2024, Vol., No.58

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

Richard Mouw, a prominent Christian theologian rooted in Reformed theology, has exerted significant influence on philosophy, ethics, and various public issues through his extensive body of work. His theological exploration encompasses political, economic, racial, globalization, interreligious dialogue, and educational aspects of public issues. Mouw’s theology characterizes a dialogical character that transcends the boundaries of the Reformed tradition, embracing both evangelical and ecumenical perspectives. He emphasizes the church’s responsibility to engage in the transformation of the world through active participation in public life. This study aims to examine Mouw’s public theology and propose connections to bridge the gap between evangelical and ecumenical spheres in the divided Korean church. Through a reflective analysis of Mouw’s ideas, this study seeks to provide insights applicable to the contemporary Korean church context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how churches in the local community can enhance their publicness in the midst of the expanding non-face-to-face era and online culture. In contrast to increasing non-face-to-face culture, the lack of online participation and activities brings about decline in social capital and publicness and as a result, the enhancement of social capital and publicness has grown in importance in the non-face-to-face era and online space. Therefore, by vitalizing good function of online space in the mutually complementary relationship with real world, instead of dichotomizing them in binary thinking, we need to broaden the scope of missional church and actively practice public faith and carry out citizenship in the local community and public spheres free from limitation of physical space and time. To this end, churches deemed as communities of fellowship and sharing should focus on the fact that cyberspace is increasingly becoming a new mission field, and produce and supply online contents and programs for public faith and citizenship. In doing so, they can contribute to building social capital and enhancing their publicness by helping both Christians and non-Christians in the community to get involved in promoting social trust and the community well-being.

Max L. Stackhouse, a leading public theologian, is very interested in the public good. He can be evaluated as a theologian with a strong sense of the responsibility of theology to contribute to the common good. Alister McGrath strongly senses the liberal tendency in Stackhouse’s theoretical and practical attempts and criticizes Stackhouse’s theology as liberal. The purpose of this paper is to critically review McGrath’s critique of Stackhouse’s public theology. By examining the intrinsic characteristics of Stackhouse’s theology and ethics, I attempt to disclose the major points of difference between his and liberalism. In addition, we will critically explore the connection between liberalism and Rauschenbush’s social gospel, which has been regarded as the modern foundation of public theology, from a historical perspective. By doing so, I intend to maintain that Stackhouse’s public theology has a distinct continuity with Rauschenbush, not liberalism.