taking a literal interpretation of the bible, being more concerned with collective sin and structural violence than it is with individual sins, being more concerned with the material world rather than the eternal afterlife, for favoring the poor over other groups of people, and for being affirming of LGBT+ people.^[33]

Kim Jin-young of Christian Today has criticized proponents of minjung theology for putting Kim Il-sung, liberation, and labor before God. He also compared minjung theology with Juche.^[34]

Lee Youngjin of Christian Today has criticized minjung theology for putting people first rather than God.^[35]

• Contextual theology
• Christianity in Korea
• David Kwang-sun Suh

• Lee, Dong-won D. (1933). A Critical Analysis of Korean Minjung Theology: Overview, Critique and Alternative. Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
• Lee, Jung Young (1988). An Emerging Theology in World Perspective: Commentary on Korean Minjung Theology. Twenty-Third Publications. ISBN 978-0-89622-378-3.
• Schüttke-Scherle, Peter (1989). From Contextual to Ecumenical Theology?: A Dialogue Between Minjung Theology and "theology After Auschwitz". P. Lang. ISBN 978-3-631-41890-1.
• Lee, Kwang Hee (1990). Evaluation of Minjung Theology from the Reformed Position: Critique of Its Religious Ground Motive. Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.
• Kim, Yong-bok (1992). Messiah and Minjung: Christ's Solidarity with the People for New Life. Christian Conference of Asia. Urban Rural Mission. ISBN 978-962-7250-10-4.
• Son, Chang-Hee (2000). Haan of Minjung Theology and Han of Han Philosophy. University Press of America. ISBN 978-0-7618-1860-1.
• Suh, David Kwang-sun (2000-08-15). The Korean Minjung in Christ. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-57910-509-9.
• Ucko, Hans (2002). The People and the People of God: Minjung and Dalit Theology in Interaction with Jewish-Christian Dialogue. LIT Verlag Münster. ISBN 978-3-8258-5564-2.
• Prasad, Manohar Chandra (2005). The Book of Exodus and Dalit Liberation: With Reference to Minjung Theology. Asian Trading Corporation. ISBN 978-81-7086-349-6.
• Kim, Hiheon (2008). Minjung and Process: Minjung Theology in a Dialogue with Process Thought. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-3-03911-735-2.
• Chung, Paul S.; Karkkainen, Veli Matti; Kyoung-Jae, Kim (2010-03-25). Asian Contextual Theology for the Third Millennium: Theology of Minjung in Fourth-Eye Formation. ISD LLC. ISBN 978-0-227-90299-8.
• Lee, Sang Taek (2012-10-24). Religion and Social Formation in Korea: Minjung and Millenarianism. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-089311-3.
• Kwon, Jin-Kwan; Küster, Volker (2018-07-01). Minjung Theology Today: Contextual and Intercultural Perspectives. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt. ISBN 978-3-374-05072-7.
• Ahn, Byung-Mu (2019). Stories of Minjung Theology: The Theological Journey of Ahn Byung-Mu in His Own Words. SBL Press. ISBN 978-1-62837-257-1.

• Minjung Theology Archive at the Wayback Machine (archived 2011-05-25)
• MinjungTheology.net at the Wayback Machine (archived 2010-06-15)