Neighbourly-love as understood by the Korean Church: A study of the definition of neighbourly-love as seen in the activities of the Korean Protestant Church from its inception in 1884

Kim, Gueon Soo (1997) Neighbourly-love as understood by the Korean Church: A study of the definition of neighbourly-love as seen in the activities of the Korean Protestant Church from its inception in 1884. MTh(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The Bible, the authority for the Korean Protestant church from its foundation in 1884 to the present day, points out the necessity of neighbourly-love. My research hypothesis is that church activities expressing neighbourly-love in Korea, which have been practised and evaluated in the church for over a century, can be usefully classified into clearer biblical categories, in order to standardise the definition and practice of neighbourly-love in a Korean context where many often competing notions and practises operate, especially at the local congregational level. For this reason, the definition of neighbourly-love has to be the basic task of this thesis. Therefore, as the first stage in this task, the ethical and practical imperative of neighbourly-love for the Korean church and the sitz im leben of the Korean church are examined in chapter one. Chapter two explains how the understanding and meaning of neighbourly-love in the Bible can be theologised as practical neighbourly-love in the contemporary church and society, despite the problematic hermeneutical relationship between the Old and New Testaments, particularly with respect to the question, "Who is my neighbour." In order to put forward arguments that will be persuasive in a Korean context, and that will remove suspicion of the fuller definition of neighbourly-love offered here, this work is based on the biblical texts themselves, as all activity within the Korean Protestant churches has to be based on biblical authority and exegesis in order to be justified. The Hebrew and Greek words related to the term neighbourly-love, and its multifaceted nature as a theological and ethical idea, are therefore examined simultaneously with the biblical texts. After that, the many biblical meanings and conceptual facets of neighbourly-love are classified into nine categories, including the 'spatial concept' developed by Karl Barth. Chapter three suggests and analyses a definition of the key term, based on this biblical exegesis, from the aspect of the substance, process and subject of neighbourly-love. This chapter considers how churches in the Korean context could be persuaded to accept a standard biblical definition of neighbourly-love to be practised with appropriate priorities. This chapter also provides concrete examples from within the Korean context of the distinct but related models of neighbourly-love developed in this definition. It concludes with the range of possibilities for further action opened up by this definition but beyond the scope of this thesis. With respect to this definition, ways to develop and to advance the practice of neighbourly-love in the Korean church and context are discussed in chapter four as a conclusion to this dissertation.

• Item Type: Thesis (MTh(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Keywords: Religious history, asian studies.
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities
• Supervisor's Name: Storrar, Rev. Dr. William
• Date of Award: 1997
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1997-72909
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 11 Jun 2019 11:06
• Last Modified: 11 Aug 2021 11:58
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/72909