scholarly journals Theodicy, Undeserved Suffering, and Compassionate Solidarity: An Interdisciplinary Reading of Hwang Sok-Yong’s The Guest

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 463
Author(s):  
Young Hoon Kim
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Suffering ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Minjung Theology ◽  
Johann Baptist Metz

The author explores theological questions regarding the Korean novelist Hwang Sok-yong’s The Guest from interdisciplinary perspectives. This paper analyzes the novel in relation to the emotional complex of han as understood in Korean minjung theology, the political theology of Johann Baptist Metz, and Ignacio Ellacuría’s liberation theology. Drawing upon the perspectives of Korean, German, and Latin American scholars, this approach invites us to construct a discourse of theodicy in a fresh light, to reach a deeper level of theodical engagement with the universal problem of suffering, and to nurture the courage of hope for human beings in today’s stressed world. Contemplating the concrete depiction of human suffering in The Guest, the paper invites readers to deepen their understanding of God in terms of minjung theology’s thrust of resolving the painful feelings of han of the oppressed, Metz’s insight of suffering unto God as a sacramental encounter with God, and Ellacuría’s idea of giving witness to God’s power of the resurrection in eschatological hope. The paper concludes that the immensity of today’s human suffering asks for that compassionate solidarity with the crucified today which can generate hope in the contemporary milieu.

scholarly journals Han and/as Ressentiment: Lessons from Minjung Theology

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 72
Author(s):  
Sam Han
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
English Language ◽  
Minjung Theology ◽  
Korean People ◽  
American Counterpart ◽  
Theological Perspective ◽  
Cultural Concept ◽  
Lauren Berlant

Following calls in recent critical debates in English-language Korean studies to reevaluate the cultural concept of han (often translated as “resentment”), this article argues for its reconsideration from the vantage point of minjung theology, a theological perspective that emerged in South Korea in the 1970s, which has been dubbed the Korean version of “liberation theology”. Like its Latin American counterpart, minjung theology understood itself in explicitly political terms, seeking to reinvigorate debates around the question of theodicy—the problem of suffering vis-à-vis the existence of a divine being or order. Studying some of the ways in which minjung theologians connected the concept of han to matters of suffering, this article argues, offers an opening towards a redirection from han’s dominant understanding within academic discourse and public culture as a special and unique racial essence of Korean people. Moreover, by putting minjung theology in conversation with contemporary political theory, in particular the works of Wendy Brown and Lauren Berlant, this article hopes to bring minjung theology to the attention of critical theory.

An attempt to relieve oppression through the difficult paths of translation between Catalan and Spanish: The case of Avel·lí Artís-Gener

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesc Galera
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Novel ◽  
American Authors

In the uneasy context of the Francoist regime, some authors tried to alleviate the difficult cultural situation through creation and translation. This is the case of Avel·lí Artís-Gener, commonly known as Tísner, a Catalan writer who was exiled to Mexico for more than twenty years. Translation from Spanish into Catalan played a major role in Tísner’s efforts to keep Catalan culture alive, and this article presents the major translation initiatives in this language combination throughout the twentieth century in order to provide enough context to give Artís-Gener’s endeavours their real weight. In Mexico, he wrote his most famous novel, Paraules d’Opoton el Vell (‘Words of Opoton the elder’), which describes the imagined ‘discovery’ of Europe by the Aztecs and creates a bond between the fate of the Nahuatl and the Catalan people under the yoke of Spanish imperialism. In 1992 Artís-Gener decided that the novel had to be retranslated into Spanish and undertook that task himself. In addition, Tísner translated major Latin American authors from Spanish into Catalan, an experience that gave him the chance to regain control of the language imposed by the Francoist regime and use it as a form of relief from the political oppression.

