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The Korean Understanding of God* Sangtai Shim / The Korean Understanding of God 133 ❚Special Issue❚ Understanding God in the Asian Context □ Catholic Theology and Thought, Vol. 77, Summer 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.21731/ctat.2016.77.133 ISSN(print) 1225-4924; ISSN(online) 1225-2564 The Korean Understanding of God* 1 Emeritus Prof. Msgr. Sangtai Shim 〔Suwon Catholic University, Korea; Director of the Korean Christian Thought Institute〕 Ⅰ. Opening Remarks Ⅱ. Pre-Modern Korean Concepts of God Ⅲ. Donghak ― The Korean Understanding of God in Cheondoism Ⅳ. The Theological Significance of the Korean Understanding of God Ⅴ. Concluding Remarks I. Opening Remarks I am grateful to the College of Theology, Catholic University of Korea, and the organisers of this symposium on the Asian Understanding of God for the invitation to prepare and present this paper. As I begin I wish to take a brief moment to express some personal observations and the basic directions of my presentation. *1This research paper is commissioned, supported, and originally published by the Founda- tion of Theology and Thought, 2016. This paper was translated from the original Korean by Patrick McMullan, SSC. 134 Understanding God in the Asian Context 1. In early 1976, forty years ago, I began my professional career as a public theologian and professor. In those days, unlike today, there were few qualified scholars which meant from the beginning of my appoint- ment I had to lecture in, amongst other theological disciplines, Concep- tions of God and the Trinity, Soteriology, Mariology and Eschatology. However, and despite moving in 1990 to the newly established Catholic University in Suwon, I have consistently taught the Conceptions of God and the Trinity tract. Moreover, for forty years I have dedicated myself to teaching believers about the topic of “Who is God?” In both my immedi- ate and reflected experience I have come to deeply appreciate how “the more I know about God, the less I really know”. I had planned, since about the turn of the Millennium, to make up for this paucity of knowledge by writing a series of books on Dogmatic the- ology starting with concepts of God and the Trinity. Unfortunately, I am now nearing the age of eighty and feeling quite dissatisfied academically because I have yet to fulfil my long cherished plan. It is, therefore, with mixed feelings that I have accepted this invitation to present my paper on “The Korean Understanding of God”. Some of the roots of this presentation include the work of the theolo- gian, Gotthold Hasenhuettl, whose writings on God and the Trinity I have translated.1 I also draw on many articles that I have written over the years. Of particular importance here is my own passionate advocacy for the examining of the internal state of the Church during its remarkable exter- nal expansion during the 1970s and 1980s. In this respect, since the 1980s I have published many articles on the Theology of Inculturation. Further- more, in 1987, I took responsibility for the Pastoral Research Institute of Korea. Established under the auspices of the Catholic Bishops Conference 1 Cf. G. Hasenhuettl, Einführung in die Gotteslehre, Darmstadt (1980). Sangtai Shim / The Korean Understanding of God 135 of Korea (CBCK), our inaugural publication was entitled “Prospects for Inculturation in the Catholic Church of Korea”. In the summer of that same year the Institute established an “Inculturation Research Unit” which, up until October 2002, has published a total of 58 issues of the Journal, Pastoral. This venture, through the lens of Inculturation, was an attempt to put a professional and academic focus on a variety of topics: including liturgy, spirituality, catechesis, mission, concepts of God, the nature of Christian community, concepts of the human and community. I have personally authored many of those articles. Two of my articles, in particular, would seem to be pertinent to the topic of this present symposium and especially my presentation. The first, “Prospects and Problems for Inculturating Images of God”, is an article which was part of a 1997 collection entitled, Inculturating Images of God. The second, “Korean Concepts of God”, is to be found in an edited collection entitled “The Meeting of Eastern and Western Thought” which was published on the occasion of Rev. Dr. Yu Bong-jun’s sixtieth birthday in 1991. Of these two papers, the latter remains a very good summary of the genesis of ideas which continue to endure and find expression amongst Koreans today. The former paper, on the other hand, is a synthesis of the salient points made in a series of thirteen papers sponsored by the Sub- committee for Inculturation and published under the title of “Researching the Inculturation of Concepts of God” (April 1991 until July 1993). This body of research was critiqued and reviewed by both theologians and academics in related disciplines. In terms of this symposium as a result, and given the rich body of research I have already proffered, it really has not been possible for me to produce a new thesis on the Korean understanding of God. Nevertheless, 136 Understanding God in the Asian Context this presentation is not simply a summation of past research. Rather, I pro- pose to explicitly re-evaluate our conceptions of God in light of the exigencies and dynamic changes of both the 21st century and the historical context of the Asian Churches ― and the Korean Church in particular ― within the Universal Church. Such a task will be, I believe, more satis- fying. 