200. Christology & Its Soteriloogical Ramifications in Korean Culture

7/23/2019 200. Christology & Its Soteriloogical Ramifications in Korean Culture

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Journal ofPentecostal Theology 2006 SAGE PublicationsLondon, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhihttp://JPT.sagepub.com

Vol 15(1) 107-126 y T I T " 'DOI: 10.1177/0966736906069259 I I - ' I

JOURNEYING INTO THE HEART OF GOD:REDISCOVERING SPIRIT-CHRISTOLOGY AND ITS SOTERIOLOGICALRAMIFICATIONS IN KOREAN CULTURE

Sang-Ehil Han*Church of God T heological Seminary900 Walker St. NE , Cleveland, TN 37311, USAemail : [email protected]

ABSTRACTAn enduring problem in Christian theology has been the so-called'dou ble -edged' cris is' (i.e. the crisis of identity and relevance) that hasto do with the pa rticularity of Jesus Christ and his final significance toour ultimate concern, salvation. As a modest attempt to engage issuesemerging from this broad line of questioning, this study takes a closelook at the theological merits of Spirit Christology and notes how theyyield helpful insights to deal with some critical aspects about humansalvation. When juxtaposed in a complementary relationship with LogosChristology, Spirit Christology helps present a holistic paradigm ofhum an salvation embodied in the messianic way of life in Jesus Christ.Reading pneum atologically the entire macro-narrative of Jesus Christhis birth, life, passion, resurrection, ascension and promised returnreveals a holistic vision of Go d's salvation for humanity inasmuch as itrepresents G od 's own purposeful journey into the concrete reality ofthehum an condition to recapitulate all that was lost in humanity. Theologi-cal reflections provided here should also have in view their adequacyto engage complex realities of life particularized in a given culture.For this reason, this study analyses han as a dominant cultural ethos inKorea that addresses the profundity of human brokenness distinctively


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108 Journal of Pentecostal Theology 15.1 (2006)engraved in its historical narratives. A careful study oihan then unveilsa theological need for a larger soteriology that the theological constructof Spirit Christology seems to answer in the direction ofthe Wesleyan-Pentecostal tradition. Salvation entails living in the Spirit wherein lovefunctions as the ruling affection that constantly nurtures and governson e's head (orthodoxy), heart (orthopathy), and hands (orthopraxy). Ittakes on a distinctive formation process through which one journeysinto the very heart of God.

IntroductionIn a particular cultural context like Korea where the Christian religion isnot entirely free from the charge of being another form of Western imperi-alism, one becomes increasingly attentive to the reasonableness of theclaim that any viable theology cannot and should not be constructed in avacuum.^ There is an apparent and critical need for theology to addressthe concrete affairs of hum an life con textualized in the particularities of agiven culture. Theology in the past had every so often come up withanswers that w ere either too abstract to grasp or not necessarily relevantto the real struggles of life. The process of theological answ ering shouldhave the particularities ofthe Christian truth claims about Jesus Christ pit-ted against the present specifics of life from which questions emerge. Inthis vein, theology needs to engage in a constant double process of openingup, namely, opening up the answers of church traditions, on the one hand,and the particularities of the receiving culture, on the other.^ A viableChristian theology should constantly challenge the truth claims ofthe pre-vious and/or existing church traditions for a more adequate expression ofGod 's revealed truth in Jesus Christ and place itself on a responsive journeythrough which a constructive process of engaging a concrete life contextwould result in a mysterious yet authentic incarnation of God's revealedtruth for the given culture. The responsive nature of theological answeringalso necessitates a deeper understanding of the complex particularitieswithin the receiving culture. Pursuing this line of approach, theologybecomes constructively reflective of the deep-layered anthropological

2. Robert J. Schreiter, Constructing Local Theologies (Maryknoll, NY: OrbisBo oks, 1995), pp. 1-4. With a helpful reference to the kernel and husk theory, S chreiter


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H A N Journeying into the Heart of God 109findings within a particular culture, while being faithful to the particu-larities of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This study is an attempt to engage the issues of salvation emergingfrom the particularities of Korean culture. It begins w ith the premise thattheological questions and answers about human salvation should not beconceived in detachment from our Christological com prehension'' aboutthe person and w ork of Jesus Christ. For this reason, the study attempts torediscover theological merits of Spirit Christology that essentially com-plement the theological features of Logos Christology. N ot only the divinemystery of Christ's birth but also the entire life narratives of Jesus Christare then taken into account in our understanding of the salvation thatJesus Christ provides. In addition, what is entailed in the pneum atologicalanointing in the salvific way of Jesus Christ serves as the paradigmaticfoundation that grounds the way of salvation {via salutis) for us. H ere-with, we are necessarily concerned with a larger soteriology that yields anaffectional transformation of one's knowing, being, and doing. Theprofundity of human brokenness that the stories of han unveil will furtherdemonstrate the need for a holistic salvation in which one is being per-fected in love as one jou rne ys in the Spirit to the wondrous and unfathom-able mystery of God.

