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North Korean Defectors and Korean Protestant Churches: Towards an Ethical Hospitality

  • The Korean Journal of Chiristian Social Ethics
  • Abbr : 기사윤
  • 2021, (50), pp.335-361
  • DOI : 10.21050/CSE.2021.50.11
  • Publisher : The Society Of Korean Christian Social Ethics
  • Research Area : Humanities > Christian Theology
  • Received : June 30, 2021
  • Accepted : August 4, 2021
  • Published : August 31, 2021

Hong, Chang-hyun 1

1장로회신학대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes and critiques the relationship between North Korean defectors and Korean Protestant churches through Emmanuel Levinas’ philosophical lens. The representative five denominations are examined on their role in the relationship with the defectors. The article argues that the churches, regardless of denominations, perceive the defectors in a church-centered perspective which brings otherization and polarization of the defectors. The defectors’ being and actions are captured into the dominant narrative of the churches and utilized for the sake of the churches. Levinas’ philosophical idea ‘hospitality’ is suggested as a way to exile from the limitations of a church-centric attitude. Following Levinas’ idea, the churches’ hospitality becomes not only welcoming the defectors’ subjectivity but also a political struggle to emancipate the defectors from the gaze of abhorrence and oppressed social structure of the South.

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