Title: Reflection on Faith
Reflection on Faith (Bible Paragraph: Philippians 4:4-9)
1. It is imperative to reflect on your faith
Among the contributions to human cultural history in the barren and barren Middle East, the alphabetic letters and monotheistic revelation religions would be the most important. The 30-character Ugarit alphabet, created by an unknown sect in Ugarit, also known as Ras Shamra, on the Syrian coast in the 15th century BC, is a phonetic alphabet. Because of its simplicity, it became the mother of all the writings of Western India. After the Ugarit alphabet, the most special sounding letter is Hangul. The 28-character Hunminjeongeum, created by King Sejong the Great together with the scholars of Jiphyeonjeon in 1443, is the simplest and most reasonable phonetic alphabet in the history of the world.
Unlike the Abrahamic religions, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism originated in the green grasslands of Asia, so each of them may be proud of their own beliefs, but their self-righteousness and exclusiveness are much less. In the plains, where the encyclopedia of five grains is abundant, people's lives are relatively smooth, and thus their minds are relaxed. In an environment where you can live with others, the virtues of tolerance and coexistence are more likely to sprout than self-righteousness and exclusion. And rather than hoping for the revelation of the Absolute, it is likely that you want to study the mind and realize the principles and principles of life on your own. So, the religious ideologies that emerged in the plains of Asia all have the characteristics of tolerance, coexistence, and awareness, which is probably because they were also influenced by the ecological environment of the East.
Geumsugangsan, where the Hankyoreh lives, is a land full of vitality. Everywhere you go there is vegetation. Of the three Abrahamic religions, only Christianity came to this land, so it is very fortunate that there is no religious war. However, out of many countries east of the Suez Canal, except for the Philippines, it is a great mystery in world religious history that only the Hankyoreh widely accepted Christianity. The key to unraveling the mystery is that Christianity was able to grow rapidly because Christianity spread to the Korean Peninsula during a religious vacancy in which Buddhism declined and Confucianism failed to function as a religion. Anyway, apart from the fact that our people living in green grasslands were born in the arid deserts of the Middle East and easily accepted Christianity, which was raised in Europe, there must be a big gap between Christianity's desert origins and the grassland ecology of the Hankyoreh. Theologians should work to recognize and fill this gap with a fierce eye, and Shimwon Ahn Byung-mu, more than anyone else, devoted himself to this task.
2. Ahn Byung-moo, a master of reflection
It is by no means a gracious relationship that I came to know the Minjung theologian Shim Won Ahn Byung-mu (June 23, 1922 - October 19, 1996) through the life of this life. I first met Ahn Byung-moo at the Bible Symposium held at the Catholic University of Gwangju in May 1971. Teacher Kim Jeong-jun and Kim Yong-ok came to the symposium and talked about 'The Jesus of History and the Christ of Faith'. I was deeply fascinated by the serious attitude of studying the Bible through historical criticism and hermeneutic reflection rather than the contents of his lecture that day. As a result of this meeting, I enjoyed the pleasure of peeking into the inner life of the teacher until 1998 as a member of the editorial planning committee for The Theological Thought, which he founded in 1973. This will be discussed at the end of this article.
In 1979, the Sogang University Theological Research Institute and the Korea Theological Research Institute jointly published “One Faith? A New Confession of Common Faith” at Bundo Publishing House. The original Neues Glaubensbuch of this translation is a joint catechism that 36 German Catholic and Protestant theologians published together in 1973, 450 years after the Reformation. Looking at the structure, the common doctrines of both denominations were introduced in the first part, and the different doctrines were dealt with in the latter part. In the late fall of 1978, Father Jang Ik and I said that we would like to invite Shim Won to the Bishop of Myeong-dong and publish this catechism together. When a Catholic term appeared, Protestant terms were put in parentheses, and when a Protestant term appeared, Catholic terms were also written in parentheses. This book is a great guide to understanding the similarities and differences between Catholics and Protestants.
As a member of the editorial planning committee for 『Theological Thoughts』, I would like to write about the anecdotes I experienced while serving the teacher for 25 years. Mr. Shim Won said that the Orthodox Church and Catholic Church understand the reverence of the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God. If you look at the history of world religions, almost all religions have a male god and a goddess. It was said that nostalgia for the goddess appeared in honor of the Virgin Mary. I have been able to confirm the true value of these words while visiting Ephesus several times. The natives of Ephesus originally worshiped the local goddess Cybele, and since the introduction of Greek culture in the 7th century BC, they have worshiped the Greek goddess of wind and mountain Artemis. It was in this context that the Virgin Mary was proclaimed Mother of God (Theotokos) at the Council of Ephesus in 431. I was very astonished in my heart when I confirmed the visitation of Master Shim Won in Ephesus.
