A Comparative Practical Theological Study on Five
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
A PILGRIM’S HOMILETIC: A COMPARATIVE PRACTICAL THEOLOGICAL STUDY ON FIVE SOCIO-ECCLESIAL CODES OF ASIAN/KOREAN AMERICAN DIASPORIC PROTESTANT PREACHING BY SUNGGU YANG Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In Religion August, 2015 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Dale P. Andrews, Ph.D. John S. McClure, Ph.D. Paul C.H. Lim, Ph.D. David H. Perkins, Ph.D. Copyright © 2015 by Sunggu Yang All Rights Reserved ii To my parents, infinitely supportive iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I give great thanks to the Graduate Department of Religion at Vanderbilt University and its doctoral program in Homiletics and Liturgics, which has extended tremendous support throughout my Ph.D. studies. Only with the Department’s generous financial support and the continual academic guidance of the program, could I produce this work. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Professor Dale P. Andrews, who from the beginning stages of this dissertation inspired critical thoughts in my academic consciousness and broadened my scholarly imagination. Through the very last moment of the completion of the dissertation, his academic care and guidance was enormous. Especially, I would not forget the precious three hours I had with him a day before the dissertation defense when he walked me through the whole writing for the clarification of my arguments. Above all, his scholarly excellence and homiletic and liturgical wisdom have formed me as an engaged scholar and teacher in preaching and worship. Furthermore, I confess, that he himself as a wonderful orator and preacher greatly and positively shaped my preaching practice. I must thank Professor John S. McClure for his persistent engagement and unmatched support. From day one of my doctoral life at Vanderbilt, his academic care and guidance has been enormous to the extent that without him I cannot imagine my successful completion of the program. My dissertation itself is a multi-faceted development of a term paper I submitted in his class during the coursework. Dr. McClure saw the potential contribution of my work to the wider homiletic guild in the States and the preaching practice of Asian Americans, and thus encouraged its expansion. Since then, I have greatly benefited from his lessons on homiletic philosophy and praxis. I thank faculty mentors in Christian communication from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology and Yale Divinity School. Professor Thomas G. Long provided the foundational inspiration for preaching that eventually led me to study homiletics. Professor Leonora Tubbs Tisdale taught me to see and embody the pastoral and prophetic dimension of preaching practice. Professor Thomas H. Troeger fundamentally widened my homiletic theological world. Professor Ted A. Smith helped me see preaching as a historical heritage that has a rich reservoir both in the past and the present. Last, but not least, Teresa Fry Brown wonderfully supported my exploration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life, theology, oration, and preaching practice, all of which has become a crucial part of my homiletic teaching and practice. There are so many people who have significantly influenced and molded me as a scholar in homiletics and liturgics. Here I mention a few names only. A thank you to Professor Robin M. Jensen who introduced to me the unknown history of preaching and worship performed by women throughout the ages; Professor David H. Perkins for teaching me the aesthetical aspect of theological enterprise; Professor Eunjoo Mary Kim who has been my model of an Asian/Korean American homiletician; Professor Paul Lim for his wide and deep knowledge of Asian American life and theology; my wonderful colleagues in Homiletics and Liturgics; all the generous friends I met at Emory, Yale, and Vanderbilt iv for their precious fellowship; the Korean American churches I have served for allowing me to grow as a preacher and practical theologian. My heartfelt gratitude goes to my wife Seungyoun Jeong, without whose support and friendship I could not have become who I am now. As a lifetime scholarly companion and colleague, she is always the kindest critic of my work as well as the most enthusiastic fan of my homiletic and liturgical ideas. Finally, no word is adequate to express my appreciation to my parents and lovely siblings back in Korea, whose continuing prayers, love, and care have been a hidden backbone my whole academic life. I solemnly and thankfully dedicate my work to them. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................1 Context, Issues, and Hypothesis ..............................................................................1 Research Methodology ............................................................................................6 Key Terms ................................................................................................................9 Korean Americans(s) .......................................................................................9 Pilgrim and Pilgrimage ..................................................................................11 Code and Style ...............................................................................................13 Comparative Practical Theological and/or Homiletic Studies .......................16 Summary of Chapters ............................................................................................17 Significance and Limitations of the Study .............................................................19 II. THE PRACTICAL THEOLOGICAL SITUATION OF ASIAN/KOREAN AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY ..................................................................................24 Three Descriptive Voices for the Asian/Korean American Practical Theological Situation .................................................................................................................25 Sang Hyun Lee: Liminality and Marginality ...............................................25 Fumitaka Matsuoka: Social Transformation from the Asian/Korean American Church .........................................................................................28 Post-colonial Gender Liberative Theologies ................................................31 Key Socio-Ecclesial Themes from the Three Voices ............................................36 Four Components of Code Analysis ......................................................................38 Foundational Context of the Code under Discussion ...................................38 Cultural Analysis of the Code and Styles .....................................................39 A Key Cultural Image of the Preacher Rising from the Code ......................40 Summary and Relation to Other Codes ........................................................41 III. BICULTURAL THEOLOGICAL LENS ..................................................................43 The Wilderness-Pilgrimage Code ..........................................................................45 Foundational Context for the Code ..............................................................45 Biblical-Theological Understandings ................................................45 St. Augustine’s Articulation of the Pilgrim Idea ...............................53 In Western Literature .........................................................................57 Cultural Analysis of the Code and Styles .....................................................60 The Allegorical-Typological Narrative Style ...................................64 The Eschatological Symbolic Narrative Style ..................................67 The Illustrative Narrative Style .........................................................69 A Key Cultural Image of the Preacher Rising from the Code ......................72 Summary and Relation to Other Codes ........................................................75 The Diasporic Mission Code .................................................................................76 Foundational Context of the Code ................................................................77 Foreign Evangelical Mission Experience in the Modern Era ...........79 Ultra-fundamental, Eschatological Biblicism ...................................82 Cultural Analysis of the Code and Styles .....................................................85 The Ironic Reverse Style ...................................................................88 The Internal Otherness Style .............................................................90 The Identification Partnership Style .................................................93 A Key Cultural Image of the Preacher Rising from the Code ......................95 Summary and Relation to Other Codes ........................................................98 IV. INTER-RELIGIOUS HISTORICAL LENS ...........................................................100 The Confucian Egalitarian Code ..........................................................................101