Humans, Jews, and the Other Others

Other Others ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Sergey Dolgopolski
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Political Ontology ◽  
Dynamic Key

The “Introduction” formulates the question of the political, and in particular of the emergence and erasure of the political from the horizon of currently predominant political thought in political theology and political ontology. The “Introduction” further attunes the readers to the dynamic key of “effacement” as both emergence and erasure, thereby defining the main register in which the book is proceeding -- as distinct from the keys of chronological periodisation, linear history, paradigm shifts, or other stabilizing approaches. The “Introduction” further draws a distinction between politics and the political, and advances the question of the political in relation to the Talmud as both a text and a discipline of thinking able to shed a new, contrasting, light on the paradox driven modern political notions of a singularizing and even singling out notion of a “Jew,” and a universalizing notion of the “human being.” The “Introduction” concludes by gesturing towards a much closer connection between the question of the political in the Talmud, the notions of the Jews and of the human beings in modernity, and the question of earth and territory as a part of political equation these concepts spell out.

Political Theory and Political Theology

2020 ◽  
pp. 248-258
Author(s):  
Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde ◽  
Mirjam Künkler ◽  
Tine Stein
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Alternative Model ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
The State ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
The Political ◽  
Pope John Paul Ii ◽  
Political Field ◽  
John Paul Ii

In this article, Böckenförde tries to determine the proper means of conducting political theology. After dismissing juridical political theology in the vein of Carl Schmitt as not so much theological but rather sociological in its discussion of how original theological terms such as ‘sovereignty’ were transposed to the state, people, or government, he turns to two other models: Böckenförde sees a shift away from classical institutional political theology à la Augustine, which explores what Christianity has to say about a state’s status, legitimation, and structure, to what he calls appellative political theology. Immediately concerned with action, the latter manifests itself inter alia as liberation theology and tends to run the risk of dissolving into theologically justified, and ultimately arbitrary, politics. As an alternative model, Böckenförde extols the political theology of Pope John Paul II. By focusing on the words of Jesus and the Gospel and other topics that appear ‘nonpolitical’ at first glance, the pope makes the case for dignity, liberty, and the purpose of man, taking the side of the weak and rejecting violence. In Böckenförde’s view, such a political theology is not about to be rendered obsolete by modernity. Since politics is essentially concerned with relations between individuals and groups, religion cannot avoid being drawn into the political field and raise its voice there as well.

scholarly journals Myth and Anthropogony in Latin American Literature

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Manuel Losada
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Latin American Literature ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Miguel Angel Asturias ◽  
Collective Imagination ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Mayan Civilization

In Mayan civilization, collective imagination about the origin of human beings follows its own patterns. Quichean mythology tells of the hazardous process that, after various failed attempts, ended in the creation of first human beings from corn. Men of Maize (Hombre de maíz), by Miguel Ángel Asturias (1949), allows us to delve into this myth of anthropogony: the fight between indigenous people and exploiters of the land is presented as a metaphor for those difficult beginnings and for the commercial corruption of a particularly symbolic food. This article highlights two important debates: that of Deféric and Elda, and that of Hilario Sacayón and Ramona Corzantes; both allow to investigate the mythical themes of magic and nahual, indispensable in the construction of a great central myth in the novel: the creation of man.

scholarly journals KERASULAN AWAM DI BIDANG POLITIK (SOSIAL-KEMASYARAKATAN), DAN RELEVANSINYA BAGI MULTIKULTURALISME INDONESIA

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 3-15
Author(s):  
Agustinus Wisnu Dewantara
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Responsibility ◽  
Political World ◽  
Prophetic Voice ◽  
The World ◽  
The Church

The political responsibility is important, not because of the need for the love of the homeland and the challenge of the disintegration of the nation in multicultural sphere, but must be born of deep Christian faith. This paper specifically addresses to the lay apostolate in socio-politics-society. The Catholic laity was also called to be salt and light in the political world. The emergence of some form of practical theology (such as liberation theology and political theology) affirms that concern. The theme of the laity will be juxtaposed with a review of the "political attitude" voiced by the prophets in Scripture. The hope is that the laity will become more aware of its social-political calling as part of the faithful life to sound prophetic voice in the world. The struggle of the Church into a prophetic power largely depends on the laity (and of course in good cooperation with the priests). The laity today are called to be new prophets to proclaim the truth without becoming part of the defilement itself

scholarly journals Die invloed van Ernst Bloch op die Politieke Teologie van Johann Baptist Metz