The teacher enjoyed the story of Jesus, but rarely talked about the church. When I asked the reason one day, the answer was firm. “I was utterly desperate for the church. It’s been a long time since I’ve expected anything from the church.” One day, at an editorial meeting, I was asked the reason for not listening to new Western theological trends and ignoring them, and the answer was a masterpiece. “I don’t know how arrogant the wave of Western theology is. If you don’t resist in this way, you will be drowned in a wave of white theologians.” When I asked him if he wasn't afraid because he was very emaciated from heart disease, he said he wasn't afraid of death at all. I shuddered in my heart.
On January 14, 1978, Seoul National University student Park Jong-cheol died as a water adviser in the Anti-Communist Office of the Public Security Headquarters. On May 18 of the same year, the late Father Seung-hoon Kim revealed the inside story of this incident in a homily at the Myeongdong Cathedral, and the movement to abolish the Yushin shook the whole country. At that time, the Korea Theological Research Institute was located in Anam-dong roundabout, and Dr. Ahn looked at the huge demonstration of Korea University students from the window, and said, “Father Shin, look at the resurrection of Park Jong-cheol, look at the resurrection of Jesus.” Dr. Ahn looked at Jesus and Jong-cheol Park, and Jesus and the people on the same line. The Resurrection of Jesus is not a one-time event, but a permanent event that is repeated over and over in the history of the people. Dr. Ahn said the same thing when a demonstration took place because Yonsei University student Han-yeol Lee screamed in death. His last masterpiece (“Jesus in Galilee The People’s Movement of Jesus”, Korea Institute of Theology, 1990) clearly shows the perspective of Jesus and the minjung equation.
The most original thesis among many of Mr.'s thesis is probably "The Tradition of the Jesus Event" (Theological Thoughts No. 47, Winter 1984). The argument goes like this: The people who witnessed the events of Jesus could not speak publicly about it due to the political situation of the time. So, the people reported the Jesus incident from word to mouth in the form of rumors. Marco recorded in his Gospel the tradition of the Jesus case, which was carefully and secretly told by the people. However, the institutional church paid more attention to conveying the kerygma rather than conveying the tradition of the Jesus case in order to establish the ecclesiastical authority. If you can summarize the theory of the teacher, it is as follows. It seems that he got this idea from the ubi communication during the Yushin period. In my opinion, the historical background of intensively passing on the words and deeds of Jesus is the Holy Communion. It is believed that when Christians met every Saturday night to celebrate the Lord's Supper, they not only talked about the death, resurrection, and second coming of Jesus, but also shared and passed on the words and deeds of Jesus during his public life.
On May 30, 1993, three years before his death, Dr. Ahn made a bombshell declaration in a congratulatory speech at the service commemorating the founding of Hyangrin Church in Gangnam. “There is a newcomer ideology in Greece and Rome. There is an idea that there is a god and a human being, and I fit that into Jesus. One of the most bizarre beings in the world is a perfect God and a perfect human being. Where is that monster? A person is a person, and a God is a God. It is by Greek culture that God is fully human” (Salim, Nov. 1998, p. 66). The vast majority of famous Western theologians, as if they had made a promise, first presuppose the doctrine of the Trinity and the doctrine of the formation of Jesus before developing theological reflection. Compared to them, Dr. Ahn's view of Jesus Christ is innovative enough to be stunned. Still, it is surprising that Dr. Ahn died as a Christian without being condemned as a heresy. On January 20, 1997, when I asked Dr. Dong-sik Dong for the reason at the editorial planning meeting for the spring of 1977 issue of Theological Thoughts, the answer was strange. “Yooshin protected Dr. Ahn. Conservative Christians did not dare to condemn Dr. Ahn, who took the lead in the abolition of the Yushin, as a heresy.”
Recently, while reading the Da-Seok Journal, on December 17, 1956, Shim-Won went to Heidelberg, Germany to study abroad, and received a letter from Da-Seok. Among the replies, only the seven words and phrases are introduced in Korean, but their coldness is extraordinary.
“With Luther's Reformation, Germany had a way forward.
In Korea, filial piety theology is put forward and practiced every day.
Since time immemorial, Germany has been a hero