A Study of the Identity Crisis of the Christian Church in the Korean Theological Context -Focus on Tochakwha Theology and Minjung Theology = A Study of the Identity Crisis of the Christian Church in the Korean Theological Context -Focus on Tochakwha Theology and Minjung Theology

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Although the Korean Protestant church has developed with a speed unparalleled within the short period of 100 years, she has recently been confronted with its own identity crisis as a Christian church. These, I hold, are phenomena resulting from the insufficiency of Christian theology, especially the lack of study of Christian ecclesiology in relation to Christ in the history of the Korean Protestant church. Unfortunately, there has not been an ecclesiological Christian theology to solve these kinds of problems of the Korean church in the Korean theological context. Of course, there have been good Korean frontier theologies, such as Tochakwha theology led by Methodist theologiansand Minjung theology driven by radical Presbyterian theologians, they have not fully contributed to the Christian development of the Korean Protestant church. As the theology of Korean indigenization, Tochakwha theology has mainly focused on inter-religious dialogue in the Korean religio-cultural dimensions, rather than centering on the healing of the inner diseases of the church. On the other hand, Minjung theology, as the theology of Korean political contextualization, has usually been concerned about the socio-political situation of the Korean society, rather than concentrating on the spiritual condition of the Korean church. Inevitably, there has been a theological-spiritual gap between the place of the Korean church and the space of the Korean theologies. This is why we need a new theological approach to rediscover the essential identity of the Christian church. This article consists of the following five sections. In first introductory section, we discuss the nature of the problem. In the second section, we consider the identity crisis of the contemporary Korean Protestant church. In the third section, we critically deal with the Eccleisiological Issue in Tochakwha theology. In the fourth section, we critically reflect on the ecclesiological issue in Minjung theology. In the concluding section, we summarize why we have been confronted with the identity crisis of the Christian church in the Korean theological context.