@article{ART003297193},
author={HongImSoo},
title={The Ontology of Finitude and the Transformation of Affect: From Disgust to Compassionate Identification},
journal={The Korean Journal of Chiristian Social Ethics},
issn={1229-8387},
year={2025},
number={63},
pages={523-557}
TY - JOUR
AU - HongImSoo
TI - The Ontology of Finitude and the Transformation of Affect: From Disgust to Compassionate Identification
JO - The Korean Journal of Chiristian Social Ethics
PY - 2025
VL - null
IS - 63
PB - The Society Of Korean Christian Social Ethics
SP - 523
EP - 557
SN - 1229-8387
AB - In contemporary society, disgust functions not merely as a sense of aversion but as an impulse toward the exclusion and elimination of the other, thereby threatening democracy and social solidarity. This study defines disgust as an avoidant affect toward one’s own finitude—lack and vulnerability—experienced through the other, and reinterprets this structure philosophically and theologically to explore the possibility of a transition from the avoidance of finitude to compassion. Drawing on McGinn’s “life-in-death” theory, the paper first analyzes how disgust originates in anxiety over finitude and how this affective structure is reproduced at the social level.
It then explains, through Žižek’s interpretation of Lacan and Hegel, the subject’s fundamental condition of lack and examines how disgust operates as a symbolic mechanism that displaces this lack onto external others. Finally, the study argues that disgust can be overcome not by eliminating one’s lack but by confronting and accepting finitude, and locates its theological grounding in the life of Jesus. Jesus did not conceal his own finitude but identified with the ochlos and practiced compassion, thereby revealing the possibility of a community that shares the condition of lack.
KW - Disgust;Finitude;The Lacking Subject;Identification and Compassion;Theological Ethics
DO -
UR -
ER -
HongImSoo. (2025). The Ontology of Finitude and the Transformation of Affect: From Disgust to Compassionate Identification. The Korean Journal of Chiristian Social Ethics, 63, 523-557.
HongImSoo. 2025, "The Ontology of Finitude and the Transformation of Affect: From Disgust to Compassionate Identification", The Korean Journal of Chiristian Social Ethics, no.63, pp.523-557.
HongImSoo "The Ontology of Finitude and the Transformation of Affect: From Disgust to Compassionate Identification" The Korean Journal of Chiristian Social Ethics 63 pp.523-557 (2025) : 523.
HongImSoo. The Ontology of Finitude and the Transformation of Affect: From Disgust to Compassionate Identification. 2025; 63 : 523-557.
HongImSoo. "The Ontology of Finitude and the Transformation of Affect: From Disgust to Compassionate Identification" The Korean Journal of Chiristian Social Ethics no.63(2025) : 523-557.
HongImSoo. The Ontology of Finitude and the Transformation of Affect: From Disgust to Compassionate Identification. The Korean Journal of Chiristian Social Ethics, 63, 523-557.
HongImSoo. The Ontology of Finitude and the Transformation of Affect: From Disgust to Compassionate Identification. The Korean Journal of Chiristian Social Ethics. 2025; 63 523-557.
HongImSoo. The Ontology of Finitude and the Transformation of Affect: From Disgust to Compassionate Identification. 2025; 63 : 523-557.
HongImSoo. "The Ontology of Finitude and the Transformation of Affect: From Disgust to Compassionate Identification" The Korean Journal of Chiristian Social Ethics no.63(2025) : 523-557.
