Korean Reunification and Tongil Theology

The term tongil, which Korean people use today to refer to reunification, literally means “coming together as one.” For Korean people, reunification is a coming together as one community. For Christian people, the significance of Korean reunification should not be limited to the notion of creating one single political unit, one Korean nation; rather, it should focus on building a new Korean society in which all Koreans will be able to live in peace and love in a community where justice prevails. This is the focus of tongil theology, which addresses the building of a new Korean society focused on being one community characterized by justice. In this study, in order to examine the notion of a justice community that tongil theology addresses, I first analyze the notion of community/communion in the work of Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian liberation theologian. His paradigm provides a framework for a critical analysis of the principal elements of tongil theology—unity and community.