Augustine, Calvin and the Korean Church
In-Sub Ahn
The Korean church has made a remarkable growth in
number, even though she has a short history which started at the end of the
nineteenth century. Some statistics show that the protestant church, especially
the Calvinistic church, is now one of the most influential religions in Korean
society.[1]
It is true when Auke J. Jelsma, a Dutch church
historian, remarks that the history of theology cannot be understood if it is
not associated with general history,[2] for the church exists in
political and social circumstances. The Korean church also developed in
connection with the modern history of Korea.
Concerning this research I would like to reflect on the
past of the Korean church briefly, because my fundamental concern was entirely
formed in the typical situation of Korea and the Korean church.
Protestantism was introduced by Western missionaries in
1884 with the open door policy of the Choseon
dynasty. When Korea experienced Japanese imperialism from 1910 to 1945, a
number of Christians vigorously participated in the independence movement,
especially in the early period. Thus, Japan persecuted the Korean Christians
and coerced them to Shintoism, which was the official religion of Japan, in the
later years.[3] Life under Japanese
imperialism meant a long period of persecution for the Korean church. It sawed
the seed of the division of the Korean church because of the problems about
Shintoism.
After the independence by the end of the second world
war, the Korean peninsula was divided and the two governments were established
in the South and the North (in 1948) because of the political ideology and the
international situation.[4] Under the communist government
the church in the North faced persecution again, and many Christians streamed
into the South for religious freedom. The division was fixed after the Korean
War(1950-53), and it was a tragedy for both Korea and the Korean church.
The separation of State and Religion is the principle
of South Korea from the beginning. However, by the support of the first
President Syngman Rhee(1948-60), who was an elder of a church, the Korean
church made a strong coalition with the government. The dictatorship of this government,
which justified itself in the name of anti-communism, ended with the civic
revolution (1960). It demonstrated the failure of the collusion of the church
and the state in Korean history.
Under the consecutive military governments, which were
illegally established, the Korean church showed extremes in its attitudes to
the governments. On the one hand, some churches supported them, giving priority
to the security from the threat of war by the communist government in North
Korea.[5] However, even when they
witnessed the suppression of the natural human rights by the state, these
churches were able to support the rulers openly, if only they could gain or
keep their profits. When they encountered the allurement or the threats from
the immoral rulers of the state, they tried to show no concern about the
situation, motivating this attitude in the name of the separation of the church
and the state. For them the theory was useable arbitrarily, depending on the
circumstances.
On the other hand, for other churches the missionary
task of the church should be an extreme political movement. They could not give
satisfaction to the spiritual thirst of the Korean Christians. Thus they failed
to appeal to the general Christians of Korea, even though they have contributed
to the democratical development of South Korea. We can notice that their
unyielding theory would include an element of theocracy, which in a sense would
lead to a coalition between church and state.
As we have seen above, when we reflect on Korean church
history in relation with general history, the Korean church should have
recognized its identity as a ※sojourner§. She is in this world, but is not of
this world. The church should have sought the value of the city of God, not
that of the earthly cities. Thus of the Korean church we can say that she took
various attitudes in practice, depending on the situations - no matter how
their theories were. The churches in Korea were not tolerant to themselves.
They continued to put the blame on each other, making their own attitudes
absolute. Therefore, in my opinion, one of the most significant duties in the
Korean church is to establish a commendable relationship between church and
state.
Against these backgrounds, as a member of the Korean
Calvinistic church, I felt a great interest in Calvin*s teachings about church
and state. This research, however, will intend to argue neither that Calvin*s
thought should be kept and repeated as it was, nor that his ideas ought to be
understood as a perfect system from beginning to end. If we did, it would be a
non-historical approach. Indeed, Calvin himself was a figure with various
limitations within his own times. Thus, his teachings should be reinvestigated
and be newly evaluated within those periods.
In his recent book, A.J. Jelsma acutely describes the
circumstances of sixteenth-century Europe. He says,
※...
I believe it is no exaggeration if I call the Catholicism of the beginning of
the sixteenth century an all-encompassing power. In the late Middle Ages the
church had grown to be a system from which no one could withdraw, which
determined the life of everyone to a high degree, a bureaucracy which
controlled the social, judicial, economic, cultural, political and, of course,
religious life in Europe:...§[6]
In these historical situations, Calvin would be an
outstanding reformer, who could successfully make Geneva a reformed city-state,
endowing the state with a special task. Then in which circumstances, and how
did Calvin work? What was the character of his reformation concerning church
and state? Was there any development of this thought through his whole life? If
so, then what were the reasons?
Whenever we examine the process of his reformation, we
cannot overlook the fact that Calvin inexhaustibly used Augustine and he did so
increasingly. In Calvin*s first Institutes of 1536, Augustine
was the most frequently cited ;
24 times among all 115 quotations. However,
if we examine his last Institutes
in 1559, it is clear that he developed his thoughts, using Augustine
much more. He quoted Augustine
par excellence again, 389 times, when he cited fifty Church Fathers 866 times.[7] He even tried to argue that
Augustine belonged to his own party during the disputes against his opponents.[8] As Calvin thought, Augustine,
who was continuously received by the whole church history in the West[9], was indeed the greatest
theologian, especially on the issue of church and state. If so, what did he
teach us about the church and the state in his own circumstances? In the end,
in which political situations did Calvin use Augustine? Why and how far did
Calvin accept him in his struggle against his opposers? What were the
consistencies and inconsistencies in Calvin*s and Augustine*s ideas to church
and state? Why did they occur? These questions are the
important matters of this research.
[1])
According to Korean Gallup Research, among the whole Korean population
Buddhists are 23.5%, Protestants 20.7%, Roman Catholics 7.5%, and the atheists
are the rest 47.2%, in October 13, 1998.
[2])
A.J. Jelsma, ※De Kerk als tegenbeweging. De strategische waarde van
martelaarsboeken§, in: Geloven in de
minderheid?, (Red.) F. de Lange (Kampen, 1994), 22-23.
[3])
M.Y. Lee, A Special Lecture in the
History of Korean Christianity (Seoul, 1989), 181-196.
[4])
A.C. Nahm, ※History§, in: An Introduction
to Korean Culture, (Eds.) J.H. Koo and A.C. Nahm (Seoul/Elizabeth, NJ,
1997), 86-90.
[5])
N.H. Yang, Reformed Social Ethics and
Korean Churches (Seoul, 1994), 200-202.
[6])
A.J. Jelsma, Frontiers of the
Reformation: Dissidence and Orthodoxy in Sixteenth-Century Europe
(Aldershot/ Brookfield USA/ Singapore/ Sydney, 1998), 1. This book was
translated from his Zonder een Dak Boven
het Hoofd: In het grensgebied tussen Rome en Reformatie (Kampen, 1997).
[7])
R.J. Mooi, Het kerk - en dogmahistorisch
element in de werken van Johannes Calvijn (Wageningen, 1965), 366-367,
384-385.
[8])
See Joannis Calvini Opera Selecta ( =
OS ), Petrus Barth (Ed.) vol. 5 (München, 1926), 380-381.
[9])
For the present studies of the influence of the Church Fathers as well as
Augustine through the whole church history of the West, see the immense book of
I. Backus (Ed.), The Reception of the
Church Fathers in the West: From the Carolingians to the Maurists, 2 vols.
(Leiden/New York/Köln, 1997).