1. Interwoven Stories: G ospel and Memo ries in Korean CultureInsofar as this study is concerned with the issues of salvation located in aparticular cu lture, it seems needfial that I make some cursory remarks onhistorical climates of Korean culture and see how the Christian gospel hasbeen interwoven into the suffering memories of Korean culture. Fromtheir historical beginnings in Korea, the gospel stories of Christian faithwere closely interwoven with cultural m emories overwhelmingly markedby a series of national tragedies that had come to define the shared psyche

4. Walt Lowe, 'Ch rist and Sa lvation', in Peter C. H odgson and Robert H . King(eds.), Christian Theology: An Introduction to its Traditions and Tasks (Minneapolis:Fortress Pre ss, new edn, 1994), pp. 222- 23 . Low e points out the fact that modem the-ology often questions the necessity to link soteriology with Christology and prefers to


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110 Journal of Pentecostal Theology 15.1 (2006)of Koreans. M ultifarious stories oihan (intense episodes of human broken-ness) accumulated over the past five thousand years ofthe natio n's historyseemed to have only intensified in the horrors of Korea 's m ost recent past.The W orld Wars in the twentieth century have profoundly and indiscrimi-nately wounded the human race as a wh ole; of course, Korea was not anexception to this shared tragedy. H owever, Korea as a nation underw ent aparticular kind of suffering for the 36 years, bracketed roughly betweenWorld W ar I and Word War II. Koreans were placed under insufferableconditions of slavery by the Japanese during this time and had to face the irsystematic annihilation of Ko rea's culture and history that threatened todeprive Koreans of their own identity and place as a nation in the historyof humankind. This was then followed by the bloodiest war in its nationalhistory (i.e. the Korean W ar) as the end result of competing ideologies atthe time. This eventuated in the massacres of innocent masses only to yieldfinally the creation ofthe thirty-eighth parallel that still exists today afterover five decades. The constant echo ing of pains and suffering over thenation's division still lingers on, especially among the broken hearts ofmillions of Korean families who remain separated today.

Given these historical particularities, Korean churches were burdenedwith a collective sense of divine comm ission to proffer ways of alleviatingintense pain and suffering accumulated in and through agonizing memoriespervasive in the nation's collective psyche. Korean churches have sinceresponded to this call in several w ays. First, by and large, churches weredriven by aggressive forms of evangelism in which the missional task ofthe church was narrowly defined as getting people saved from eternaldamnation w ith an emphasis on the eschatological prom ise of a heavenlyparadise. Second, influenced by the dominance of Calvinistic Reformeddoctrines, churches have tended to understand the salvation of Jesus Christin the direction of 'finished work' theology whereby the redemptionaccomplished at the cross event of Jesus Christ only need be applied tothose God had already determined to save. Thinking in this way, the entirelife narratives of Jesus Christ, ranging beyond the event at the cross, havetended to becom e treated as afterthoughts. Third, as ironic and conflictedas it may sound alongside the dominance of Calvinistic Reformed churchesin Korea, there have also been strong Pentecostal and charismatic move-ments w ith their vibrant expressions of spirituality in worship and prayer


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H A N Journeying into the Heart of God 111words, intense ep isodes of experience in the context of worship and prayerare considered as normative channels through w hich one becomes certainof her/his salvation in Jesus Christ.Thus, the upshot o f these findings seems to be a theological need forcreative open ing that revisits what 'getting saved' really en tails. In otherwords, if the perichoretic relationality between Jesus Christ and the H olySpirit becom es the interpretative lens by which we understand w hat 'get-ting saved' really entails, our soteriological questioning can no longerafford to be dominated by the 'from w hat' question, namely, getting savedfrom damnation; rather, the 'fi-om what' question has to be dialecticallyjuxtaposed with the 'for what' question: For what are we being saved?For this reason, the fullness of Go d's salvation in Jesus Christ cannot becollapsed entirely and altogether into the 'once and for all' event in thepast, that is, the crucifixion, which has supposedly brought about a screech-ing halt to any and all qualms about sin and evil in human life. Inasmuchas the Passion narrative encapsulates the culmination of the gospel ofJesus Christ, it is certainly the entire life narratives of Jesus Christ thatunveil in detail the pneumatological way of Jesus C hrist in and by whichall that was lost in humanity becam e recapitulated. To put it another w ay,inasmuch as the salvation of Jesus Christ is about the deliverance fromthe bondage of sin and evil, we need to keep in mind that the deliverancehere is meant to be qualified by the specific purpose and direction inher-ent in it. It is purposed for and directed to the pneumatolog ical way of lifein Jesus Christ. The deliverance comes with the directive to pursue theconstant actualizing of the fullness of life envisioned at God's creationand destined for God's telos.^

In W esleyan-Pentecostal language, what salvation entails is a respon-sive living unto the dynamic correlation between the living W ord and theSpirit of holiness. H enceforth, w e are rightly concerned with a larger sote-riology that acknowledges salvation primarily as structuring life in andthrough the essential grammars of living in the Spirit.* The salvation of

5. A theological understanding of God as Redeem er cannot be divorced from theCreator God and God as the eschatological Spirit . The redemptive work of JesusChrist has to be viewed then as the culmination of God's creative purpose that willcom e into fruition with the eschatolo gical com ing of Go d. See Clark H . Pinnock,


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112 Journal of Pentecostal Theology 15.1 (2006)Jesus Christ, rightly understood, comes to us as a journ ey, through wh ichthe Spirit gracefially attunes our hearts unto the heart of God and formswithin us, in the process, distinctive affections that are deeply C hrist-like.

