2015, Vol., No.33

The Korean Journal of Chiristian Social Ethics 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.58

pISSN : 1229-8387 / eISSN : 2713-749X
https://journal.kci.go.kr/csethics

The matter of trust becomes an important issue in this society. The foundation of trust in Christianity is the belief of God’s grace that it is given by God for people as a gift. Trust is not only the gift from God, but it also is a critical value which Christians need to regain. There are three points for this in Christian ethics; self-trust, we-trust, and the trust for the future. Christianity has been valued self-negation, as a humble piety, rather than self-trust. Ironically, this becomes a hinder to have a sound sense of trust. We-trust is a process to formulate this based on the sense of community. This is not the communal selfishness nor mass selfishness. Instead, this is the trust which comes from ‘embracement’ rather than exclusiveness.’ And the trust for the future does not mean a simple optimistic world view, but it is the critical thinking about the world with the hope of the Eschaton, as the Jesus’ community had. Thus, trust is the capability to reform the world that Christians do not only retrospect the present, but they also believe in the future of God.

In this study I argue that the phenomena of journalistic incredibility in this society are deeply related to the crisis of democracy the crisis of our democracy, and suggest the normative aspects that journalism should not evade in order to strengthen this vulnerable democratic situation. Preferentially, this study understands the concept of J. Habermas’ “public sphere”(Öffentlichkeit) from the perspective of journalism and considers the trust-loss of journalism in the context of the collapse of public sphere. The incredibility of journalism needs to be viewed in the association of the social context of what is called democracy. So this research examines the brief history of the collapse of public sphere of journalism in the course of the development of Korean democratization. And then this study deliberates normatively how to secure the public sphere for the purpose of credibility of Korean journalism. To the end, this study pays attention to ‘right’ ethic and ‘good’ ethic. The former shows us how journalism should do its roles for democracy, while the latter tells us what journalism does. The right journalism puts more importance on procedural justice in the formation of the public sphere, while the good journalism does much gravity onto the performance of public virtue for the society. Based on the norms of ‘right’ and ‘good’, this research continues to come up with some practical ways for the recovery of public sphers. In other words, Korean journalistic credibility by the way that we surveys the theory of Habermas’ public sphere and alternative journalism’s public sphere respectively.

This paper introduces the issues in relation to the inner freedom of religious conscience and conscientious realization in the public realm, asking the nature of the public through the thoughts of Augustin, Thomas Aquinas, and Martin Luther. In the discussion of the comparison and relationship among the above traditional Christian theologians, such issues surrounding conscience, sin, will, and freedom are engaged to explore the role of religious conscience in the public realm. After reviewing all the factors of the above issues briefly, this paper comes to a conclusion that the Korean Christianity needs to make diligent efforts to bridge the gap between the inner freedom of religious conscience and Christian principles in the public realm. To achieve this goal, Christians are called to cultivate a sense of conscience and morality in the public, to revise the standard of christian education, and to stress spiritual awakening and the reformation of faith.