해방신학의 사회적 실천과 규범에 대한 비판적 평가

Critical Assessment of the Social Praxis and Norm of the Liberation Theology

One of the characteristics of the traditional Christian theology is to make the Scripture as the absolute norm in every area of human life. Unfortunately, mostly in the conservative circle the Scripture has been treated as the absolute norm in spiritual area only. In this article I want to explain what it means that the Scripture is the sole norm for the faith and life. For this purpose I'd like to critically assess the liberation theology which takes an extreme stance about the praxis while excluding the significance of the spiritual life. Instead, I want to suggest the covenant theology as the answer about the problem of the relationship between practice and theory or practice and faith. By doing this I want to emphasize the importance of the social practice flowing from Christian faith. The main presupposition of the liberation theologians in its hermeneutics of the Scripture is socio-economic view of life. They distinguishes themselves from the traditional theologians of Europe and America which are considered to be biased for the white-middle class. The liberation theologians flatter themselves in their biased presupposition for the poor and the alienated. They believe that the truth is practical. They don't look for any other text for hermeneutics of life other than praxis itself. If they do so, they will make the praxis neutral. But the praxis can't be neutral. It is what human does with his/her own presupposition. It can't be an objective standard or norm. However, we shouldn't accept the hermeneutical presupposition of the liberation theology which denies the normativeness of the Bible. Praxis without normativity could fall into a baseless relativism, And it could enhance human autonomy in the sense that man could be the norm in making the praxis the text for life. The covenant between God and human doesn't obliterate the necessity of the normativity. And it doesn't simply make the practice a norm. Practice or praxis is what the norm requires human partners to do, not norm itself. Yet, practice is not an option which human partners could make little of. It is the covenantal obligation which makes the covenant, that is, the Scripture meaningful. Even though Christ already accomplished his redemptive work, yet there is something left out for us to do for its application. This is why we have the Bible as our absolute norm. This is the biblical basis for social work for the poor and the isolated.