2003 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Murray Hofmeyr
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ernst Bloch ◽  
Johann Baptist Metz ◽  
Decisive Influence ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Relationship

The influence of Ernst Bloch on the Political Theology of Johann Baptist MetzThis article deals with the decisive influence that Ernst Bloch had on the young German Catholic theologian during the 1960s, as he grew progressively dissatisfied with the categories of Rahner’s anthro-pological or transcendental theology. It is argued that Bloch’s influence is to be understood more in terms of his modern Jewish Messianism than his Marxism. Through his intense friendship with Bloch. Metz rediscovered the Jewish traditions that have been suppressed in Catholic Christianity. He gained the courage to confront the certainties of his own theological tradition with his unreconciled experiences of non-identity. Bloch taught Metz to appropriate eschatology as belonging to the centre of Christianity, to relate transcendence and future, and to clarify the relationship between human praxis and future as transcendence. But such eschatology operates with a problematical concept of praxis.

scholarly journals Kerasulan Awam di Bidang Politik (Sosial Kemasyarakatan) dan Relevansinya bagi Multikulturalisme Indonesia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustinus Dewantara
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Responsibility ◽  
Political World ◽  
Prophetic Voice ◽  
The World ◽  
The Church

The political responsibility is important, not because of the need for the love of the homeland and the challenge of the disintegration of the nation in multicultural sphere, but must be born of deep Christian faith. This paper specifically addresses to the lay apostolate in socio-politics-society. The Catholic laity was also called to be salt and light in the political world. The emergence of some form of practical theology (such as liberation theology and political theology) affirms that concern. The theme of the laity will be juxtaposed with a review of the "political attitude" voiced by the prophets in Scripture. The hope is that the laity will become more aware of its social-political calling as part of the faithful life to sound prophetic voice in the world. The struggle of the Church into a prophetic power largely depends on the laity (and of course in good cooperation with the priests). The laity today are called to be new prophets to proclaim the truth without becoming part of the defilement itself

Secularization, History, and Political Theology: The Hans Blumenberg and Carl Schmitt Debate

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celina María Bragagnolo
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
The Political ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Adequate Treatment ◽  
Hans Blumenberg ◽  
The Masses ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractConsidering the enormous outpouring of scholarly work on Schmitt over the last two decades, the absence of an adequate treatment in English of Schmitt’s concept of history and the problem of secularization is quite surprising. After all, it is Schmitt himself who claims that “all human beings who plan and attempt to unite the masses behind their plans engage in some form of philosophy of history,” such that the attempt to make sense of Schmitt’s program remains incomplete without a serious treatment of his philosophy of history. This article is an attempt to address this problem by means of his exchange with Hans Blumenberg who, more than any other critic of Schmitt, was privy to the political intentions behind Schmitt’s metaphorical use of theology. While their discussion is extensive and wide-ranging, I focus here on their diverging philosophies of history, precisely that aspect that is most relevant to gaining a more expansive understanding of Schmitt’s arguments, and indeed the relationship between political thought and historical thought.

Latin American Liberation Theology as a Transforming Political Theology

10.1558/37328 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-192
Author(s):  
Stefan Silber
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
The Poor ◽  
New Challenges

Latin American Liberation Theology is a transforming theology in two senses: It is able to transform reality, as it has shown in these past decades, and it is transforming itself. This article shows how both types of meaning interweave. The transformations of Liberation Theology enable it to continuously adapt itself to new challenges in history. At present, this global theological movement is diversifying, or even fragmenting, in order to propose creative and effective solutions to different problems. Specifically, the Option for the Poor, which is at Liberation Theology’s core, currently presents profound challenges to European and Western theologies.

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