2. Gospel Stories: Jesus in the Pow er ofthe SpiritThe intimate perichoresis between Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is wellattested in the biblical narra tives. So explicit was the intimate presence ofthe Ho ly Spirit from the outset that the entirety ofthe gospel stories aboutJesus Christ can be fittingly described as the 'Spirit-his tory'. The efficacyofthe Holy Spirit is the first insight into the mystery of Jesus.^ For thisreason, bracketing the presence of th e Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus tothe period of his public ministry is, in a way, missing the point about whatthe intimacy of their perichoretic relationship really entails. As JurgenMoltmannn notes, what the Gospel narratives intended to say is that'[Jesus ] is the messianic Son of God and the Lord ofthe messianic king-dom not only since his resurre ction.. .not merely since his ba ptism .. .butby his heavenly origin and from his earthly beginnings.. .there was no timeand no period of his life when Jesus w as not filled with the H oly Spirit'.^In a similar vein, Kilian M cDonnell also concludes that a fair reading ofthe Gospels and the Pauline literature inevitably yields the understanding:'To identify Christ is to find the Sp irit '.' B esides the biblical narratives,the earliest historical witnesses consistently reveal the fact that the mostarchetypal construct in Christology was a pneumatologically nuancedone. Michael Lodahl hence notes that a pneumatological approach to

Theology (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), p. t9. Note in particular how Paulspeaks ofth e redem ptive work of Jesus Christ in Ro m. 5.1-5: 'There fore, having beenjustified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ...and notonly that, w e also glory in tribulations, know ing that tribulation produ ces p erseveran ce;and perseveran ce, character; and character, ho pe ... the love of God has been pouredout in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us'. The phrase, 'and not onlytha t', accentuates the necessary linkage between G od 's initial justifying grace and thesubsequent experiences in salvation thereafter.

7. Jurgen M oltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ, (trans. Margaret Kohl; Minne-apolis: Fortress Press, 1993), p. 73.


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H A N Journeying into the Heart of God 113Christology was quite notable among early church fathers such as Ignatius,Second Clement, and the Shepherd of H ennas .'" N evertheless, what hasbeen dominant in the suhsequent theological h istory of the Christian churchis Logos Christology. Faced with the immediate doctrinal challenges aboutthe identity of Jesus Christ in the philosophical climate of H ellenistic onto-logical reasoning, the early Christian church was driven to establish firstand foremost the fundam ental faith confession of early apostles that vigor-ously defends the mystery of Christ's divine origin. For this reason, theearliest historical accounts of the Christian church on Jesus Christ bearwitness to the fact that worship, for Christian communities, is a fittingresponse to Jesus Christ. Logos Christology provided a helpful theologicaldefense to preserve the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, namely, his ontologi-cal union with, as well as personal distinction from, other persons of theTrinity. The Christological conclusion drawn by Logos Christology wasof critical significance to the early Christian church . A fler all, what hadappeared to be a Christological question about the identity of Jesus Christhad ultimate so teriological significance. A s Walt Lowe reminds us of thewords of Gregory of N azianzus: 'W hat has not assumed cannot be restored;it is what is united with God that is saved'."

What remains significant with Logos Christology is the theologicalcommitment behind its origin and development that seeks to locate humansalvation in the uniqueness (or the particularity) of Jesus Christ. N onethe-less, the challenge inherent in Logos C hristology is to make sense of itsontological argumen ts about Jesus Christ and relate them functionally to

10. Michael E. Lodahl, Shekhinah Spirit: Divine Presence in Jewish and ChristianReligion (Mah wah, N J: Paulist Press, 1992), pp. 152-195. Lodahl is of the opinionthat the later dem and of the H ellenistic culture, to which the ontologically nuanc edLogos Christology was more appealing, had contributed to the gradual downfall of' the m ore H ebraically grounded Spirit Christologies of earlier generation s' (p. 153).A s regrettable as was the gradual disappearance of the Spirit Christologies of the ear-liest Christian traditions, such a result w as not primarily due to the pressure or dem andfrom Greek c ulture but rather to a distinctive theological reasoning. S pirit Christologycannot stand alo ne apart from Log os Ch ristology due to its inability to make personaldistinctions between Jesus Christ and other human persons; furthermore, it is thestrength of Log os Christolog y, not Spirit Ch ristology, that helps clarify the ontologica l


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114 Journal of Pentecostal Theology 15.1 (2006)the concrete needs of human salvation that include not only the presenceof sin in humanity but also the multifarious conditions of human suffering.A critical issue with Logos Christology beyond its theological legitimacyis its functional adequacy. For this reason, the ontological approach ofLogos Christology needs to be complemented by another Christologicalconstruct such as Spirit Christology. The unquestioned dominance ofLogos Christology in the past, at the expense of other Christologicalconstructs, has needlessly resulted in an unhealthy theological p arochial-ism.'^ That the ontological and the functional dimensions in Christologyneed to be understood in their complementary relationship is not a meretheological speculation but a clear testimony o fthe N ew Testament church.For instance, the Gospel of John is certainly known for its articulateaccount about the incarnation of divine Logos; however, a meticulousreading ofthe narratives in the Gospel unveils the fact that the Johann inecommunity was just as concerned about the life history and experiencesof Jesus Christ as about the anointed Messiah in whom dwelt the powerand presence ofthe Holy Spirit. In this vein. Max Turner notes: 'Logos/Wisdom Christology m ay dom inate the first half of John, but the motif ofJesus as the giver of life through the Spirit gradua lly builds up from 1.33,4.10, 14; 6.63; and 7.37-39 to a major contribution in John 14 -16 , and aclimax in 20.22 where Jesus insufflates with the Holy Spirit of new cre-ation'.'^ A pneumatological reading of Christology then helps to rediscoverthe forgotten aspect of biblical Christology and its timely resurgence toyield theological insights relevant to our contemporary issues in humansalvation.

