2016, Vol., No.34

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

This research concentrates on H. Richard Niebuhr’s theology and ethics from a perspective of public theology, as this article does not only try to find out arguments on the identity, public nature, and social responsibility of Christian church, but it also to make a contribution to the progression of public theological discourses in Korea for the recovery of Korean Protestant Church’s consciousness of public nature and social responsibility. Korean Protestant churches have to recover the sense of public nature and social responsibility in order to reform the church crisis as well as to establish justice and peace in Korean society. For this, this article first introduces the core issues of public theology offered by Dirk J. Smit, Reinhold Niebuhr, Max L. Stackhouse, and Stanley Hauerwas. Besides, this article deals with the public theological basis of H. Richard Niebuhr’s theology and ethics. Lastly, depending on these studies, this article offers theological and ethical guidelines for the recovery of the consciousness of public nature and social responsibility.

The question, ‘Can Christian overcome the avarice completely and readily?’ is the driving force of this research. Especially, this research is related to the meaning of social sanctification. With this sense, this paper seeks an alternative for overcoming of avarice from the perspective of St. Augustine’s Confessiones, Ⅹ. Most of all, this research concentrates on the self-portrait of Augustinen after he converted Christianity and appointed the Bishop of Hippo in Confessiones, Ⅹ. Interestingly, Augustine was still facing to many avarice, for example, gluttony, desire for honor, and sexual impulse(libido), etc. At the same time, Augustine accepted the commandment of the Bible on continence of avarice(1 John 2:16) and sought the way of overcoming the avarice. In this meaning, Confessiones shows three stages of continence as follows: ‘cupiditas sine caritas’(past), ‘minus caritas’( present), and caritas sine cupiditas(future). According to Augustine, continence of the persistent avarice is not a natural process according to aging but a sanctification empowered by Holy Spirit. Also, this paper puts forward two ethical tasks of Christian in the times of avarice as follows; (1)rediscovering of sanctification as an ethical task, (2)enhancing the concern for social sanctification. Not only should Christians recover the moral consciousness, as found in the concern for sanctification of Reformation, but, Christians in a ages of global avarice should also play a role as a reformer of social morality in terms of the concept of social sanctification.

This research concentrates on the concept of calling and vocation as it argues that a new meaning of ‘work not as a means to increase one’s gains, but as an action that contributes to benefit of all,’ is the string of hope in reviving this fragmented society. Based on this argument, This paper, by retrieving Luther’s Theory of Vocation, aims to discuss the reality that the Korean Church has overlooked the benefit of all at the expense of their focus of earning wealth. With this sense, the theory of work, claimed by Luther and religious reformers, will be reexamined. This research also will address the necessity of distancing from flexibility of work based on the knowledge of theology of work. Besides, this paper will not only explore how Protestant ethics partook in the temptation of praise and support of capitalist economy through Weber and Michael Novak, but it also examine how descriptive science and the Internet might lead to discoloration of sound capitalistic spirit and employment instability. Then, this paper will suggest an innovative connection between Christian faith and work in terms of the reinterpretation of old Theory of Vocation and asceticism. These thoughts originated from Jacques Ellul and Hans Jonas’ criticism of civilization of technology on modern understanding of work based on descriptive science. Finally, this study proposes that the old Theory of Vocation and asceticism needs to be the core of Theology of Work.