The Notion of Liberation in Minjung Theology 1) - focusing on first generation minjung theologians 2) -

What defines minjung theology is the “minjung experience.” Minjung theology contends that the experience of han among the minjung has to be given epistemological privilege, and that the minjung are active agents engaged in achieving their own liberation. The experience of han is central to the ideology or worldview of the minjung. Han also serves as the key to understanding why minjung cannot be separated from a praxis for liberation. Minjung theology is based on the self-awakening of the poor in Korea as well as their struggles for survival. Minjung theology has its own voices and is based on specific and particular experiences. It refuses to uncritically accept European-based theology. In this paper, I will explore the notion of liberation in minjung theology, a 20th-century Korean liberation theology that emerged from the context of oppression and injustice during the Park regime in South Korea. The understanding of liberation in minjung theology is central to ethical-theological meanings and it links liberation to the Kingdom of God. In discussing the Kingdom of God, I will focus on the work of a minjung theologian, Kim Yong-Bock, compared with Ahn Byung Mu and Suh Nam Dong. These men all are first generation minjung theologians, the teachers from whom I personally heard the centrality of Kingdom of God through their vision of liberation for all Korean people. In conclusion, I seek to make clear how working for the implementation of the Kingdom of God is central to any elaboration of Korean Christian ethics the work of liberation in Korea