It is critical to keep in mind, how ever, that Sp irit Christology is essen-tially a Trinitarian (not a binary) construc t.''' A pneumatological readingof Christology begins with the scriptural w itness that Jesus has had firstand foremost an intimate relationship with his Abba. After all, it wasCh rist's responsive obedience to the Father concerning which the biblicaltestimonies speak ofthe intimate workings ofthe Spirit in him.'^ The

12. John O'Donnell, 'In Him and over Him: The Holy Spirit in the Life of Jesus',Gregorianum 70.1 (1989), pp. 25-45 (25-26). For instance, the exclusive dom inanceof Logos Christology and its ontological construct has indeed brought up in theclassical tradition the severance between Ghristology and soteriology. In this vein,


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H A N Journeying into the Heart of God 115profound sense of intimacy in the relationship between Jesus Christ andthe H oly Spirit is then 'th eo log ica l' in nature.'^ The biblical picture ofJesus in the power of the Spirit bears witness to the intimate union thatJesus shares w ith the Father. In other wo rds, to speak of Jesus Christ is tospeak of him in the power and presence of the H oly Spirit as well as tospeak of his intimate relationship w ith the G od he addressed as Abba. Putin this way, the gospel stories of Jesus C hrist then essentially becom e thestories of the Trinitarian God whose inner life of intimate perichoresis isbeing unveiled in a distinctively pneumatological way. Details of hisintimacy w ith the Father in the power and presence of the H oly Spiritevinces the fact that being-in-relationsh ip is constitutive of the very beingof Jesus Christ. A s Kilian M cDonnell notes, 'Jesu s reveals the Father whois the unique source of Trinitarian life; conversely, Trinitarian life showswho Jesus really was and i s ' . ' ' Christ's missional life, defined pneuma-tologically, represents a lot more than episodic instances of godliness inas-much as the H oly Spirit is more than a mere 'func tion' of Christ. Instead,Jesus Christ in his pneumatological joum ey of life unveils the very heartof God. In this construct, God no longer remains as an abstract m etaphy-sical concept but the abba Father whose heartbeat is wondrously caughtup with the missional life of Jesus Christ.'^

Thinking in terms of the trinitarian construct of Spirit Christology, thebirth of Jesus Christ in the power of the H oly Spirit represents Go d's con-tinuing faithfulness to humanity. For this reason, the Matthean and theLukan narratives locate the birth o f Jesus Christ in a particular genealogythat underscores G od 's faithful tabernacling presence in the history of thepeop le of Israel. It is in this vein that Clark Pinnock states: 'W hat is heingoffered by Jesus' birth is the same grace that has always been there since

separated from the question of wh o God is. H ence , a theological understanding a boutthe identity of Jesus Christ demands a holistic understanding of his actions in lifenarratives as well. For this reason , the Coun cil of N icaea h elps redirect a theologicalconce pt on wh at constitutes 'd iv in e' by linking it closely with the obed ience of JesusChrist. Ch rist 's role as the me diator in and throug h his obedienc e w as not to be takenas a reference that he is anything less than divine. This has an important bearing onthe theological notion that divinity no longer needs to be conceived simply as pow er


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116 Journal of Pentecostal Theology 15.1 (2006)the foundation o fthe world and now is being decisively man ifes ted '." Asmuch as the coming of Jesus Christ by the power ofthe Holy Spirit entailsG od 's representation among humanity, it also denotes our representationbefore G od. The pneumatological coming of Jesus Christ marks his par-ticipatory journey into the world of humanity and provides the represen-tative paradigm for life into which the selfsame Spirit now invites us toparticipate.

The journey of Jesus Christ takes on a distinctive departure at hisbaptism. This coronation act of his messianic anointing is heightened in itssignificance by the conjoining presence ofthe triune God. Furthermore, hisbaptismal anointing comes as the escha tological fulfillment of what hadbeen prophesied of th e coming M essiah in Isaiah 61 .1 . For this reason,Jesus repeatedly reminds his disciples that he comes in the power anddemonstration ofthe Holy Spirit unfolding the signs and wonders ofthenew Kingdom. What is also critical to note, however, is the manner bywhich he would establish the K ingdom of God. Taking on a recapitulatingjourney, Jesus undergoes the suffering conditions of humanity.^" Com ingout ofthe water, it is the Spirit who leads Jesus imm ediately into a lifeless'wilderness' to be tempted by Satan and to be with 'wild animals' (Mk1.9-11). It is in the experiencing of suffering that Jesus enters into theshared solidarity w ith hum anity and breathes into it the newness of life bythe power and presence ofthe Holy Spirit.^'

What is entailed in the life journey of Jesus Christ finds its decisiveculmination in the crucifixion event. As a particu lar event in history, thecrucifixion of Jesus Christ becomes the most vivid testimony of God'sfaithful and willing embrace of the suffering condition of humanity.^^After all, it was not by human hands that Jesus w as led to the cross; he wasled to the cross by his obedience to the Father and dependence on thepower ofthe Holy Spirit. Understood in this way, the crucifixion event

19 . Pinnock, Flame of Love, p. 82.20. Lodahl, Shekhinah Spirit, pp. 165-66. Lodahl compa res the baptismal narrative

with the retelling ofth e Akedah, i.e., the Isaac story in Gene sis 22 . No ticing the sim i-larities, he conclude s that the pow er and presenc e of God is most eviden t in the 'hid-denness' of suffering and the willing sacrifice of one's own self in humility.

