한국 토착화신학의 실천성을 향한 선교학적 성찰

Abstract

Indigenous theology is one of the most important concepts of missiological theology. It is not only concerned with theory but also practical. The history of Christian mission is none other than the history of indigenization through the encounter between culture and the gospel. This encounter appears in three ways in large, which are gospel absorbed by the local culture, gospel over the culture, and gospel compromising with the culture respectively. R. Niebuhr's five models and S. Bevan's models of contextual theology are the theoretical models that deepened and expanded these three relationship model. However, no attempt has been made to provide the theoretical basis for the Korean indigenous theology in terms of practicality except for some theoretical achievements in 1960s in Korea. That is, the traditional Korean culture is only found in liturgies and church culture that represent the typical Korean church cannot easily found. Some examples of church architecture imitating traditional Korean building, church music following the traditional folk tunes, funerals liturgy and sacred things for the eucharist and paintings etc. Furthermore, the shift of pastoral paradigm of 1990s in Korean church values the modern and western Christian culture, which are found in the praise and worship in modern style. Therefore, Korean church is characterized by the modern and wester styles of worship service and buildings, and it is not easy to find the models of indigenous Christianity in a missiological aspect. It is necessary to answer the questions why the Korean indigenous theology has ignored the practicality, and to suggest alternatives to this matters. This process begins with configuring the characteristics of the current indigenous theology. This paper surveys the debates on indigenization in early periods of Korean indigenous theology. It is followed by the examination of some theologians such as Sung-bum Yoon, Dong-sik You, Sun-whan Byeon. It will also make an missiological consideration of the indigenous theology by comparing it with D. McGavran's perspectives on it. This paper will suggest that the critical examination of the forms and contents of the Korean indigenous theology with the perspective of the missional church will contribute to solving the problems of practicality in Korean church.