2020, Vol., No.46

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

Hannah Arendt is an intellectual who has faced the problem of evil more than anyone else, and if we take Arendt’s reflection seriously, the reflection of the evil she worked on must convey some significance to us as we attempt to understand the world. This research argues that Arendt’s reflection on evil is still relevant today, and in particular can provide critical advice on the ills of evil in the Sewol ferry disaster has not ended. Uniquely, Arendt saw the intention of realizing the concept of absolute good and evil, such as religion or ethics, in the political realm, resulting in the destruction of the public realm, which can be said that the reflection on evil, along with the theory of behavior and public sphere, forms an important axis in the Arendt’s political philosophy. It is no exaggeration to say that it is unreasonable to understand her political philosophy without understanding her theory of evil, since Arendt thought politics was the best way to avoid evil. This study focuses on three issues. First, what Arendt’s warning about the uncritical involvement of good and evil in politics in the traditional way is discussed. Second, we will examine the radical and absolute evil that Arendt became interested in after actually experiencing totalitarianism. Finally, as Arendt observes the Eichmann trial, a remnant of totalitarianism, she further refines his position on evil, which is the concept of the banality of evil. This paper reflects on the problem of evil of the Sewol ferry tragedy, the biggest trauma of our society, through Arendt’s discussions of evil.

This paper is to survey developed process around the sinking of Sewol ferry through the topic of empathy. The disaster of Sewol ferry was a tragedy that happened due to the lack of empathy about human life and safety. The hard-heartedness of disaster capitalism came to the front through the catastrophe of Sewol ferry. Empathy is the ability to identify what someone else is thinking or feeling and to respond to their thoughts and feelings with appropriate emotion. Empathy is to prevent both sides’s conflicts and to restore divided relationship. Empathy gives the deep meaning of our lives and drives radical change of our society. According to Nussbaum, empathy has three cognitive elements. The first cognitive element is an appraisal of the severity of other person’s misfortune. The second cognitive requirement is a belief the person’s suffering is unmerited. The third is the eudaimonistic judgement, that is we recognize the fact that we are also exposed by the same misfortunes and sufferings. The Sewol ferry disaster gives us heavy assignment to change thoroughly the structural contradiction of our society. The church emphasize with the sufferings and must participate in the improving the social structures to avoid the disaster such as the Sewol ferry accident.

It is 136 years when Korean Christianity was planted. Korean Christianity was developed with the national protection movement before Japanese annexation, and it deployed the sovereignty recovery movement during the Japanese colonial period. After the liberation, it was devoted to democratization and the human rights movement against the military dictatorship. Since the 1980s, the unification movement has been carried out by it until now. This paper analyzes the researches on democratization, human rights movement and unification movement after liberation in Korean church history. To this end, this paper examines the research history of democratization, the human rights movement, and the unification movement. Also, it examines what kind of perception the social movement of Korean Christianity developed.