21 . Res pond ing to Jam es and John, Jesus implicitly correlates his baptism with the


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H A N Journeying into the Heart of God 117can be rightly viewed as an intratrinitarian drama in which the Son'sheart-rending words, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthanV, are conjoined withthe silent cry ofth e Father and the groaning ofth e Spirit. The silence ofGod at the violent suffering of the Son is not a sign of powerlessness orindifference but of true power that is governed by suffering love; conse-quently, the Sp irit's groaning reverberates even now in the hearts ofth eSpirit-filled believers as a constan t rem inder that they too are to join in hissuffering.^^

Insofar as the crucifixion event is viewed as the culmination of C hris t'slife journ ey, it is his resurrection as well as his promise of eschatologicalreturn that should serve as the interpretative center by which to discernthe soteriological significance ofthe crucified Christ. The death of JesusChrist is not only a substitution in kind but also a paradigmatic representa-tion.-^'' Only when the latter is held in a dialectical tension with the former,can we speak of being saved by his life as well as his death. Afi:er all,Jesus Christ is our atonement. With his eschatological raising from thedead at the interpretative center, the gospels of Jesus Christ really do tell'the history of a living person.. .the presence ofthe One past and the futureofthe One who has come'.^^ Understood in this way, the salvation of JesusChrist entails a dynamic living in the Spirit whose eschatological presenceconstantly fashions our responsive journey to G od, with G od and in God.

3 . Stories of Han: Narratives of Human Brokenness inKorean ^^Let us now turn to the particular cu ltural narratives of Korea and analyzehow they unveil the complexities of human brokenness in hfe. The depthand profundity of human brokenness to which the stories of han bear

2 3 . See Rowan Williams, Christ on Trial: How the Gospel Unsettles our Judgment(Grand Rap ids: Eerdma ns, 2003 ). W illiams traces various particularities ofthe Gospelnarratives concerning Christ's trial and death at the cross and moves on to argue thatChristians are also called daily to stand with Jesus in his trials and death and negatethe falsities of this world and its abuse of power.

2 4 . The idea of substitution makes certain that God's grace precedes and enablesany and all human respon se; how ever, it is the idea of paradigmatic representation that


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118 Journal of Pentecostal Theology 15.1 (2006)witness w ill then help us conclude that the salvation of Jesus Christ shouldbe holistic in kind, tiamely, healing us of both the juridical and therapeuticdimensions of sin and suffering.-^^ As we noted in the beginning of thisstudy, the dominant soteriological paradigm in Korea has been largelyfocused on the juridical aspect of salvation rather than on the therapeuticone; furthermore, the intense episodes of salvation experiences inworshipand prayers among Pentecostals and charismatics have often lacked the'de pth ' grammars of being formed into the affections of Jesus Christ bythe life-giving Spirit of God. The effort to recover Spirit Christology andits soteriological ramifications (i.e. living in the pneumatological way oflife which was in Jesus C hrist) would then help us add ress the theologicalneed for a larger soteriology that places a fitting emphasis on the ever-present workings o fthe Holy Spirit to inscribe Christ-like affections intothe hearts of believers. Understanding salvation as the pneumatologicalway of life, represented paradigmatically in the Spirit-filled life of JesusChrist, will then create the needed theological space in our soteriologicaldiscussion for seeing affectional transformation as necessary experiencesin salvation subsequent to the initial redemptive grace provided byChrist's atonement work at the cross.

Life in Korean culture is often described as being surrounded by manyhaunting ghosts. Ghosts are believed to be everywhere: in rivers, moun-tains, houses, kitchens, and so forth; and there are many terrifying storiesassociated with them. These haun ting ghosts are believed to carry swordsor demonic powers to inflict physical harms and diseases upon the living. ^What are these ghosts? Simply put, they are restless spirits fiill oihan thatcannot depart from their earthly existence un til their han is resolved. T hestories about these haunting ghosts are correlated with the formation ofhan.

Han is a culture-specific emotion that defies a precise definition; hence,it cannot be naively equated with general human emotions.^' Situated in27 . Andrew Sung Park, The W ounded Heart of God: The Asian Concept o/Han and

the Christian Doctrine of Sin (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993), especially pp . 77-81.28. Hyun Kyung Chung, '"Han-pu-r i" : Doing Theology from Korean Women's

Perspective ' , The Ecumenical Review A Q.\ (1988) , pp. 27-36(28-29) .29. Amelie Oksenberg Rorty, 'Introduction', in Amelie Oksenberg Rorty (ed.).


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H A N Journeying into the Heart of God 119the narrative particularities of Korean culture, han represents a complexweb of intense emotions interwoven over a long period of accumulatedpainful experiences and suffering.^" Some aspect of this accumulationcomes in the form of historical inheritance (pervasive throughout Koreanculture) that predates an individual whose life suffers from the presenceof han. H ence, Un Koh, a celebrated Buddh ist poet, describes the KoreanSitz im Leben in this way: 'they [Koreans] are bom ofthe womb of han,grow up in the bosom of han, live out han, and die leaving han behind'.-"

