Building a local Christian theology in the context of Korean religious pluralism: a critical analysis of the theology of Ryu Yongmo (1890-1981)

Abstract

The thesis examines the thought of the Korean theologian Ryu Yongmo, who committed his life to developing a local Korean interpretation of Christian faith that engaged openly with the religious pluralism that has defined Korean culture through many centuries. The contribution of Ryu Yongmo to the history of Christian theology in Korea has largely been neglected in critical scholarship. His theology is advocated by a small group of loyal disciples, but it has been ignored by the Korean Protestant churches which generally favour an exclusivist approach to the question of Christianity and religious pluralism. The thesis aims to remedy this oversight and to offer a critical analysis of Ryu Yongmo's thinking, steering a course between the apologetical acclaim of his disciples and the polemical resistance of mainline Christianity.

The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part traces the history ofreligious pluralism in Korea as the context into which Christianity was introduced by Catholic and Protestant missionaries. The main argument of this part of the thesis is that religious pluralism is inherently part ofKorean culture in which shamanism, Confucianism and Buddhism form interactive layers of society, with the result that Koreans integrate elements of these three religious traditions in their social and individual identity. Missionary Christianity from the West regarded this as syncretistic and introduced the concept of Christian exclusivism. The study of the life experience ofRyu Yongmo demonstrates his growing disaffection with the missionary Christianity of his early life, leading to his break with the institutional church and his struggle to build a local theology that enables Christianity to engage with the religious pluralism of Korea.

Part Two examines the theological ideas of Ryu Yongmo as expressed in the extensive diaries that he wrote over the last twenty years of his life. Much of this material is written in poetic style, often in the form of meditative notes. Systematic interpretation is facilitated by reference to notes of his public lectures that have been preserved by various of his disciples. These sources enable the main chapters of the thesis to focus on three central ideas in Ryu Yongmo's thought: his concept of God expressed in the term Han 'uhnim; his understanding of Jesus and Christ as expressed in the term Ol\ and his vision of Christian faith and living as 'returning to the One' as expressed in the term Kwi-il.

In its third part the thesis attempts a critical evaluation of Ryu Yongmo's thought in terms of constructing a local theology ofreligious pluralism which addresses Korean religious realities and adopts Korean methods ofreligious knowledge. A comparison of the ways in which Ryu Yongmo deals with religious pluralism, and those of John Hick, John B. Cobb and Paul F. Knitter in the West, demonstrates that Ryu Yongmo's theology, while being genuinely local, is potentially of significance for Christian theology in its global dimensions. The thesis concludes that dialogue between Korean and other local theologies can be of reciprocal enrichment, especially in facing the common challenge of re-thinking the Christian relationship with other religions.