The Priest of Han as a Theme in Christian- Shamanist Interfaith Dialogue

In the period in which the Korean minjung1) has struggled against the military dictatorship, Suh Namdong, one of the founders of Korean minjung theology, suggested that the church should be engaged in the minjung liberation movement and practice the priesthood of han2) to relieve the minjung from their han. He situated han as a central theme of theological reflection and so succeeded in shaping a very authentic form of Korean theology. But for many people who are foreign to Korean culture in which han is an underlying emotion it is somewhat difficult to understand his theology of han. Some have blamed it as uncommunicative.