Structurally speaking , han can be either personal or collective. Han aspersonal is often responded to by active retaliation of anger or hate againstthe victimizer. There are, how ever, occasions w hereby the victimized one,out of fear or fright, passively suppresses thepains of han into the depthof his or her psyche and has it resurface later in vengeful actions. Personalhan can also be expressed in the form of self-resignation. Being over-whelm ed by a profound sense of helplessness and despair, a victim directsanger against his or her own self. A s A ndrew Sung Park notes, this is 'thesad han of many victims...victims negate the self already negated byoffenders even to the point of self-extermination... It lets go of every-thing, including the self.' ^On the other hand , the collective dimension of han represents a sharednational psyche am ongst Koreans grounded in their countless yet repeatednational crises (both internal and external) over the course ofthe na tion 'sfive-thousand-year history. The shared collective han of this kind shouldnot, however, be taken to obliterate an important demarcation between theprivileged and the minjung(i.e. the marginalized 'comm on folk'). Even in

30 . Suk-Mo A hn , Toward a Local Pastoral C are and Pastoral T heology: TheBasis,Model, and Case of H an in Light of Cha rles G erkin 's Pastoral Hermeneutics, (unpub-lished PhD dissertation, Emory U niversity, 1991). Ahn writes: 'Han is not so much afeeling and temporal em otion. . .it is more like a complex of emotions, or a core of agroup of feelings, which is engraved on the heart or takes place in it, after a long dura-tion of painful experiences and sufferings' (p. 305) . See a lso Chung , ' "H an-pu- r i" :Doing Th eolo gy', p. 30. Explaining the complexities involved in han, Chung describesha n as a kind of ' l u m p ' or ' kno t ' at the core of one 's being that carries with it 'a senseof unresolved resentment against injustice suffered, a sense of helplessness becauseofthe overwhelming odds against, a feeling of total aban don me nt.. .a feeling of acute


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120 Journal of Pentecostal Theology 15.1 (2006)times of collective crises, wounds were further deepened for the marginal-ized minjung. Here is another instance ofthe collective han ofminjung.During the times of political turmoil in the 1970s and 1980s, however, thehan of minjung was more closely identified with the political oppressionswhich had yielded cruel and unjust massacres of innocent yet passionatecollege students who dared to dream of a just society. For Koreans as acollective w hole, these tragic deaths had m eant the loss of their own sonsand daughters. The han of this kind becom es a collective m emory deeplyburied in the hearts of minjung only to resurface in a corporate form ofintense anger to right the structural injustice o fthe so cie ty. " The collec-tive han associated with the stories of Korean women adds yet anotherdistinctive aspect. The strong patriarchal structure of Korean society haslong yielded a corporate despair shared by Korean women. Being bomwith the female gender has been customarily understood as being bominto the life of han.^"^ The corporate despair of Korean w omen should notbe equated how ever with the absolute despair that carries with it no intrin-sic potentiality for restoration. The corporate despair of this particular kindrather represents a mature embrace ofthe life given with a view toward aprofound sense of openness that awaits a possiblefiiture ransformation ofcircumstances while refusing to submit oneself to the use of violenceembedded in the very foundation of structural injustice.^^

Han can also be treated at two distinctive levels: the original and thesecondary han. The secondary han refers to the suppressed w eb of emo-tions caused by intense life experiences of unprovoked injustice. The hanof this kind remains at the level of consciousness wanting to arrive at itssatisfactory resolution in the present. *" In this, han can be driven by eitherwon (intense emotions of grudge or hate) or jeong (deep emotions of

3 3 . See Dae-Jung Kim, Ok-Jung-Suh-Shin (meaning. Prison Letters; New York :Galilee Mun go, 1987). For Kim, han in this regard is 'th e frustrated de sire of minjung(as well as ).. .the steadfast w aiting of minjung. Han is minjung's continuous struggletoward the ultimate realization of their waiting' (p. 1).

3 4 . Hyo-JaeLee, Yeo-Sung-Kui-Sa-Hoe {meaning. Womanhood and Society; Seoul:Jung-W oo P ress, 1979), pp. 54-57. The ha n of this kind represents the loss of elem entalhuman integrity and freedom. See also Hyun-Kyung Chung, Struggle to be the SunAgain: Introducing Asian Women's Theology (Maryknoll, N Y : Orbis Book s, 1990),


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H A N Journeying into the Heart of G od 121affection or love). Driven negatively, it becom es won-han that finds itsresolution in a retaliatory action; driven positively,yeog governs one'shan and becomes jeong-han?^ In the case ofthe latter, han is sublimatedand even becomes resources of raw and intense passions that drive a per-son to construct a moral consciousness to negate actively the vicious circlesofthe violence-structure of personal or societal injustice. Yet movingdeeper beyond the level of secondary han exists a more archetypal kind ofhan, namely, the original han. The han of this kind exists at the level ofunconsciousness and resides beyond the scope of conscious modification.^^A s unmodified and archetypal in nature, the original han constitutes a kindof 'ontological depth' that functions as the primordial cause promptingexternal manifestations of unreleased emotions of secondary han. For thisreason, an effective resolution of han at the secondary level necessitatesan individual to address the issues and challenges of original han.

