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A Study on the Roll of Church in Resolving the economic Polarization of the korean Society

  • The Korean Journal of Chiristian Social Ethics
  • Abbr : 기사윤
  • 2014, (29), pp.287-320
  • Publisher : The Society Of Korean Christian Social Ethics
  • Research Area : Humanities > Christian Theology

안계정 1

1백석대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Nobody could deny that the economical polarization is the most urgent issue in our society. It was the pending issue in the past 18th presidential election and is also one of the crucial government goals of Park administration. The polarization problem is important task and challenge for the korean church, because it has obviously social responsibility. At the same time participation and roll of church for resolving the polarization is also crucial to the society itself. As the polarization is the problem of total society, the voluntary and active participation of each social sectors is indispensible. In general the polarization appears as collapse of middle class, gap of industrial continuity and increase of social vulnerable class. Especially the statistics coming from "Gini coefficient" and "income-magnification" manifests the polarization more objectively and factually. These can be considered as fundamental causes of the polarization: policies of Neoliberalism and globalization. From policies of the Neoliberlaism the flexibility of labor market is a such policy that affects directly the polarization, which comes into appearance where the dismissal of laborer is legally ensured and irregular workers are increased. As a result the middle class is decreased, the polarization is more and more accelerated. The globalization is the process in which the Neoloberalism has been spreaded world widely. The FTA that demands in core the liberalization of import and banking brings about fatal damages to some domestic businesses, and they consequently would come to be taken off from the market. First, the value of humanity indicates the most important direction in efforts resolving the polarization. The survival of the fittest and the law of the jungle is the rule of animal world; they can not be the law of human world. The man who was created from the image of God is the being that has reason and will different from the animal. He is able to open the way to co-existence and equality not to auto-destruction and co-destruction. The society is not the world of animals but the world of human beings. Second, the polarization problem has to be resolved on the basis of commonality-value. Where the Neoliberalism is spreaded, there emerge monopolistic markets, non free markets. So the truly free market is possible only there where the commonality-value is dominating; it is realized in regulations for life and co-existence. The market was for the commonality from its birth, and it will be so continually. From that reason the legal protect of byway commercial sphere becomes important. Third, the polarization should be approached from the view of solidarity, not of charity. The christian ethics grasps the solidarity as contract one. It is very well-known fact that the social insurance of German as the first social insurance in the world is dependent of the christian idea and value of solidarity. And it demands, first of all, expansion and reinforcement of unemployment insurance.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.