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A Search of Biblical Studies in Dialogue with Church: Life and Theology of Dr. Tai Il Wang

Keun Jo Ahn 1

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ABSTRACT

This paper attempts to discuss a dialogue between biblical studies and church from the perspective of a specific theologian whose scholarship has maintained the dialogue. Dr. Tai Il Wang is one of the leading scholars in South Korea who has dedicated all of his life in the Old Testament studies. Throughout his faculty career in the Methodist Theological University in Seoul for twenty nine years, he has never left pulpit in the church. He regards the Bible as the product of faith community. His biblical interpretation is not simply a scholarly work but a passionate encounter with the texts. After a short review of Dr. Wang’s life in which his consistent efforts in both scholarly and ministerial works are highlighted, three contact points of his biblical studies with practical settings of the church are portrayed. First, he has focused on canonical reading of the Bible, while he accepts the meaningful findings of the historical critical interpretation. His biblical studies demonstrates a strict objective procedure that employs both diachronic and synchronic interpretive methods. Yet, all of his exegetical works comes to an end with ecclesial applications. Second, it is a biblical theology in response to contemporary issues by which churches are surrounded. Dr. Wang tries to discover all the details of the human and social problems in the Bible and connect them with today’s circumstances. His creation-centered theology makes it easier in adaptation of biblical messages into practical issues of human life. Third, the biblical reading of Kyung Hak pioneers a new way of interpretation in Korean Christian churches. Dr. Wang has not been satisfied with the previous analytical methods of German or American scholars because they are different in nature from Korean approach to the Scriptures, the Canon of the church. That is why he has developed a Korean way of biblical reading by utilizing the traditional Kyung Hak. There are three theological attitudes we have to learn form Dr. Wang’s biblical studies. First, he has flexibility in doing theology. He would not stay within the dogmatic or scholarly stubbornness. Instead, he always examines his biblical works in the criterion of the canonical community. Second, he has sensitivity to social issues. Through his exegetical works of the Old Testament, he makes prophetic voices against all odds and ends in human society. Third, he has creativity by transforming western styled biblical criticism into Korean style canonical reading of Kyung Hak. Dr Wang has opened a new way of biblical studies in which both scholarly and pastoral interpretations meet together in the celebration of the Christian Canon.

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

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