The com plexities of human brokenness unveiled in the culture-specificnarratives of han demand that the salvation of humanity include a profoundsense of healing at multifarious dimensions and levelsthe personal andthe collective as well as the secondary and the original han. First, salva-tion as healing addresses the need for personal transformation in which heor she is no longer enslaved to the emotional and volitional impulses toperpetuate violence in an act of retaliation , whether against the victimizeror his/her ow n self. The transform ation of this kind should entail the free-ing effect from one's sense of both guilt and shame. Second, salvation ashealing addresses the need for social transformation (i.e. resolution ofthecollective sense of han) in which o ne 's personal attunement with God con-sequently provides the necessary foundation for life actions in the world.A s Theodore Runyon notes, salvation in its traditional sense (i.e. justifica-tion) needs to be underscored as providing 'the substructure for refashion-ing life in this world through sanctification'.^^ Third, salvation as healingrequires us to address our own actual sins (as well as the actual sins in ourcom munity). A s noted earlier, the secondary level of han resides in therealm of our consciousness; hence, salvation as healing in this respectmust take on our own conscious and active efforts to remove any and all

37. Lee, Exploration ofthe Inner Wounds, pp. 35-37 (37) .


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122 Journal of Pentecostal Theology 15.1 (2006)elements that give rise to the occasion ofhanfvX situations. This is knownin Korean culture as the process of dan (i.e. 'cutting away') in order toarrive at the state of purity in life. To use traditional Christian language,this refers to the salvation life in the pursuit of holiness. One cannot con-sciously keep on sinning and at the same time claim the salvation of JesusChrist insofar as Christ's redemptive salvation denotes not only one'sdeliverance from sin and evil but also his/her deliverance unto the covenantof life in God (namely, the life of holiness). Fourth, salvation as healingalso needs to address the deep sense of human brokenness (i.e. the onto-logical depth of our broken humanity) that emerges from the presence oforiginal han. As noted earlier, violent actions at the level of secondary hanare grounded in the original han without the removal of which one con-stantly struggles with the hidden possibilities of han's resurgence in violentforms of actions in life. Nonetheless, the original han resides at the levelof unconsciousness and hence cannot be modified throug h our own con-scious efforts. Resolution of han of this kind requires a sou rce or agencyother than our own that can reach deeper into the ontological depth of ourbeing. It requires grace from the One who is the origin and destiny of ourbeing and life. U nderstood in this way, the salvation for which hum anityyearns finds its origin in God as it also destines its recipien ts to journey toGod.4. Salvation as the Pneumatological Way of Jesus Christ: A Wesleyan

Pentecostal O peningThe multi-layered com plexities of sin and suffering embedded in the cul-tural narratives of han demand a holistic restructuring of life that strives torecover the full humanity represented paradigm atically in the Spirit-filledlife of Jesus Christ. The soteriological construct of this kind then goesbeyond mere metaphysical concepts but episodic experiences of intensefeelings as well. It warrants a faithful journey unto the pneumatologicalway of Jesus Christ. It is in the process of this journ ey that the deepeningof our heart with right affections takes place at the constant experiencingof the Holy Spirit. The deepening of heart affections in this regard is alsosimultaneously and necessarily interwoven with the rightness of ourdiscem ing know ledge as well as our constant cultivation of right prax is.


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H A N Journeying into the Heart of God 123Spirit on the 'whole pe rson ' as central to the understanding of Go d's sal-vation w ork of grace. What God has done for us in the redemptive w ork ofJesus Christ is necessarily interwoven with what God 's present working inand through the Spirit of holiness brings into actualitynamely, a realchange in us."*" Understood in this way, salvation as affectional transfor-mation is not a matter of Go d's determined w ill, although it is groundedin and cultivated by G od 's grace at the center. Salvation of this kind is notself-generating in character, although it is inclusive of our subjectiveresponses to the work of God's salvific grace.'" One's heart, head, andhands becom e distinctively formed as one is experientially affected by theempowering presence ofth e H oly Spirit.'*^ In this, we becom e responsiveparticipants in the divine works of God's grace. God's grace, thoughneither contingent upon nor driven by human responses, is not independ-ent of our conscious encounters with God.''^

A s the H oly Spirit of God takes the initiative in this process of affec-tional transformation, our heart, head and hands are constantly scriptedby the master narrative of Jesus Christ. A pneum atological reading oftheentire narratives of Jesus Christ his birth, baptism, life, passion, resur-rection and promised return serves as the foundational content of what itmeans to live pneum atologically in the way of Jesus Christ. A fter all, it is

40. The real change that the transformative wo rkings ofth e H oly Spirit bring in thisregard is formational both personally an d socially. The rightness of salvation exp eri-ences in the Spirit modifies us not only in our being and beh aviors but also sets us onthe path of becoming partners with God in the transforming works of God in theworld. For a fuller treatmen t of W esl ey's notion on religious experience in this regard,see Theodore R unyon, 'Orthop athy: W esleyan Criteria for Religious Exp erience' , inRichard B . Steele (ed.). Heart Religion in the Methodist Tradition and Related Move-ments (Lanham, M D: Scarecrow P ress, 2001) , pp. 291-306 (297-98) .

4 1 . I am reminded of how Origen of A lexandria writes about the relationshipbetween G od 's grace and hum an effort with the metaphor of a sailing ship. In order forthe ship to sail on the ocean, it requires the wind to blow but also the skills, efforts,and attentiveness of a captain who navigates. God's grace is like the wind. What acaptain can do and does w ould no t matter without the wind to fill the sails and m ovethe ship. A t the same time, we m ust work with that grace of God already working forus as our passion s and emo tions are affected by it. See Roberta C . Bo ndi, To Love asGod Loves: Conversations with the Early Church (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987),


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124 Journal of Pentecostal Theology 15.1 (2006)the selfsame Spirit of Jesus w ho now bears faithfiil witness to our spiritsabout the divine life of God that was in Jesus Christ.'*'' As the Spirit hasled Jesus Christ in his salvific journey in life to bring about the recapitu-lation of what was lost in humanity, the selfsame Spirit is henceforth sentby Jesus Christ who is now living among us as the Spirit-baptizer.Thinking in this way, for Pentecostals, Jn 20.19-23 stands as a criticalnarrative from which we are to understand the experience of the S pirit'soutpouring in Acts 2.1-4."^ In Jn 20.19-23, the resurrected Jesus Christappears before the disciples and demonstrates that he was indeed the sameJesus whose body w as crushed and whose blood poured out for the sins ofhumanity. It is then this resurrected Lord who had been crucified whoannounces 'peace', provided in his atonement work, and proceeds tobreathe upon the disciples and say, 'Receive the Holy S pirit'. Hence, thePassover becomes the foundational basis for the Pentecost that was tocome in Acts 2.