2. One of my starting points for this present manuscript is the exi- gencies of contemporary change which are, at the same time, not only a fundamental concern for theology but also revealing of the edges of the Korean conception of God: including, in particular, the heavy emphasis on the fatherly aspect of God to the detriment, if not exclusion, of the mater- nal dimension. Thus, my first order of business is to indicate briefly some of the enduring historical and cultural characteristics of the local concept- tualization of God. Following this review, I turn to an examination of aspects of the 21st Century conceptions of God in both Asia and Korea. At the local level, the genesis of these concepts are, I argue, to be found in the New Religious Movements of the 19th Century and, particularly, in the influence of the religion of Cheondogyo or Cheondoism (天道教: 천도교: literally, “Religion of the Heavenly Way”). II. Pre-Modern Korean Concepts of God It is my contention that the concept of God held by Koreans prior to the 19th Century embraces, in distinction to the Semitic Religions (Juda- ism, Christianity, and Islam), not only a transcendent, paternal God but also a maternal God who was immanent within all things. Sangtai Shim / The Korean Understanding of God 137 1. Ancient Korean Concepts of God Ancient civilisation on the Korean Peninsula was agricultural and nat- urally receptive to transcendent reality and cosmological order. Subject to the struggles of survival and fear of extinction, people were open to the idea of Haneul [하늘/천 (天: Cheon): the heavens, sky], a power greater than their own skill and effort. Haneul, for the ancients, is not simply a reference to the space known as the sky or heavens but is a designation connoting awe and reverence, and thus it was called respectfully Haneul- Nim as a ‘person’. Notably, the “immanent reality” of this land, and its embrace of Haneul, gives way to a “transcendent immanence”: namely, this land has not only provided a suitable location for an agricultural civilization to flourish over the eons but, even more so, this civilization has been permeated with the presence of the Spirit of the one, transcen- dent God. There is, because the Spirit infuses the Cosmos, nowhere where God is not.2 There dwells, I contend, within the archetypal imagery for God em- braced by ancient Koreans both father and mother imagery. The myth- ology of Dangun (단군신화: 檀君神話) supports this contention: a view that is also consistent with a large body of research from academics across the board. Dangun, along with the Jumong (주몽: 朱夢) and Hyeokkose (혁거세: 赫居世) legends, are collectively classified as the foundational myths of the Korean Nation. These ancient archetypal stories are descent- 2 My opinion aligns with Karl Rahner and his theological work on the universality of salvation and the notion of the “Anonymous Christian”. Rahner, who spent much of his life delving into the biblical and theological implications of God’s universal salvation, is one of the most prominent Catholic theologians of the 20th century. His profound insight, which was to become axiomatic for the Church after Vatican II, posited every human being lives in a supernatural-existential reality that is penetrated by the divine salvific will in which God is always giving of Himself. Cf. Shim Sang-Tai, Anonymous Christian: A Critical Study on Rahnerian Theology, Seoul: Pauline Press, 20082, pp. 93-140. 138 Understanding God in the Asian Context myths associated with the Constellation of Lyre and the appearance of its brightest star, Vega. Many academics, myself included, agree that these myths have three substantive characteristics: an epiphany of the heavenly deity, regeneration and transformation associated with the mother God- dess, and the union of heaven and earth leading to the foundation of the nation. In the first instance, an important observation must be made about the Dangun myth: namely, the etymology of Hwanin (환인: 桓因) as found in the myth, dates back to the roots of the Gojoseon (Ancient Joseon) Kingdom (2333 BC-108 BC). The Hwanin epithet, which long predates the entry of Buddhism into Korea (372 AD), was adopted as the name for Śakra (제석천: 帝釋天), or Lord of the Devas, because of the similarity of sound of the Chinese characters used in the Buddhist Sutras.
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