The giving and receiving of the Holy Spirit here carries with it a criti-cal signicance to the disciples who w ould later, at Pentecost, receive thebaptism with the Holy Spirit. That is, along with the power that came withthe baptism of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were beforehand being com -missioned into the pneum atological w ay of Jesus Christ. To put it anotherway, the pow er that the baptism with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost brings isnarratively directed and purposed by the suffering love of the crucifiedChrist. In this, salvation is rightly understood as a journ ey in and throughwhich w e are being perfected in love by the power of the Holy Spirit.The upshot and theo logical conclusion of all this is that the salvation ofJesus Christ comes with the responsive task of journeying into all thedetailed aspects of Christ's missional life enabled for us by the power ofthe Holy Spirit. In this journey, the baptism with the Holy Spiritnot asan event but rather as a way of lifestands at the pinnacle of what itmeans to be saved by the redem ptive grace of Jesus Christ. To say flirther,it is in this baptism that our deep passions, emotions, and affections are

44. Richard B. Steele, 'The Passion and the Passions' , in Steele (ed.). HeartReligion, pp. 245-72 (248-49). Steele speaks o f tran sitivity' and 'narrativ ity' of emo-tions and underscores the fact that the ultimate goal of Christian salvation is a heartrightly tempered by deep passions and em otions grounded in the narratives of JesusChrist, which find their culmination in the Passion narrative.


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H A N Journeying into the Heart of G od 125being eschatologically shaped to fix our eyes faithflilly on the comingreign of Jesus Christ and the final coming of Go d's Kingdom where Godwill be all in all. It is with our gaze upon this eschato logical reign of Godthat we are now being com missioned as co-laborers of Jesus Christ intothe world that meets us with all of its ugliness of sin and suffering. A nenduring soteriological paradigm must then have in view the pneumato-logical way of Jesus Christ where love functions in the power andpresence of the H oly Spirit to bring within us and in life the integratedwhole of orthodoxy, orthopathy, and orthopraxy.

ConclusionOne of the distinctive marks about life in Korea has to do with a keensense of awareness about the world of com peting spirits that surround it.These spirits are often invoked to make som e sense ofthe stories of han,if not to bring some sort of peaceful resolution to violent circumstancesassociated with hanf\x\ ghosts and their haunting presence. The diversityof spirits and their competing presence in the world ofhanfwX life amongKoreans hence corresponds to the multifarious and multifaceted stories ofhuman brokenness evidenced in the particularities o fthe stories of han. Ina way, the presence of these particular spirits is expressly demonstrativeof the particularities of human needs to be 'whole' again (i.e. what itmeans to be fully human) in the culture of han.

In response, the biblical narratives about the pneum atological w ay ofJesus Christ present a paradigm atic representation of what is entailed inthe holistic salvation of Jesus Christnamely, making humanity wholeagain decisively and finally. First, it speaks ofthe immutability of G od 'sfaithfulness to be ever present and attentive to the needs of broken human-ity. The coming of the Messiah was not an isolated event from the his-torical past but rather its culmination; the Messiah comes in the fullnessofthe Spirit who creates, sustains, and destines life for God. Inasmuch asLogos C hristology helps to preserve the ontological d istinction of JesusChrist from inspired prophets of old. Spirit Christology demonstrates tous the point that the pneumatological presence in the life of Jesus is afaithful continuation of God's pneumatological indwelling among hiscreation. Second, focusing on the life narratives of Jesus Christ, Spirit


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126 Journal of Pentecostal Theology 15.1 (2006)traditional understanding of the sovereignty of God's 'power' to deliverus from bondage of sin. It is rather Go d's wondrous yet mysterious ' love 'to be numbered among the vulnerable and the powerless that truly definesand demonstrates the essence of what it means to speak of the savingpow er of God. Th ird, Spirit Christology leads us to see how living in theSpirit of Pentecost entails the way of life particularized in accordancewith the master narrative of Jesus Christ. The Passion narrative of JesusChrist, interpreted through the lens of his resurrection , resides at the heartof understanding what it means to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.Living in the power of the Spirit is to be affectionally transformed into theway of life in Jesus C hrist. Fourthly, Spirit Christology provides a helpfulground to think theologically about the dynamic correlation between theliving W ord and the Spirit of holiness. As such , it provides a W esleyan-Pentecostal opening to envision what is entailed in an eschatologicalliving in the Spirit. Hope purifies our heart and, at the same time, itsexpressions in life. The pneumatological w ay of Jesus Christ grounds andguides the way of salvation for hum ans who are groaning to resolve theirrestless spirits in the womb of God from which they came.


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200. Christology & Its Soteriloogical Ramifications in Korean Culture

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